News For Tuesday Oct 7, 2008 News For Tuesday Oct 7, 2008

World World

NKorea reportedly fires missile into Yellow Sea - Added 16 minutes ago

North Korea has fired a short-range missile into the Yellow Sea, media reports said Tuesday. Japanese public broadcaster NHK quoted officials as saying Tokyo was trying to verify a report from a third country that the...

Iceland teeters on the brink of bankruptcy - Added 28 minutes ago

This volcanic island near the Arctic Circle is on the brink of becoming the first "national bankruptcy" of the global financial meltdown. Home to just 320,000 people on a territory the size of Kentucky, Iceland has...

Iraq's FM: 'Bold' decisions needed on bases deal - Added 29 minutes ago

The Iraqi foreign minister said Tuesday it will require "bold political decisions" to resolve the major issue standing in the way of a deal allowing American troops to remain here next year _ who would try U.S. troops...

Chinese lawyers face pressure to drop milk cases - Added 52 minutes ago

Lawyers advising the families of children sickened in China's tainted milk scandal said Tuesday they are facing growing official pressure to withdraw from the cases. A loose grouping of more than 100 lawyers across...

Vatican No. 2: Pius protected Jews during WWII - Added 53 minutes ago

The Vatican stepped up its defense of Pope Pius XII on Tuesday, countering allegations the wartime pontiff was silent about the Holocaust by saying he saved Jews through his prudent diplomacy. The Vatican newspaper...

Animal rights group opposed to fur targets Armani - Added 53 minutes ago

The PETA animal rights organization is targeting Armani in its latest anti-fur campaign. PETA senior vice president Dan Mathews said Tuesday that Armani has used rabbit fur in its winter collections now in stores...

Iran forces down Hungarian flight - Added 54 minutes ago

Iran forced an aircraft carrying Hungarian military officials to land after it entered its airspace, Hungary's Defense Ministry said Tuesday. The plane was allowed to continue to Afghanistan after it was determined the...

Rare Islamic artifact sells for $5.5 million - Added 1 hour ago

A rare Islamic crystal jug mistaken earlier this year for a cheap French claret pitcher has sold at auction for almost 3.2 million pounds ($5.6 million). An anonymous bidder bought the 1,000-year-old rock crystal ewer...

Tropical Storm Marco hits Mexico's Gulf coast - Added 1 hour ago

!!-- pobj:NY4C-1007081215 -->Tropical Storm Marco roared ashore on Mexico's Gulf coast with near-hurricane force winds on Tuesday, prompting a shutdown of some oil platforms. The storm flooded coastal highways and...

Protesters clash with police in Thailand, 1 dead - Added 1 hour ago

Thai protesters demanding the government resign set fire to cars and threw bottles and metal barricades at police, who used tear gas to break through their blockade around Parliament Tuesday. At least one person was...

Austria: Asylum seekers' facility under scrutiny - Added 1 hour ago

Human rights experts on Tuesday expressed concern about a special facility holding suspected criminal asylum seekers in the mountains of southern Austria. Joerg Haider, right-wing governor of Carinthia province, said...

Kenya deports US author of anti-Obama book - Added 1 hour ago

The American author of a controversial book accusing Barack Obama of seething with "black rage" and of being unfit for the U.S. presidency was kicked out of Kenya on Tuesday. The deportation of Jerome Corsi came just...

Romanian minister fired after wedding copter ride - Added 1 hour ago

A Romanian Cabinet minister was fired Tuesday after he used a government helicopter to make it to his wedding on time. Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu fired Education Minister Cristian Adomnitei, 33,...

Nobel physics prize goes to 2 Japanese, 1 American - Added 1 hour ago

Two Japanese scientists and an American won the 2008 Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for theoretical advances that help explain the behavior of the smallest particles of matter. The American, Yoichiro Nambu, 87, of...

China suggests Nobel should not go to activist - Added 2 hours ago

!!-- pobj:APHS162833-0613890800 -->China's foreign ministry suggested Tuesday that it hopes Chinese human rights activists will not win this year's Nobel Peace Prize, saying the award should go to the "right people." ...

Turkish jets bomb Kurdish targets in Iraq, Turkey - Added 2 hours ago

Turkish warplanes bombed suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey early Tuesday in retaliation for an attack that killed 17 soldiers, the Turkish military said. Turkey's prime minister...

Israeli PM gets no promises on Russian arms sales - Added 2 hours ago

Israel's prime minister said Tuesday he received assurances that Russia would not allow Israel's security to be threatened, but offered no indication he won the concrete promises he sought on Russian arms sales or...

Official links Mexican drug gangs, Colombia rebels - Added 2 hours ago

Mexico's powerful drug cartels are buying drugs directly from Colombia's main rebel group, a senior Colombian defense official said Tuesday at a hemispheric meeting on crime. The finance chief of the FARC rebel unit...

Hummus war looms between Lebanon and Israel - Added 2 hours ago

The latest conflict simmering between Lebanon and Israel is all about food: Lebanese businessmen accusing Israel of stealing traditional Middle Eastern dishes like hummus. Fadi Abboud, president of the Lebanese...

EU nations step up protection of private savings - Added 2 hours ago

The European Union's 27 governments agreed Tuesday to guarantee private savings of up to euro50,000 for one year and set guidelines on how each country could rescue failing bank, finally taking a measure of coordinated...

Timeline of political crisis in Thailand - Added 2 hours ago

Protesters have occupied Thailand's seat of government for six weeks, demanding the resignation of governments they say are proxies for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Military leaders ousted Thaksin in a 2006...

EU committee approves climate change bill - Added 3 hours ago

A committee of EU lawmakers approved an ambitious climate change plan Tuesday, resisting heavy pressure from lobbyists who sought to water down the bill because of the financial crisis. The European Parliament and each...

Afghans refugees flee Pakistan war zone - Added 3 hours ago

Afghan refugees ordered out of a Pakistani war zone begged Tuesday for bus fares and flowed over the border into their homeland, worsening a humanitarian crisis resulting from an army offensive against Taliban...

Maldives gears up for first democratic election - Added 3 hours ago

To supporters, President Mamoun Abdul Gayoom is a hero who turned a poor nation of fishermen into a tourist paradise and the economic success story of South Asia. Detractors accuse him of ruling the Maldives as a...

Germany to extend Afghan mission 14 months - Added 3 hours ago

Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet decided Tuesday to extend Germany's military mission in Afghanistan for 14 more months. The decision will keep the German military in Afghanistan until after next year's parliamentary...

Detention revoked for diplomat in US fugitive case - Added 3 hours ago

A Serbian court has freed a former diplomat suspected of helping a student facing assault charges in the United States flee to Serbia, a court official said Tuesday. Former Serbian deputy consul Igor Milosevic will be...

Iraqi PM welcomes Abu Dhabi crown prince - Added 3 hours ago

Iraq's prime minister welcomed the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to Baghdad on Tuesday, the latest high-level visit by regional Arab dignitaries. Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who also is the deputy commander of the...

136 villagers poisoned by water in southern China - Added 3 hours ago

More than a hundred villagers in southern China have been poisoned by after drinking water apparently contaminated with arsenic, official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday. The residents of two villages in Guangxi...

Hundreds gather to remember slain Russian reporter - Added 5 hours ago

Hundreds of people gathered in central Moscow Tuesday to remember Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya on the second anniversary of her killing. Politkovskaya was shot in her apartment building in an...

Russian forces to begin buffer zone withdrawal - Added 5 hours ago

Russian forces will begin withdrawing from a buffer zone in Georgia on Wednesday and be out within 24 hours. The head of Russian peacekeeping troops based in South Ossetia, Gen. Marat Kulakhmetov, made the announcement...

Tropical Storm Marco roars ashore on Mexico's Gulf - Added 5 hours ago

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Marco is hitting land north of Mexico's Veracruz port on the Gulf coast. The storm was moving inland at near 8 mph (13 kph). It dumped up to 4 inches (10...

Hamas in Egypt to talk Palestinian reconciliation - Added 5 hours ago

A high-level Hamas delegation has crossed into Egypt for talks with the country's intelligence chief as part of Egyptian efforts to mend the rift between Palestinian factions. The delegation is led by Hamas' strongman...

Doctors clear Dalai Lama to resume foreign travel - Added 5 hours ago

The Dalai Lama underwent a second medical checkup in as many months Tuesday and doctors cleared him to resume foreign travel, said a spokesman for the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. The 73-year-old Dalai Lama was...

Somali pirate says ransom reduced to $8 million - Added 5 hours ago

A man on a hijacked ship carrying tanks and heavy weapons said Tuesday that the ransom had been reduced to US$8 million (euro5.87 million). It was unclear if he was officially speaking for the pirates holding the...

Italian survivor recalls WWII massacre - Added 5 hours ago

Gino Massetti was 15 when he was rounded up by German troops near the Italian village of Falzano di Cortona and herded with 10 other civilians into a barn. Now 79, Massetti told a Munich state court Tuesday at the...

Kyrgyzstan mourns after quake kills at least 74 - Added 5 hours ago

Rescuers in Kyrgyzstan searched the rubble for signs of life after an earthquake that killed at least 74 people. The 6.6-magnitude quake near Kyrgyzstan's borders with Tajikistan and China flattened the remote village...

UN: Bandits keep attacking aid workers in Chad - Added 5 hours ago

The U.N. humanitarian office says aid workers in eastern Chad have been attacked by bandits over 120 times this year, hampering efforts to bring food and other relief to tens of thousands of displaced people. A...

Nepal appoints 3-year-old as new living goddess - Added 6 hours ago

Hindu and Buddhist priests chanted sacred hymns and cascaded flowers and grains of rice over a 3-year-old girl who was appointed a living goddess in Nepal on Tuesday. Wrapped in red silk and adorned with red flowers in...

Judo black belt Putin shows off moves in DVD - Added 6 hours ago

Vladimir Putin is out on video as a judo master. Russian state-controlled media already have shown the powerful prime minister at the wheel of massive racing truck, shirtless on a fishing excursion, and tracking a tiger...

MISSING TITLE - Added 7 hours ago

Kenyan airport official says American author of book slamming Barack Obama is being deported. ...

Sri Lanka: international probe called into killing - Added 8 hours ago

Sri Lanka's top opposition party called Tuesday for an international investigation into a bomb attack the previous day that killed a popular former army general and 26 others. Retired Maj. Gen. Janaka Perera, who was a...

Russia: Arms sales to Venezuela are defensive - Added 8 hours ago

Russia's foreign minister says the country's arms sales to Venezuela are meant for defensive purposes. Russia has stepped up ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and is sending a naval squadron to Venezuela for...

US: 43 militants killed in southern Afghanistan - Added 8 hours ago

U.S. and Afghan troops clashed and called airstrikes on a group of insurgents in southern Afghanistan, killing 43 militants, the U.S. military said Tuesday. The militants ambushed the U.S.-Afghan force with sniper fire...

Russia's Jerusalem land claim worries Israelis - Added 9 hours ago

The Russians are coming to downtown Jerusalem, reclaiming ownership of a landmark with the approval of the Israeli government, just as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visits Moscow to try to iron out serious policy...

Recent winners of the Nobel Prize in physics - Added 9 hours ago

Recent winners of the Nobel Prize in physics, and their research, according to the Nobel Foundation: _ 2008: U.S. citizen Yoichiro Nambu and Japanese researchers Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa for work on...

Car explodes in Bangkok, killing 1 - Added 9 hours ago

One man has died in a car explosion in the Thai capital of Bangkok that occurred amid anti-government riots. Police Col. Somchai Choiklin says authorities suspect the explosion Tuesday was caused by a bomb "because the...

Thousands march in Romania to protest low salaries - Added 9 hours ago

Some 7,000 workers and trade unionists have marched around the Romanian parliament to demand higher salaries and better working conditions. Whistling and jeering workers from sectors ranging from education to...

Copenhagen airport to build new terminal - Added 9 hours ago

Copenhagen Airports will build a new 200 million kroner ($26.4 million) terminal for low-cost airlines. The operator of Copenhagen's international airport said Tuesday the terminal dubbed CPH Swift will be ready by...

MISSING TITLE - Added 9 hours ago

US coalition says its forces killed 43 militants during a battle in southern Afghanistan. ...

Rescuers search Tibet rubble after quake kills 10 - Added 9 hours ago

Rescuers rushed tents, food and water to villagers in Tibet on Tuesday after an earthquake and scores of aftershocks rattled the capital and surrounding areas, killing at least 10 people and collapsing hundreds of...