Americans are honoring the memory of civil rights icon Martin Luther King, 44 years after he was assassinated. Martin Luther King Day, on Monday, is an annual federal holiday marking the birthday of King, who fought discrimination and racism in the 1950s and 1960s. King would have been 83 years old this year. New this […]
Exit Poll: 2 New Parties Win Seats in Kazakhstan Parliament
Posted January 15th, 2012 at 7:50 pm (UTC-5)
As many as two new political parties could enter Kazakhstan’s parliament, where every seat is currently held by the ruling party. An exit poll taken after Sunday’s parliamentary elections gives the pro-business Ak Zhol party and the Communist People’s Party at least seven percent of the vote each. Under Kazakhstan’s new election law, the second-place […]
Pakistani Govt. Faces Day of Legal Challenges
Posted January 15th, 2012 at 7:40 pm (UTC-5)
The Pakistani government is due to appear before the Supreme Court Monday in a long-running Swiss corruption case involving President Asif Ali Zardari and before a Supreme Court commission in a scandal that has become known as “Memogate.” The commission is investigating the origins of an unsigned memo last May in which Pakistan’s civilian government […]
Pharonic Singer’s Tomb Found in Egypt
Posted January 15th, 2012 at 6:05 pm (UTC-5)
Egyptian and Swiss archaeologists have unearthed a rare tomb of a female singer in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. Antiquities officials said Sunday it is the only tomb of a woman not related to the ancient Egyptian royal families ever found in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor. The tomb belongs to a female […]
Italian Cruise Ship Owner: Captain Made ‘Errors of Judgment’
Posted January 15th, 2012 at 5:50 pm (UTC-5)
The owner of the Italian cruise ship Costa Condordia, which ran aground Friday killing five, says the vessel’s captain made “errors of judgment.” The Costa Crociere ship lines said Sunday the captain’s decisions during the emergency did not follow company procedures, which it says are in line with international standards. It did not specify what […]
UN Chief to Assad: Stop the Violence
Posted January 15th, 2012 at 5:20 pm (UTC-5)
The United Nations chief on Sunday demanded that Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad stop killing his people. Speaking in Beirut at a conference on democracy in the Arab world, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said “the path of repression is a dead end,” and recent Arab revolutions show that people are no longer content with one-man rule. Mr. […]
French FM Meets Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi
Posted January 15th, 2012 at 4:30 pm (UTC-5)
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has awarded Burmese pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi one of France’s highest honors. At a ceremony in Rangoon Sunday, Juppe presented Aung San Suu Kyi with the Legion of Honor in recognition of her long struggle for democracy. Speaking alongside Aung San Suu Kyi, Juppe said France and the […]
Debris from Doomed Russian Spacecraft Lands in Pacific Ocean
Posted January 15th, 2012 at 3:55 pm (UTC-5)
Debris from a Russian space probe that was intended to travel to a moon of Mars has apparently fallen into the Pacific Ocean off the southern coast of Chile. Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, had reported that the unmanned 14-ton Phobos-Grunt would enter the Earth’s atmosphere on Sunday but that the exact time and location were […]
Pakistan Intelligence: Taliban Leader Believed Killed in US Drone Strike
Posted January 15th, 2012 at 3:30 pm (UTC-5)
Pakistani intelligence officials say the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, may have been killed in a January 12 U.S. drone strike in the North Waziristan tribal region. The unnamed officials said Sunday they have intercepted wireless radio conversations of the Taliban fighters discussing whether their chief was killed in the attack. Some of […]
Bahrain’s King Proposes Boosting Elected Lawmakers’ Powers
Posted January 15th, 2012 at 2:45 pm (UTC-5)
The king of Bahrain has proposed constitutional reforms that give more power to the Gulf state’s elected lower house of parliament, but that fall short of demands by the majority Shi’ite-led opposition. In a nationally televised address Sunday, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa proposed giving the 40-member lower house the ability to approve and […]
