UN presses Iran on nuclear site
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The UN’s nuclear watchdog says it needs “more clarification” about the purpose of a recently declared Iranian nuclear site near the city of Qom. Read more
Hungary says it will forego IMF loan (AFP)
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BUDAPEST (AFP) – Hungary will forego the next installment of an IMF loan and will postpone assistance offered by the European Union, Finance Minister Peter Oszko said Monday. Read more
12 Afghans killed in attack on meeting with French (AP)
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TAGAB VALLEY, Afghanistan – Rockets slammed into a market northeast of Kabul on Monday, killing 12 civilians but missing their presumed target: a meeting between France’s top general in Afghanistan and dozens of tribal elders and senior local officials. The attack also wounded 38 people, 20 of them critically. The market was crowded with shoppers [...]
45,000 pay respects to goalkeeper who took own life
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A wooden coffin covered with white roses resting 50 paces from the goalmouth in the Niedersachsen Stadium of Hannover 96 yesterday became the focus of a nation in tears. Read more
Drilling for Scotch Whisky in Antarctica
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A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica\’s ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whiskey that has been on the rocks since a century ago, when it was shipped by British polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton as part of his abandoned 1909 expedition Read more
Petrol ‘to hit £5 a gallon’ as motorists face record fuel bills at the pumps this Christmas
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The RAC said today petrol prices are expected to reach 110p per litre by the middle of next month – the equivalent of £5 a gallon. Read more
World's Worst Earthquakes
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When faults let loose with a mighty rumble, the reverberations are felt across the globe. As Mother Nature takes lives and property with such minute warning, super temblors anywhere in the world remind those in quake-prone zones of the vulnerability of great metropolitan regions and remind us to be prepared with good building codes and [...]
Fashion Pakistan Week: Pashmina Ahmed
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Pakistani model Mehreen Syed, wearing a creation by Pakistani designer Pashmina Ahmed, takes to the catwalk during the fourth day of Fashion Pakistan Week on Nov. 7, 2009, in Karachi, Pakistan. Read more
Vladimir Putin, Tragically Hip
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Vladimir Putin — currently Russian prime minister and, in the eyes of many, puppetmaster — has shown that he’s highly adept at promoting a hip, fly, and macho-enough-to-lead-Russia image, be it through his judo book, getting up close with lions, or shirtless photos fishing (the shirted photo is Putin catching a big one with the [...]
Radio Blago is off the air
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I tuned in to WLS AM 890 at noon today to get my weekly dose of bilious, self-righteous invective from ousted, indicted former governor, Rod Blagojevich, and instead got two hours of host Bill Moller flogging the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival, infomercial style, with no explanation to listeners about what happened to GRod. Read more
Mafia Number Two Caught After Boy Acid Murder
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9:17am UK, Monday November 16, 2009 Nick Pisa in Rome The Italian Mafia’s second-in-command who had the son of a supergrass dissolved in acid has been arrested in a dramatic police raid. [...]
Arlene: ‘Strictly suffered without Bruce’
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Arlene Phillips has claimed that Strictly Come Dancing lost its spark on Saturday due to the absence of Bruce Forsyth. Show regular Forsyth missed his first ever episode at the weekend after being struck down with flu. The 81-year-old’s co-presenter Tess Daly took over his usual role of introducing the dances and judges’ comments, while [...]
Bombing at police station in Pakistan kills 3
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Suspected militants have killed more than 300 civilians and security personnel in the last month in an attempt to weaken the country’s resolve to continue the military operation in the tribal area of South Waziristan, where al-Qaida and Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding. Read more
Reid may gut health care’s last curve bender
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The last best chance for health reform that can “bend the curve” of soaring costs that are making coverage unaffordable for everyone could be sacrificed to Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s re-election bid. Read more
Staying at the Basra ‘B&B’
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It is jokingly dubbed ‘the most expensive B&B in the world’. Then again the trailer camp is the only ‘bed and breakfast’ that also provides lunch, dinner, a gym, 24-hour Internet access and a relatively secure place to stay in Basra.Situated within the newly-acquired American military base in this southern-Iraqi province, the B&B provides private [...]
Foreign Digest: Venetians stage mock funeral for their city
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ITALY Venetians stage mock funeral for their city A dozen gondolas snaked down the Grand Canal on Saturday in a mock funeral procession bemoaning Venice’s approach to the dreaded status of living museum, with a population now below the symbolic threshold of 60,000. Venetian officials, however, say reports of Venice’s demise are premature, and even [...]
Pakistan’s Zardari criticized over U.S. alliance, insurgency and shortages
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ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — President Asif Ali Zardari, who entered office 14 months ago on a wave of post-dictatorship goodwill and sympathy for his slain wife, Benazir Bhutto, now faces growing public anger and disillusionment over his remote presidency. Some critics are urging him to step down, and others predict he will be forced from office [...]
Venezuela’s Chávez Takes a Mighty Swing at Golf
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CARACAS, Venezuela — Every day, Pascual Cicenia plays golf on an emerald course that is 18 holes of tropical heaven in the middle of this chaotic city. He doesn’t take it for granted, he said, especially now that President Hugo Chávez has disparaged the sport as an elitist endeavor with few friends in his populist [...]
Racial rethinking as Obama visits
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SHANGHAI — As a mixed-race girl growing up in this most cosmopolitan of mainland Chinese cities, 20-year-old Lou Jing said she never experienced much discrimination — curiosity and questions, but never hostility. Read more
On Obama trip to seal economic ties with Asia, trade policy threatens a rift
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SINGAPORE — Hours after declaring that China’s growing economic muscle doesn’t pose a threat, President Obama traveled Saturday night to this usually pro-American city-state to wrestle with another tricky issue: Is the United States itself the troublemaker? Read more