Daily News Channel
When an Israeli cabinet minister proposes that his country impose sanctions on the United States, his government is clearly in a state of distress. Pressure from the Obama Administration to freeze Israeli settlement construction and move toward a two-state peace with the Palestinians has reportedly spurred Minister-without-Portfolio Yossi Peled to recommended that Israel shop outside the U.S.
Hate groups have intensified their rhetoric in recent months, but this new energy hasn’t necessarily translated to an increase in the rate of hate crimes in the U.S., according to some researchers. They also say that many white supremacist groups have been energized by a sour economy and the election of a black U.S
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Iranian voters began casting ballots Friday in a colorful and passionate presidential election pitting incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Mir Hossein Moussavi, the leading reformist candidate. The polls opened at 8 a.m. local time (11:30 GMT) and will stay open for 10 hours, but that time could be extended.
North Korea may be preparing for a new atomic bomb test a month after its last test, a U.S. official said Thursday.
In less than 24 hours all full-power broadcast TV stations in the U.S. will flip a switch to stop broadcasting their analog TV signals and will only broadcast TV signals in digital. And for millions who are unprepared, it could mean lights out on their favorite TV shows.
The day before polls open in Iran’s presidential election, the streets are suddenly quiet again as official campaigning comes to an end, and voters prepare for what is expected to be a record turnout. Whereas President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a sure bet just 10 days ago, the race has closed this past week, in what is clearly turning into a referendum on his four years in office. Rivers of green have flowed through the streets, those decked out in the colors of his main challenger, former Prime Minster Mir Hossein Moussavi.
Three of five Americans contractors detained in Baghdad have been ordered released by an Iraqi judge, because of insufficient evidence, a court spokesman said Thursday. The other two other contractors remain in custody, according to Judge Abdul Sattar al-Beeraqdar, a spokesman for Iraq’s Higher Judicial Council.
The trial of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to last another two weeks, her party said Thursday.
As Gabon begins a month of mourning and condolences pour in for President Omar Bongo, the world’s longest serving President, who died on Monday at 73 in his 42nd year in power, it’s worth remembering that Bongo was precisely the kind of leader Gabon, and Africa, could have done without. Gabon has a tiny population and vast oil reserves, and after four decades of exporting hundreds of billions of dollars of crude, the biggest testament to the corruption and ineptitude of Bongo’s rule is that he somehow contrived not to turn his country into an African Kuwait. A third of all Gabonese still live on less than $2 a day, and as the oil fields begin to dry up, Bongo’s subjects are facing up to the reality that he sacrificed the country’s future to fund his own fantastically opulent lifestyle.