Friday, June 1, 2012

Can love affair with UK royals outlast Elizabeth II?

Can love affair with UK royals outlast Elizabeth II?

Can love affair with UK royals outlast Elizabeth II?

Posted: 01 Jun 2012 12:31 AM PDT

Handout of Britain's Queen Elizabeth walking with Prince Charles through the Principal Corridor on Coronation Day at Buckingham Palace in LondonLONDON (Reuters) - When Britons sing "God Save the Queen" over four days of celebrations to mark Elizabeth II's 60 years on the throne, monarchists may have cause to roar the line "long to reign over us" more heartily than ever. Polls show the much-loved 86-year-old sovereign remains enormously popular and cherished by Britons, but questions linger about the future of the monarchy when she is gone and her already 63-year-old son Charles becomes king. ...

New Greek poll gives anti-bailout leftists 6-point lead

Posted: 31 May 2012 09:45 PM PDT

Head of Greece's radical left SYRIZA party Tsipras addresses news conference in BerlinATHENS (Reuters) - A new Greek opinion poll published on Friday showed the anti-bailout leftist SYRIZA party with a six-point lead over their conservative pro-bailout rivals, ahead of a key election on June 17 that may decide whether the country will stay in the euro zone or not. If elections took place today, SYRIZA would get 31.5 percent of the vote versus 26.5 percent for the conservative New Democracy, according to the Public Issue/Kathimerini poll. The finding contradicts most other pollsters, who show New Democracy with a slight lead. ...

Insight: From a ferry, a Chinese fast-attack boat

Posted: 31 May 2012 11:57 PM PDT

(Reuters) - It looked like a textbook win-win deal when Australian high-speed ferry designer AMD Marine Consulting formed a joint venture in 1993 with the engineering arm of a state-owned Chinese shipbuilder. The joint venture partner, Guangzhou Marine Engineering Corporation, a subsidiary of the giant China State Shipbuilding Corporation, gained access to state-of-the-art technology in wave-piercing, aluminum-hull designs. For AMD, a Sydney-based private company, the payoff was a foothold in China's maritime market during a period of rapid growth. ...

Brussels police attacked after arresting veiled woman: media

Posted: 01 Jun 2012 12:36 AM PDT

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Protesters hurled bins and metal barriers at a Brussels police station on Thursday night after a Muslim woman was arrested for refusing to remove a face veil, Belgian media reported. "They tried to enter by force, but they were not able to," a spokesman for Brussels police told broadcaster RTL. "So instead they threw metal barriers and bins." Six protesters were arrested, according to state broadcaster VRT. The woman was released and expected to be questioned later. Belgium and France both banned people from wearing full face veils in public last year. ...

Israeli soldier, Gaza gunman killed in border clash

Posted: 31 May 2012 11:37 PM PDT

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli soldier and a gunman from the Gaza Strip were killed in a rare border clash on Friday, the army said in a statement. It said the gunman, who was not immediately identified, crossed the fortified boundary into Israel from the Palestinian enclave and opened fire on troops, who shot back. Palestinian witnesses heard an explosion and shooting near Abassan, a border village in southern Gaza that is also close to the Egyptian frontier. They said Israeli forces set off smoke bombs to obscure the view as helicopters circled. ...

Buildings at Iran site "razed": think-tank

Posted: 31 May 2012 11:34 PM PDT

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano enters his car after his trip to Tehran at the international airport in ViennaVIENNA (Reuters) - A U.S. think-tank has published satellite images which it says underscore suspicions that Iran is trying to destroy evidence of possible nuclear weapons-related research at a site that U.N. inspectors have not been allowed to visit. The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) posted the pictures on its website hours after the U.N. nuclear watchdog showed diplomats similar images that western envoys said indicated a clean-up at the Parchin military facility. ...

Syria on brink of sectarian civil war, West says

Posted: 31 May 2012 02:04 PM PDT

People gather at a mass burial for the victims purportedly killed during an artillery barrage from Syrian forces in HoulaBEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria is nearing full-blown sectarian civil war that would be catastrophic for the entire Middle East, Western nations said on Thursday, urging Russia to end its support for President Bashar al-Assad and put pressure on him to stop the bloodshed. With anti-Assad rebels urging international envoy Kofi Annan to declare his peace plan dead, freeing them from any commitment to the tattered truce, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the prospect of spiraling violence presented "terrible" danger. "A civil war in a country that would be driven by sectarian divides ... ...

Thai "yellow shirts" bring parliament to a halt

Posted: 01 Jun 2012 12:44 AM PDT

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Anti-government protesters brought Thailand's parliament to a halt on Friday, surrounding the complex and forcing the speaker to postpone debate on a reconciliation bill that critics say is aimed at allowing a deposed prime minister to return home. The People's Alliance for Democracy, known as the yellow shirts, oppose the bill because they say the government will use a blanket amnesty to bring back self-exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra without him having to serve jail time for a graft conviction. ...

Suu Kyi asks investors for help on Myanmar jobs "time bomb"

Posted: 31 May 2012 11:51 PM PDT

Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi smiles during the World Economic Forum on East Asia in BangkokBANGKOK (Reuters) - Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi urged foreign firms on Friday to invest cautiously in fast-changing Myanmar and give priority to creating jobs as much as making profits to help defuse the "time bomb" that is the country's high unemployment rate. Speaking during her first trip outside her country in 24 years, the leader of the fight against dictatorship in Myanmar warned against "reckless optimism" about its rapid reforms, which could be easily undone if not supported by the military. ...

Brazil's ex-president Lula says he may run again

Posted: 31 May 2012 08:35 PM PDT

Brazil's former President Lula da Silva speaks during the Ministerial Forum for Development in BrasiliaRIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil's ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday he may run for president again in 2014 if he is needed to prevent the victory of the party that governed before his two-term 2003-2011 presidency. "The only situation under which I'd be a candidate again is if she (current President Dilma Rousseff) doesn't want the job," Lula said on the O Ratinho, or "the Rat" TV show on the country's SBT network. "I will not permit a member of the PSDB to become president of Brasil again. ...

Diamond Jubilee: Britain marks Queen's reign

Posted: 01 Jun 2012 12:37 AM PDT

FILE This Tuesday, May 25, 2010 file photo shows Britain's Queen Elizabeth II returning to Buckingham Palace in a carriage after attending the Houses of Parliament in London for the official State Opening of Parliament. The patriotic bunting is ready, the golden carriage on standby, the boats freshly painted, the shops filled with royals souvenirs. The normal ebb and flow of British life gives way in the next four days to a series of street parties, flotillas, outdoor concerts and finally the appearance of an elderly great-grandmother on her balcony to wave to her subjects.The pageantry is very grand and very British. But at the heart of the Diamond Jubilee celebration is a nearly universal sense of appreciation for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, who is marking 60 years on the throne. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)The patriotic bunting is ready, the golden carriage on standby, the boats freshly painted, the shops filled with royals souvenirs.

Lebanese action film takes on Israel-Hezbollah war

Posted: 01 Jun 2012 12:17 AM PDT

In this picture taken August 17, 2010, a Lebanese actor playing an Israeli soldier jumps from a tank during filming of a scene for 33 Days in Burj Rahal village, southern Lebanon. The film, 33 Days, tells the story of the 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in one front-line village and glorifies "the resistance." (AP Photo/Hassan Bahsoun)The villain in Lebanon's new hit war movie: a cigar-smoking Israeli army colonel who sports a cowboy hat and a handlebar mustache and repeatedly orders troops to shell Lebanese villages. The heroes: residents of one such village who band together to fight Israeli troops.

Palestinian, Israeli killed in shootout near Gaza

Posted: 01 Jun 2012 12:05 AM PDT

An Israeli soldier and a Palestinian militant died in a shootout between the militant and Israeli troops near the border with the Gaza Strip early Friday, the military said.

Suu Kyi calls for 'healthy skepticism' on Myanmar

Posted: 31 May 2012 11:37 PM PDT

Myanmar's opposition leader and former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi urged the international community Friday to exercise "healthy skepticism" toward her country's reforms as it sheds a half-century of military rule.

German exports rise 5.8 percent in Q1

Posted: 01 Jun 2012 12:49 AM PDT

New figures show German exports up 5.8 percent in 2012's first quarter over the same period last year, but slowing within the key European Union market and dropping sharply in those European nations worst hit by the financial crisis.

Syrian rebel group says it kidnapped 11 Lebanese

Posted: 31 May 2012 11:34 PM PDT

In this citizen journalism image taken on Tuesday, May 29, 2012 and provided by Edlib News Network ENN, Syrians gather around a U.N. observers vehicle during a demonstration in Kfarnebel, Idlib province, northern Syria. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Syria on Thursday to stop its attacks, saying the U.N. observers monitoring the cease-fire were not there to watch the killing of innocent people. (AP Photo/Edlib News Network ENN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS HANDOUT PHOTOA previously unknown Syrian rebel group says it's holding 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims kidnapped in Syria.

Putin visits Berlin, Paris amid divide over Syria

Posted: 01 Jun 2012 12:26 AM PDT

Vladimir Putin can expect to face pressure from the leaders of Germany and France for a change of heart on Syria when he visits Berlin and Paris on Friday — but there's little sign that the Russian president is prepared to tighten the diplomatic screws on Bashar Assad.

AP 'napalm girl' photo from Vietnam War turns 40

Posted: 31 May 2012 08:06 PM PDT

FILE - In this June 8, 1972 file photo, crying children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, run down Route 1 near Trang Bang, Vietnam after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places as South Vietnamese forces from the 25th Division walk behind them. A South Vietnamese plane accidentally dropped its flaming napalm on South Vietnamese troops and civilians. From left, the children are Phan Thanh Tam, younger brother of Kim Phuc, who lost an eye, Phan Thanh Phouc, youngest brother of Kim Phuc, Kim Phuc, and Kim's cousins Ho Van Bon, and Ho Thi Ting. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)In the picture, the girl will always be 9 years old and wailing "Too hot! Too hot!" as she runs down the road away from her burning Vietnamese village.

Spain urged to come clean on bank bailout plan

Posted: 31 May 2012 04:10 PM PDT

The Bankia bank headquarters in seen in Madrid, Thursday May 31, 2012. The European Union urged Spain Thursday to come clean on how it plans to finance the overhaul of its banking sector, warning that uncertainty over this has contributed the recent market turmoil and soaring borrowing costs. The government nationalized Bankia earlier this month, and the euro 19 billion ($23.63 billion) in public money that will now be injected into it is more than twice what the government originally estimated would be needed. (AP Photo/Paul White)The European Union urged Spain on Thursday to come clean on how it plans to finance the overhaul of its banking sector, warning that uncertainty over this has contributed the recent market turmoil and the country's soaring borrowing costs.

Euro structure is 'unsustainable,' ECB chief warns

Posted: 31 May 2012 03:55 PM PDT

President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi reports to the Economic Committee, in capacity as the head of the European Systemic Risk Board, at the European Parliament in Brussels, Thursday, May 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)The head of the European Central Bank warned Thursday that the euro currency union is "unsustainable" without stronger political and financial ties, and called for a new course to save it from a crippling debt crisis.
Posted by Harshad at 1:28 AM

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