guard against possible attacks on polling day. On Thursday, the son of former PM Yusuf Raza Gilani was abducted during a rally. Opinion polls indicate there could be a record turnout, higher than the 44% in the last elections in 2008….
n as sharing those views, which are a departure from the BOJ’s previous stance. On Thursday, the central bank said it would also increase its purchases of Japanese government bonds to a total of 50 ttillion yen, a move aimed at bringing down interest rates and spurring lending. The BOJ also extended the average maturity of the bonds it purchases from three years to seven years. Finally, the…
…oting takes place in Cairo, Alexandria and eight other provinces, a week before the rest of the country. Some 250,000 security personnel have been deployed to safeguard a referendum in which more than 51 million people are registered to vote. Polling reportedly had to be spread out because few judges were willing to supervise the referendum but human rights groups have expressed fears the results…
smell of warm, melted cocoa is wafting around the kitchen as Ryan Stevenson meticulously pipes a rich, buttery filling into dozens of delicate chocolate shells. Tall and slim with a ginger beard, the 36-year-old grew up in Toowoomba, Australia. Since moving to Brussels in 2005, he has twice won the title of Belgian Chocolate Master. In 2009, he took the Best Praline prize as a finalist in the Wor…
David Beckham has announced he will retire from football at the end of this season at the age of 38 after an illustrious 20-year career. The former England captain made 115 appearances for his country and 394 for Manchester United, winning six Premier League titles and the Champions League. David Beckham signed a five-month deal at Paris St-Germain (PSG) in January. “I’m thankful to P…
…l of North Korea’s top general pointed to a possible power struggle over economic reform. Kim Jong-Un succeeded his late father, Kim Jong-Il, in December. Kim Jong-Un, believed to be in his late 20s, has since adopted a warm public persona, being photographed at fun fairs and pop concerts with his young wife Ri Sol-Ju. Kim Jong-Un, believed to be in his late 20s, has since adopted a warm pu…
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has been re-elected as leader of country’s governing African National Congress. Jacob Zuma, 70, received an overwhelming majority of votes cast by some 4,000 delegates at the party’s Mangaung conference. Kgalema Motlanthe has been replaced as deputy president by anti-apartheid veteran Cyril Ramaphosa. Jacob Zuma had been favourite to secure the leadership…
…ed down the judges’ traditional role of electoral oversight for the referendum. “We have decided to boycott the supervision of the referendum on the constitution scheduled for December 15, 2012,” the club’s head Ahmed al-Zind announced. “This protest is in response to what is being called the ‘constitutional decree’ and until this decree is rescinded.̶…
Bloggers at German sites such as iPhone fan site iFun caught a snapshot of Vodafone Germany’s site offering a menu of new “iPhone 4S” models today – but there was no sign of iPhone 5. Likewise, Apple Insider and 9 to 5 Mac reported several references to iPhone 4S – and images show the new phone looks exactly like the old iPhone 4. The 9 to 5 Mac went blog further with an –…
…, the article by investigative journalist Edward Epstein revealed. The article continued to pick flaws in Nafissatou Diallo’s statement too, which coincided with the missing mobile. Nafissatou Diallo, 32, entered DSK’s hotel room at 12:06 on May 14 for housekeeping and claims that within the six minutes she was in room 2806 with him, she was dragged near the bathroom and forced to give him oral se…
…omments about Angela Merkel during a telephone conversation with a newspaper editor. The vulgar remarks referred to sex and Angela Merkel’s physique and were picked up by investigators probing a 500,000 euro blackmail plot against Silvio Berlusconi. Silvio Berlusconi is accused of making insulting comments about Angela Merkel during a telephone conversation with a newspaper editor It has be…
I am most proud of in my life.” Statistics released to coincide with the announcement revealed there were now 600 million users accessing the site via a mobile device – up 48 million from 552 million in June this year. Since its early beginnings at Harvard University, Facebook users have befriended each other 140.3 billion times. Sustained growth is seen as crucial if Facebook is to m…
…vernment had nothing to do with the film. The US state department has issued a warning against any non-essential travel to Pakistan. France has closed its embassies and other official offices in about 20 countries across the Muslim world on Friday after French magazine Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, including two drawings showing him naked. French Muslim leaders condemne…
…s recently been reported that the Colorado Muslim Society has offered to provide burial services for Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the individuals who perpetrated the grave and destructive bombings at the 2013 Boston Marathon. “This report is absolutely untrue. The individual who has reportedly made this offer does not speak on behalf of the Colorado Muslim Society,” the statement says. It continues…
…some areas three weeks ago. Aleppo is Syria’s largest city, and Salah al-Din is considered a vital supply route for government troops coming from the south. The Syrian Observatory said at least 26 people were killed in Aleppo on Wednesday – it said they were among 130 people killed across the country. Meanwhile, three days after Prime Minister Riad Hijab defected to the opposition, th…
the ruling United Russia party saw its share of the vote fall sharply. Hundreds of people have been arrested during anti-Putin protests over the past week, mainly in Moscow and St Petersburg. At least 50,000 police and riot troops were deployed in Moscow ahead of Saturday’s protests. Authorities have permitted up to 30,000 to attend the demonstration dubbed “For Fair Elections”….
said that there had already been some six aftershocks and further ones could be expected in the next 24 hours. Carlos Valdes Gonzalez said one of the aftershocks had already registered a magnitude of 5.3. A large earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 struck near Acapulco on Mexico's Pacific coast on Tuesday A pedestrian bridge reportedly collapsed and crushed a microbus in Mexico City, but ther…
n the internet and wondered if she had jumped. Karen Juday was vain about her face and used anti-wrinkle cream, and he was certain she would have jumped rather than face the flames. Richard Pecarello, 59, made contact with Associated Press photographer Richard Drew, who had captured images of many of the jumpers, and asked to look through his archives. He discoverd a couple of photographs of a wom…
…ut the overall event will urge national phone, text and online pledges toward funding efforts to find treatments and cures for neuromuscular diseases. The annual MDA Labor Day weekend telethon ended a 45-year run last year with comedian and longtime host Jerry Lewis, who turned 86 in March and lives in Las Vegas. Jerry Lewis was part of a comedy duo with Dean Martin and became a film icon with ant…
Socialist Nicolas Maduro has won a narrow victory in Venezuela’s presidential being officially elected as the successor of the late leader Hugo Chavez. Nicolas Maduro won 50.7% of the vote against 49.1% for opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski. Henrique Capriles has demanded a recount, saying Nicolas Maduro was now “even more loaded with illegitimacy”. The opposition…
ic Ocean but that a tsunami could be generated that was destructive for local coastlines. There have been no immediate reports of deaths or injuries. Warnings of the tsunami height have varied between 50 cm and 2 m. Any such height would represent a far lower risk of devastation than the 10-11 metre tsunami that struck in 2011 but that since then the country has clearly become jittery about any sh…
Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who designed some of the 20th Century’s most famous modernist buildings, has died just before his 105th birthday. Oscar Niemeyer rose to international fame as the architect of the main government buildings in the futuristic Brazilian capital, Brasilia, inaugurated in 1960. He also worked with Swiss-born modernist architect Le Corbusier on the UN building…
aratchiks in the post-debate spin room in Florida on Monday – he told the crowd that a vote for Mitt Romney would plunge Americans back to the early 1960s. “You can choose to turn the clock back 50 years for women and immigrants and gays,” he said. “Or in this election you can stand up for the principle that America includes everybody. We’re all created equal – black, white, Hisp…
ormer vice minister of the army, was forced to stand on a spot that had been targeted with a mortar on the orders of Kim Jong-un. Kim Jong-un, who took over from his father after his death in December 2011, demanded Kim Chol was “obliterated”, with “no trace of him behind, down to his hair” in January. It followed the North Korean regime’s decision to order its 25 million population to absta…
Minister Ernesto Villegas said: “The patient has shown a slight improvement in his condition.” However, no pictures of HUgo Chavez after the surgery have been released so far. Hugo Chavez, 58, is scheduled to be sworn in on January 10. The lack of any word from Hugo Chavez for two weeks prior to the comments by the two senior officials raised serious concerns about his current conditio…
Rome: Thousands rally to oppose Italy's austerity measuresThousands of protesters, led by trade unionists, have rallied in Rome against the policies of Italy’s new coalition government. Wielding red flags and placards, they urged…
Madeleine McCann case: Potential suspects identified by UK detectives A number of persons of interest have been identified by UK detectives reviewing the case of the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Madeleine McCann, from Rothley,…
Cannes Film Festival 2013: $1 million Chopard jewels stolen from Novotel hotel roomMore than $1 million (777,000 euros) worth of Chopard jewels have been stolen from Novotel hotel in Cannes, French police say. The jewels were to be loaned to stars…
Pope Francis condemns money cult in his first major speech on financial crisisIn his first major speech on the financial crisis, Pope Francis has called on world leaders to end the "cult of money" and to do more for the poor. Free market economics had…
Milos Zeman: Czech president drunk at public display of crown jewelsA video footage shows the new Czech president, Milos Zeman, clearly worse for wear, propping himself up against a wall at a public event, struggling to negotiate a step and…
France enters its second recession in four years France has entered its second recession in four years after the economy shrank by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2013, according to official figures. The country’s economy…
Eurovision 2013 winner is Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest with Only Teardrops
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