admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
Answer: In Persian, the suffix “stan” means “place of.” In Russian — remembering that Kazakhstan borders Russia, and five ‘stans used to be part of the Soviet Union — the word “stan” means “settlement.” So we have seven countries in Central Asia that share the “stan” suffix: Afghanistan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Pakistan Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan The [...]
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
Raging bushfires in Victoria have claimed 108 lives and destroyed 750 homes across some 850 square miles as of this writing, burning residents trying to flee in their cars and fueled by temperatures of up to 117 degrees and fierce winds. Here’s a bit of first-person observation from schoolteacher Margaret Atsi, whose home was burned [...]
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
The US Congress has reached agreement on President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan. A $789bn economic stimulus package has been agreed Negotiators settled upon a $789bn package [...]
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
Rex Features The Departed writer William Monahan will reportedly direct crime thriller Heist, based on the life of career criminal Myles Connor. According to Variety, Monahan has acquired the rights to Connor’s forthcoming memoirs in partnership with producer Quentin Curtis. The Art Of The Heist: Confessions Of A Master Thief, Rock-And-Roller And Prodigal Son will [...]
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
Powerful, resilient, glamorous, famous. We are not describing the worldÂ’s most powerful men, but the women who stand loyally by their sides. For ages the women who stand by heads of states have occupied a role of prominence similar to their husbands. Some have devoted themselves to charitable activities while others have served as power [...]
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
JERUSALEM – One of the big winners of Israel’s election Tuesday is its most divisive politician, an ultranationalist settler who owes his surging political fortunes to Israeli Jews’ deepening distrust of the country’s Arab minority. Read more
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
Stockton Hits Jackpot: Named America’s Most Miserable City Forbes.com has ranked America’s most miserable cities..and the winner is…Stockton! No small feat, the magazine says. It compiled its findings by looking at the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S., and ranking them on nine factors: commute times, corruption — the criminal conviction of government [...]
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
Taro Aso has been in bother almost since he became Japan’s prime minister but in 2009, by general agreement, he has passed the point of no return. In an opinion poll in yesterday’s Yomiuri, he registered an approval rating of below 20 per cent (other polls had him sink below that threshold last month.) This, [...]
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
 The Times has provoked a diplomatic incident: yesterday we reported on a British campaign to rescue the cauliflower from impending agricultural doom. It seems that broccoli, its slick Italian rival, is threatening to leave the cauli sleeping with the fishes (anyone for curried cauliflower and smoked haddock soup?). The suggestion [...]
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
BERLIN, Feb. 10 — A court ruled Tuesday in favor of a Florida man seeking the return of his family’s collection of rare art posters, worth an estimated $6 million, more than 70 years after the works were confiscated by the Gestapo and then given to a German museum. Read more
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
The United States had plans to spend up to $100 million to enlarge loading areas at Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan to support Afghanistan operations before the Kyrgyz president announced that he would close the facility to U.S. and coalition forces. Read more
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
CONAKRY, Guinea, Dec. 23 — A military group seized control of the airwaves in mineral-rich Guinea and declared a coup Tuesday after the death of the West African country’s president, one of the continent’s last strongmen. Read more
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
BAGHDAD, Feb. 10 — President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday became the first French head of state to visit Iraq, hoping to renew France’s long-standing business ties with Iraq and erase resentment over France’s opposition to the Iraq war. Read more
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
JERUSALEM, Feb. 11 — Israeli voters delivered a split decision in national elections Tuesday, sparking competing claims by backers of opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni over who will be the next prime minister. Read more
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel faced on Wednesday what could be weeks of political uncertainty after an election that ended with clashing claims of victory by centrist Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and hawkish rival Benjamin Netanyahu. Read more
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury chief Timothy Geithner on Tuesday unveiled a new bank rescue plan that would put $2 trillion to work mopping up bad assets and restoring credit, but stock markets plunged on fears it would not work. Read more
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
The leaders of Israel’s two main parties have claimed victory in a snap general election. Read more
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) – As Vancouver prepares to start the one-year countdown to the 2010 Winter Olympics organizers are increasingly aware that the global financial crisis will put them under extra pressure. Read more
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
AP – Israel’s Foreign Minister and Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni, reacts during election night rally in … Slideshow:Israel Election Play Video Video:Israeli leaders cast ballots Reuters Play Video Video:Raw Video: Israelis elect new ruling govt. AP JERUSALEM – Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and hard-line rival Benjamin Netanyahu both claimed victory in Israel’s parliamentary election Tuesday, which early [...]
admin @ February 11, 2009 # No Comment Yet
A comatose Italian woman whose “right to die” has triggered a constitutional crisis and provoked an intervention from the Pope has died, it was confirmed last night. Read more