Browsing: World News

President Barack Obama made an emotional, moral and economic case for extending long-term unemployment benefits on Tuesday, kicking off his first skirmish of the year with Republicans. The spat over prolonging the lifeline to 1.3 million Americans,…

Japan’s health ministry will Wednesday file a criminal complaint against the local arm of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis over alleged exaggerated advertising for a popular blood-pressure drug, Kyodo News agency reported. Novartis Pharma KK has…

An Al-Qaeda-linked group called on Iraqi Sunnis fighting government forces not to lay down their weapons, saying the choice is between conflict and enslavement, in an audio recording released Tuesday. “Oh Sunni people, you were forced to take up the…

Big wave surfers hit southwest France Tuesday as the Belharra monster waves crashed onto the Basque country’s Atlantic coast, creating swells of up to 15 metres. The wave, one of Europe’s highest, builds up over relatively shallow rocky coastal water…

A Spanish judge on Tuesday remanded in custody a man suspected of belonging to an Al-Qaeda linked militant group taking part in the Syrian conflict. The judge ordered Abdelwahid Sadik Mohamed, 28, to be held in custody while he is investigated for the…

The risk of dying from cancer in the United States has declined 20 percent over the past two decades, according to the American Cancer Society’s annual report out Tuesday. However, cancer, a complex disease that has largely eluded attempts at a cure…

Former Romanian prime minister Adrian Nastase was sentenced to four years in jail on Monday for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to appoint a businesswoman to a senior government post. Nastase, 63, was found guilty of receiving bribes…

Extreme cold in Canada Monday disrupted flights and school classes, caused widespread power outages and created havoc on roads. Temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius (-58 Fahrenheit) with a wind chill — colder than the surface of Mars –…

Thousands of African asylum seekers demonstrated outside Western embassies in Tel Aviv on Monday in a second day of mass protests against Israel’s immigration policies. The migrants, primarily from Eritrea and Sudan, marched from downtown Tel Aviv to…

A Saudi court has jailed five people for up to 30 years on charges including plotting to blow up an oil refinery on behalf of Al-Qaeda, state media reported Monday. The official SPA news agency gave no details of when the alleged plot against the refinery…

Liz Cheney, the oldest daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, is dropping her bid to be the Republican senate candidate for Wyoming, US media reported late Sunday. CNN, citing unnamed sources, said that Liz Cheney, 47, could make the announcement…

Staff at Oakwood prison near Wolverhampton have ‘resolved’ an overnight incident, the security firm that manages the facility said on Monday. A G4S spokesman said: “This incident was resolved successfully at 2.10am. “Police and internal investigations…

British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will warn that 2014 is to be the year of “hard truths” and public spending cuts when he sets out his plans for the year ahead on Monday. He will tell an audience in central England that there is “still…

Syrian rebels in the northern Damascus district of Barzeh on Sunday agreed a local ceasefire with President Bashar al-Assad’s regime after nearly a year of fighting and bombardment, activists said. “After intense negotiation in recent days between the…

Editor’s note: the author, Zhenyu Li, a contributing columnist for some of the world’s premier publications and editor-in-chief of the business channel at the People’s Daily Online, a publication of China’s Communist Party. BEIJING, China — For the…

EDINBURGH, Scotland — In the United States, where drinking alcohol in public is prohibited, police routinely turn a blind eye to people sipping from bottles wrapped in brown paper bags. A similar system has existed in the Scottish capital for almost…

Millions of people in the United States hunkered down Sunday in anticipation of brutal weather from a dangerous Arctic blast that forecasters warn could send temperatures plummeting to their coldest in 20 years. The northeast of the country and parts…

Four skiers were killed and another was in a critical condition after a series of avalanches hit the Alps in southern Switzerland Sunday, Swiss media reported. Three of the victims, including a guide, died when a wall of snow bore down on a group of…

Syria’s main opposition National Coalition re-elected Ahmad Jarba as its leader during a general assembly meeting in Istanbul on Sunday, the coalition said in a statement. Jarba won 65 votes, beating his only rival Riad Hijab — the best-known defector…

A private jet plane crashed on Sunday at Aspen-Pitkin County Airport, which serves the famous Colorado skiing resort, local and federal officials told AFP. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said an accident had taken place at…