Latest Breaking News
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Search for survivors nearly over in Oklahoma as damage estimate is $2bn
MOORE, Oklahoma - Rescue workers were combing through the battered remains of buildings left behind in the path of the gigantic tornado that killed two dozen people, including nine children, in Oklahoma on Monday. Officials say the search for survivors is nearly over as efforts turn towards recovery. Gary Bird, fire chief of the badly hit Moore suburb, said he was "98% sure" there were no ...
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Higher exports fail to plug widening Japan trade deficit
TOKYO - Japan's trade deficit rose substantially more than expected in the month April to 879.9 billion yen ($8.6 billion), which is a 70% jump over the trade deficit during the corresponding month a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.. The deficit, for the tenth consecutive month, was wider than what many economists had forecast. A survey from the Nikkei business daily ...
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Florida man known to Boston bombing suspects shot dead by FBI
MIAMI - A man known to the Boston Marathon bombers was shot and killed Wednesday by an Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent after he turned violent during questioning, the investigating agency said. The Orlando Sentinel newspaper identified the man as Ibragim Todashev, 27. He was killed in the early morning incident in Orlando, Florida. The FBI said the shooting occurred in Orlando, ...
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Eight candidates for Iranian presidential race
TEHRAN - Iran has approved eight candidates for the presidential election due next month, rejecting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's top aide in a major setback to the hawkish leader of the Islamic republic. Ahmadinejad criticised the decision to remove Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei from the final candidate list and said it was an act of "oppression". He announced plans to take up the case with ...
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Senate panel approves plan to ease hiring of foreign techies
WASHINGTON - A US Senate panel has cleared a proposed legislation that relaxes restrictions on IT companies to hire foreign techies, thus clearing one of the major hurdles to ushering changes in American immigration law in a generation. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill after its authors won a bipartisan support with three Republicans joining 10 Democrats in the 18-member ...
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Vitamin C offers hope of tackling drug resistant TB
WASHINGTON Adding vitamin C to existing tuberculosis drugs regime could shorten the therapy for drug resistant TB, claims new research findings published in the online scientific journal Nature Communications. The striking discovery, by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, has determined that vitamin C kills drug-resistant TB bacteria in laboratory ...
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Top North Korean official visits China
PYONGYANG, North Korea - In an indication that North Korea may give diplomacy a chance to end regional tension, its leader Kim Jong Un Wednesday sent a special envoy to China to win the confidence of its most important ally. The trip by Vice Marshal Choe Ryong Hae, a senior Workers' Party official and the military's top political officer, comes after months of ignoring Chinese warnings to ...
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IMF warns UK against continuing austerity programme
LONDON In a critique of the United Kingdom's austerity programme, the International Monetary Fund Wednesday urged the Europe's third largest economy to rebalance the policy to make the transition to a high-investment and more export-oriented economy. "The UK could boost growth by bringing forward measures already included in its fiscal plan, such as spending on infrastructure and job ...
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Labour reforms to top US team agenda on Bangladesh visit
DHAKA - A high level US delegation led by the State Department's Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman will visit Bangladesh this weekend to press for a major overhaul of labour safety regulations following the nation's deadliest industrial accident, an official said Wednesday. The collapse of a nine-storey factory complex housing several garment units outside the capital last ...
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Massive tornado rips through Oklahoma killing dozens
WASHINGTON - A massive tornado ripped through parts of Oklahoma city and its suburbs in the United States killing at least 24 people, including nine children, besides leaving scores homeless. As winds at over 320 kilometers per hour (kmph) flattened homes and businesses and severely damaged a hospital and two elementary school, the death toll was earlier said to be more than 90 but it was ...
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Thein Sein praised for reforms in Myanmar but urged to end violence against Muslims
WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama praised the reforms of Myanmar leader Thein Sein but urged him to end violence against Muslims. Sein is the country's first president to visit the White House in almost half a century. Speaking from the US capital Monday Obama said he recognized Sein's work to guide Myanmar down "a long and sometimes difficult, but ultimately correct, path to ...
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Roadside bombing kills six Afghan policemen in Herat
KABUL, Afghanistan - At least six Afghan policemen guarding a strategically important dam were killed in a roadside bombing Tuesday in the war-torn country's western province of Herat, officials said. They said that suspected Taliban insurgents triggered the explosion when a police patrol vehicle heading to Herat city was travelling in the Chashti Shareef district of the province. "There ...
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Top court overturns genocide conviction of former dictator
GUATEMALA CITY - The constitutional court of Guatemala has ordered that the genocide trial of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt should be taken back to the middle of proceedings, thus overturning his conviction and sentencing to 80 years in prison. The ruling on Monday doesn't annul the entire trial of the case but the top court has ordered that whatever happened after April 19 should be ...
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After two weeks detention North Korea frees Chinese boat and 16 fishermen
PYONGYANG - A Chinese boat and 16 fishermen held by armed North Koreans for more than two weeks have been released, easing the latest tension in relations between the neighbouring allies. Owner Yu Xuejun, who was not on board the boat when it was seized on 5 May, wrote on his microblog that his captain called him at 3.50am to say the crew and boat were set free and that they were on their way ...
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Barroro voices concern over estimated one trillion euro tax evasion
BRUSSELS - Voicing concern about tax evasion that is estimated at one trillion euros, European Commission President Jose-Manuel Barroso said Tuesday that EU leaders will meet at a one-day summit on Wednesday to negotiate solution. The European Union can't afford to let tax evasion go on the way it is. Such large amounts of money, currently sitting in tax havens, would be greatly beneficial ...
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German central bank sees signals of economic pick up in Q2
FRANKFURT - Germany's central bank Deutsche Bundesbank expects the country's economy to improve "markedly" in the second quarter relying on signals of pick up in industrial orders and likelihood of weather related downturn in construction sector no longer impacting investment sentiments a development that could boost the wider eurozone as it struggles to get out of recession. "Overall ...
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HNL cancer drug trial discontinued by Pfizer
NEW YORK - Pharma major Pfizer has discontinued the development of cancer candidate inotuzumab ozogamicin, which is part of a class of therapies called antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), in the haematological cancer non-Hodgkin lymphoma after it failed to show benefit in overall survival during phase III trials. Pfizer has notified the study investigators and appropriate regulatory authorities ...
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Merger pact by GrubHub and Seamless to stave off rivals
WASHINGTON - GrubHub Inc. and Seamless North America LLC, two of the biggest online services for food-delivery in the U.S., have entered into a definitive agreement to combine their companies to take on rivals in the growing market for online meal orders. The merger will create a combined company well positioned to drive more orders to restaurants, deliver a better experience for hungry ...
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Mortgage lending in UK rises highest in four years
LONDON - The UK housing market seems to be picking up with gross mortgage lending up 4.3 per cent in April over previous month to 12.1 billion pounds, the highest in over four years, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The mortgage lending was 21% higher than April 2012, but this data is skewed by the end of the stamp duty concession on 24 March, 2012. Under the stamp duty ...
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A Glimmer of Hope for the Illinois GOP
After a decade of the Democratic party dominating all levers in government the state of Illinois is a mess. Its government pension debt is far and away the largest of the 50 states and its dismal credit rating reflects it. Unlike neighboring states Illinois is hemorrhaging jobs and dancing around its myriad problems, apparently hoping they'll go away on their ...
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Yahoos Insane Purchase of Tumblr
This week we have entry #5,740,412 in the ledger documenting "Why Not Every Market-Based Outcome Is Optimal." And that's the Yahoo purchase of ...
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RFERLs Turkmen Correspondent Released From Custody
was released today under circumstances that have yielded little information about his ordeal. Acting RFE/RL President and CEO Kevin Klose welcomed Yazmuhamedov's release, saying, "We're very happy he's safe, and I thank the governments, international organizations, media outlets and NGOs that challenged his detention and pressed for his release." ...
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With Hezbollah coffins Syria now exporting conflict
HERMEL, Lebanon - On a country road in Lebanon's northeast, traffic is heavy; ambulances screech by, sirens blaring, and cars packed with mourners follow coffins as Hezbollah brings wounded fighters home from Syria, and its dead.With the bodies from the battle over the border at Qusair, comes the violence, as civil conflict between Syria's Iranian-backed ruler and Sunni rebels ...
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‘I won’t let Bikur Cholim close’ says Gamzu
After years of financial trouble, Jerusalem's Bikur Cholim Hospital is now being run "impressively" by the capital's Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Health Ministry director-general Ronni Gamzu ...
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US Jewish groups help out after Oklahoma tornado
"Unfortunately, this isn't the first nor will it be the last disaster to hit Oklahoma, so we're setting up a fund to reflect that," says Rabbi Vered ...
Asia Feature
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Asia's largest ever infastructure project
The Trans-Asian Railway has been faltering since it was first proposed in the 1960s by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (ESCAP). Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s the project was hindered by political instability, the wars in Indochina, the reticence of China and a subsequent lack of finance in Asia for mega-projects of this kind.
Now, however, with China emerging as the number two most dominant economy in the world, the project to link two major continents (Asia and Europe) is finding its feet once more and the Chinese are looking into investment opportunities, with some aspects of the project, such as the several thousand kilometers that pass through Thailand, being slated for possible construction in 2013. Read more
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