Sunday Times 2
Japan suggests hotline to Beijing over island spat
TOKYO, Feb 9, (AFP) – Japan has suggested setting up a military hotline with China to avoid clashes between the two countries, which are at loggerheads over a group of disputed islands, Tokyo’s defence minister said Saturday. The proposal came after Tokyo accused a Chinese frigate of locking its weapons-tracking radar on a Japanese destroyer [...]
Sunday Times 2
Readers horrified at Anne of Green Gables’ sexy make-over
The innocent 10-year-old literary heroine, Anne of Green Gables, seems to have had a sexy make-over – much to the horror of her biggest fans. Ditching her famous red hair, a new copy of the classic book, written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, features a blonde 20-something woman running her hands through her hair with slightly [...]
Sunday Times 2
Blizzard kills two, grinds US northeast to halt
NEW YORK, Feb 09 (AFP) – A ferocious snowstorm pummeled the northeastern United States for a second straight day Saturday, killing at least two people, bringing transportation to a halt and cutting off power to at least half a million customers. The storm dumped more than a foot and a half (about 46 centimeters) of [...]
Sunday Times 2
Malala Yousufzai leaves hospital
LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) – A Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating girls’ education has been discharged from a British hospital where she had reconstructive surgery on her skull. The attack on Malala Yousufzai, 15, was condemned worldwide and made her a symbol of resistance to the militant group’s crackdown [...]
Sunday Times 2
Protests erupt as India executes man
NEW DELHI, Feb 9, (AFP) – A Kashmiri separatist was executed today in New Delhi over his role in a deadly attack on the Indian parliament in 2001 — triggering protests on both sides of the border in disputed Kashmir. Hundreds of demonstrators rallied near the family home of Mohammed Afzal Guru in northern Indian [...]
Sunday Times 2
Grammys set for ‘fun.’ night, but with clothes on
LOS ANGELES (AFP) -The music world gathers in Los Angeles on Sunday for the Grammys, with oddly-punctuated indie pop band ‘fun.’ hoping to win big at the industry’s top awards show — as long as they keep their clothes on. Elton John, Taylor Swift and Mumford and Sons are among a galaxy of stars to [...]
Sunday Times 2
Mali on edge after suicide bombing
GAO, Mali, Feb 09 (AFP) – Malian troops bolstered security at army checkpoints and villagers detained two youths allegedly strapped with explosives on Saturday after Islamists claimed responsibility for the country’s first suicide attack. Residents of a village near Gao, the largest city in the north, detained two youths they said were wearing explosive-rigged belts [...]
Sunday Times 2
Radar failure at Delhi airport
NEW DELHI, Feb 9 (AFP) -An electrician accidentally unplugged the radar system at the Indian capital’s airport, forcing air traffic controllers to manually guide in aircraft, media reports said. Electricians fixing a fault accidentally unplugged the main power source of the radar late on Friday, causing radar screens to go blank, said the Times of [...]
Sunday Times 2
Kerry: Iran must be serious at nuclear talks
WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (AFP) -New US Secretary of State John Kerry held out an olive branch to sanction-hit Iran on Friday, saying the world would respond if Tehran seriously addressed its nuclear programme at upcoming talks. “The choice is really ultimately up to Iran,” Kerry told his first press conference since becoming America’s top diplomat [...]
Sunday Times 2
Alfred Hitchcock reveals Psycho was meant to be a comedy
‘I was horrified people took it seriously’ says the master of suspense in a newly-unearthed interview By Jennifer Madison It is one of the most critically-acclaimed horror films in cinematic history. But Alfred Hitchcock, in a newly-unearthed interview, says he was ‘horrified’ when moviegoers took his subversive 1960 classic Psycho seriously. In a 1964 sit-down [...]
Sunday Times 2
Close shave for Earth as asteroid is set to whizz by
By Kate Bevan Planet Earth is set to have a very close encounter with an asteroid the day after Valentine’s Day. The asteroid – which goes by the catchy name of 2012 DA14 – will miss our home planet by just 17,200 miles, which is a very near miss in space terms. The asteroid, which [...]
Sunday Times 2
Germany is world’s most forward-thinking country — and Pakistan finishes last
By Kate Bevan Germans are the most forward-thinking people on the planet according to researchers. The scientists, based in the UK, Switzerland and the US, correlated data from Google searches and national economic performance. They looked at the ‘mammoth amounts of data’ generated by our internet use, and discovered that there are ‘strong links between [...]
Sunday Times 2
China needs ‘full-scale’ reform in the lunar new year
BEIJING, Feb 8 (AFP) -China’s stated aim to narrow the income gulf between its sports-car driving elite and vast numbers who still live in poverty will need radical political and economic changes to work, say economists. Long-delayed “proposals on the distribution of income” were announced this week ahead of Sunday’s Lunar New Year, as hundreds [...]
Sunday Times 2
Hong Kong snake kings a dying breed
Hong Kong (Reuters) – When a king cobra lunges at Chau Ka-ling as the door to its wooden cage falls open in her busy Hong Kong restaurant, she just laughs, then pulls it gently into her arms. For Chau is a “snake king,” one of scores in Hong Kong who have through generations tamed snakes [...]
Sunday Times 2
Afghan civil servants took £2.5bn in bribes in one year
Afghan civil servants and officials pocketed an astonishing £2.5billion in bribes last year, U.N. figures have revealed. The scale of fraud came despite repeated promises by President Hamid Karzai to clean up his government. Half the population pay bribes, claims the U.N. It is a 40 per cent jump on the previous figure of 2009. [...]
Sunday Times 2
Thailand reacts with outrage to US comedy show
By Emily Payne A US comedy skit that makes fun of Thailand’s sex industry has enraged the Thailand government, the country’s culture minister has said – adding that officials are now trying to block the video. The short sketch, which appeared on the Saturday Night Live TV show, is a parody of an advertisement for [...]
Sunday Times 2
Where evil lurks
Neurologist discovers ‘dark patch’ inside the brains of killers and rapists By Allen Hall A German neurologist claims to have found the area of the brain where evil lurks in killers, rapists and robbers. Bremen scientist Dr Gerhard Roth says the ‘evil patch’ lies in the brain’s central lobe and shows up as a dark [...]
Sunday Times 2
Heavy drinking is killing people in their 20s and 30s
A top doctor has issued an urgent warning that heavy drinking is killing people in their 20s. Liver specialist Dr Mark Aldersley says many young adults, who are not classed as alcoholics, are developing chronic liver disease after years of drinking at home. It has resulted in alcohol related admissions to hospitals doubling between 2003 [...]
Sunday Times 2
Brazil’s Carnival erupts in Rio de Janeiro
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Brazil’s Carnival celebrations cut loose on Friday, but the parades, block parties and overall festivities began under the pall of a recent nightclub fire that killed 238 people in the southern city of Santa Maria. Even as the mayor of Rio de Janeiro handed over the keys of [...]
Sunday Times 2
Japanese demand that statue be fitted with underpants
By Richard Shears The coy residents of a small Japanese town have been so shocked by a replica of Michelangelo’s Renaissance sculpture of a naked David that they have called for it to be fitted out in underpants. The 16ft replica of the classic sculpture has been put up in a park in Okuizumo where, [...]
Sunday Times 2
Migrants send £335 billion to their struggling families back home
More than three times the world’s total aid budget By Simon Tomlinson The amount of money being sent by migrants to their families back home topped £335billion last year, making it a larger economy than Iran or Argentina, it was revealed today. The figure has tripled in the last ten years and is now three [...]
Sunday Times 2
Children prefer ‘Twilight’ over ‘The Twits’
By Anna Edwards Loved by generations for his dark humour and wildly imaginative tales, Roald Dahl’s books have been a firm favourite for generations. But it would appear that the younger wave of readers are now ignoring their copy of The Twits for the latest Twilight novel. A survey has found the prolific writer, famed [...]
Sunday Times 2
Exorcism at the ghost fair
By Danish Siddiqui MALAJAPUR, India (Reuters) – Malajpur is a small but not ordinary village in central India. In fact it is probably the only village in India which has been hosting a ghost fair for the past several years. People from across the country come to this fair to get rid of ‘evil spirits’ [...]
Sunday Times 2
Boy beaten by headteacher
Eight-year-old child blinded in one eye because father couldn’t pay school fees By Rajat Rai Even before he is old enough to understand life, eight-year-old Jaideep has been taught a lesson by his school he will remember until he dies. Now lying in a bed, struggling to come to terms with the fact that he [...]
Sunday Times 2
Watch out for the killer flu
Delhi’s Health Minister urges public caution as swine flu spreads through city Swine flu virus is spreading again in the Capital, with the government recording 60 cases already this year. Three people have died so far, but the Delhi government insists there is no need to panic as it is prepared for timely [...]
Sunday Times 2
‘Drone’ a dirty word in the UN lexicon
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The “drone”, one of the eminently controversial lethal weapons deployed by the United States in its war against terrorism, is obviously a dirty word in the UN lexicon. So when Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous was asked about UN plans to use drones in the Democratic Republic [...]
Sunday Times 2
Is America ensnared in an endless war?
By Patrick J. Buchanan “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” So said Richard Nixon in his interviews with David Frost. Nixon was talking about wiretaps and surreptitious entries to protect lives and safeguard national security in a violent and anarchic war decade. The Nixon haters pronounced themselves morally sickened. [...]
Sunday Times 2
The information revolution a challenge to political power
By Joseph S. Nye NEW DELHI – The second anniversary of the “Arab Spring” in Egypt was marked by riots in Tahrir Square that made many observers fear that their optimistic projections in 2011 had been dashed. Part of the problem is that expectations had been distorted by a metaphor that described events in short-run [...]
Sunday Times 2
The body can destroy cancerous tumours itself
U.S. researchers have identified a molecule, known as TIC10, which activates protein that helps fight the disease By Anna Hodgekiss Scientists have made a key breakthrough in discovering how the body can destroy cancerous tumours itself. Researchers from Pennsylvania State University have identified a molecule, known as TIC10, which activates a protein that helps fight [...]
Sunday Times 2
Singing Korean airmen score a hit with love, snow and “Les Mis”
(Reuters) – South Korean military conscripts may have dreamed a dream of defending the homeland, but their life is one of snow shovelling and thwarted love – at least in a parody of “Les Miserables” starring real airmen that has become an Internet hit. The opera-style video “Les Militaribles” was made by 80 conscripts for [...]
