China protests Mongolia visit by Dalai Lama

China said today that it had lodged a complaint with the Mongolian government about a visit to the vast and remote country by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who Beijing considers a dangerous separatist.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China had made “stern representations” to the government in Ulan Bator about the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

“We have always opposed any country providing a platform for the Dalai Lama to engage in activities to split China in any form,” he told a daily news briefing.

Woman accuses US presidential candidate Cain of groping

Radio talk show host and former chief executive officer of Godfather's Pizza Herman Cain, speaks during the Reagan Centennial GOP presidential primary debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California September 7, 2011.


A woman accused US Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain yesterday of reaching under her skirt in 1997, adding to sexual harassment allegations that are threatening to derail his campaign.

Cain, a former pizza company executive, has led many opinion polls in the race to be the Republican nominee to face President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in next year’s election.

Sharon Bialek said Cain made the unwanted advance after dinner in Washington when she asked for help finding a job after she was laid off by the National Restaurant Association, which he then headed.

Bialek, who identified herself as a registered Republican and single mother from Chicago, put a public face on a growing problem for Cain’s campaign. The 65-year-old candidate quickly denied her account, saying all allegations of sexual harassment against him were “completely false.”

Bialek, looking composed and confident before a phalanx of television cameras, said she had not filed a complaint against Cain but was now coming forward to “give a face and a voice to those women” who did not wish to go public.

Obama shows longer birth certificate born by Kenya Father in Hawaii.

 The birth certificate that the White House released.

President Obama: “We do not have time for this silliness.”

President Barack Obama yesterday released a longer version of his birth certificate to answer some Republicans who claim he was not US born, and blasted “carnival barkers” who refuse to let the issue die.

Obama took the unusual step of making a statement in the White House press briefing room to comment on the controversy, which has been raised most recently by real estate tycoon Donald Trump as he tests the waters for a possible 2012 run for the Republican presidential nomination.

“We do not have time for this silliness,” Obama said in an easy-going appearance that turned serious when he addressed what he called a distraction from the real issues.

US television networks broke into their regular programming for Obama’s statement, giving him valuable air time just as the 2012 campaign is beginning to stir.

Berlusconi refuses to resign, dismisses protest

Protesters gather in Rome’s Piazza del Popolo to demonstrate against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on February 13, 2011


Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said today he had no intention of stepping down and dismissed a weekend demonstration by thousands of women across Italy over his involvement in a sex scandal.

Hundreds of thousands of women took part in rallies yesterday to defend their dignity and protest over the underage prostitution scandal that has rocked the 74 year-old prime minister’s centre-right government.

The billionaire media entrepreneur told his Canale 5 network the protests were the work of his political opponents and denied that he disrespects women.

“I saw the usual factional forces mobilised against me by a certain section of the left which uses any pretext to beat an adversary whom they can’t manage to beat at the polls,” he told a morning programme.

“All women who have had the opportunity to get to know me, know how much I respect them. I have always behaved and I always behave with great care and great respect, both in my companies and in my government.”

“I have always tried to act in such a way that every woman feels special,” he said.

Sunday’s protests included several leading figures from the opposition centre-left and many conservative middle-aged women, a group which has traditionally supported him.

Berlusconi said the government would not resign over the affair, potentially opening the way for new elections.

Egypt unrest rages; web shut ahead of big protest

An anti-government protester throws objects at a riot police car in Suez, yesterday January 27, 2011

Egyptian demonstrators fought security forces into the early hours of today in the city of Suez, and the Internet was blocked ahead of the biggest protests yet planned against President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.

Emboldened by this month’s revolt that toppled the authoritarian leader of Tunisia, Egyptians have staged mass protests since Tuesday. The biggest demonstrations yet are planned for this afternoon after weekly prayers.

“This is a revolution,” one 16-year-old protester said in Suez late yesterday. “Every day we’re coming back here.”

Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, who returned to Egypt from Vienna yesterday, has called for Mubarak to resign and said he would join the protests today.

Internet access was shut down across the country shortly after midnight. Mobile phone text messaging services also appeared to be partially disabled, working only sporadically.

Activists have relied on the Internet, especially social media services such as Twitter and Facebook, to organise.

Egypt wakes to devastation, Mubarak refuses to quit

Mubarak addresses the nation on Egyptian state TV in Cairo yesterday, January 28, 2011 where he called for dialogue and said he would name a new government today.

New clashes erupt as Egyptians spurn Mubarak speech

A man walks by the burning building of the ruling National Democratic party in Cairo today, January 29, 2011.

Thousands of anti-government protesters clashed with police in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria today after President Hosni Mubarak spurned demands that he end his 30-year authoritarian rule.

A Reuters witness said police used teargas and live ammunition against demonstrators in Alexandria. Protesters also gathered on a main square in the capital Cairo in defiance of military orders for them to disperse.

The fresh unrest broke out as Mubarak clung to power, replacing his Cabinet in an effort to appease angry Egyptians, complaining about poverty, corruption and unemployment.

The president ordered troops and tanks into Cairo and other cities overnight and imposed a curfew in an attempt to quell the protests that have shaken the Arab world’s most populous nation, a key US ally, to the core.

Brazil Swears In Its First Female President

Jimmy Carter believes U.S. is ready for a gay president 'in the near future'

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter believes America is ready for a gay president 'in the near future'

Former President Jimmy Carter believes the U.S. is ready to elect a gay president 'in the near future.'

'I think the entire population has come tremendous strides forward in dealing with the issue of gays,' Carter said in an interview with the website Big Think.

'I don't know about the next election, but I think in the near future, because step by step we have realized that this issue of homosexuality has the same adverse and progressive elements as when we dealt with the race issue.'

Japan PM wants China to ensure citizens’ safety

Japan’s prime minister on Monday urged China to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens and firms and called for calm after Chinese protesters took to the streets over a territorial feud straining ties between Asia’s top economies.

Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated sharply last month after Japan detained a Chinese trawler captain whose boat collided with Japanese patrol ships near the disputed islands -- called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s comments to parliament were followed by remarks from Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara that China’s actions in the dispute were “extremely hysterical,” underlining the difficulty of putting a quick end to the spat.

Britain is losing its battle against Islamic extremists says French MP who banned the burqa

Britain is 'losing the battle against Islamic extremism' by failing to outlaw burqas, the architect of the French ban said today.

Jacques Myard, a senior member of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party, said relaxed UK policies had ‘opened the door to terrorism’.

He added: ‘Allowing women to exclude themselves from society by wearing the full Islamic veil makes radicals extremely comfortable, and Britain should realise this.’

Man behind the burqa ban: Jacques Myard, a member of Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party, said relaxed UK policies have 'opened the door to terrorism'

India is back into the UN Security Council after 19 years

India's return to the United Nations Security Council is both a laudatory and a cautionary tale of diplomacy. The former because it has always been an embarrassment that a country that publicly aspires for a permanent seat to the council has not been ...

North Korea confirms for the first time that Kim Jong Un will succeed his father as leader

A North Korean official has confirmed today for the first time that Kim Jong Il's youngest son will succeed him as the communist nation's next leader.

Yang Hyong Sop, a top official in North Korea's ruling party, referred to Kim Jong Un as 'the young general' during an interview with APTN.

He said the nation's people would be honoured to serve him as their leader.

Kim Jong Un would be the third successive generation of his family to lead North Korea, which has a population of 24 million.

His grandfather Kim Il Sung founded the nation in 1948 on a policy of self-reliance called 'juche'.

.

Family tradition: Grandfather Kim Il Sung founded North Korea in 1948 and was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il in 1994. Right, Kim Jong Un will be the next leader

On ceremony: Kim Jong Un standing with other North Korean Army figures. He was promoted to a four-star general last month

Jailed Chinese dissident Liu wins Nobel Peace Prize

Jailed Chinese pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize today for decades of non-violent struggle for human rights, an award that Beijing had anticipated and bitterly criticised.

The prize puts China’s human rights record in the spotlight at a time when it is starting to play a bigger role on the global stage as a result of its growing economic might.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Liu for his “long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”.

Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo smokes a cigarette in this undated photo released by his family

Nobel euphoria fails to mask tough reality in China

The euphoria overseas and in some domestic circles at dissident Liu Xiaobo’s winning of the Nobel Peace Prize has failed to mask deeper unease that his victory will likely bring little change in Communist Party-ruled China.

Liu, 54, has been a thorn in the government’s side since 1989 when he joined student protesters on a hunger strike days before the army crushed the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement and has been in and out of jail ever since.

Protesters demonstrate outside the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong October 8, 2010 demanding the release of jailed Chinese pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo. Liu won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010

I could be Republican candidate to take on Obama in race for the White House, says Trump

When billionaire mogul Donald Trump looks in the mirror, he is starting to see the possibility of a U.S. president staring back at him.

Trump did a round of TV interviews to talk about the possibility of making a presidential run in 2012.

He declared himself a Republican and told the Fox News Channel: 'For the first time in my life, I'm actually thinking about it (running for president).'

Asked by MSNBC when will he make his decision, Trump gave little away, but added: 'Well, I'll make it over a period of time.'

The 64-year-old, three-times married property tycoon is a larger-than-life figure in the U.S. whose company operates a string of resorts and casinos.

Ambition: Tycoon Donald Trump may run for the Presidency in 2012

The late Mrs Lee: A meticulous and caring person

Kwa Geok Choo, the wife of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, will always be remembered for her stoic presence next to her husband.

Besides providing firm support to her family — as a wife, mother and grandmother — she was also a meticulous person who paid close attention to little things. And these included Lee’s shirts, which Kwa ensured were specially tailored.

Since the ‘60s, Kwa used to visit CYC Tailors to get custom-made shirts for her husband.

And the loving wife’s requests were simple — classic cuts in pastel colours — preferably pink, which was her husband’s favourite.

CYC Tailors managing director Fong Loo Fern described Kwa as a gentle and kind person, who never failed to enquire about her family’s welfare.

She said Kwa was also a kind and thoughtful person.

Fong said: “In 2001, when I did a promotion saying that I wanted to build up a collection of old shirts that we had made since the business started in 1935, Madam Kwa brought in three of Lee’s old shirts that were made in 1965.”

And there was one historically important shirt among them.

“That was the shirt he had worn on TV when Singapore went independent, Madam Kwa told me,” said Fong.

Thousands of protesters take to the streets as French unions battle pension reforms

French ports in Marseilles remained closed today as more than three million people were expected to join striking workers in protests against plans to raise the country's retirement age.

President Sarkozy caused outrage in the France last month after plans to cut the deficit by raising retirement age from 60 to 62 were announced.

Strikes across France on September 23 sparked widespread chaos as work stoppages disrupted schools, international flights and public transport.

The banner depicting L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt reads 'Retirement with 60, because you're worth it'. French unions have called for a day of strikes and protests against the retirement reform

Ecuador revolt: Attempted coup or uprising?

It was the biggest test of Rafael Correa's nearly 4-year-old presidency, a bloody trial by fire for a tenacious politician whose popular government had brought relative calm to a chronically unstable country.

The Ecuadorean leader called the police revolt, which caused four deaths, injured nearly 200 people and briefly paralyzed this Andean nation, a coup attempt. Not an outlandish claim for a country that had eight presidents in 10 years before Correa won office.

Correa's kindred leftist presidents, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia, even accused the United States of pulling the strings behind the insurrection at an emergency meeting of South American leaders on Friday in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Soldiers guard the surroundings of the government palace in Quito, Ecuador, Friday, Oct. 1, 2010. Ecuador is under a state of siege, with the military in charge of public order, after soldiers rescued Ecuador's President Rafael Correa from a hospital where he'd been surrounded by police who roughed him up and tear-gassed him earlier.

 
Former head of Ecuador's police Freddy Martinez speaks during a press conference in Quito, Ecuador, Friday, Oct. 1, 2010. Martinez resigned after a police rebellion on Thursday

Obama hits the road in hopes of firing up voters

President Barack Obama travels across the United States this week to try to regenerate enthusiasm among voters – particularly young ones – whose support Democrats desperately need if they hope to hold onto their majorities in the US Congress on November 2.

Starting today in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and later in Des Moines, Iowa, and Richmond, Virginia, Obama will hold more of the small backyard events staged recently to convince Americans that he and his party are deeply concerned about the economic plight of the middle-class.