Iran invites Haniyeh to NAM summit in Tehran
GAZA, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Iran has invited a leader of the Islamist group Hamas to attend a summit of 120 developing nations, officials said on Friday, a move that could antagonise Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and anger Western powers who consider Hamas a terrorist group. Iran hopes to earn diplomatic kudos by hosting a [...]
Chinese firefighters teach hostess girls in mini-skirts and stilettos
They didn’t need to be asked twice.Firefighters in eastern China jumped at the chance when they were asked to put 300 mini-skirted girls from a hostess bar through their paces. The waitresses arrived at the fire station in Wenling, Zhejiang province, wearing stiletto heels and plenty of make-up. They were there for a fire safety [...]
Sweeping Apple win, but Samsung set for bounce-back
SEOUL (Reuters) AuDefeat in a bitter patent wrangle with Apple Inc, its smartphone rival and biggest customer, will dent Samsung Electronics Co’s $21 billion cash-pile, but could actually help cement its leadership in the global smartphone market. A U.S. court has ordered Samsung – which sold around 50 million phones in April-June, almost twice the [...]
India: from policy paralysis to parliament paralysis
NEW DELHI (Reuters)- “Debate” is a word that doesn’t appeal much to Indian political leaders, at least when they are in parliament. The Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report on a suspected coal scam dubbed ‘Coalgate’ has been causing uproar in parliament for the past few days. In a bid to drive political mileage from the [...]
Republicans stockpile umbrellas as stormy convention looms
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – This week was a tempestuous one for the Republican Party, but things could get even stormier if a hurricane bears down on the national convention in Tampa, Florida. With Tropical Storm Isaac on a path that could bring it to the city at hurricane strength just as the four-day event begins on [...]
Greek PM gets support but no concessions from Paris, Berlin
PARIS, Aug 25 (AFP) -France, following Germany’s lead, insisted that Greece must stay in the eurozone but ignored its request for more time to implement the austerity measures its creditors insist upon. “Greece is in the eurozone and Greece must stay in the eurozone,” French President Francois Hollande said at a joint press conference in Paris [...]
Syria army launches fresh assaults in main cities
ALEPPO, Syria, Aug 25 (AFP) -Syrian army forces launched arrest raids and clashed with rebels in the southwestern belt of Damascus on Saturday in what activists say is a renewed bid to crush the insurgency in the capital “once and for all”. Combat helicopters and tanks also fired on rebel-held areas in the battered northern [...]
A fading fresco and a DIY fiasco
A pensioner who destroyed a 19th-century work of art in a DIY restoration job today insisted she had been given the go-ahead by a priest – and that she had not finished.Cecilia Gimenez was vilified after ruining a 120-year-old fresco of Christ by covering it with a thick layer of paint, with some accusing her [...]
Am I the only person who thinks Pussy Riot should have been jailed?
Am I really the only person who believes the Russian courts were right to jail the three members of the punk band Pussy Riot? Am I the only one who thinks their unauthorised performance of a ‘punk prayer’ at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, was a gross act of desecration? And am [...]
Pakistan imam accuses Down’s Syndrome girl of ‘conspiracy’
ISLAMABAD (AFP) — A Pakistani cleric who handed over a young Christian girl to police on blasphemy charges after she burned papers containing Koranic verses said Friday what she did was a “conspiracy” to insult Muslims. Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti, the imam of the mosque in the poor Islamabad suburb of Mehrabad, insisted he had [...]
Made in China
China’s economy is continuing to grow at breakneck speed but – as these pictures show – the giant nation’s infrastructure is quite literally buckling under the strain.At least three people were killed and five injured when this motorway bridge in Heilongjiang province in north east China collapsed today sending four huge trucks crashing 100ft to [...]
Ex-Navy SEAL with inside story of bin Laden raid is outed
The Navy SEAL turned author who was there as Osama bin Laden was killed and promised to ‘set the record straight’ about the mission that led to his demise has been identified as a soldier who has since retired from service. The book’s publisher announced on Wednesday that Mark Owen’s ‘No Easy Day: The Firsthand [...]
Michelle Obama only ranks seventh on Forbes Most Powerful list
Despite her hubby running the biggest economy in the world, Michelle Obama only ranks seventh on this year’s Most Powerful Women’s list. The First Lady, who is arguably more popular than her President husband, creeps up from eighth place last year but is still outdone by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who ranks second [...]
Prince Harry is charming, brave and loveable; but he’s a little lost boy
Whatever you say about Prince Harry, he has proved to be the most endearing of the young royals. Not since his mother, Princess Diana, have we seen a member of the Firm demonstrate such irrepressible enthusiasm at work and at play, nor such natural warmth with people. His sense of duty has been profound, insisting [...]
Iran hails NAM summit as diplomatic coup against West
DUBAI, (Reuters) – Iran hopes to earn diplomatic kudos over the coming week as it hosts a summit of 120 developing nations, but any jubilation could turn sour over starkly different views on the bloody conflict in Syria. The Islamic Republic’s three-year tenure as head of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which starts today, is a [...]
The pursuit of Assange: An assalut on freedom mockery of journalism
The British government’s threat to invade the Ecuadorean embassy in London and seize Julian Assange is of historic significance. David Cameron, the former PR man to a television industry huckster and arms salesman to sheikdoms, is well placed to dishonor international conventions that have protected Britons in places of upheaval. Just as Tony Blair’s invasion [...]
A lifeline for Asia’s boat people
CANBERRA – Sometimes countries arrive at good policy only after exhausting all available alternatives. So it has been with Australia’s belated embrace this month, after years of political wrangling, of a new “hard-headed but not hard-hearted” approach to handling seaborne asylum seekers. The core of the problem – and what has made it an international [...]
