UbuneBlog

AFP photographer Nicolas Asfouri, who took dramatic images of Thai ‘Red Shirt’ protesters confronting security forces, was among leading winners of the first Yonhap International Press Awards presented in New York on Monday. Mr Asfouri, AFP’s senior photographer in Bangkok, won the US$5,000 gold prize in the Enhancement of International Peace category of the awards […]

Fade Sarkis, a Christian who fled Iraq after receiving death threats, says he has finally found a sense of safety in Roman Catholic youth festivities in Madrid. ‘I am very, very happy here. I have never seen so many Christians in one place,’ he said as lounged on the grass of Madrid’s central Retiro park […]

Attorneys for Michael Jackson’s former physician Conrad Murray, on trial for involuntary manslaughter in the death of the pop icon, want a sequestered jury during Conrad’s trial, court papers showed on Friday. ‘There is reasonable expectation that Dr Murray’s trial will be the most publicised in history,’ wrote the doctor’s attorneys in court papers given […]

A British scientist claims Allied spies considered spiking Adolf Hitler’s food with female hormones in a bid to make him less aggressive. The plan to sneak oestrogen into the Nazi leader’s food never went beyond the planning phase. It is one of several hare-brained schemes revealed by Professor Brian Ford in his book, Secret Weapons: […]

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has urged US MPs to raise taxes on wealthier Americans to cut Washington’s huge budget deficit, saying the move would not dampen investments or jobs. In a New York Times opinion article, the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway proposed a tax increase on Americans who make at least $US1 million per […]

Japan marked the 66th anniversary of its surrender in World War II on Monday with somber remembrances across the country and a memorial in Tokyo led by the emperor. The ceremonies come as the country struggles to recover from this year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami. Emperor Akihito, whose father made the unprecedented 1945 national radio […]

In the late 1960s, the U.S. military buried dozens of barrels of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange in an area around the town of Chatan on Okinawa Island, an American veteran has told The Japan Times. The former serviceman’s claim comes only days after Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto said that he would ask the U.S. […]

A woman who was forced to leap out of her burning home after it was set alight during the London riots has described English society as “sick”. Polish national Monika Konczyk, 32, said she came to Britain five months ago seeking a better life — but nearly lost it during the disorder that devastated London. […]

Italian police have arrested 20 gladiator impersonators in an undercover sting aimed at ending a violent racket operating around Rome’s most famous tourist sites, Italian press reported on Thursday. Police disguised as gladiators, dustbin men and members of the public raided the gang made up of seven families working with five tourist agencies. The modern […]

NEPAL has banned smoking in public and threatens to punish repeat offenders with steep fines. Airports, hotels, restaurants, government offices and public transport will now be smoke-free under the new law that went into effect on Sunday. Health Ministry official Komal Prasad Acharya says government workers will issue fines of 100 rupees to people violating […]