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North Korea envoy hands over China's Xi a note of peace
BEIJING - A senior North Korean envoy delivered a letter from his leader Kim Jong-un to Chinese President Xi Jinping and told him that Pyongyang was ready to take "positive action" to re-join stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks. The letter was handed over by envoy, Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae. Choe told Xi that North Korea is willing to take positive actions to solve problems ...
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UK defends security services over Woolwich murder
LONDON - The British government has defended its spy agencies for failing to prevent murder of a soldier in London despite signs and revelations that the two suspects were well known to MI5. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said it was impossible to control everyone all the time. "Peers and MPs will do a thorough investigation in terms of what the security forces knew but I've seen ...
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US bridge collapses sending vehicles into water
WASHINGTON - A handful of vehicles and some people plunged into a river after a more than half a century old bridge that links Seattle in the US with Canada collapsed, throwing the movement on the highway into disarray. Authorities said there were no deaths in the bridge collapse on the Skagit River in the US state of Washington. Three people were rescued and taken to hospitals, they ...
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$2.6 mn necklace spirited away at Cannes Film Festival
CANNES - A second suspected jewellery heist was reported at the Cannes Film Festival, with a single necklace by Swiss jeweller De Grisogono worth nearly $2.6 million reported missing. In the case of the first gem loot at the Cannes Film Festival, thieves literally tore out a safe filled with roughly $1 million-worth of jewels from a hotel room. The second time around the event took place ...
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World becoming dangerous for refugees, warns Amnesty
LONDON - Global rights body Amnesty International has said that the world is "increasingly" becoming "dangerous place" for refugees due to inaction on human rights. The London-based group in its annual report cited the increasing number of refugees around the world, and highlighted the lack of support for them, as the key human rights issue for the past year. It said that the number of ...
Movie Review
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse) [DVD]
Fritz Lang was a great storyteller, both on film and about his personal life. Although the veracity of much of the lore he generated about himself is highly debatable if not outright fabrication, it makes for great contextual fodder. Take, of instance, his 1933 crime thri ... ...
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Russia plans four spacecraft launches in 2014
Russia's Energia Rocket and Space Corporation will make four launches next year from the Pacific Ocean-based Odyssey platform under the Sea Launch programme, an official said. Corporation president Vitaly Lopota said that after 2014, Energia will be able to make five or more launches a year. Next year's launches will be the first since one of Sea Launch's Zenit vehicles carrying an Intelsat-27 ...
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Whose cat is beautiful Chechen leader vs TV celebrity
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov entered into a bizarre public row with a Russian socialite over whose cat was the "most beautiful". "Dear friends! Me and Tina Kandelaki are having an argument over whose cat is more beautiful. I think it's mine. What do you think?" Kadyrov tweeted. Kadyrov also posted a photo of his white cat, Zazulya, on Instagram. "Tina Kandelaki is a friend, but the truth is ...
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Foreign defence officials visit Russian military base
Members of foreign delegations attending an international conference on European security visited a military base near Moscow that has a motorized infantry division. Defence officials and military experts from Armenia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, the US and Zimbabwe were shown a training centre, a shooting range and the barracks at the Taman ...
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Liquor production in Russia drops 23 percent
Production of vodka and other spirits in Russia dropped 23.3 percent in the first four months of 2013 year-on-year to 5.7 million decaliters, a report said. The Federal Statistics Service (or Rosstat) said in a report that beer production declined 10.7 percent compared to the same period last year, to 78.2 million decaliters. Production of wine rose 19.1 percent in the reporting period to 3.5 ...
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North Koreas bid to return to n-talks welcomed by Moscow
Russia regards as a "positive development" reports that North Korea is willing to return to six-party talks on the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, a Russian diplomat said. China's Xinhua news agency and South Korea's Yonhap reported Friday that Choe Ryong Hae, a special envoy for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, met Chinese President Xi Jinping and reaffirmed that Pyongyang "is ready ...

