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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
Movie Review
The Sword of Doom (Dai-bosatsu tôge) [DVD]
Ending a film with a freeze-frame is a potent and powerfully self-conscious decision, one that invariably draws attention to the final image and literally begs it to, if not explain, then cast an interpretive light on the rest of the film. One might think of the freeze frame of Antoi ... ...
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Leaders of G8 call for peace in Syria and pledge humanitarian aid
ENNISKILLEN - The Group of Eight industrialised nations called for a swift end to the bloody civil war in Syria and urgent peace talks but stopped short of calling for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in its joint statement at the end of talks Tuesday. Despite the lack of consensus among the G8 on the fate of Assad, as well as the use of chemical weapons by his regime, Canadian ...
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Rescue chopper crashes in Nepal one killed
At least one person was killed and three others were injured Wednesday when a chopper, sent for rescuing people affected by landslides and floods, crashed on the banks of the Karnali river on the Nepal-Tibet border, officials said. The ill-fated helicopter with six people onboard crashed on the banks of the river in Humla district, the district administrative office said. Three people were ...
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Late pope John Paul II may be made saint
Late pope John Paul II could be made a saint, after theologians from the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints reportedly approved his second miracle. The Vatican is currently keeping the miracle a closely guarded secret, but like John Paul II's first miracle, it is said to concern a woman and will "amaze the world", an unnamed Vatican source told Italian media. Once canonisation for ...
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Karzai to boycott talks with Taliban
The Afghan government will not take part in peace talks with the Taliban unless the process is "Afghan-led", President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday, a day after the US said it would talk with the Taliban in their new office in Qatar. Karzai said the opening of the Taliban office contradicted earlier US security guarantees to his government, BBC reported. He said that in protest he would suspend ...
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US man wanted for child sex abuse held in Mexico
A former college professor in the US who was on the FBI's "10 most wanted" list over allegations of child sex abuse has been arrested in Mexico, officials said. Walter Lee Williams was detained Tuesday, CNN reported. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had put the former university professor on the list for alleged sexual exploitation of children. Williams researched in the field of ...

