The Near Distance
The future may be nearer than we think!
| News headlines from around the world: |
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Mayawati announces compensation for victims of ashram stampede
WN.com - International English News
Special Correspondent - PHOTO: PTI/ Nand Kumar Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati addresses a press conference in Lucknow on Wednesday....
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Arab League chief says Mideast talks off
Reuters: World News
CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Wednesday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had told him he would not enter indirect talks with Israel, only days after the Palestinian side had agreed to the contacts.
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Strike to paralyze Greece as anger at austerity builds
Reuters: World News
ATHENS (Reuters) - Angry public and private sector unions are expected to bring Greece to a standstill on Thursday in a second nationwide strike in as many weeks against tough government austerity plans.
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Chilean fishermen brave tsunami fears, dream of sea
Reuters: World News
TUBUL, Chile (Reuters) - Undeterred by terrifying memories of a roaring tsunami that nearly killed him, Chilean fisherman Herne Pezo hammers away at his tiny boat, yearning to return to sea as soon as it's fixed.
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Drug abuse is problem among Afghan police recruits
Reuters: World News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Drug abuse is a big problem in Afghanistan's police force, with four of every 10 recruits testing positive for illicit substances in some areas, said a report by the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress.
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Spanish hostage freed in Mali arrives home
Reuters: World News
MADRID (Reuters) - One of three Spanish aid workers kidnapped by a group believed to be al Qaeda's wing in North Africa arrived back in Spain Wednesday after she was released in Mali.
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Biden steps up pressure on Israel
BBC News Player | World
Israel is coming under growing international pressure following its approval of new housing for Israelis in occupied East Jerusalem.
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Canada Parliament eats seal to defy "ignorant" EU
Reuters: World News
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian parliamentarians tucked into a meal of seal meat on Wednesday to defy both animal right activists and the European Union, which has banned imports of seal products.
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Swedish cartoonist receives fresh death threats
Reuters: World News
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The Swedish cartoonist whose sketch of the Prophet Mohammad has made him the target of Muslim anger said on Wednesday he had received more death threats since arrests were made this week over an alleged plot to kill him.
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Berezovsky wins poison libel case
BBC News Player | World
Businessman Boris Berezovsky has won a libel case over allegations he was behind the murder of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko
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'Jihad Jane' new face of terror in US
WN.com - International English News
WASHINGTON: The "war on terrorism" just got a little more complicated with the indictment of an average white American female dubbed "Jihad Jane" on charges of plotting with Islamic radicals, bringing even the so-called soccer moms under the radar. Colleen LaRose, 46, a Pennsylvania native, has been charged with trying to recruit Islamic fighters and plotting to assassinate a Swedish...
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'Jihad Jane' on terrorism charges
BBC News Player | World
Police in America have charged a woman with terror offences including using the internet to recruit militants for deadly attacks abroad.
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Cathay Pacific returns to profit
WN.com - International English News
Hong Kong: Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong's biggest carrier, posted a second-half profit after paring capacity and selling a stake in a maintenance venture. The HK$3.9 billion (Dh1.84 billion) profit compared with a loss of HK$7.9 billion a year earlier, based on annual results announced yesterday. Sales fell 18 per cent to HK$36 billion. Cathay made a HK$1.25 billion gain last year from the sale of shares in Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co as it boosted cash holdings and trimmed services to withstand a slowdown in global air travel. Demand is now picking up because of an economic rebound and first-quarter forward bookings are "very solid", Chief Executive Tony Tyler said last...
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Will Japan preside over Iran sanctions at UNSC?
WN.com - International English News
As Japan prepares to assume the president of the U.N. Security Council in April, debate is already under way in various arenas regarding sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. Against this background, Japan's management and coordination capabilities are set to be severely tested. Beefing up sanctions against Iran is an inevitable step if that country fails to halt its nuclear development. The Japanese government must fulfill its responsibility as UNSC president to ensure effective sanctions are levied on Tehran....
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UK opposition party calls for U.N. arms embargo on Iran
WN.com - International English News
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Conservatives, favourites to win an election due in weeks, said on Wednesday they would back a U.N. arms embargo on Iran and a ban on oil and gas investment if Tehran remains defiant over its nuclear plans. Iran's lack of cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog "warrants a firm and strongly reinforced response from the rest of the world," William Hague, the opposition party's foreign...
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German Catholic sex abuse scandals draw link to pope
WN.com - International English News
PARIS (Reuters) - In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says that if anyone leads innocent children to sin, "it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." Pope Benedict XVI strolls in a garden with his brother Bishop Georg Ratzinger during his annual holiday in Bressanone, northern Italy July 31, 2008. (REUTERS/Osservatore Romano) That passage must now be ringing in the ears of the Roman Catholic clergy in Germany and the Netherlands, where the Church's latest scandals of priests sexually abusing boys have broken out, and echoing down the marbled halls of the Vatican. The alarm bells are tolling all the more urgently in Rome,...
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Iraq PM said to be ahead on eve of vote results
Reuters: World News
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Initial results from Iraq's national election are likely to be released by Thursday, Iraqi and U.N. officials said on Wednesday, as further signs emerged of a strong showing for Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
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Religious leaders must unite to beat Nigeria's extremists
WN.com - International English News
Sir, The article by Ruth Gledhill and Jonathan Clayton ("500 butchered in Nigeria killing fields", Mar 9) portrays vividly the horror suffered by innocent civilians in the most recent outbreak of violence in what is becoming a deeply disturbing sequence of massacres. Your leading article also highlights the urgent need for the Nigerian Government to stabilise the country and to soothe "ethnic" tensions....
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Ukraine's Yanukovich eyes coalition, gov't this week
Reuters: World News
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich pushed on Wednesday for a new ruling coalition within the week to avoid snap elections and tackle a deep economic crisis.
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Nigerian villagers in fear of further attacks
BBC News Player | World
Still mourning the dead after Sunday's massacre, the residents of Jos in Nigeria remain in fear of further attacks.
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'Bali bomber' killed in Indonesia
BBC News Player | World
DNA tests on the body of a man killed in Jakarta prove beyond doubt he is Dulmatin, the last main suspect of the Bali bombings, Indonesian police say.
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Retaliation fears stalk Nigeria city after clashes
Reuters: World News
JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Sporadic shooting rang out overnight in the central Nigerian city of Jos and witnesses said at least one person was killed by soldiers enforcing a curfew days after attacks on three nearby Christian villages.
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Iran attacks US over Afghanistan
BBC News Player | World
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused the US of playing a "double game" in Afghanistan.
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Suspect's Death Leads to Questions on Indonesia's Border Security
WN.com - International English News
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The fugitive Islamic militant killed by Indonesian security forces traveled to Indonesia from the Philippines within the last few months, police officals said on Wednesday, an admission that raised concerns about the country’s ability to keep known terrorists from moving across its borders. They said the militant, Dulmatin, was a master bomb maker and a senior member of Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terror network with links to Al Qaeda. Police officials have blamed Mr. Dulmatin for setting and triggering one of the bombs used in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia confirmed Mr....
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E.U. Signals Approval for Larger Airline Alliance
WN.com - International English News
BRUSSELS — European antitrust regulators took a step Wednesday toward approving an expanded alliance between British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia after the airlines offered to give up landing and takeoff slots at airports in London and New York. The European Commission said the three airlines, all members of the Oneworld alliance, had offered to cede slots at two airports in the London area, Heathrow and Gatwick, and at John F. Kennedy airport in New York. That concession was aimed at lowering barriers to entry for other airlines to fly from London to New York, Boston, Dallas and Miami — routes where British Airways and American Airlines currently dominate. The...
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Israel apologizes for embarrassing Biden
WN.com - International English News
Ramallah (West Bank): Israel apologized Wednesday for disrupting the visit of Vice President Joe Biden with its announcement of 1,600 new homes in disputed east Jerusalem, but made clear it had no intention of reversing the order that has cast a shadow over the latest US push for Mideast peace. As Biden held talks with top Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, whose office announced the new construction on lands Palestinians claim for a future state, said the problem was about timing, not substance. "We had no intention, no desire, to offend or taunt an important man like the vice president during his visit," Yishai told Israel Radio. "I am very sorry...
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Beijing seeks a shift in geopolitics
WN.com - International English News
By Willy Lam China's ongoing tussles with the United States over issues including Taiwan, Tibet and trade are in a sense nothing new. For more than two decades, Sino-US relations have periodically gone through rough patches over these and related causes of disagreement. What is new is China's much-enhanced global clout in the wake of the world financial crisis, which is coupled with a marked decline in America's hard and soft power. More importantly, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership is gunning for a paradigm shift in geopolitics, namely, new rules of the game whereby the fast-rising quasi-superpower will be playing a more forceful role. In particular, Beijing has served notice...
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First Iraq vote results expected by Thursday - U.N.
WN.com - International English News
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Preliminary results of Iraq's parliamentary election, a vote seen as a litmus test of its young democracy, are likely to be released by Thursday, a United Nations official said on Wednesday. An employee of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) checks the numbers of boxes containing the special parliamentary ballots, at a counting centre in Basra, 420 km (261 miles) southeast of Baghdad, March 8, 2010. (REUTERS/Atef...
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Vatican forced to defend itself over abuse cases
WN.com - International English News
As accusations of historic sexual abuse by Roman Catholics emerge in another European country, the Vatican has insisted it has dealt with "the very serious issue" promptly and decisively. After recent revelations of widespread abuse in Ireland, and claims of similar mistreatment of children by priests in Austria and Germany, Catholic bishops in the Netherlands have now set up an independent inquiry to look into allegations there. More than 200 reports of abuse have been made to a victims' support...
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Head of al-Azhar dies
WN.com - International English News
Cairo - Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the head of Egypt's most prestigious seat of Islamic learning al-Azhar, died of a heart attack on Wednesday during a visit to Saudi Arabia, religious officials at al-Azhar said. He was 81....
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Hundreds held in pre-emptive Tibet crackdown
WN.com - International English News
Hundreds of Tibetans have been rounded up in Lhasa and armed paramilitaries are patrolling the streets in the run-up to the anniversary of a bloody riot in 2008. The authorities are anxious to avoid a repeat of the anti-Chinese attacks that left about 20 people dead when Tibetans rampaged through the streets of the Himalayan city setting fire to shops, offices and banks. March 10 is regarded by Tibetans as the anniversary of the start of an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 that resulted in the Dalai Lama's flight into exile in India. The armed police patrols that have become routine in the Tibetan heart of Lhasa since the anti-Beijing unrest that spilled over into...
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| Global Uncertainty 08/02/2010 |  More Global UncertaintyAs we move further into 2010 it is clear that global uncertainty is continuing to rise. Just in the last week the news out of Europe and the Middle East has escalated quite a [ ... ] |
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This website is here to provide a quick glimpse into our everchanging world that ordinary busy people may not get. We invite you to scan the headlines and use them as a tool to become aware of current world events. We hope to stir curiosity in our readers about our time and create space to unravel what all of these happenings may mean for each of us in the future.