Tag Archives: world

Michael Jackson’s boyhood home pays tribute

Michael Jackson was the pride of Gary, Indiana, growing up, and on Tuesday his hometown paid tribute to the late entertainer with a memorial and celebration in his honor. They remembered him as not just the King of Pop or the musician who took Hollywood by storm, but as someone with an unmatched enthusiasm and talent for entertaining even as a little boy growing up in this city of about 100,000 in northwestern Indiana, 30 miles from downtown Chicago, Illinois. Jackson’s first music teacher, Anita Hill, spoke of teaching Jackson to sing “Climb Every Mountain,” and remembered him as a “very energetic and wonderful student.” The principal of his middle school remembered how, at Christmastime how Jackson, always jumped up and offered to sing to his class

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Greening the Internet: How much CO2 does this article produce?

Twenty milligrams; that’s the average amount of carbon emissions generated from the time it took you to read the first two words of this article. Now, depending on how quickly you read, around 80, perhaps even 100 milligrams of C02 have been released.

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French Tourists: Still the World’s Worst

Given their nation’s long-reigning status as the world’s most visited country, you’d expect the French to know a thing or two about insufferable tourists. It turns out they do — and are proving it to the rest of the world. In a poll carried out by online travel site Expedia and released Thursday, French tourists were viewed as the orneriest for the third year running.

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U.S. panel demands release of Baha’is facing trial in Iran

Seven Baha’i prisoners face a death-penalty trial Saturday in Iran amid calls for their release from a U.S. panel on religious freedom. Responding to a letter from Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist who spent four months in an Iranian jail earlier this year, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) demanded the seven prisoners be freed rather than stand trial on charges of espionage and religious violations.

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Lawmakers, celebrities targeted in alleged phone-hacking scandal

British lawmakers demanded answers Thursday after a newspaper reported that a UK tabloid illegally hacked the phones of thousands of public figures including Gwyneth Paltrow, George Michael and Elle MacPherson. The commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police said he asked his assistant to look into the allegations and determine whether to investigate. It comes after The Guardian newspaper reported Thursday the cell phones of “several thousand public figures” were hacked into by reporters and staff of the News of the World tabloid during one month in 2006

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Jordaan plays down World Cup strike fears

Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the 2010 World Cup organizing committee in South Africa, said in a statement on Wednesday that construction remains on schedule for the tournament despite large-scale strikes delaying building work at stadium sites. About 70,000 workers have downed tools in a pay dispute after negotiations broke down earlier this week, with less than 12 months to go before the finals kick-off. The workers are reportedly seeking a 13 percent pay rise on their $300 average monthly wage, and there are growing worries that a prolonged strike could jeopardize key projects such as the centerpiece 94,000-seater Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg

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G-8 leaders focus on global warming

Leaders of the world’s leading industrialized nations are huddling with representatives of up-and-coming powerhouses to tackle global warming at an economic summit Thursday in Italy. U.S. President Barack Obama will lead the Major Economies Forum at the Group of Eight meetings in L’Aquila.

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