Egypt considers Brotherhood ban, gunfire exchanged in mosque
CAIRO, Aug 17 (Reuters) – Egypt’s prime minister has proposed disbanding the Muslim Brotherhood of ousted President Mohamed Mursi, the government said today, raising the stakes in a bloody struggle between the state and Islamists for control of the country. Live television showed a gunman firing at soldiers and police from the minaret of a [...]
Game of Thrones star dragged into Russian politics
Actress Emilia Clarke has been dragged into Russian politics after her picture was used to make a shock ‘anti-rape’ message by a Vladimir Putin mayoral candidate. The 26-year-old British star’s image appears on a campaign advert in the industrial city of Yekaterinburg backing United Russia politician Yakov Silin. The sham online promotion identifies her as a [...]
Lying about its lion: Chinese zoo closed for going to the dogs
BEIJING (Reuters) – A zoo in central China has been closed after visitors were outraged to discover its lion was really a bushy and barking Tibetan mastiff. The dog was not the only fake at People’s Park Zoo in the city of Luohe, which tried to pass off a fox as a leopard and and rodents [...]
Search suspended for 171 missing in Philippine ferry disaster
CEBU, Philippines, Aug 17 (AFP) -Stormy weather forced Philippine rescuers to suspend a search today for 171 people missing after a crowded ferry collided with a cargo ship and quickly sank, with 31 others confirmed dead. The St Thomas Aquinas ferry was carrying 831 passengers and crew when the vessels smashed into each other late on [...]
Australian PM on the defensive over asylum-seekers
SYDNEY, Aug 17 (AFP) – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was forced onto the defensive on the key election issue of asylum-seekers today, three weeks ahead of national polls, with cracks appearing in his hardline refugee policy. Rudd’s so-called Papua New Guinea Solution allows people smuggled by boat to be sent to the impoverished Pacific nation [...]
Rising India-Pakistan tensions, but little planning
It was in that sour mood that New Delhi reacted with increasing anger to Pakistan’s support for Islamist militants targeting India in Kashmir and beyond. In October 2001, nearly 40 people were killed in a suicide attack on the legislative assembly of Jammu and Kashmir state in its summer capital Srinagar. When militants attacked the [...]
Gmail users or people who email them should not expect privacy, Google warns
Google has stated that people should not expect privacy when they send messages to a Gmail account. This is according to a brief that was filed last month in a U.S. federal court and recently picked up by Consumer Watchdog. The company claims ‘all users of email must necessarily expect that their emails will be [...]
Foreign policy: A search for equilibrium, compromise
Book facts | Foreign Policy: From Conception to Practice – by Dr. Ernest Petric The treatment of the subject therefore transcend the political and geographical boundaries of the Balkans and Eastern Europe and provide many an insight, which are of relevance to foreign policy-making and implementation in general and in particular of small developing states grappling [...]
Badar Azim: Does the British Queen’s Indian ex-footman live in a slum?
Recently, like many other journalists in Calcutta, I was trying to find the Queen’s former footman, Badar Azim, who returned to India when his UK visa expired. British papers had written about his journey to Buckingham Palace from the “slums of Calcutta”… but this did not go down well with his family. When I and [...]
Killer coffee
Drinking four cups a day could raise your risk of dying young, researchers warn – but only if you’re under 55. They found that consuming 28 cups of coffee a week increases the chances of premature death in younger people by half. The findings come from a large- scale American lifestyle study of 43,727 individuals aged [...]
Indonesian president worried by growing religious intolerance
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he was concerned by growing religious intolerance in the country with world’s largest Muslim population, which many analysts say his administration has failed to contain. Indonesia has recently seen a series of increasingly violent attacks on religious minorities like Christians, Shia Muslims and members of Ahmadiyah, a [...]
The Brotherhood’s silent martyrs lie soaked in blood
August 16, 2013 “Information Clearing House – “The Independent” – How could the dead rest? Their wooden coffins banged against the iron gates of the mortuary, the families shrieked with horror, the cellophane-wrapped corpses were piled high with blocks of ice so massive they could break the bones of the dead. And, as the ice [...]
No exit from Afghanistan
NEW DELHI – Despite frequent turmoil and repeated invasions, Afghanistan has remained virtually unchanged for centuries. Nearly 120 years ago, Winston Churchill described the futility of warfare in the region: “Financially it is ruinous. Morally it is wicked. Militarily it is an open question, and politically it is a blunder.” Churchill’s assessment undoubtedly rings true [...]
