-
Kim Jong-un on 'luxury yacht' in North Korea
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has used a luxury boat to tour the country's east coast amid indications that the 90-feet-long yacht may have been smuggled into the country in defiance of UN sanctions that bans importing of luxury items to the impoverished country. A website that tracks events in the reclusive state said the yacht, a Princess 95MY made by British-based ...
-
Eight UN aid workers among 15 dead in Somalia militant attack
MOGADISHU, Somalia - At least 15 people, including some United Nations workers, were killed Wednesday when a UN compound in the Somali capital came under a bomb and gun attack by Islamist militants of an Al Qaeda-linked group, a minister said. Interior Minister Abdikarim Hussein Guled in a hurriedly called press conference said that the eight slain UN workers included four foreigners working ...
-
Surveillance stopped at least 50 terror attacks, says NSA director
WASHINGTON - The controversial US snooping of foreign emails and telephone calls has prevented more than 50 potential terrorist attacks in at least 20 countries, the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) has said in defending the surveillance programme. The targets include the New York Stock Exchange and other important installations across the world, General Keith Alexander said ...
-
US president plans talks with Russia on reducing nuclear weapons
BERLIN - US President Barack Obama on Wednesday said he would seek talks with Russia to reduce the number of strategic nuclear weapons both hold by up to a third. Speaking in front of Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate during a visit to the German capital, Obama said he was confident the US could maintain its security while reducing its nuclear capacity by a third. He also called for ...
-
Afghanistan to shun US peace talks with Taliban
KABUL An angry Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday his government would not join US peace talks with the Taliban "until the peace process is totally under Afghan control." He also suspended talks with the US to discuss the nature of US military presence after international troops withdraw in 2014. A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said the decision was taken over ...
Movie Review
Lawless [Blu-Ray]
John Hillcoats Lawless is set in the boozy-sleazy backwoods of Virginia at the height of Prohibition, when the hillsides were lit at night by burning stills and the local police didnt just look the other way, but actively participated in bootlegging. The pulp fictional screenplay by Nick ... ...
On Facebook
-
Obama welcomes Iran's election of moderate president
WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama has urged Iran's newly elected president to prove to the world that the Islamic republic was not pursuing a nuclear weapon programme as the White House welcomed election of a moderate leader as a hopeful sign. "I think it says that the Iranian people want to move in a different direction," Obama said of the election results in Iran that saw a surprising ...
-
Widespread anti-graft protests rock Brazil
SAO PAULO, Brazil - Anti-graft protests swept Brazil's main cities as some 200,000 demonstrators marched through the streets against alleged mis-governance, forcing President Dilma Rousseff Tuesday to acknowledge the need for better public services and effective administration. The assurance from Rousseff came a day after biggest protests rocked at least ten Brazilian cities, including Sao ...
-
No breakthrough in talks between UK and Ecuador over Assange
LONDON - Talks between the United Kingdom and Ecuador have ended without any breakthrough over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's fate with the Andean nation. Ecquador said it was vowing not to succumb to diplomatic pressure and was ready to consider any request from Edward Snowden, another whistleblower, for asylum. As the fugitive anti-secrecy advocate marks one year holed up in the ...
-
Gaddafi's son to stand trial in Libya in August
LONDON - Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of deceased Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, will stand trial in August along with Gaddafi's last prime minister and a former intelligence director, the prosecutor's office has announced. The men will be tried for crimes against the Libyan people during the 2011 uprising that toppled the former regime. Notorious former spy chief Abdullah ...
-
Shenzen to be first Chinese city to begin carbon trading
BEIJING - China, the world's biggest carbon emitter, is set to launch Tuesday its first carbon trading scheme as a pilot project in the southern city of Shenzhen as part of efforts to cut emissions in its key cities. Carbon emissions trading schemes are meant to encourage companies to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by setting a limit or a cap, on the level of emission that can be ...

