Who let bombs out in Buddha Gaya?
Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s observation that anybody – from the Indian Mujahideen to local terror groups – could have been responsible for the Bodh Gaya blasts sums up the state of confusion even six days after the incident. What the NSG-NIA and the Bihar Police teams, working on the 18 material and forensic evidence [...]
Brazilian student who sold her virginity for $780,000 insists she is a ‘victim’
The Brazilian student who sold her virginity for a staggering $780,000 after she put it up for auction online, is now claiming she is a victim who was exploited into selling her body. Catarina Migliorini, 21, says she is yet to see a single cent after selling her virginity in October last year to a [...]
UAE announces first case of MERS-virus infection
ABU DHABI (AFP) -Health authorities in the UAE have announced that an 82-year-old man has been diagnosed with the MERS coronavirus infection, the first case to be recorded in the Gulf state. The authority said that this was the first case to be diagnosed in the United Arab Emirates. Experts are struggling to understand MERS, [...]
US urges army to free Morsi, supporters defiant
CAIRO, July 13 (AFP) -The United States on Friday called on Egypt’s military to free deposed president Mohamed Morsi, as tens of thousands of his supporters vowed to keep fighting for his reinstatement. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United States agreed with Germany’s earlier appeal for Morsi to be released and was “publicly” [...]
Indonesian police hunt 131 in prison breakout
MEDAN, Indonesia / North Sumatra, July 13 (AFP) -Indonesian police expanded their search for 131 inmates including four militants who escaped from an overcrowded jail during a riot that left five dead, a spokesman said. Inmates began rampaging through the jail in Medan city on Sumatra island on Thursday, setting fires and hurling bottles at [...]
Search for answers after French rail crash kills six
BRETIGNY-SUR-ORGE, France, July 13 (AFP) -Investigators worked today to determine the cause of a train crash near Paris that claimed six lives as the French transport minister warned that more victims could yet be found. Praising the quick reflexes of the driver, who sent up the alert that halted all train traffic in the area, [...]
Ohio kidnapping victim wants to relive the youth she missed
The youngest of the three girls held captive in Cleveland wants to go to the Prom and Valentine’s Dance that she missed out on when she was snatched off the street to be raped and chained up for more than a decade. A close family friend said Gina DeJesus still views the world through the [...]
Solar plane lands in New York, completing U.S. journey
NEW YORK (Reuters) – An airplane entirely powered by the sun touched down in New York City late on Saturday, completing the final leg of an epic journey across the United States that began over two months ago. The Solar Impulse, its four propellers driven by energy collected from 12,000 solar cells in its wings [...]
New Nokia smartphone has monster camera
NEW YORK CITY (AFP) -Finland’s Nokia unveiled its latest smartphone Thursday with a powerful 41-megapixel camera touted as offering “more detail than the eye can see.”In unveiling the new device in New York, Nokia said its Lumia 1020 smartphone “is able to produce some of the sharpest images possible by any digital camera.”The Windows-powered phone [...]
Kremlin finds way to avoid leaks: Typewriters
The Russian secret services are deploying an innovative new weapon in the age of cyber-spying – the almost forgotten typewriter. Kremlin counter-intelligence officers reckon this is the only way to prevent their most classified information being stolen by the kind of computer-based data theft exposed by renegade U.S. agent Edward Snowden. An order for 20 [...]
9/11 mastermind ‘asked to design’ vacuum cleaner
Confined to the basement of a CIA secret prison in Romania about a decade ago, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man who masterminded the 9/11 terrorist attacks, asked his jailers whether he could embark on an unusual project. Would the spy agency allow Mohammed, who had earned his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, to design a vacuum [...]
Eating vegetables and fruit tied to longer life
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Eating fewer than five servings of fruit and vegetables each day is linked with a higher chance of dying early, according to a large study from Sweden. People who said they never ate fruit and vegetables died an average of three years sooner than those who ate plenty of apples, [...]
Evolution might lead to colour-changing skin
Scientist Dr Dean Burnett has created a list of features he predicts humans could evolve. It includes tentacles, colour-changing skin, flexible skeletons and selective hearing. The neuroscientist humorously notes that as evolution takes so long no one will be around to see his predictions are right or wrong. Taking inspiration from the chameleon, humans could [...]
Inside the world’s biggest building
Shopping, swimming, skating, sunbathing and sleeping are all activities on offer to visitors at the world’s largest building. The New Century Global centre in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China is capable of fitting 20 Sydney Opera Houses – or three Pentagons – inside. Measuring a staggering 19million sq.ft. it contains shopping centres, a Mediterranean village, a [...]
China island centenarians claim secret of long life
CHENGMAI, China (AFP) -The elderly residents of one Chinese county have endured invasion, civil war and famine, and many live in unheated concrete shacks on only a few dollars a day. But they are apparently among the longest-lived people on earth. Chengmai, a string of villages dotted with orange plantations in the tropical island province [...]
Beijing vows to step up fight against Dalai Lama
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s top official in charge of religious groups and ethnic minorities vowed on Tuesday to step up the fight against exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, as a rights group reported police shootings of monks marking his birthday. The comments by Yu Zhengsheng, number four in the ruling Communist Party’s hierarchy, [...]
Ireland legalises abortion following death of Indian dentist
The Irish Government has passed landmark legislation to allow abortion in the country in certain circumstances. The laws enshrine a woman’s right to a termination if her life is at risk, including if she is at risk of taking her own life. The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013 was passed comfortably at about [...]
Saudi princess accused of human trafficking freed on $5 million bail
The Saudi Royal princess accused of keeping a Kenyan woman as a domestic slave posted bail of $5 million on Thursday night and is expected to be freed later in the evening. Meshael Alayban, who is married to the grandson of the King of Saudi Arabia, appeared in an Orange County court in the morning [...]
Swat girls throng to school as Malala addresses UN
MINGORA, Pakistan (AFP) -When the Pakistani Taliban shot Malala Yousafzai in the head, their message to the world was simple: girls have no right to an education and their dreams of a better future should be crushed. The attack portrayed the world’s only Muslim nuclear power in an appalling light as Western leaders and celebrities [...]
High stress in high heels
Stories have begun to emerge revealing the astounding bravery in the aftermath of the deadly Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash. Passengers have recounted how female flight attendants carried people on their backs from the wreckage just moments before flames engulfed the plane, while a police officer wearing no protective gear raced into the burning jet [...]
Brutally felled for taking stand against felling of trees
Nihal Perera, a veteran planter with 45 years of experience in the field, took up his posting as the manager of Noori Estate in Deraniyagala, in the Kegalle district, late last year. However, he soon started facing resistance from a group backed by a local politician. The group was allegedly encroaching on estate land, felling [...]
Victims wait in vain for state accident compensation
J.M. Maharoof, from Ibbagamuwa in Kurunegala is a survivor of a deadly bus accident that claimed 21 lives in 2003. The packed SLTB bus in which he was travelling crashed into a tree, killing 11 on the spot – more deaths followed from among the 80 other casualties. Mr. Maharoof sustained severe injuries to his [...]
How Egypt’s ‘revolution’ betrayed itself
“The revolution is dead. Long live the revolution,” wrote Eric Walberg, a Middle East political expert and author, shortly after the Egyptian military overthrew the country’s democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi on July 3. But more accurately, the revolution was killed in an agonisingly slow death, and the murders were too many to count. Mohamed [...]
Democracy in reverse
NEW DELHI – Egypt has had a long and difficult couple of years. From January 25, 2011, when millions of people poured into the streets to rally against Hosni Mubarak’s regime, to the army’s recent overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi, the country has experienced a fall from euphoria into division and frustration — a pattern [...]
