You are currently browsing the Current World News weblog archives for the day Sunday, December 27th, 2009.

Breaking News

Obama demands security overhaul into syringe bomb fiasco as it emerges al Qaeda had warned of terror attack just six days ago

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The boy who grew up to be a bomber: London links investigated as flight delays due to last months Telecom firms criticise plan for ‘Stasi’-like checks on every phone call and email Straw leads Labour ‘Fearless Five’ who want Brown ousted before election… and Mandelson sulks as Balls increases influence over PM Tessa Jowell tells [...]

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Under the radar: Bomb suspect’s family dismayed, shocked

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LAGOS, Nigeria – As a member of a wealthy Nigerian family, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab received the best schooling, from the elite British International School in West Africa to the vaunted University College London. Read more

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Top 10 News Stories of '00s

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The news stories that shaped the first decade of the new millennium, from terrorism to natural and humanitarian disasters. (Note: These are not ranked in order of importance.) Read more

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Papal Transition

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Pope Benedict XVI waves to pilgrims at the end of his inaugural mass in Saint Peter’s Square April 24, 2005, in Vatican City. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims attended the first mass led by the 265th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Read more

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Egyptian Blogger’s Final Appeal Rejected

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Abdel Kareem Nabil Soliman, a 24-year-old Egyptian student, blogged under the name “Kareem Amer” starting in 2004. He captured authorities’ attention the next year. Soliman denounced attacks he witnessed by Muslims on Coptic Christian establishments and panned extremist views taught at Al-Azhar University in Cairo — and risked his life in the process. Things only [...]

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Happy birthday, Homer & gang

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Thursday marks (“The Simpsons”)  two-decade anniversary – an event that serves as a reminder not only of the show’s extraordinary staying power, but also the extent to which it’s disappeared from the cultural conversation. While “The Family Guy” and “South Park” have kicked up controversy – tackling subjects like Scientology and abortion – “The Simpsons” [...]

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Six Palestinians Shot Dead In Israeli Raids

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12:57pm UK, Saturday December 26, 2009 Alison Chung, Sky News Online Six Palestinians have been killed during two Israeli military operations a day before the anniversary of the three-week war in Gaza. [...]

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Chris Evans: ‘Audience won’t nosedive’

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Rex Features Chris Evans has reportedly said that he doesn’t want to marginalise any demograhic when he takes over Radio 2′s Breakfast Show in the New Year. The DJ predicted that there may be an initial dip in the number of listeners of the flagship programme, but that the decrease will be short-lived. “The audience [...]

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Israel promises tough response to attacks

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Israel’s prime minister warned on Sunday that Israel would retaliate “forcefully” against any attacks, and congratulated the military for gunning down three Palestinian militants he held responsible for killing a Jewish settler. Read more

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Swank digs of a terrorist

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Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab lived in a multimillion dollar London apartment when he was a student, according to published reports. Abdulmutallab, 23 — whose father recently retired as chairman of Nigeria’s First Bank — stayed in the $4.8 million pad in the West End neighborhood when he studied at University College London, the Daily [...]

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Boxer and Feinstein both support key drug vote

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California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein both supported the only really bipartisan amendment in the entire Senate health legislation, one by Sen. Byron Dorgon, D-N.D., to allow drug… Read more

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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 [...]

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The Redskins’ season a tragedy of literary proportions

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The Greek tragedies endure because they teach us that life is worth living in spite of the anguish and pain that mark so much of our existence. This has helped me understand and empathize with even the Washington Redskins through this dismal season. Read more

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Plane suspect was listed in terror database after father alerted U.S. officials

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A Nigerian man charged Saturday with attempting to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day was listed in a U.S. terrorism database last month after his father told State Department officials that he was worried about his son’s radical beliefs and extremist connections, officials said. Read more

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Suspected U.S. airstrike kills 3 in northwest Pakistan

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MIR ALI, PAKISTAN — A suspected U.S. missile strike killed three people Saturday in a northwest Pakistani tribal region where insurgent groups focused on fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan are concentrated, two Pakistani intelligence officials said. Read more

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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 [...]

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Mexico weighs options as lawlessness continues to grip Ciudad Juarez

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CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO — Senior Mexican officials have begun a sweeping review of the military’s two-year occupation of this dangerous border city, concluding that the U.S.-backed deployment of thousands of soldiers against drug traffickers has failed to control the violence and crime, according to officials in both countries. Read more

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Ferry sinks in central Philippines, 25 missing

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MANILA (Reuters) – Sixty-three crew and passengers were rescued from a sinking ferry off the central Philippines, the second accident in less than a week, coast guard officials said on Sunday, but at least 25 people were still missing. Read more

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Nigerian charged with trying to blow up U.S. jet

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DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. authorities on Saturday charged a Nigerian man with trying to blow up a U.S. passenger jet with high explosives and were investigating his claim that he had links to al Qaeda. Read more

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Man charged with attack on US jet

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A Nigerian man has been charged with attempting to destroy a plane after he allegedly tried to detonate a bomb on a passenger jet arriving in the US. Read more

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