N. Korea defends right to ‘explore space’ amid missile claim

North Korea defended Thursday its right to explore outer space after reports that a rocket, believed by the United States to be a long-range missile, had been positioned on its launch pad. North Korea recently informed a pair of U.N

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Space shuttle Discovery on pace for Sunday launch

The space shuttle Discovery is on pace for a Sunday launch after NASA engineers repaired a leaky gas venting system, officials said Saturday. The leak had canceled a planned launch on Wednesday. NASA hopes the seven-member crew can take off around 7:40 p.m.

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Japan’s Double Oscar Victory

It’s not quite Slumdog’s tale of rags to riches — more like shining maggots to Oscar gold. The path that led Japan to take its first Oscar in Best Foreign Language film at this week’s Academy Awards started with the film’s lead actor, Masahiro Motoki, contacting author Shinmon Aoki to quote a passage of his novel Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician in the actor’s own travel diary. “Maggots are life, too,” the passage, in the voice of the novel’s protagonist, reads

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‘Slumdog’ makes history, sweeps Oscars

Years from now it may be a trivia question on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." “What 2008 film based around a well-known game show,” the question may read, ominous music humming in the background, “won the Oscar for best picture” The answer — “Slumdog Millionaire” — is history. It is East meeting West, Bollywood meeting Hollywood, a film that was going nowhere winning the biggest prize in the movie business

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