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Briton arrested with roasted human foetuses for use in black magic ritualSix human foetuses which had been roasted and covered in gold leaf as part of a black magic ritual have been seized from a British citizen in Bangkok, Thai police said Friday.
telegraph.co.uk | 18-May-2012 11:03
China shadow looming, Taiwan's Ma set for 2nd term
In this Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012 file photo, Taiwan's President and Nationalist Party's presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou finishes an international press conference at the party's campaign headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan.
topix.net | 18-May-2012 09:11
China's most-wanted man sentenced to life in prison
Lai Changxing appeared in a court in his home city of Xiamen, the city 'he once owned'.
telegraph.co.uk | 18-May-2012 08:00
China sentences former fugitive to life in prison
In this July 23, 2011 file photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, Lai Changxing, center, signs a warrant issued for his arrest as he arrives at the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing.
topix.net | 18-May-2012 05:01
Treatment of Former Mongolian President Raises International Concerns
A former president of Mongolia is now in a hospital, recovering from the effects of a hunger strike he staged while imprisoned by the government that replaced his. The situation in Mongolia was brought to international attention when Senator Dianne Feinstein from the U.S. state of California stood before the U.S. Senate in Washington Monday describing the case of Nambaryn Enkhbayar, the president of Mongolia from 2005 until 2009. The Senator, referring to the former president as a ...
voanews.com | 18-May-2012 03:07
Militants attack government compound in western Afghanistan, killing 7
A group of suicide bombers armed with explosive-laden vests, automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades stormed a government compound Thursday in western Afghanistan, killing at least seven people, officials said.
topix.net | 18-May-2012 00:51
Daughter of Sitar Legend Fuses Indian Songs With Spanish Rhythms
Shivan Sarna WASHINGTON - Sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the renowned Indian sitar player and composer Ravi Shankar, explores the unlikely pairing of the rapturous songs of India and the fervid rhythms of Spanish flamenco in her latest album titled “Traveller.” The musician continued an international tour in support of her seventh album with a performance in Washington, DC. “The music has a really fresh sound to it, while ...
voanews.com | 18-May-2012 00:47
European Economy, African Food Security to Top G8 Summit
WHITE HOUSE - Europe’s economic crisis is expected to dominate the discussions when the Group of Eight nations hold their economic summit near Washington on Friday and Saturday. Food security in Africa will also be high on the agenda. The meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat will be the first G8 summit to include France’s new president, Francois Hollande. The French leader was elected on a promise to help move Europe toward a pro-growth economic plan, and away ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 23:40
Afghanistan Starts Work on $30M TB Hospital
Afghanistan has begun work on a $30 million hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis, a disease that health officials say kills more than 10,000 Afghans every year. The Japanese government is paying for the 80-bed center in the Afghan capital, which will also treat malaria and AIDS patients. Japan is the second-largest donor to Afghanistan, after the United States. The World Health Health Organization reported 53,000 Afghans get tuberculosis each year. Afghanistan's Public ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 22:23
US suspends Burma sanctions
The US will suspend sanctions barring American investment in Burma in response to political reforms, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, announced last night.
telegraph.co.uk | 17-May-2012 22:03
Kazakh police officer imprisoned in riot trial
A court in Kazakhstan has imprisoned a police officer for allowing a protester to die in custody last year, the first sentencing in a series of trials linked to a riot that shook the former Soviet state.
telegraph.co.uk | 17-May-2012 20:56
Pakistani president to attend NATO summit
Oil tankers, which were used to transport NATO fuel supplies to Afghanistan, are parked at a compound in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday, May 15, 2012.
topix.net | 17-May-2012 20:47
NATO Members to Discuss Burden Sharing
WASHINGTON -- Leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nations meet in Chicago this weekend to address two major challenges -- how to dial down their involvement in Afghanistan and, perhaps more vexing, how to maintain military readiness in the face of sharp budget restrictions. The heads of state and government from the 28 NATO nations want to make sure the alliance continues to develop and maintain military capabilities needed to fulfill all possible future ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 19:53
Tibetan Exile Group Blasts Chinese Crackdown in Autonomous Region
A leading Tibetan exile group says a crackdown by Chinese authorities in the Tibetan Autonomous Region is turning Buddhist monasteries and nunneries from places of worship into facilities dominated by the study of Chinese state propaganda. Jamphel Monlam, a top official in the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy , said in an interview with VOA's Tibetan service that Beijing's most recent interference in monastic life includes the clandestine infiltration by security ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 19:42
Kabul Urges Islamabad Against Mass Expulsion
ISLAMABAD -- Afghanistan is urging authorities in neighboring Pakistan to abandon plans to expel tens of thousands of unregistered Afghan migrants from the country. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) estimates there are currently 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan, but local officials say tens of thousands of others are residing in the country illegally. The government of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, says around ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 18:05
Lutheran Organization Seeks Help From Former Refugees
LONG BEACH, CALFORNIA - In the 1970s and 1980s, tens of thousands of Cambodians immigrated to the United States. Many of those were helped by religious organizations, including the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Today’s immigrants come largely from other parts of the world, but many of their needs are the same. And now the Lutheran refugee service is looking for help from refugees it once aided. Sovannarorth Sok came to America as a refugee. Today, she ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 17:58
Report: NATO's Afghan Exit Risks State Collapse
LONDON - NATO is rushing its withdrawal from Afghanistan and could risk reversing the gains made there during the past decade, according to a new report. The Afghanistan Analysts Network report was released before a NATO summit in Chicago. "Western governments need to be as concrete as possible, vis-a-vis Afghanistan, that after 2014 the country will not be forgotten again as happened last time when the Soviet occupation forces withdrew in 1989," said Thomas ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 17:44
Move over Superman, it's time for Astanaman
A competition has started in Kazakhstan to create a superhero named after the former Soviet state's capital city, Astana - Astanaman.
telegraph.co.uk | 17-May-2012 17:27
US Suspends Economic Sanctions on Burma
The United States has suspended economic sanctions against Burma, which have banned American investment in the country for the last 15 years. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the announcement Thursday in Washington alongside visiting Burmese Foreign Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin. She said that Derek Mitchell, the State Department's special representative to Burma, will be nominated as U.S. ambassador to the country. U.S. economic sanctions against ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 17:07
Pilots' predeliction for high life could bring down Air India
The high-life of Indian pilots and crew has plunged its national carrier into a nosedive towards bankruptcy, the country's aviation minister has revealed, with staff stealing whisky and caviar and being chauffeured in limousines to five star hotels.
telegraph.co.uk | 17-May-2012 17:00
Blasts, Arrests During Bangladesh Strike
Bomb blasts and arrests marked an opposition-called general strike in Bangladesh on Thursday in protest of a court order jailing 33 of the alliance's leaders.
topix.net | 17-May-2012 16:32
Hafiz Saeed sues Pakistani journalists over US ambassador meeting claims
One of the world's most feared Islamists, Hafiz Saeed, is suing two Pakistani journalists for claiming that he held a secret meeting with the US ambassador to Islamabad.
telegraph.co.uk | 17-May-2012 16:24
Bo Xilai: mystery French architect Patrick Devillers discovered in Cambodia
A French architect who was a close associate of the family of the disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, and of Neil Heywood, the British businessman allegedly murdered by Mr Bo's wife, has been traced to Cambodia.
telegraph.co.uk | 17-May-2012 16:21
N. Korea Reportedly Resumes Work on Reactor
New satellite images show North Korea has resumed construction on a new nuclear reactor, despite international criticism. The U.S.-Korea Institute, operated by Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), says images taken by a commercial satellite on April 30 show Pyongyang has made progress on a light water reactor at its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon. North Korea says the reactor is intended to generate electricity, but in a ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 16:12
Burmese Film Focuses on Plight of Migrant Workers
A new film, Father's House , sponsored by the Burmese comedian and political activist, Zarganar, hopes to raise the plight of Burmese migrant workers to a wider audience - especially to people back in Burma. The film’s location highlights the often harsh realities many workers face employed in the fishing, construction and rubber plantation industries. Deep in a rubber plantation in southern Thailand’s Phangnga province a Burmese migrant community gathers, drawn to the making of a ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 15:41
Chinese Activist to Receive Passports in 2 Weeks
Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng says he and his family will be issued passports to leave the country within the next two weeks. Chen told Western reporters Thursday that Shangdong provincial security officials brought visa applications for him and his family to fill out the day before, and that passport photos were taken. On Wednesday, Chen discussed the issue in an interview with VOA's Mandarin Service. "Today I applied for a passport. Today I filled forms ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 15:37
Dogged by Refrigeration Issues, Afghan Farmers Depend on Pakistan
JALALABAD, Pakistan - Farmers and traders in eastern Afghanistan say that despite a decade of foreign development projects, they remain economically dependent on their neighbors in Pakistan. The main bazaar in the capital, Jalalabad is crowded with people buying and selling fresh melons, ripe tomatoes and sacks full of onions and potatoes. Fruits and vegetables from all across the country come to this market where it is sold to locals. But due to unreliable electricity and cold ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 15:34
N. Koreans Demand Ransom for Detained Chinese Fishermen
BEIJING - China Central Television and the Beijing News are reporting a rare public maritime spat between China and North Korea. A North Korean gunboat is reported to have seized several Chinese fishing boats, with a total of 29 people onboard, in the Yellow Sea earlier this month. The North Koreans who are holding the boats and sailors demanded nearly $190,000 for their release and set Thursday as the deadline, or else they will sell off the boats. Foreign ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 14:05
China Seeks to Assure Workers of Stability
HONG KONG - The Chinese government is seeking to reassure workers of their rights, a move activists say highlights Beijing's concern that possible labor unrest could cause disruptions to social stability. China's latest economic figures indicate the country's robust economic growth continues to slow, with exports, industrial output and retail sales posting lower growth than last year. The numbers also indicate that inflation and rising consumer prices have slowed - a ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 13:34
Pensioner survives being dragged under truck
An elderly man in China was left with just bruising after he was run over by a lorry and dragged under the vehicle for 20 metres along the road.
telegraph.co.uk | 17-May-2012 12:50
Pensioner survives being hit by a truck and dragged down road
An elderly man in China was left with just bruising after he was run over by a lorry and dragged under the vehicle for 20 metres along the road.
telegraph.co.uk | 17-May-2012 12:50
Pakistani President to Attend NATO Summit
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's president will attend the upcoming two-day NATO Summit in Chicago that will discuss the international community's role in Afghanistan after all foreign combat troops withdraw from the country by the end of 2014. Meanwhile, negotiations continue between Pakistani and U.S. officials on the reopening of NATO supply lines to Afghanistan. The Pakistani government says President Asif Ali Zardari has decided to visit Chicago after the country’s ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 12:25
Obama requesting help to pay for Afghan army
Mapping the way out of an unpopular war, the United States and NATO are trying to build an Afghan army that can defend the country after 130,000 international troops pull out.
topix.net | 17-May-2012 12:23
Negotiating Peace With Taliban Difficult
Despite several serious rounds of violence this week, including the assassination of a top peace negotiator, the United States will continue to try to negotiate with the Taliban, experts say.
topix.net | 17-May-2012 12:23
Attack on Afghan government compound kills 5
Here are the main-stage set times for Bamboozle's 2012 headliners. Mac Miller: 6:55 - 7:40 p.m. KABUL, Afghanistan - Officials say a group of militants has attacked a government compound in western Afghanistan, killing at least five people.
topix.net | 17-May-2012 12:23
North Korea 'resuming work' on nuclear reactor
Satellite imagery has revealed that North Korea has resumed work on a light water reactor that analysts believe indicates Pyongyang's intention to push ahead with efforts to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.
telegraph.co.uk | 17-May-2012 11:11
Giant fish caught in Chinese river
A sturgeon weighing more than half a ton is caught by startled fishermen in northeast China.
telegraph.co.uk | 17-May-2012 10:42
Russian teacher who reported vote fraud on trial
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - A teacher went on trial Wednesday after publicly claiming that she was pressured to help rig Russia's parliamentary election to boost the results for Vladimir Putin's party.
topix.net | 17-May-2012 08:18
Chen Guangcheng 'to get passport within 15 days'
Blind activist Chen Guangcheng said today China had agreed to issue him a passport within 15 days, allowing him to go to the United States, after a bitter row between Beijing and Washington.
telegraph.co.uk | 17-May-2012 05:46
Diplomat: UN experts say Iran sends arms to Syria
The Texas Coast is renowned for its spring bird migration, but this has been the slowest on record.
topix.net | 17-May-2012 04:18
Concerns Mount Over India's Role In Incubating Drug-Resistant Bacteria
Medical research is once again pointing to India as a dangerous crucible of bacterial strains that resist many forms of antibiotic treatment. Cheap, under-regulated antibiotics and a severe shortfall of sanitation infrastructure fuel the problem. Medical experts warn India remains at the forefront of what the World Health Organization calls “the post-antibiotic era,” in which a wide range of infectious bacteria evolve past the ability of even potent medicines to treat them. So-called ...
voanews.com | 17-May-2012 00:58
NKorea nuclear reactor construction progressing
That indicates the North is pressing on with efforts to expand its nuclear program, the institute says, despite international criticism.
topix.net | 17-May-2012 00:04
Afghan shrines last resort for Aghan mentally ill
In this Monday, May 07, 2012 photo, Jalaluddin, 23, a drug addict, is chained to a wall during his 40-day incarceration at the Mia Ali Baba Shrine in Jalalabad Afghanistan.
topix.net | 16-May-2012 21:59
US Lawmakers Calling for Faster Withdrawal From Afghanistan
CAPITOL HILL, Washington, D.C.- A bipartisan group of 86 members of the U.S. House of Representatives has written a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to bring the war in Afghanistan to an accelerated end. Democratic Representative Barbara Lee of California is the only one of the 435 members of the House who voted against authorizing the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan in 2001. Now, Lee is spearheading efforts to bring U.S. troops home faster than the planned ...
voanews.com | 16-May-2012 21:17
Pakistan's British High Commission in security alert
Staff at the British High Commission in Pakistan were sent home early on Wednesday during a security alert.
telegraph.co.uk | 16-May-2012 21:03
Indonesia Predicts Slow Probe of Crashed Russian Jetliner
Indonesia says it could take as long as a year to analyze equipment and flight data recovered from the crash site of a Russian jetliner that slammed into the side of a volcano last week near Jakarta, killing all 45 people on board. Aviation authorities, quoted in Indonesian media Wednesday, said the crash probe will at a minimum take four months - in part to ensure reliable results. National Transportation Safety Committee chief Tatang Kurniadi also told the Jakarta Globe newspaper ...
voanews.com | 16-May-2012 19:54