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Sunday Times 2

Calm in Cairo after night of protests

Calm in Cairo after night of protests

CAIRO, Dec 8 (AFP) -The streets of Cairo were calm early Saturday after a huge but peaceful protest overnight against President Mohamed Morsi, who has greatly expanded his powers and is pushing for disputed constitutional reform. More than 100 demonstrators who had slept in tents or a nearby mosque were camped out in front of [...]

Sunday Times 2

The real price of competing for that beauty pageant crown

The real price of competing for that beauty pageant crown

Eighty-nine beauty pageant hopefuls from across the globe are busy gearing up for this year’s Miss Universe contest. The women aged 19 to 26, who arrived at the Planet Hollywood Resort in Las Vegas on Monday, have been non-stop with pre-contest activities that include photo shoots, make-up tests and interviews. But while behind-the-scenes shots show [...]

Sunday Times 2

Airport handover ‘seamless’: Maldives government

MALE, Dec 8 (AFP) -The Maldivian government on Saturday described as “seamless” the retaking of the country’s international airport from an Indian developer following a bitter row that triggered a spat with its neighbour. The government of President Mohamed Waheed last week decided to revoke a 25-year lease of the airport in the capital Male, [...]

Sunday Times 2

Indian government wins final vote on reform

NEW DELHI, Dec 7 (AFP) – India’s minority government narrowly won a final vote in parliament on Friday for its controversial move to allow in foreign supermarkets, giving a boost to its reform agenda. After heated debate, lawmakers in the nominated upper house gave their support to the government and rejected an opposition motion against [...]

Sunday Times 2

Exiled Hamas chief Meshaal to lead Gaza ‘victory rally

GAZA, Dec 8 (Reuters) – After receiving a hero’s welcome on his return from decades in exile, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal will attend a rally in Gaza on Saturday to mark the founding of his Islamist group and celebrate “victory” over Israel. At least 200,000 Palestinians are expected to attend the outdoor event, which is [...]

Sunday Times 2

When should photographers drop their cameras?

When should photographers drop their cameras?

A newspaper cover showing a man seconds before his death has been widely criticised. When tragedy strikes, do photographers – professional or otherwise – have a duty to intervene? He looks up, helpless, as the train careers towards him. “Pushed on the subway track, this man is about to die,” runs the front-page text on the [...]

Sunday Times 2

Regulating journalism won’t cure problems that ail the press

Regulating journalism won’t cure problems that ail the press

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Editors say headlines should catch the eye. I’m one of those editors who says things like that. Here is one from CNN-IBN that caught my eye: “Editors call for media regulation after arrest of Zee News journalists.” Why would they ever want that? We call those “man bites dog” headlines because [...]

Sunday Times 2

Australia’s Gillard in spoof: Mayans were right, world is ending

CANBERRA (Reuters) – According to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the Mayans were right and the apocalypse is near. In a spoof 50-second video appearance promoting a local radio station’s breakfast show, Gillard provided hair-raising details that she said would come when the world ends this month, as the ancient Mayans calendar predicted. With the [...]

Sunday Times 2

Japan school aims to create ‘Asian leaders’

Japan school aims to create ‘Asian leaders’

KARUIZAWA, Japan (AFP) -Asia may be driving growth in the world economy but a Japanese businesswoman behind an innovative new school believes the region is over-reliant on Western-style leadership. Lin Kobayashi hopes her foundation outside Tokyo will help change that by breeding a wave of political and business leaders — but with what she sees [...]

Sunday Times 2

A serene smile for her last picture

Peering thoughtfully into the camera, her mouth curved into the faintest of smiles, 17-year-old Sangay Dolma looks the picture of youthful promise. But by the time she took this photograph in the darkness of her bedroom, her plans were already in motion to travel to a Chinese government office building in eastern Tibet, douse herself in [...]

Sunday Times 2

Taiwan court to rule on first same-sex Buddhist “wedding”

TAIPEI (AFP) – A Taiwanese court is set to rule next month on a gay couple’s appeal against a government agency’s refusal to register their marriage, in what rights groups Thursday called a “milestone” case. Chen Ching-hsueh and his partner Kao Chih-wei filed a complaint with the Taipei High Administrative Court against a local household [...]

Sunday Times 2

Marrows on Mars

Marrows on Mars

Chinese astronauts are preparing plans to grow fresh vegetables on Mars and the moon after researchers successfully completed a preliminary test in Beijing. Four kinds of vegetables were grown in an ‘ecological life support system’, a 300 cubic metre cabin which will allow astronauts to develop their own stocks of air, water and food while [...]

Sunday Times 2

Obama leads Forbes ranking of world’s most powerful

Obama leads Forbes ranking of world’s most powerful

WASHINGTON, Dec 5(AFP) – The US president leads it, of course, and then there’s Pope Benedict XVI, and Angela Merkel, and Facebook’s founder, and other global rainmakers on Forbes’ ranking of the mightiest earthlings. But the magazine’s 2012 list of the world’s most powerful people also features folks who might raise an eyebrow or two: [...]

Sunday Times 2

US diplomat hopes song can win over Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Dec 7 (AFP) -A US official is taking a novel approach to diplomacy in Pakistan — singing in a local language to build bridges in one of the world’s most dangerous countries, where anti-Americanism runs rampant. Shayla Cram, a public diplomacy officer assigned to Peshawar, the gateway to Al-Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in the [...]

Sunday Times 2

‘Angry’ socialite to write tell-all book about Petraeus scandal

The Florida socialite at the centre of CIA director David Petraeus downfall is planning a tell all book, according to friends. The 37 year old is understood to have held preliminary talks with publishers to tell her side of the story that led to the resignation of General Petraeus. ‘Trust me, there is going to be [...]

Sunday Times 2

Private firm plans “affordable” lunar mission for $1.5 billion

Private firm plans “affordable” lunar mission for $1.5 billion

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A Colorado start-up run by former NASA managers plans to conduct missions to the moon for about $1.5 billion per expedition, a fraction of what a similar government-run operation would cost, company officials said on Thursday. “Our vision is to create a reliable and affordable U.S.-based commercial human lunar transportation system,” [...]

Sunday Times 2

Star trek desks: Classrooms for the next generation?

LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists designing and testing what they hope might become the classroom of the future have found that “Star Trek”-style multi-touch, multi-user desks can boost children’s maths skills. A three-year project with 400 eight to 10-year olds found that using interactive “smart” desks can have benefits over doing maths on paper, and that [...]

Sunday Times 2

Satellite captures “black marble” view of Earth at night

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Almost 40 years to the day after the Apollo 17 crew snapped the famed “blue marble” image of Earth floating in space on December 7, 1972, NASA has unveiled “black marble” video views of the planet by night. The cloud-free pictures, taken with a high-resolution visible and infrared imager aboard a [...]

Sunday Times 2

A child to make royal history

While the world – and especially the bookies – enjoy the traditional speculation over the sex and name of any impending royal arrival, the future third in line to the throne has already made royal and constitutional history. For he or she will be the first addition to the new-look, non-sexist line of succession which [...]

Sunday Times 2

The kitchen sponge is 200,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat

The kitchen sponge is 200,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat

It may come as a surprise to the houseproud and ‘clean freaks’ among us but the kitchen sponge is one of the dirtiest places in the home – 200,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat.  And it is not just harmless bacteria lurking on your cleaning cloths and utensils. Experts have linked germs found on [...]

Sunday Times 2

Seven-year-old boy mutilated by gang so he’d earn more as a beggar

A seven-year-old boy was grabbed from the street by strangers to maim him so he would elicit more sympathy working for them as a beggar.  But when he recognised the men from his area and told them he would report them to his father, they decided to torture him, cutting off his penis and leaving [...]

Sunday Times 2

Indian village bans women from using mobile phones

A council in the eastern Indian state of Bihar has banned the use of mobile phones by women, saying the phones were ‘debasing the social atmosphere’. Councillors claimed the use of phones encouraged women to elope. Single women are fined £130 if they are caught using a phone, married women around £20. The ban has been [...]

Sunday Times 2

US tightens military noose around Syria

December 08, 2012 “Information Clearing House” – Amid an escalating drumbeat about a supposed threat that Syria’s government is preparing to use chemical weapons against its own people, Washington has deployed a naval armada off the country’s coast. The USS Eisenhower carrier strike group was sent through the Suez Canal from its deployment in the [...]

Sunday Times 2

The Arab Spring’s crowd psychology

The Arab Spring’s crowd psychology

ABU DHABI – In 1896, the social psychologist Gustave Le Bon warned his contemporaries of the dangers of crowds, writing that, “It is necessary to arrive at a solution to the problems offered by [crowds'] psychology, or to resign ourselves to being devoured by them.” As spontaneous protest overtakes organised political movements across the Arab [...]

Sunday Times 2

India’s Ocean

India’s Ocean

Is the Indian Navy about to start mixing it up with China on the high seas? For years, as the Chinese have modernised their naval fleet, Indian strategists have worried about what that might mean for India’s political and economic interests. A recent book by C. Raja Mohan, one of India’s most influential strategic thinkers, [...]

Sunday Times 2

Beneath the burqa: Afghan women opt for cosmetic surgery

Beneath the burqa: Afghan women opt for cosmetic surgery

KABUL, Dec 7, 2012 (AFP) – Despite living much of their lives behind a veil, some Afghan women are feeling pressure to conform to ideals of female beauty and are lining up for cosmetic surgery at a handful of clinics in Kabul. A few years ago, most operations would have been to repair war wounds [...]

Sunday Times 2

Israel rains fire when UN votes against it

Israel rains fire when UN votes against it

UNITED NATIONS, (IPS) – Whenever the Security Council (sporadically) or the General Assembly (more frequently) lambastes Israel, the reaction from the Jewish state is highly predictable: either launch a military strike on Palestinians or announce new settlements in the occupied territories. Since the Israelis last month exercised the first option, causing devastation in Gaza, they [...]

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