Blackburn bidder's firm shut down

Blackburn bidder's firm shut down

Blackburn bidder's firm shut down

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 12:42 PM PDT

A Bahrain-based company run by the man behind a £300m takeover bid of Blackburn Rovers has been instructed to cease trading by Bahrain authorities.

Civil liberties groups sue over U.S. effort to kill U.S. terrorism suspects

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 12:46 PM PDT

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit Monday to fight the U.S. government's efforts to target U.S. terrorism suspects outside war zones.


Civil liberties - Terrorism - United States - Human Rights and Liberties - Warfare and Conflict

Women set to bear 72% of British austerity cuts, report shows

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 12:44 PM PDT

LONDON - As Britain prepares for the deepest budget cuts in generations to tackle a crippling mound of public debt, the government is facing a pressing legal question: Is its austerity plan sexist?



British Empire - Women - History - United States - Sales tax

Mexico sacks nearly a tenth of federal police

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 12:35 PM PDT

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Authorities in Mexico have fired nearly 10 percent of the federal police force as President Felipe Calderon seeks to rein in powerful drug cartels and curb widespread corruption among Mexican police.

Fidel Castro says was at death's door, now better

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 12:28 PM PDT

HAVANA (Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro told an interviewer there were times during his long illness when he was at death's door but now he is mostly recovered and trying to avert nuclear war.

India lifts Blackberry ban threat

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 12:45 PM PDT

Move comes after smartphone's maker agreed under pressure to give "lawful access" to encrypted data.

U.S. aid worker held for 105 days freed in Darfur

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 12:09 PM PDT

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A U.S. aid worker was released in Darfur on Monday after being held by her kidnappers for 105 days, the latest in a series of abductions of foreigners for ransom in Sudan's west.

S.Africa's Zuma's push leads to strike talks

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 12:11 PM PDT

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's government and unions representing 1.3 million striking state workers began talks Monday night following President Jacob Zuma's order to ministers to negotiate immediately to end the walkout.

Clemens Enters Not Guilty Plea

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 11:54 AM PDT

No bail was set for the seven-time Cy Young Award winner, who faces felony charges of lying to Congress.

The Appraisal: Keeping Track of Tenants, With Help From a Private Eye

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 11:20 AM PDT

Real estate investigation, a big business in a borough like Manhattan with plenty of rent-regulated apartments ripe for exploitation, has picked up in the past year.

Obama in plea for business bill

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 11:08 AM PDT

President Obama demands Republicans pass a bill aimed at helping small businesses, and hints at further stimulus spending.

Pakistan anger at cricket scandal

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 11:27 AM PDT

Coming as most of Pakistan is struggling to cope with the worst floods in decades, the betting scandal surrounding some of the country's cricket team has shaken already low national morale.

Biden Visits Iraq for Ceremony

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 11:40 AM PDT

Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Iraq to mark this week's formal end to U.S. combat operations and meet with leaders.

Work to begin on main rescue shaft

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 11:21 AM PDT

Engineers in Chile are beginning to drill a shaft more than two thousand feet deep to rescue 33 miners trapped underground.

U.S. Expands N. Korea Sanctions

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 12:00 PM PDT

The Obama administration on Monday expanded sanctions against North Korea by freezing the assets of individuals, companies and organizations allegedly linked to support for Pyongyang's nuclear program.

VP Biden visits Iraq as troops withdraw

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 11:05 AM PDT

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden flew into Iraq Monday to assure Iraqis the United States is not abandoning them as it stops combat operations, a milestone in the 7-1/2 year war the Obama administration is trying to end.

BlackBerry Gets a 2-Month Reprieve in India

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 11:01 AM PDT

The government said it would study and test a proposal by the BlackBerry maker for two months as it tries to settle a dispute over corporate e-mail.

Sarkozy's crackdown on Roma camps adds fuel to criticism at home and abroad

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 11:14 AM PDT

PARIS - Much of France has returned from summer vacation in a rancorous mood, disturbed by a crackdown ordered by President Nicolas Sarkozy against illegal gypsy camps and naturalized immigrant youths who attack police in troubled suburbs.


Nicolas Sarkozy - Romani - Ethnicity - Roma - Rights

US troops killed in Afghan blasts

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 10:55 AM PDT

Two separate roadside bomb attacks leave at least seven US soldiers dead in south of country.

Chile miners 'in better spirits'

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 10:52 AM PDT

The 33 trapped Chilean miners are reported to be feeling better after speaking to relatives, as engineers prepare to begin digging a rescue shaft.
No comments:

China praises N.Korea ties; Kim may be headed home

China praises N.Korea ties; Kim may be headed home

China praises N.Korea ties; Kim may be headed home

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 01:06 AM PDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's state media on Monday sang the praises of relations with North Korea, whose leader Kim Jong-il and youngest son have reportedly been on a visit to their ostracised country's only powerful ally.


Putin says "more interested than everyone" in 2012 vote

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 01:06 AM PDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hinted that he would return to the Kremlin in 2012 for another six years, saying in an interview published on Monday he was "more interested than everyone else" in the election.


Ecuador bus crash kills 38 in highlands, 12 hurt

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 01:06 AM PDT

QUITO (Reuters) - A bus winding its way through Ecuador's highlands toward the capital of Quito went off the road before dawn on Sunday, killing 38 passengers in the worst accident of this kind in the country in years.


Malaysian rapper faces sedition charge over YouTube clip

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 12:05 AM PDT

A Malaysian rapper is being investigated for sedition, police said Monday, after posting a YouTube video which drew allegations he was stirring up ethnic tensions in the multicultural nation.

read more

Sex case widens at exclusive Australian department store

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 12:01 AM PDT

SYDNEY, Monday 30 August 2010 (AFP) - Up to 16 women could take part in a 33 million US dollar sexual harassment case involving David Jones, Australia's most exclusive department store, lawyers for the chief complainant said Monday.

read more

Israel won't extend settlement freeze ahead of talks

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 12:30 AM PDT

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel will postpone any decision on whether to extend a partial freeze on settlement construction until after the Sept. 2 start of peace talks in Washington, a senior cabinet minister told Reuters on Sunday.


Fire kills nine in Russian nursing home

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 12:30 AM PDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Nine people died in a nursing home fire on Monday in central Russia, the Emergencies Ministry said, in what local media said was caused when one of the occupants set himself alight.


S.Korean president criticised over botched reshuffle

Posted: 29 Aug 2010 11:45 PM PDT

SEOUL, Monday 30 August 2010 (AFP) - South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak said Monday he had accepted the resignation of his prime ministerial nominee, as critics highlighted the political damage from a bungled cabinet reshuffle.

read more

Wife of ex-GOME chairman paroled in China as showdown looms

Posted: 29 Aug 2010 11:45 PM PDT

BEIJING, Monday 30 August 2010 (AFP) - A Chinese court on Monday freed on parole the wife of the former head of appliance giant GOME, prosecutors said, as the jailed disgraced tycoon battles for control over the empire he founded.

read more

Eruption

Posted: 29 Aug 2010 11:43 PM PDT

The Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra spewed a vast cloud of smoke and ash high into the air on 30 August, disrupting flights and sending thousands more people into temporary shelters.

read more


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Tengku Muhammad Ismail proclaimed as Regent of Terengganu

Posted: 29 Aug 2010 11:24 PM PDT

Sultan of Terengganu Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin today officially proclaimed his son Tengku Muhammad Ismail as the Regent of Terengganu in a ceremony at Istana Maziah here.

read more

Human bones found at Australia's backpacker murders site

Posted: 29 Aug 2010 11:22 PM PDT

SYDNEY, Monday 30 August 2010 (AFP) - Australian police confirmed Monday that bones found in a forest where serial backpacker killer Ivan Milat dumped his victims were human but said they were keeping an open mind on the investigation.

read more

AgBank temporarily halts property market loans

Posted: 29 Aug 2010 11:05 PM PDT

HONG KONG, Monday 30 August 2010 (AFP) - Agricultural Bank of China said Monday that it has temporarily suspended property market loans to counter a surge in real-estate lending, but insisted the country's property sector was "healthy."

read more

Singapore ramps up measures to cool property market

Posted: 29 Aug 2010 11:04 PM PDT

SINGAPORE, Monday 30 August 2010 (AFP) - Singapore on Monday announced fresh anti-speculation measures to cool its private property market as the city-state's double-digit economic growth keeps upward pressure on demand.

read more

Indonesians urged not to react emotionally on dispute with Malaysia

Posted: 29 Aug 2010 11:02 PM PDT

JAKARTA, Monday 30 August 2010 (Bernama) -- Indonesian House of Representative Speaker Marzuki Alie on Monday urged Indonesians not to react emotionally related to dispute with Malaysia as it could bring negative impact to the country's image, reports China's Xinhua news agency.

read more

Ghapur asks Liew for explanation on Chin's statement

Posted: 29 Aug 2010 11:00 PM PDT

Kalabakan Umno chief Datuk Abdul Ghapur Salleh has demanded that Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president Datuk V.K. Liew clarify the statement made by his deputy Datuk Chin Su Phin that the party could no longer work with Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.

read more

Former Putrajaya Corporation director freed of bribery charges

Posted: 29 Aug 2010 10:55 PM PDT

Former Putrajaya Corporation director Datuk Shahoran Johan Ariffin was acquitted and discharged by the Sessions Court here of a charge of receiving a bribe in the form of an air ticket to London.

read more

Australia's first Aboriginal MP shrugs off racist taunts

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 04:24 AM PDT

By Madeleine Coorey

SYDNEY: The first Aborigine to be elected to Australia's Parliament today said he was unworried by racist taunts that have followed his win, saying they were outweighed by messages of support.

Ken Wyatt won the seat of Hasluck in Western Australia for the conservative Liberal Party in Aug 21 polls, rising above childhood poverty to become the first indigenous person ever elected to the lower House of Representatives.

Since then, he has received at least 50 racist emails and phone calls from angry voters, with some saying they would not have voted for him had they known he was indigenous.

"They don't perturb me," 58-year-old Wyatt told Sky News of the jibes.

"Throughout my life I have experienced the sharp edge of some of the racist taunts that have come my way, but when I outweigh these by the hundreds and hundreds of emails and calls I've had, they are only miniscule in the bigger picture."

Wyatt rose from an impoverished childhood, during which he trapped rabbits and picked fruit for cash to help put food on the table for his family, to become a school teacher and later work in Aboriginal health and education.

When he recently attended the 70th birthday of his former primary school teacher, he brought her a gift that he would never have been able to afford as a child -- an apple.

In claiming the seat on Sunday after a protracted vote count, he said he owed his success to his education which was made possible by a local charity that early on recognised his ability.

"I have come from a life of poverty and through my own individual efforts I stand now within the national arena," he said.

Alcoholism rife

Wyatt said he was naturally inclined towards the right-leaning Liberal Party, despite the fact that this placed him at odds with his father.

But he said his first speech to Parliament would pay tribute to the former leader of the centre-left Labor Party, Kevin Rudd, who made an historic apology to the nation's indigenous people in 2008.

"I think people really appreciate the fact that an apology was given," he said today, adding that his mother and her siblings were members of the so-called "Stolen Generations" -- indigenous children removed from their families at a young age to be brought up by white people and in institutions.

"What made me extremely proud was the fact that her life, her experiences were recognised and the pain that she went through was acknowledged."

Wyatt said he wanted to improve the lot of Aborigines, who have a lower life expectancy and generally poorer health than other Australians, with thousands living in poverty in remote Outback settlements where alcoholism is rife.

The United Nations last week warned that Australia faced a problem with "embedded" discrimination, citing the "unacceptably high level of disadvantage and social dislocation" for Aborigines in the Northern Territory.

Indigenous Australians have previously served in the Senate -- with Neville Bonner appointed to the upper house in 1971 and Aden Ridgeway elected to the Senate in 1998 -- but Wyatt will be the first to serve in the more powerful lower house.

Indigenous people were for decades denied the vote by officials, and until 1967 were not even included in the national census.

- AFP

French 'Spiderman' arrested after scaling Sydney skyscraper

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 03:48 AM PDT

SYDNEY: A French climber known as "Spiderman" was arrested on the roof of a 57-storey Sydney skyscraper today after scaling the building without ropes or a harness to raise awareness of climate change.

Alain Robert climbed the 150-metre (492-ft), twin-towered Lumiere apartment building in central Sydney in about 25 minutes, as dozens of curious onlookers packed the pavement to cheer, clap and take photographs.

"I think people were impressed with him, he is the world's best climber," publicist Max Markson told AFP. "His motivation for doing it is... to raise awareness of global warming and the environment."

The Frenchman unfurled a banner advertising the www.onehundredmonths.org website which claims mankind has only limited time before greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere reach irreversibly dangerous levels.

"Don't jump!" a group of schoolboys shouted as Robert neared the top, capturing video of the stuntman on a mobile phone.

Robert was arrested by police when he reached the skyscraper's roof and taken to a nearby police station.

"At this point he's in custody at City Central," a police spokeswoman said. "No charges have been laid."

Robert, 48, has overcome crippling vertigo prompted by two 15-metre falls in the 1980s to climb some of the world's tallest buildings, as well as iconic monuments such as the Eiffel Tower and the Luxor Obelisk in Paris.

He has also climbed the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge and was last year fined A$750) for climbing the city's 219-metre Aurora Place building without permission.

In June, Robert was forced to call off plans to scale the nearby Deutsche Bank building, towering some 240 metres high, after security guards blocked his access.

- AFP

 

 

Most Japan voters support PM in party race - polls

Posted: 29 Aug 2010 11:27 PM PDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - A fresh slew of opinion polls showed a vast majority of Japanese voters want Prime Minister Naoto Kan to beat powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa in a ruling party leadership vote next month that is threatening to create a policy vacuum as Tokyo struggles with a strong yen and fragile recovery.


No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)