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Thu, Feb 23, 2012

World News

Somaliland says new laws show intent to fight piracy

Posted on 23 February 2012 - 05:36am

HARGEISA (Feb 22, 2012): Somaliland's parliament has passed legislation recognising piracy as a crime and allowing for pirates convicted abroad to be transferred to the breakaway enclave, officials said on Wednesday.

Somaliland, which declared its independence from Somalia in 1991 but is still not recognised internationally, said the laws were a sign of the territory's commitment

Six killed, many wounded in Afghan protests: Officials

Posted on 23 February 2012 - 12:40am
Last updated on 23 February 2012 - 12:45am

KABUL (Feb 23, 2012): Six people were shot dead and dozens wounded in protests in Afghanistan which flared for a second day on Wednesday in several cities over the burning of copies of the Quran at Nato's main base in the country, officials said.

The American embassy said its staff were in "lockdown" and travel had been suspended as thousands of people expressed fury over the bur

Argentine train crash kills at least 40, hurts 550

Posted on 23 February 2012 - 12:39am

BUENOS AIRES (Feb 23, 2012): A commuter train crashed in Buenos Aires on Wednesday and media reported that at least 40 had been killed, while officials said some 550 others had been injured.

Television station C5N quoted the head of the civil defence unit for the death toll.

The train was unable to stop and slammed into barriers inside a busy, centrally located station during th

Germany urged to halt castration of sex offenders

Posted on 22 February 2012 - 10:59pm
Last updated on 22 February 2012 - 11:25pm

STRASBOURG (Feb 22, 2012): Germany should stop the "degrading" practice of surgically castrating sex offenders, the anti-torture panel at Europe's top human rights watchdog said on Wednesday.

Under German law, serious sex offenders can volunteer for the operation as part of their treatment.

The Strasbourg Council of Europe's anti-torture committee said the procedure was rare in

Myanmar's parliament chief rebukes 'sluggish' govt

Posted on 22 February 2012 - 11:05pm

YANGON (Feb 22, 2012): A senior figure in Myanmar's parliament on Wednesday described recent reforms in the country as "sluggish and unsatisfactory" and urged the civilian government to act faster to push through legislation for the benefit of the public.

Thura Shwe Mann, the lower house speaker and former third-in-command of the junta that ceded power last March, criticised Pres

Assad seeks to bomb Homs into submission, alarms world

Posted on 22 February 2012 - 10:17am
Last updated on 22 February 2012 - 10:49pm

AMMAN (Feb 22, 2012): Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces, trying to hammer the city of Homs into submission, on Wednesday killed 19 more people including two Western journalists in an onslaught that has caused an international outcry for intervention to end the bloodshed.

Hundreds of people have been killed in daily bombardments of Homs by Assad's besieging forces using ar

Obama to propose corporate tax rate of 28%

Posted on 22 February 2012 - 10:16pm

WASHINGTON (Feb 22, 2012): The Obama administration on Wednesday will propose cutting the top tax rate for corporations to 28%, and pay for it by eliminating dozens of tax loopholes companies now use to lower their rates, a senior administration official said.

Chances of a deeply divided Congress revamping a tax system regarded as convoluted across the political spectrum seems re

Strauss-Kahn questioned after night in French cell

Posted on 22 February 2012 - 10:01pm
Last updated on 22 February 2012 - 10:15pm

LILLE, France (Feb 22, 2012): Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn spent the night in a seven-square-metre cell before French police questioned him for a second day on Wednesday over what he knew about prostitutes that friends brought to him.

Strauss-Kahn, whose IMF job and prospects of becoming next French president ended in May after his arrest in New York on now dropped sex

Two wounded as riot, fire hits jail on Indonesia's Bali

Posted on 22 February 2012 - 09:36pm

DENPASAR, Indonesia (Feb 22, 2012): Indonesian police stormed a prison on the resort island of Bali on Wednesday to regain control after inmates burned offices and seized weapons in a riot during which two prisoners were shot and wounded, officials said.

Indonesian police said none of about 60 foreign prisoners at Kerobokan jail were among the casualties.

Whitney Houston told to 'slow down' in club

Posted on 22 February 2012 - 12:42pm
Last updated on 22 February 2012 - 05:22pm

Whitney Houston's daughter warned her to "slow down" the night before she died.

Bobbi Kristina - the 'My Love is Your Love' singer's only daughter from her marriage to Bobby Brown - tried to convince her mother to not party so hard on Friday February 10 at the Tru Hollywood nightclub, less than 24 hours before Whitney was found dead in her bathtub at the Beverley Hilton hotel.

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