Daily News Channel
A verdict expected Friday in the subversion trial of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been delayed until August 11, said a diplomatic source attending the proceedings. The reason for the delay was not immediately clear. Suu Kyi, 64, and two of her housekeepers are being tried on charges stemming from a May 3 incident in which American John William Yettaw allegedly swam across a lake to her home and stayed for two days.
Hidden in the alleyways behind Jakarta’s fancy malls and in between the high-rise apartment buildings is what Ronny Poluan, a former film maker, calls the "real Jakarta." It is not far from the glitz and glam that dominates the capital’s skyline, yet it is a side of the city that few foreigners ever see. “I want them to (have an) authentic view,” Poluan, who runs “Jakarta Hidden Tours,” said as he took a group of Australians through the winding maze of a central Jakarta slum.
Multiple Olympic champion Michael Phelps suffered his first defeat in international competition for four years when Paul Biedermann convincingly beat him in the 200 meters freestyle final at the world swimming championships in Rome. Phelps, who has won 14 Olympic gold medals in his glittering career, last failed to get gold when he was edged out by fellow-American Ian Crocker in the 100m butterfly at the worlds in Montreal
Barbie turned 50 this year, and she’s been celebrating her birthday with a whirlwind world tour, christening a new store in Shanghai and strutting the runways of New York’s Fashion Week. As curvaceous and sprightly as ever, the petite doll even paid a visit to the nation’s capital for a recent weeklong convention, and the reception there proved that much of the world still has a love affair with the leggy blonde
“If a kangaroo accidentally gets hit by the train, you don’t really feel it,” conductor Scott Fels informs me as the scrublands and giant termite mounds of the Australian Outback whisk by. “But if the train drivers see a camel on the tracks, believe me, they get away from the windows.” Camels in the Outback Yes indeed. There are estimated to be over a million of these ungulates roaming at will through the desert, descendants of the original camel caravans led by Afghan drivers in the 1860s and 1870s
In an unusual step, NASA scientists interrupted testing of the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope to aim the orbiter’s camera at Jupiter and capture an image of the planet’s mysterious new scar. The resulting picture, taken Thursday, is the sharpest visible-light photo of the dark spot and Hubble’s first science observation since astronauts repaired and upgraded it in May, NASA said. Earth-based telescopes have been trained on Jupiter since an amateur astronomer in Australia noticed the new mark, probably created when a small comet or asteroid plunged into Jupiter’s atmosphere and disintegrated, early Monday
With the U.S. trillions of dollars in the hole, 70 cents an hour sounds like chump change.
The archbishops of Canterbury and York are recommending that churches stop sharing the chalice at communion over swine flu fears, the Church of England said Thursday. The archbishops wrote a letter to all Church of England bishops with the recommendation.
The longest solar eclipse of the century cast a wide shadow for several minutes over Asia and the Pacific Ocean Wednesday, luring throngs of people outside to watch the celestial spectacle. Day turned into night
A group of 22 students from the greater District of Columbia and Maryland area have been quarantined in China after several tested positive for the H1N1 flu virus, school officials said Tuesday. Total eclipses occur about twice a year as the moon passes between the Earth and the sun on the same plane as Earth’s orbit.