Two massive explosions have rocked the heart of the Syrian capital near the army and air force command headquarters, Syria’s official news agency reported. The information minister, Omran Zoubi, said the blasts were caused by two roadside bombs, adding that one of them may have been placed inside the grounds of the army headquarters, and [...]
A South African court charged Julius Malema, a renegade of the ruling African National Congress and opponent of President Jacob Zuma, with money laundering on Wednesday. Prosecutors did not file any other charges. Source: Reuters
At least 21 people have been killed in flooding and landslides in the north-eastern Indian states of Sikkim and Assam, reports say. In Sikkim, rescue workers recovered the bodies of 16 people, including members of the Indo-Tibetan border police. Five people are still missing. Five people died in Assam. Reports say thousands may still be [...]
has spared the high-flying police chief whose flight to a US consulate led to the toppling of leader Bo Xilai, with a court in Chengdu handing him a relatively lenient 15 year jail sentence on Monday. Wang Lijun, 52, had previously been Bo’s right hand man in Chongqing, winning plaudits for the pair’s populist anti-gang [...]
Swiss citizens are going to the polls to vote on a proposal to ban smoking completely in enclosed public places. Hotels, restaurants and bars are currently allowed to have rooms for smokers but critics say this harms the health of those who work in them. Restrictions introduced two years ago were watered down after lobbying [...]
It is a taboo for Israeli leaders to give even the slightest hint of favoritism in politics in the United States, Israel’s closest ally. So some Israelis are squirming over a perception that their prime minister is siding with Republican Mitt Romney in the U.S. presidential race, in the belief he will take a harder [...]
Inaccuracies and misplaced towns and cities in Apple’s new map software have provoked anger from users. In June Apple announced it would stop using Google Maps in favour of its own system, created using data from navigation firm TomTom and others. Apple is yet to comment on the complaints about the software, which comes already [...]
A British servicewoman has given birth to a baby boy in Afghanistan having not realised she was pregnant. “Mother and baby are both in a stable condition,” said the Ministry of Defence, following the birth on Tuesday in Camp Bastion, Helmand province. The woman, a Royal Artillery gunner who has not been named by the [...]
An actress in an anti-Islam film that triggered violent protests across the Muslim world sued a California man linked to its production on Wednesday for fraud and slander, saying she had received death threats after the video was posted on YouTube. Actress Cindy Lee Garcia, who also named Google Inc and its YouTube unit as [...]
The disgraced politician at the center of China’s biggest political scandal in years has been linked to a criminal act for the first time since he was removed from office, the state-run Xinhua news agency has reported. Bo Xilai, who was head of the Communist Party in the southwestern city of Chongqing and once seen [...]