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Envoy hands over Pyongyang peace missive to Chinese president
BEIJING - A senior North Korean envoy delivered a letter from his leader Kim Jong-un to Chinese President Xi Jinping and told him that Pyongyang was ready to take "positive action" to re-join stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks. The letter was handed over by envoy, Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae. Choe told Xi that North Korea is willing to take positive actions to solve problems ...
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UK spy agencies defended over drummer soldier murder
LONDON - The British government has defended its spy agencies for failing to prevent murder of a soldier in London despite signs and revelations that the two suspects were well known to MI5. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said it was impossible to control everyone all the time. "Peers and MPs will do a thorough investigation in terms of what the security forces knew but I've seen ...
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Vehicles, people plunge into river after bridge collapse
WASHINGTON - A handful of vehicles and some people plunged into a river after a more than half a century old bridge that links Seattle in the US with Canada collapsed, throwing the movement on the highway into disarray. Authorities said there were no deaths in the bridge collapse on the Skagit River in the US state of Washington. Three people were rescued and taken to hospitals, they ...
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Another jewellery heist hits Cannes as $2.6 mn necklace stolen
CANNES - A second suspected jewellery heist was reported at the Cannes Film Festival, with a single necklace by Swiss jeweller De Grisogono worth nearly $2.6 million reported missing. In the case of the first gem loot at the Cannes Film Festival, thieves literally tore out a safe filled with roughly $1 million-worth of jewels from a hotel room. The second time around the event took place ...
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Amnesty laments lack of support for refugees globally
LONDON - Global rights body Amnesty International has said that the world is "increasingly" becoming "dangerous place" for refugees due to inaction on human rights. The London-based group in its annual report cited the increasing number of refugees around the world, and highlighted the lack of support for them, as the key human rights issue for the past year. It said that the number of ...
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June 28 to see News Corp split into two companies
WASHINGTON - Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation Friday announced the planned separation of the $76-billion conglomerate into two distinct publicly traded companies, with one to be renamed 21st Century Fox and the publishing firm to retain the News Corp brand. The split has been formally approved by the Board of Directors. The Company announced appointments to the Boards of Directors of both ...
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Audit records of Chinese firms to be made accessible to US regulators
BEIJING - Chinese regulators Friday announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding with their US counterparts giving American authorities increased access to documents from Chinese audit firms. The signing of the MOU between China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is a significant ...
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Investments being sought by Croatia for oil exploration in Adriatic Sea
ZAGREB/LONDON - Croatia, soon to become the 28th member of the European Union,- is looking to undiscovered oil and gas fields in the Adriatic Sea to revive its ailing economy, according to the country's president. Ivo Josipovic told CNN that Croatia is searching for partners in the energy sector to help reveal oil and gas "green fields" in the waters that separate the Balkan nations and ...
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Fan fiction authors to find platform on Amazon
WASHINGTON - Amazon, the largest online retailer of books, movies, music and games, Friday offered its Kindle e-book platform to fan fiction authors to sell some of their work. Fan fiction is literature inspired by popular books, shows, movies, comics, music, and games. Publication outside of blogs and online fanzines is often difficult because of copyright issues. Amazon Publishing has ...
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Central bank of China to push forward market oriented reforms
BEIJING - China is planning to steadily push forward market-oriented reform in its interest rates and exchange rates mechanisms this year as part of the financial sector reforms to better serve the real economy, a central bank report said on Friday. The "China Financial Stability Report (2013) released by the People's Bank of China stressed that it would be steadily promoting the interest ...
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Suspect killed in Orlando has confessed to 2011 triple murders says FBI
NEW YORK A Chechen acquaintance of dead Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev has confessed to slashing the throats of three people in a 2011 gruesome triple murder, federal law enforcement officials have said. Ibragim Todashev, who made the confession, was killed early Wednesday during a confrontation with the FBI and Massachusetts State Police in Orlando, Florida, a federal law ...
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Obama seeks more transparency in use of drones
WASHINGTON - In a major counter-terrorism speech, President Barack Obama Thursday defended the covert US drone program and stressed that despite the controversies around it, the strikes are legal and save lives. He also said the use of lethal force extends to U.S. citizens as well. This disclosure comes a day after his administration acknowledged publicly for the first time that four US ...
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Taliban car bomb kills 13 in Pakistan
QUETTA, Pakistan - At least 13 people, including two civilians, were killed in a car bomb targeting a police vehicle in western Pakistani city of Quetta Thursday, police officials said. The bombing also injured at least 20 people in the capital of Baluchistan province, riven by Islamist militancy and a violent separatist insurgency. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the ...
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Kerry begins efforts to restart Israeli and Palestinian peace talks
JERUSALEM - US Secretary of State John Kerry Thursday separately began meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials but appeared doubtful about his success on getting the two warring sides back to peace negotiations. This is Kerry's fourth trip to the Middle East in as many months of his assuming the office of the top US diplomat. He was been trying to revive a peace process that has been ...
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Canada threatens to retaliate against change in US meat labeling rules
OTTAWA - Canada has threatened "retaliatory measures" against the United States move changing the so-called country of origin labeling that would track beef and hogs through the meat processing and distribution systems, stating that it is discriminatory, a view shared by the World Trade Organisation. On Thursday, the United States Department of Agriculture issued a final modification to its ...
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After breaches Twitter beefs up security with two-step login
NEW YORK - Aiming to tackle recent high-profile breaches, popular micro-blogging site Twitter is introducing an optional two-step login for users to beef up security. The new system would try to ensure "it's really you" when a user signs in to Twitter, which transmits some 400 million messages a day. The move follows recent attacks into the twitter accounts of news organisations' such as ...
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Irish biotech firm Elan rejects revised Royalty Pharma bid
DUBLIN/ WASHINGTON Ireland-based biotechnology firm Elan Thursday rejected Royalty Pharma's increased $6.4 billion takeover bid, shortly after the U.S. firm cut the acceptance bar for its latest offer to 50 percent plus one share. Royalty raised its hostile cash bid to $12.50 per share on Monday, from $11.25 previously, but made the new offer conditional on Elan shareholders rejecting, at a ...
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Import alert by USFDA hits Wockhardt shares
MUMBAI - Shares of Wockhardt, one of the leading Indian pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, witnessed a sharp fall of 20% to Rs. 1,315 ($23.61) on the Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE) on Thursday after the US FDA published an import alert on one of its three manufacturing facilities near Aurangabad. The import alert, 'detention without physical examination of drugs from firms which have ...
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Ford Motor to shutdown 2 units in Australia
MELBOURNE - Ford Motor Company Wednesday announced plans of closing its local manufacturing operations in Broadmeadows and Geelong in October 2016 thereby forcing 1,200 people out of work. Spelling the end of the iconic Ford Falcon in the country, Ford Australia president Bob Graziano announced that the carmaker would shut its Victorian facilities in October 2016, bringing an end to nearly ...
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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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Michelle Nunn to Run for Senate in Georgia
Georgia Democrats may finally have a candidate for next year's Senate race to succeed Republican Saxby Chambliss. Michelle Nunn, an Atlanta businesswoman and the daughter of former senator Sam Nunn, is "actively preparing" for a Senate ...
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UPCOMING Briefing With Author Philip Shishkin
Restless Valley has the makings of a gripping thriller: revolutions, massacres, civil war, drug-smuggling, brazen corruption, contract hits and larger-than-life characters who may be villains…or heroes…or possibly both. Yet Philip ...
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French troops stage Niger raid jihadists threaten new attacks
French special forces and local troops raided an army base Friday in northern Niger, ending a hostage seizure by Islamist fighters who had staged twin suicide bombings that killed at least 20 ...
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Gunmen face off in Tripoli as sectarian battle escalates
He doesn't feel it, strapped up in his bed at the Nini Hospital, swathed in bandages, two bottles of painkillers pumping into him. He was driving his motorcycle on Thursday night from Badawi past the end of Syria Street - an aptly named thoroughfare that divides Tripoli's two warring neighbourhoods of Bab el-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen - whence came a single sniper's round."It ...
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Deadly car bombing at aid groups house in Kabul
KABUL, Afghanistan A Taliban suicide car bomber and five heavily armed gunmen attacked an international aid group's guest house in the Afghan capital on Friday, killing two guards and setting off an hours-long battle with security forces in an upscale Kabul neighborhood, authorities said. The International Organization for Migration said four of its workers were wounded, including an ...
Silicon Valley Focus
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Silicon Valley's Expo ambitions
Moffet Field, a fairly unknown former military airbase in Silicon Valley near Mountain View and Sunnyvale, may become the centerpiece of the 2020 World Expo if Governor Schwarzenegger and other advocated of a California bid get their way.
California wants one of its cities to host the 2020 World Expo, the event is a seminal one on the world calendar and is expected to draw in over 70 million visitors to Shanghai, the city currently hosting the exhibition, which last six months. Read more
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