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Dissident Vietnamese Poet Nguyen Chi Thien Dies at 73

Posted October 4th, 2012 at 10:30 pm (UTC-5)
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Dissident Vietnamese poet Nguyen Chi Thien, who memorized his poems while languishing in prison where he was not allowed to write, has died at age 73. A friend of Thien announced his death this week in Los Angeles, where he had lived since 1995. Thein was first jailed in 1960 after telling a group of […]

Tags: , , Posted in East Asia Pacific

Mars Rover Ready to Take First Sample

Posted October 4th, 2012 at 8:15 pm (UTC-5)
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The U.S. space agency says the Mars rover Curiosity is ready to scoop up its first sample of soil from the red planet Saturday. NASA officials made the announcement Thursday. It said the rover’s robotic arm will take several samples of Martian soil in the coming days and process them to help determine if there […]

Tags: , Posted in Science

UN Security Council Condemns Deadly Syrian Attack on Turkey

Posted October 4th, 2012 at 8:00 pm (UTC-5)
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The U.N. Security Council has condemned a deadly Syrian artillery strike on a Turkish border town “in the strongest terms,” while the Turkish military bombarded Syria for a second day in retaliation for the attack. Syrian troops had shelled a residential area of the Turkish town of Akcakale on Wednesday, killing two women and three […]

Tags: , , Posted in Middle East

US Health Experts: Thousands May Be Infected with Rare Meningitis

Posted October 4th, 2012 at 7:15 pm (UTC-5)
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U.S. health authorities say a contaminated steroid suspected of causing five fatal cases of rare fungal meningitis may have been given to thousands of patients. The company that manufactured the suspect medicine, the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts, has been shut down. It has recalled the steroid. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and […]

Tags: , , , Posted in US

US Investigators Make First Visit to Benghazi Consulate Attack Site

Posted October 4th, 2012 at 5:05 pm (UTC-5)
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Pentagon officials say U.S. investigators have visited Benghazi in eastern Libya for the first time since an attack on the city’s American consulate killed the U.S. ambassador to the country last month. Defense Department spokesman George Little said a Federal Bureau of Investigation team spent several hours in Benghazi on Thursday, accompanied by U.S. troops […]

Tags: , Posted in Middle East

US Health Experts: Rare Meningitis Outbreak May Spread

Posted October 4th, 2012 at 5:00 pm (UTC-5)
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U.S. health authorities say a contaminated steroid suspected of causing five fatal cases of rare fungal meningitis may have been given to patients in 23 states. The company that manufactured the suspect medicine, The New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts, has been shut down. It has recalled the steroid. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control […]

Tags: , Posted in US

Syria’s Aleppo: Wracked by Suffering, Enveloped in Fear

Posted October 4th, 2012 at 4:15 pm (UTC-5)
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VOA’s Scott Bobb traveled to the war-torn northern Syrian city of Aleppo Thursday and left with vivid impressions of a complex community wracked by suffering and fear. As Bobb and his rebel guides approached the city from the north, near-constant government mortar and artillery shelling could be heard. A single MiG jet made at least […]

Tags: , , Posted in Middle East

Kremlin Denies Involvement in High-Technology Spy Ring in US

Posted October 4th, 2012 at 3:50 pm (UTC-5)
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The Kremlin says it had nothing to do with an alleged spy ring in the United States involving smuggled high-technology military equipment to Russia. U.S. authorities have arrested 11 people, including suspects from Russia and other former Soviet states. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov said Thursday the charges are of a criminal nature and […]

Tags: , , Posted in Europe

Landslide Kills 16 Students in Southwest China

Posted October 4th, 2012 at 2:50 pm (UTC-5)
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Chinese officials are now blaming a landslide that slammed into a school building for the deaths of 16 students, with three people still missing. Chinese state media say the landslide struck early Thursday in southwestern Yunnan province — a region still recovering from a devastating earthquake. The official Xinhua news agency says the landslide destroyed […]

Tags: , , , Posted in East Asia Pacific

Sri Lanka’s Buddhist Monks Protest Bangladesh Violence

Posted October 4th, 2012 at 2:40 pm (UTC-5)
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Hundreds of Buddhist monks demonstrated in Sri Lanka Thursday to protest a recent wave of violence targeting their religious community in Bangladesh. Reverend Galagodawatte Ghanasara told the crowd in Colombo that Buddhists are hiding in jungles in fear of their lives after rampaging Muslims reportedly torched more than 20 temples and over 100 businesses in […]

Tags: , , , , Posted in South Asia