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Latest Articles: International News
Saudi king shakes up religious establishment
Post Date: 2009-02-15 00:58:58 by A K A Stone
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The Saudi king on Saturday dismissed the chief of the religious police and a cleric who condoned killing the owners of TV networks that broadcast "immoral" content, signaling an effort to weaken the country's hard-line Sunni establishment. The shake-up _ King Abdullah's first since coming to power in August 2005 _ included the appointment of a female deputy minister, the highest government position a Saudi woman has attained. New judges were also named and the Consultative Council _ an appointed advisory body _ was reshuffled. Saudi Arabia's king does not have unlimited power, rather he has to take into account the sentiments of the sprawling ruling family as well as ...
US supplies via Russia to start soon
Post Date: 2009-02-15 00:54:33 by A K A Stone
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Russian news agencies cite the country's foreign minister as saying that shipment of U.S. military supplies for Afghanistan through Russia is to begin in the near future. The reports of the statement that Sergey Lavrov made on the TV Tsentr television station did not specify whether the supplies would transit Russia by land or air. Russia announced last week that it would allow U.S. shipments to Afghanistan, and news reports in recent days had suggested there were only some final details to be worked out. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in the Saturday broadcast that "the transit will take place literally within days," according to the Interfax, ITAR-Tass and ...
Analysts: NKorea’s Kim trying to strike US deal
Post Date: 2009-02-15 00:50:19 by A K A Stone
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After apparently suffering a stroke last summer, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il seems to want to get President Barack Obama's attention _ and fast. Analysts say the reclusive dictator, who turns 67 on Monday, sees Obama's four-year term as a last chance to secure a better legacy before his health worsens. That, they add, explains North Korea's recent saber-rattling, from stoking tensions with South Korea to making what may be preparations for a long-range missile test. "The North's recent moves show Kim's impatience," said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University. After 15 years in power, Kim has little to boast of other than ...
Key facts about Venezuela term limits referendum
Post Date: 2009-02-15 00:47:53 by A K A Stone
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REFERENDUM: If voters approve the measure, Venezuela's constitution will be amended to remove all term limits for elected officials. That would allow President Hugo Chavez to run for re-election in 2012. POLLS: Polls open at 6 a.m. (1030 GMT) and close when everyone who is in line at 6 p.m. (2230 GMT) has voted. VOTING: Venezuela has 16.5 million registered voters, who will use touch-screen voting machines at 34,632 polling places. RESULTS: First official results are expected about 11 p.m. (0330 GMT Monday).
Poster Comment:So they have touch screen voting, and a referendum on if the current leader of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez using computer touch screens to vote. Me smells a rat. ...
Belly fat increases risk of migraines
Post Date: 2009-02-15 00:40:20 by A K A Stone
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LOS ANGELES, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- People aged 20 to 55 who had larger waistlines are more likely to have migraines than those with smaller waistlines, a new study suggests. The conclusion was based on a study of 22,211 people by researchers at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) said in a press release available here on Saturday. In addition to age and gender, the way body fat was distributed also affects migraine risk, according to the study. The study found that migraine was reported by 37 percent of women in that age group who had excess abdominal fat, compared with 29 percent of those without abdominal obesity. Among men 20 to ...
President's Attorneys File Motion Demanding Birth, College Records Be Withheld From Public
Post Date: 2009-02-14 11:49:52 by A K A Stone
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A high-powered team of Los Angeles attorneys representing President Obama in his effort to keep his birth certificate, college records and passport documents concealed from the public has suggested there should be "monetary sanctions" against a lawyer whose clients have brought a complaint alleging Obama doesn't qualify for the Oval Office under the Constitution's demand for a "natural born" citizen in that post. The suggestion came in an exchange of e-mails and documents in a case brought by former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and others in California. The case originally sought to have the state's electors ordered to withhold their votes for Obama ...
Sweden Deploys The First 'Operational' Stealth Warships
Post Date: 2009-02-12 22:11:33 by A K A Stone
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The country that gave us Volvos, Saabs and ABBA has developed what it claims is the world's first fully operational stealth warship that is essentially invisible to radar. The two Visby-class corvettes will enter service by the end of the year. They are made from composite materials and use Rolls-Royce water jets to make them electronically undetectable at more than eight miles in rough seas and more than 14 in calm waters. The ship's acoustic and optical signatures are lowered by its non-magnetic hull that, like the F-117 Nighthawk, features large, flat surfaces and sharp angles. The water jets are 10 to 15 decibels quieter than propellers. "It's very hard for a ...
Brazil Indians suspected of cannibalism: police
Post Date: 2009-02-10 22:35:43 by A K A Stone
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BRASILIA (Reuters) - Police in Brazil's Amazon rain forest are investigating three native Indians suspected of murdering and eating a 21-year-old handicapped man in a rare case of cannibalism, local authorities said on Tuesday.
The Indians of the Kulina tribe near the Peruvian border are accused of having killed and eaten the insides of Ocelio Alves de Carvalho, a 21 year-old student in the town of Envira in Amazonas state.
"The body was quartered and then carved up with more than 100 cuts -- we think they ate his insides," Sgt. Osmildo Fereira da Silva of the state police in Envira told Reuters.
The three Indians apparently boasted of eating Carvalho's heart and liver to relatives ...
Russia’s MiG-35 fighter to win billion-dollar contract and leave US rivals behind
Post Date: 2009-02-10 19:24:54 by A K A Stone
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Russia is prepared to fight for the highly lucrative arms market of India. Delhi will assign $35 billion for the five-year program to completely rearm the national armed forces. A third of this amount falls for aviation. About $10.4 billion is to be spent on purchasing 126 up-to-date fighter jets. Several other billion dollars will be used to acquire 197 light helicopters. India has become one of the largest arms importers during the recent years due to the nation’s complicated relations with Pakistan. A third Indo-Pakistan war may break out at any moment. Foreign companies get ready to fight for the Indian billions. France’s Rafale, Europe’s Eurofighter, Sweden’s ...
Vatican buries the hatchet with Charles Darwin
Post Date: 2009-02-10 19:15:28 by A K A Stone
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The Vatican has admitted that Charles Darwin was on the right track when he claimed that Man descended from apes. A leading official declared yesterday that Darwin’s theory of evolution was compatible with Christian faith, and could even be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas. “In fact, what we mean by evolution is the world as created by God,” said Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture. The Vatican also dealt the final blow to speculation that Pope Benedict XVI might be prepared to endorse the theory of Intelligent Design, whose advocates credit a “higher power” for the complexities of life. Organisers of a papal-backed ...
National Grid to pipe carbon dioxide emissions under North Sea
Post Date: 2009-02-10 19:13:12 by A K A Stone
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National Grid is drawing up plans for a new business unit that will pipe carbon dioxide emissions from UK power stations for storage in geological formations beneath the North Sea, The Times has learnt. National Grid believes the business, dubbed National Grid Carbon, can play a major role in the company's long-term growth by serving UK power plants fitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) equipment. Chris Train, the director of network operations, said that the group is developing plans to construct a £2 billion carbon transport and storage network around the Humber estuary in Yorkshire, where five of Britain's largest coal and gas-fired power stations are located. ...
Freestyle motocross rider Jeremy Lusk dies
Post Date: 2009-02-10 18:33:07 by A K A Stone
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SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP)—Jeremy Lusk, an American freestyle motocross rider, died of head injuries Tuesday after crashing while trying to land a backflip in competition. He was 24. Jorge Ramirez, chief of the intensive care unit at Calderon Hospital where Lusk was taken, said the motocross racer suffered severe brain damage and a possible spinal cord injury. Lusk won a gold medal at the 2008 X Games. He was injured Saturday night when he failed to complete a full rotation while attempting a Hart Attack backflip and slammed headfirst into the dirt. Lusk crashed in almost identical fashion in the freestyle semifinals at the 2007 X Games but was not hurt. He had a successful 2008 ...
United Nations Population Fund Leader Says Family Breakdown is a Triumph for Human Rights
Post Date: 2009-02-08 08:52:06 by A K A Stone
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MEXICO CITY, February 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A leader in the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has declared that the breakdown of traditional families, far from being a “crisis,” is actually a triumph for human rights. Speaking at a colloquium held last month at Colegio Mexico in Mexico City, UNFPA representative Arie Hoekman denounced the idea that high rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births represent a social crisis, claiming that they represent instead the triumph of “human rights” against “patriarchy.” "In the eyes of conservative forces, these changes mean that the family is in crisis," he said. "In crisis? More than a ...
Ecuador's president orders U.S. official to leave
Post Date: 2009-02-07 15:27:15 by A K A Stone
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QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa ordered a U.S. Embassy official to leave the country on Saturday after accusing him of meddling with local police aid projects. "We're not going to let anyone treat us as if we were a colony here," Correa said, adding that the official would be given 48 hours to leave the Andean nation. Correa, a popular leftist, has generally had good relations with the United States since he took office in 2007. But his socialist allies in Bolivia and Venezuela have clashed with Washington over U.S. policies in Latin America. Officials at the U.S. embassy in Quito were not immediately available for comment.
Many Westerners Are Adopting Children Bought or Stolen from Their Parents
Post Date: 2009-02-07 08:37:19 by A K A Stone
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We all know the story of international adoption: Millions of infants and toddlers have been abandoned or orphaned -- placed on the side of a road or on the doorstep of a church, or left parentless due to AIDS, destitution, or war. These little ones find themselves forgotten, living in crowded orphanages or ending up on the streets, facing an uncertain future of misery and neglect. But, if they are lucky, adoring new moms and dads from faraway lands whisk them away for a chance at a better life. Unfortunately, this story is largely fiction. Westerners have been sold the myth of a world orphan crisis. We are told that millions of children are waiting for their “forever families” ...
Russia Belarus Sign New Air Defense Pact
Post Date: 2009-02-03 23:17:07 by A K A Stone
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Russia and Belarus agreed to form a joint air defense system, the Kremlin said Tuesday, strengthening military cooperation between the two uneasy allies.
The agreement -- announced after talks between President Dmitry Medvedev and his Belarussian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko -- would create a joint force consisting of Russian and Belarussian air force squadrons, missile batteries and radar facilities.
The deal reflects a deep mistrust of Western intentions by both countries, as well as their shared opposition to NATO's expansion into former Soviet turf and U.S. plans to build missile-defense sites in Belarus' neighbor, Poland, and the Czech Republic.
Medvedev hailed the deal ...
Donor kidney removed via vagina
Post Date: 2009-02-03 22:02:56 by A K A Stone
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US surgeons say they have successfully removed a healthy donor kidney through a small incision in the back of the donor's vagina. Removing the kidney through "a natural orifice" speeds up recovery and gives a better cosmetic result - avoiding a six inch abdominal scar - they say. The Johns Hopkins team say the 48-year-old woman who donated the organ to her niece on 29 January is "doing well". Surgeons have also removed gallbladders and appendixes through the mouth. Diseased gallbladders, kidneys and appendixes have been removed through the vagina before. But this is believed to be the first time that doctors have managed to harvest a healthy donor kidney for ...
President Obama seeks Russia deal to slash nuclear weapons
Post Date: 2009-02-03 21:39:27 by A K A Stone
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President Obama will convene the most ambitious arms reduction talks with Russia for a generation, aiming to slash each country’s stockpile of nuclear weapons by 80 per cent. The radical treaty would cut the number of nuclear warheads to 1,000 each, The Times has learnt. Key to the initiative is a review of the Bush Administration’s plan for a US missile defence shield in Eastern Europe, a project fiercely opposed by Moscow. Mr Obama is to establish a non-proliferation office at the White House to oversee the talks, expected to be headed by Gary Samore, a non-proliferation negotiator in the Clinton Administration. The talks will be driven by Hillary Clinton’s State ...
Kyrgyzstan 'to shut key US base'
Post Date: 2009-02-03 21:11:04 by A K A Stone
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Kyrgyzstan's president has said his government is closing a key US air base on its territory. Kurmanbek Bakiyev made the announcement in Moscow, where he was promised more than $2bn (£1.4bn) in aid by Russia. Despite this officials in Washington said the US was still hoping to continue using the Manas base. Manas - outside the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek - supports US and Nato operations in Afghanistan and is the only US base in Central Asia. The closure of the base will be a big blow for those operations in Afghanistan, the BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says. The announcement comes at a critical moment, just as the new administration of US President Barack Obama plans a ...
India warns Obama over Kashmir
Post Date: 2009-02-03 21:05:04 by A K A Stone
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India has warned US President Barack Obama that he risks “barking up the wrong tree” if he seeks to broker a settlement between Pakistan and India over the disputed territory of Kashmir. MK Narayanan, India’s national security advisor, said that the new US administration was in danger of dredging up out of date Clinton administration-era strategies in a bid to bring about improved ties between the two nuclear armed neighbours. “I do think that we could make President Obama understand, if he does nurse any such view, that he is barking up the wrong tree. I think Kashmir today has become one of the quieter and safer places in this part of the world,” Mr Narayanan ...
President Obama to water down 'Buy American' plan after EU trade war threat
Post Date: 2009-02-03 20:03:55 by A K A Stone
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The European Union warned the US yesterday against plunging the world into depression by adopting a planned “Buy American” policy, intensifying fears of a trade war. The EU threatened to retaliate if the US Congress went ahead with sweeping measures in its $800 billion (£554 billion) stimulus plan to restrict spending to American goods and services. Gordon Brown was caught in the crossfire as John Bruton, the EU Ambassador to Washington, said that “history has shown us” where the closing of markets leads — a clear reference to the Depression of the 1930s, triggered by US protectionist laws. Last night Mr Obama gave a strong signal that he would remove the ...
EU issues warning over Buy America plan
Post Date: 2009-02-03 18:52:16 by A K A Stone
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The European Union has warned of possible trade litigation against the US if Washington presses ahead with a Buy American provision in its forthcoming economic stimulus bill. EU officials have expressed concern that the requirement for companies to use US steel and manufacturing products in projects funded by the bill could encourage a wave of protectionist measures from other countries. The European Commission says it will examine any legislation to determine whether it violates a World Trade Organisation treaty signed by the US, EU and Japan. Signatories of the Government Procurement Agreement must open government contracts to foreign companies. “If the provisions finally passed ...
Bibi vows to topple Hamas if elected
Post Date: 2009-02-03 14:47:13 by A K A Stone
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Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday promised that a government under his leadership would topple the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. "[Kadima leader] Tzipi Livni and the people of Kadima scoffed at the predictions regarding rocket fire. A government under my leadership will overthrow the Hamas rule in Gaza and bring about a cessation of rocket fire," Netanyahu said during a tour of Ashkelon following the first Grad rocket attack since the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead some two weeks ago. "The policy of blindness followed in the past years has brought us to this situation," Netanyahu continued. "Residents can no longer count on miracles and Kadima ...
Iran claims first launch of its own satellite
Post Date: 2009-02-03 12:01:44 by A K A Stone
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TEHRAN, Iran – Iran has successfully sent its first domestically made satellite into orbit, the country's president announced Tuesday, claiming a significant step in an ambitious space program that has worried many international observers. The satellite, called Omid, or hope in Farsi, was launched late Monday after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave the order to proceed, according to a report on state radio. State television showed footage of what it said was the nighttime liftoff of the rocket carrying the satellite at an unidentified location in Iran. A senior U.S. defense official in Washington said the U.S. military detected the launch of a missile into space. But it was not ...
Dismay as Gadhafi chosen to lead African Union
Post Date: 2009-02-02 20:34:50 by A K A Stone
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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Moammar Gadhafi of Libya was elected Monday as leader of the African Union, a position long sought by the eccentric dictator who wants to push his oil-rich nation into the international mainstream after years of isolation. Gadhafi, once ostracized by the West for sponsoring terrorism, has been trying to increase both Libya's global stature and its regional influence — mediating African conflicts, sponsoring efforts to spread Islam on the continent and pushing for the creation of a single African government. Still, some African leaders offered tepid praise for the choice of the strongman who grabbed power in a 1969 coup. Rights groups called him a poor ...
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