Blair memoir a hit, despite a few hard knocks

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• Blair memoir a hit, despite a few hard knocks
• Oracle plans to give Hurd $950,000 annual salary
• How illegal betting happens in Pakistan
• How US student became Mexico drug lord 'The Barbie'
• NATO drive on Kandahar begins, with mixed results
• Most Americans against mosque at Ground Zero: Poll
• Phillipines bus hijack re-enacted
• Report by BP finds several companies at fault in spill
• Dubai airport welcomes 50 millionth passenger
• World Trade Centre steel installed at 9/11 memorial
• Second thoughts on online education
• Koran burning still planned on September 11
• Iraqi treasures return from US, but questions remain
• Koran-burning threats prompt multi-faith 'emergency summit'
• Opinion piece by Imam behind Ground Zero mosque
• Iran says stoning sentence suspended
• Obama against a compromise on Bush tax cuts
• Report by BP finds several companies at fault in spill
• Asteroids to fly by Earth on Wednesday: NASA
• Britain's youngest female double murderer jailed for life
• Cop saves 37 lives as bus driver faints in China
• Mexican President has 100,000 followers on Twitter
• UN says about 500 were victims of Congo rapes
• Austrian kidnap victim tells details of ordeal
• Plane crashes in woods in Siberia, no injuries reported
• Bomb threat scrawled in plane toilet, flight cleared
• Trapped Chilean miners watch football match underground
• China calls for less friction with US

Blair memoir a hit, despite a few hard knocks Posted: "You are my 10th prime minister," Queen Elizabeth observes to Tony Blair when she meets him at Buckingham Palace on his first day in office in 1997, according to "A Journey: My Political Life," Mr. Blair's new memoir. "The first was Winston. That was before you were born." Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, leaving a studio in London on Monday after a television interview. His autobiography has sold 92,000 copies in hardcover in less than a week.

Oracle plans to give Hurd $950,000 annual salary Posted: Oracle Corp. plans to pay newly appointed co-President Mark Hurd a base salary of $950,000 annually and said the ousted Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO is eligible for a target bonus of $5 million in the current fiscal year. Oracle released the details of Hurd's pay package in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

How illegal betting happens in Pakistan Posted: In a tiny room overlooking a shanty town, four men work a dozen or so phones, struggling to keep up with calls from Pakistanis placing illegal bets on a cricket match in England. The men are small-time gangsters, but sit on the lower rungs of something much larger: an underworld betting industry that spans the cricket world and has been implicated in a match-fixing scandal engulfing Pakistan's national team.

How US student became Mexico drug lord 'The Barbie' Posted: The other children in his middle-class suburb teased him by calling him Barbie because of his looks, which reminded them of a Ken doll. The name stuck, and three decades later it would become associated with sadistic gangland slayings.

NATO drive on Kandahar begins, with mixed results Posted: The white flags of the Taliban no longer fly from neighbourhoods in Kandahar City, as they did in some areas only two weeks ago, replaced instead by the red, black and green Afghan colors. But if the Taliban have been driven further underground, there has been no significant let-up in their campaign of terror and assassination against anyone connected with the government or foreign forces.

Most Americans against mosque at Ground Zero: Poll Posted: Most Americans have opposed construction of the planned mosque near Ground Zero in New York, says a new national opinion poll. According to the Washington Post-ABC News poll, most Americans say the planned Muslim community centre and place of worship should not be built in Lower Manhattan, near the site of the Twin Towers which were blown up by al Qaeda terrorists on September 11, 2001.

Phillipines bus hijack re-enacted Posted: The hijacking of a tourist bus in the Philippines last month has been re-enacted for investigators. Eight Hong Kong tourists died when a former policeman seized the bus and started shooting his captives.

Report by BP finds several companies at fault in spill Posted: The oil giant BP spent months this summer trying to contain the gusher of oil on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Now BP is trying to contain the legal and financial fallout from the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon.

Dubai airport welcomes 50 millionth passenger Posted: Parvez Khan, an assistant manager with a hotel in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has been honoured with a rare distinction. He has become the 50 millionth passenger to pass through the world's largest airport terminal in Dubai.

World Trade Centre steel installed at 9/11 memorial Posted: Nearly nine-years after the World Trade Center towers were destroyed, a 50-ton steel column, salvaged from the wreckage, was hoisted into place. It will serve as part of the entryway to the underground 9-11 Memorial and Museum, which will open next year.

Second thoughts on online education Posted: Let the computer do the teaching. Some studies, expert opinion and cost pressures all point toward a continuing shift of education online. A major study last year, funded by the Department of Education, which culled comparative research over 12 years, concluded that online learning on average beat face-to-face teaching by a modest but statistically meaningful margin.

Koran burning still planned on September 11 Posted: The leader of a small Florida church that espouses anti-Islam philosophy said Wednesday he was determined to go through with his plan to burn copies of the Quran on September 11, despite pressure from the White House, religious leaders and others to call it off.

Iraqi treasures return from US, but questions remain Posted: Iraq announced on Tuesday the return of hundreds of looted antiquities that had ended up in the United States, even as a senior official disclosed that 632 pieces repatriated last year and turned over to the office of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki were now unaccounted for.

Koran-burning threats prompt multi-faith 'emergency summit' Posted: Prominent Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders held an extraordinary "emergency summit" meeting in the capital on Tuesday to denounce what they called "the derision, misinformation and outright bigotry" aimed at American Muslims during the controversy over the proposed Islamic community center near ground zero.

Opinion piece by Imam behind Ground Zero mosque Posted: As my flight approached America last weekend, my mind circled back to the furor that has broken out over plans to build Cordoba House, a community center in Lower Manhattan. I have been away from home for two months, speaking abroad about cooperation among people from different religions. Every day, including the past two weeks spent representing my country on a State Department tour in the Middle East, I have been struck by how the controversy has riveted the attention of Americans, as well as nearly everyone I met in my travels.

Iran says stoning sentence suspended Posted: Iranian authorities have suspended the sentence of death by stoning for a woman convicted of adultery, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday, after weeks of condemnation from around the world.

Obama against a compromise on Bush tax cuts Posted: US President Barack Obama on Wednesday will make clear that he opposes any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year, officials said, adding a populist twist to an election-season economic package that is otherwise designed to entice support from big businesses and their Republican allies.

Report by BP finds several companies at fault in spill Posted: The oil giant BP said Wednesday in its internal report that a series of failures involving a number of companies ultimately led to the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Asteroids to fly by Earth on Wednesday: NASA Posted: NASA says two small asteroids discovered just days ago will zip harmlessly past Earth on Wednesday, a double flyby that should be visible through a telescope.

Britain's youngest female double murderer jailed for life Posted: A school girl, who became Britain's youngest female double murderer after killing her father and a woman when she was just 15, was on Wednesday awarded life sentence for the crime.

Cop saves 37 lives as bus driver faints in China Posted: A Chinese policeman used his presence of mind and save 37 passengers in a bus when he took control of the vehicle after its driver suddenly lost consciousness, in China's Zhejiang province.

Mexican President has 100,000 followers on Twitter Posted: Mexican President Felipe Calderon said he has 100,000 followers on the online social networking website Twitter. "We have reached more than 100,000 followers already interested in this way of communication. Thank you and good day to all," the president said in a post Monday.

UN says about 500 were victims of Congo rapes Posted: Approximately 500 women were raped in eastern Congo in July and August, demonstrating that both rebel militias and government troops used sexual violence as a weapon, two senior United Nations officials said Tuesday.

Austrian kidnap victim tells details of ordeal Posted: An Austrian woman who was kidnapped at age 10 says she was repeatedly beaten, starved and forced to do housework half-naked during her 8 1/2 years at the mercy of a man who admired Hitler and considered himself an Egyptian god.

Plane crashes in woods in Siberia, no injuries reported Posted: A Russian passenger plane with 81 people on board was forced to make a spectacular emergency landing on Tuesday after all of its systems failed, Russian media reported. The TU-154 Alrosa airlines plane, carrying 72 passengers and nine crew members, was on its way from the Siberian city of Polyarny to Moscow when its power supply, fuel pumps, radio link and navigation equipment failed, Prime-Tass news reported on Tuesday.

Bomb threat scrawled in plane toilet, flight cleared Posted: The FBI says investigators have found no explosives aboard a Los Angeles-bound Thai Airways flight in which a bomb threat was found scrawled on a bathroom mirror. The flight from Bangkok landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport late on Tuesday, after a bomb threat written in poorly worded English was spotted on a bathroom mirror on the plane.

Trapped Chilean miners watch football match underground Posted: A fibre-optic signal brought some joy and excitement to the 33 trapped Chilean miners, who were able to watch a live broadcast of the Chilean national football team playing a friendly match against Ukraine on Tuesday.

China calls for less friction with US Posted: Top Chinese officials are calling for quiet discussions instead of open friction with the United States, after a summer marked by bilateral disagreements over the value of China's currency, American military exercises off the Korean Peninsula and American efforts to resolve territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

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