Head of exam body Ofqual resigns

Head of exam body Ofqual resigns


Head of exam body Ofqual resigns

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 07:17 AM PDT

Kathleen Tattersall, the head of the exam watchdog Ofqual, resigns citing the government's "fresh perspective" in education.


Shrek musical to open in West End

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 07:17 AM PDT

Award-winning Broadway stage show Shrek The Musical is to make its London debut next year, the Theatre Royal announces.


Mexico: Suspect arrested in U.S. consulate shooting deaths

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 06:46 AM PDT

Mexican authorities have arrested a drug gang suspect accused of planning the shooting deaths in March of three people connected with the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez and participating in the killings of 13 teens at a party in the city a month earlier, federal police said Friday.


Apple Acknowledges Flaw in iPhone Signal Meter

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 07:08 AM PDT

Facing complaints from users, Apple said the new iPhones use a "totally wrong" formula to display signal strength.


World Cup Live: Brazil vs. the Netherlands

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 06:44 AM PDT

Coverage and live analysis of the World Cup quarterfinal between Brazil and the Netherlands from Port Elizabeth, South Africa.


Beryl Bainbridge, Novelist, Dies at 75

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 07:03 AM PDT

The British novelist was an acute and acerbic chronicler of human relationships.


Thousands on Israel soldier march

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 06:08 AM PDT

Twenty thousand people join a march through Israel calling for the release of captured soldier Gilad Shalit, organisers say.


Australian priest gets 20 years in jail for sexual abuse of boys

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 04:38 AM PDT

A Sydney court on Friday sentenced an Australian Catholic priest to almost 20 years for sexually abusing two dozen boys over two decades, the official news agency said.


Soldier's father calls for his release

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 02:52 AM PDT

The father of Gilad Shalit on Friday resumed calls on Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help get the soldier freed.


US unemployment falls unexpectedly

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 06:45 AM PDT

Drop comes despite loss of a quarter-million jobs in recent weeks.


Capello to remain England manager

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 07:13 AM PDT

Fabio Capello is to be kept on as England manager, despite the team's disastrous World Cup, the Football Association confirms.


Scientists peer inside a python

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 06:31 AM PDT

Scientists employ the latest imaging techniques to look inside a python that had just swallowed a rat whole.


Suicide bombers kill 50 at shrine

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 03:32 AM PDT

The death toll climbed to 50 on Friday after a pair of suicide bombers detonated their explosives vests at one of Pakistan's holiest shrines.


Risk of flooding as Alex drenches Mexico

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 05:18 AM PDT

Tropical Depression Alex was expected to continue drenching states across Mexico even as it dissipated early Friday morning, forecasters said.


Congo to get billions in debt relief

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 01:25 AM PDT

The Democratic Republic of Congo is in line to get billions of dollars in debt relief, World Bank officials said, cutting the amount the nation owes by more than 80 percent.


Former husband of alleged spy says he had suspicions

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 05:34 AM PDT

The former husband of alleged Russian spy Anna Chapman said her personality changed after she started having "secretive meetings" with Russian friends a few years ago.


21 dead after shootout near border in Mexico

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 09:34 PM PDT

A shootout near the U.S.-Mexico border between rival groups with ties to organized crime left 21 people dead Thursday, Mexican police officials said.


Job Creation in Private Sector Remained Weak in June

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 06:33 AM PDT

As temporary Census jobs evaporated and the private sector added just 83,000 workers, the United States lost 125,000 jobs in June.


Live Analysis: Men's Semifinals at Wimbledon

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 05:33 AM PDT

Live analysis of the men's semifinals at Wimbledon.


Clinton: NATO Still Open to Ukraine

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 06:06 AM PDT

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told Ukrainian leaders that the door to membership in the NATO alliance remains open.


'Drug gang' clash kills 21 near Mexico-US border

'Drug gang' clash kills 21 near Mexico-US border


'Drug gang' clash kills 21 near Mexico-US border

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 07:07 PM PDT

MEXICO CITY -A clash between suspected members of rival drug gangs left 21 people dead on Thursday in a rural area of the Mexican state of Sonora, very close to the US border, Mexican justice officials said.

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New Delhi among top 'worst cities for commuters'

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 09:19 PM PDT

NEW DELHI, July 2: Ahead of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, a new study has ranked the national capital fifth among 20 cities of the world where traffic has gone worse in the past few years, adversely affecting people's heath and productivity.


Iran to design long-range missiles

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 08:42 PM PDT

TEHRAN, July 2: After Russia's controversial decision to freeze the delivery of S-300 defense systems, Iran unveils efforts aimed at self-sufficiency in passive air defense.


Sudan's Turabi freed after 45-day detention

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 08:19 PM PDT

KHARTOUM, July 2: Sudan's Islamist opposition leader Hassan Al-Turabi was released from prison on Wednesday almost two month after he was arrested for unknown reasons.


Hillary Clinton arrives in Ukraine

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 07:11 PM PDT

KIEV -US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived early Friday in Ukraine, first leg of a trip which is due to take her also to Poland and the Caucasus.

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'Drug gang' clash kills 21 near Mexico-US border

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 07:07 PM PDT

MEXICO CITY -A clash between suspected members of rival drug gangs left 21 people dead on Thursday in a rural area of the Mexican state of Sonora, very close to the US border, Mexican justice officials said.

Read more...


Brain freezer in Russia claims secret of eternal life

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 08:44 PM PDT

MOSCOW, Friday 2 July 2010 (AFP) - "I don't ever want to die... It wouldn't suit me," said Innokenty Osadchy. Fortunately, the 35-year-old investment banker is certain he has found a loophole out of death.

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U.S. House approves money for Afghan troop surge

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 09:13 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives approved funds on Thursday to pay for President Barack Obama's Afghanistan troop increase but also voted to signal growing unhappiness with the war among his fellow Democrats.


From boy to man: Cuba's Elian gives thanks 10 years later

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 12:18 PM PDT

HAVANA: President Raul Castro and Communist Party leaders have joined Elian Gonzalez in celebrating the 10-year anniversary of his dramatic return to Cuba after a political tug-of-war with the United States.

Gonzalez, now 16 and a Communist Party member, sat alongside his father Juan Miguel at a church service here on Wednesday that marked the event, and thanked "everyone who made (his return) possible".

As a six-year-old boy, Gonzalez was plucked from the sea off Florida's coast in November 1999 after an overcrowded motorboat capsized en route from Cuba, killing his mother and 10 others seeking to enter the United States illegally.

Heavily-armed US agents broke into the Miami home of Gonzalez's uncle on June 30, 2000, after then-US attorney-general Janet Reno ordered the boy to be returned to his father in communist-run Cuba.

Claiming he bore "no grudge" for his relatives in Florida who fought to keep him in the United States, Gonzalez said: "Today I'm with my father and I feel happy here."

Because of the "strength this country gave me, I am almost a man, and I can walk the streets in peace".

His father said Gonzalez was doing well and that his "good results at school are a sign that what we did was not in vain".

Huge boon

Elian's return to Cuba was a huge boon to then-leader Fidel Castro, Raul's elder brother, as illegal emigration is an embarrassing everyday reality in the only one-party communist state in the Americas.

Two US senators expressed optimism yesterday that the US Congress would lift travel restrictions on Cuba -- a move that could move the two countries past decades of immigration anguish that regularly tears families apart.

Democrat Byron Dorgan and Republican Mike Enzi, the main Senate supporters of the bill that moved on Wednesday through a key House committee, said they would have the votes needed for passage ahead of November mid-term elections.

The bill would end the effective travel ban for US nationals; allow communist Cuba to use credit for purchases of US farm goods currently paid for only in cash; and allow direct transfers between US and Cuban financial institutions.

It must make its way through additional commissions before a potential House vote, even before it reaches the Senate.

The United States has had an economic embargo clamped on Havana for nearly five decades.

- AFP

 


Toyota to recall 270,000 cars over engine fault

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 07:09 PM PDT

TOKYO, Friday 2 July 2010 (AFP) - Toyota Motor said Friday it plans to recall 270,000 vehicles worldwide because of an engine fault affecting cars including its luxury Lexus range and Crown sedans.

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Australia backs down on mining tax in deal with miners

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 07:06 PM PDT

SYDNEY, Friday 2 July 2010 (AFP) - Australia on Friday backed down on a hefty 40 percent tax on mining, with new Prime Minister Julia Gillard slashing the rate and scope of the levy that had threatened to cost her government re-election.

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Five killed in ambush in southern Thailand

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 07:47 PM PDT

NARATHIWAT, July 2 — Suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a roadside bomb and opened fire on security forces in southern Thailand last night, killing five members of a patrol, an officer said. Separatist insurgents have been battling security forces in predominantly Buddhist Thailand's Muslim-majority deep south, on the border with Malaysia, for ...


Afghan Hindus and Sikhs grapple with uncertain future

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 07:20 PM PDT

KABUL, July 2 — They thrived long before the arrival of Islam in the seventh century and for a long time dominated the country's economy, but Sikh and Hindu Afghans now find themselves struggling for survival. "We have no shelter, no land and no authority," says Awtar Singh, a senator and the only non-Muslim voice in Afghanistan's Parliament. "No ...


One suspect released, 9 held in Russian spy case

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 07:43 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A woman accused of being a Russian spy was ordered released and placed under home arrest on Thursday, but nine other suspects in an espionage case that has revived Cold War memories remained in federal custody.


Oil invades more wetlands as surf pounds Gulf coast

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 07:43 PM PDT

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Tropical storm Alex slowed oil spill clean-up and containment work in the Gulf of Mexico and drove more petroleum into fragile Gulf wetlands and beaches on Thursday, with any permanent fix to BP Plc's ruptured deep-sea well still several weeks away.


Q+A - When will Australian PM call elections after mine deal?

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 07:43 PM PDT

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard cleared the political decks for an election on Friday by ending a two-month fight with the mining industry over a proposed new resources tax.


World Bank posts record aid amid frail global recovery

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 07:05 PM PDT

WASHINGTON, Thursday 1 July 2010 (AFP) - The World Bank said Thursday it had committed a record amount of aid to developing countries in the past 12 months to help them cope with a fitful global economic recovery.

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Russia spy suspect confessed: US prosecutor

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 07:04 PM PDT

NEW YORK, Thursday 1 July 2010 (AFP) - A suspect in the Russia spy saga cracked after his arrest, confessing he was a Russian agent and pledging greater loyalty to the Kremlin than to his own son, US prosecutors said Thursday.

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Weather hinders oil cleanup, revised moratorium due

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 06:44 PM PDT

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Tropical storm Alex slowed oil spill clean-up and containment work in the Gulf of Mexico and drove more petroleum into fragile Gulf wetlands and beaches on Thursday, with any permanent fix to BP Plc's ruptured deep-sea well still several weeks away.


Obama says new U.S. sanctions on Iran toughest ever

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 06:13 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law on Thursday far-reaching new sanctions on Iran that aim to squeeze the Islamic Republic's fuel imports and deepen its international isolation.