Posts Tagged ‘World’
Students in Britain protest Strauss-Kahn speech
Tweet About 100 students protested Friday ahead of a speech at Cambridge University by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief whose career collapsed after he was charged with sexual assault.The 62-year-old French politician, often called DSK, was scheduled to speak on Europe's financial crisis at the university's debating society later Friday despite calls for the event to be canceled. The protesters said the university should not give a platform to a man with such a troubling attitude toward women."It's got nothing to do with freedom of speech," said student Francesca Williams, 21. "They're inviting a man who hates women. I don't think DSK should be given the privilege of [...]
High-flying Chinese leader absent from top meeting
Tweet A high-flying Chinese politician dogged by a scandal involving a subordinate possibly seeking asylum in the United States has missed an important session of the national legislature.Chongqing city boss Bo Xilai was the only one of the 25 members of the ruling Communist Party's Politburo not at Thursday's meeting of the National People's Congress. The body is holding its annual 10-day session in Beijing this month.Such no-shows are highly unusual and Bo had attended the session as usual on Wednesday.His absence follows official confirmation that former Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun is under investigation after visiting the U.S. consulate in the nearby city of Chengdu.A spokesman for the [...]
Bomb kills 4 Thai soldiers in Muslim south
Tweet NARATHIWAT, Thailand (Reuters) - Four soldiers were killed and one was critically wounded when insurgents detonated a roadside bomb in Thailand's Muslim south, police said on Thursday. The attack took place late on Wednesday in Narathiwat, one of three mainly Muslim provinces bordering Malaysia, where a shadowy insurgency has claimed more than 5,000 lives since 2004, when a low-level separatist rebellion from the 1970s resurfaced. The soldiers were travelling in two vehicles and had been providing security during a Buddhist festival. They were attacked moments after delivering the body of a Muslim villager to his family after he was shot dead by suspected rebels. Three of [...]
Police interrogate dissident monk in Myanmar
Tweet A Buddhist monk who was one of the leaders of the failed Saffron Revolution in 2007 has undergone questioning by Myanmar authorities for the second time since being released from prison in January.Fellow monk Gyaung Gyaung said Shin Gambira was released Thursday after being detained Tuesday and questioned about his recent visit to Kachin State in northern Myanmar, where the army is battling ethnic Kachin guerrillas.Gambira was held overnight for questioning last month in connection with his involvement in breaking into and seeking to reopen monasteries sealed by the former military junta after the mass street protests five years ago.The charismatic 33-year-old monk was jailed for his part in [...]
Australian admits fake-collar-bomb extortion bid
Tweet An Australian investment banker pleaded guilty Thursday to chaining a fake bomb to a young woman's neck in a bizarre extortion attempt last year.Paul Douglas Peters' lawyer Kathy Crittenden pleaded guilty on his behalf in a Sydney courtroom to a charge of aggravated break and enter and committing a serious indictable offense by knowingly detaining 18-year-old Madeleine Pulver.Pulver was alone studying in her family's Sydney mansion Aug. 3 when the 51-year-old Peters, wearing a ski mask and wielding a baseball bat, tethered a bomb-like device around her neck. It took bomb squad police 10 hours to remove it, but it contained no explosives and Pulver was not injured.The man left behind a note demanding [...]