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State Department scolds China on human rights

The State Department issued a report Wednesday sharply critical of China’s human rights record, despite the Obama administration’s decision to take a different approach to the Asian country. “The government of China’s human rights record remained poor and worsened in some areas,” the report said in reviewing the last year, finding Chinese authorities “committed extrajudicial killings and torture, coerced confessions of prisoners and used forced labor.” The “2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” the annual report of human rights around the world, also accused China of “severe cultural and religious repression” of minorities in Tibet and other regions and increasing harassment and detention of dissidents and activists who signed a petition calling for respect of human rights. China limits the rights of citizens to privacy and freedom of speech, assembly, movement and association, the report said.

U.S. soldier, interpreter reported killed by Iraqi policeman

A U.S. soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed by an Iraqi policeman Tuesday in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S.

Japan’s Aso becomes Obama’s first guest

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso met with President Barack Obama on Tuesday making him the first head of state to be hosted by the new administration. It was a long trip — 6,800 miles (11,000 km) — for a short meeting — one hour — and happened as Obama was preparing his first address to a joint session of Congress. Sitting next to Aso in the White House, Obama said: “The friendship between the United States and Japan is extraordinarily important.

The Man Who Warned Baseball About Steroids

The 1998 baseball season was a party of epic proportions, the equivalent of an all-nighter with the music cranked and every care in the world, or at least the anger and bitterness of the 1994-95 players’ strike, easily forgotten. The 1998 Yankees, the winningest team of all time, were just part of the fun for Bud Selig, whose caretaking role as interim commissioner finally ended in midsummer. Bud Selig, who had owned the Milwaukee Brewers, was the ultimate insider.

Brazilian revelers celebrate Rio Carnival

Aides say the president is expected to focus on the economy when he addresses a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening, but will also touch lightly on foreign policy issues. After much talk of engaging America’s adversaries, chief among them Iran, the Obama administration has made no move so far, pending a policy review.

Amanpour: World has questions for Obama

Will President Obama just talk about the state of this troubled Union whose economic crisis he has inherited, or will he cast his net of ideas far and wide to address a new American relationship with the world? After much talk of engaging America’s adversaries, chief among them Iran, the Obama administration has made no move so far, pending a policy review.

Real life ‘Slumdog’ slum to be demolished

Multiple Oscar winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" has brought the plight of India’s slum dwellers to the rest of the world. But up to a million slum dwellers in the economic capital Mumbai are set for upheaval as the city is poised for a radical makeover Five years after the regional government announced its intention to redevelop Dharavi, the vast Mumbai slum where parts of “Slumdog Millionaire” were filmed, developers are finally submitting their blueprints for the project.

Police fear ‘summer of rage’ over recession

British police warned on Monday that officers were preparing for a "summer of rage" as protests mount across Europe against the economic crisis. David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan Police’s public order branch, said growing unemployment, failing companies and the recession could spark a “mass protest.” Until now, Superintendent Hartshorn said, there were insufficient numbers of activists to carry out large-scale demonstrations, but he told the Guardian: “Obviously the downturn in the economy, unemployment, repossessions, changes that. Suddenly there is the opportunity for people to mass protest.” Hartshorn said April’s G-20 economic summit could lead to unrest as leaders of the world’s richest nations head to London

Brown: World needs ‘global New Deal’

The world needs a "global New Deal" to haul it out of the economic crisis it faces, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom said Sunday. “We need a global New Deal — a grand bargain between the countries and continents of this world — so that the world economy can not only recover but… so the banking system can be based on..

A Surprise Attack by Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers

The Sri Lankan Army announced with some fanfare two weeks ago that it had destroyed the last air strip used by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , its adversary in a 25-year-long conflict that appears to be coming to an end. However, the Tigers made it clear tonight, with an air attack punching into the heart of the capital, that it’s not over yet