Is the Future of Electric Cars in China?

Like drowning men grasping the only piece of buoyant driftwood in sight, top executives from the world’s beleaguered auto industry arrived in Shanghai this week for the city’s 2009 auto show, unveiling their newest brands in the only car market in the world that continues to grow. Some of the show’s stars are predictable, drawing crowds of reporters and photographers on Monday, media day: a stunning new Lexus convertible, the reborn Chevy Camaro from General Motors and the worldwide debut of Porsche’s new luxury sedan, the Panamera.

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Thousands of Civilians Escape as Sri Lanka Corners the Tamil Tigers

Sri Lankan military authorities predicted a swift end to the country’s 25-year civil war after tens of thousands of civilians who had been trapped in a narrow combat zone in the country’s north for over two months escaped the iron grip of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on April 20. But more fighting is in store before that end can be reached. It will take weeks, if not longer, to capture or kill the over 500 hardcore Tigers — including leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who is holed up deep inside the zone — ready to fight to the death

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Women in Somali city must cover up or go to jail

Women in Somalia’s third-largest city, Baidoa, have been ordered to wear Islamic dress starting this week or face jail time, according to a resident and Somali media reports. The order — issued last week by Al-Shabaab, the radical Islamist militia that controls the city — also warns business owners to close their shops during daily prayers, or they will be temporarily shut down, a local journalist said.

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At Pakistan’s Red Mosque, a Return of Islamic Militancy

Nearly two years after the arrest of Abdul Aziz on multiple charges of inciting violence against the state of Pakistan, the firebrand cleric of Islamabad’s radical Red Mosque has returned to the pulpit with a promise that he will continue with his struggle to establish Shari’a, or Islamic law, throughout the country. Just a day after he was released on bail, Aziz, wearing his trademark spectacles and graying beard, returned to the Red Mosque, the site of a weeklong siege in 2007 between the mosque’s seminary students and the Pakistani military, to deliver a sermon ahead of Friday prayers. Thousands of worshipers flocked to the centrally located mosque, spilling into the surrounding streets and kneeling on makeshift prayer rugs while Aziz’s voice boomed out over loudspeakers

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Suspected Basque separatist leader arrested in France

A suspected leader of the Basque separatist group ETA and two alleged accomplices were arrested Saturday in a city near the southern coast of France, a CNN partner station reported, citing police sources. The key suspect arrested in the joint French-Spanish operation in Perpignan was identified as Jurdan Martitegui Lizaso, CNN+ said

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U.S. says it will await appeals of alleged Nazi war criminal

The Justice Department has promised an appeals court that federal agents will not deport a Nazi war crimes suspect to Germany through at least April 30, even if the court lifts the stay that prevents the removal. In a letter to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Justice Department said it is prepared to ensure the necessary time for legal appeals to play out in the case of John Demjanjuk

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