Politics

The New Open World Foundation will announce the results of the New Seven Wonders of the World election on July 7, 2007 (or 07.07.07). The ballot itself will close on midnight the day before. The Foundation proposes a revision of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World, of which only the Great Pyramid of Giza still exist. Among the 21 candidates left over after the previous election round ended on January 1, 2006, the Acropolis and the Maya archeological site of Chichen Itza were doing well in earlier rankings. A spokeswoman for the Foundation

<noinclude> Torrential rainstorms with gale force winds brought floods and destruction to Karachi, the capital of Sindh Province in Pakistan. Over 40 dead were recovered on Saturday and more than 180 on Sunday. Many more are said to have been injured by downed trees and power lines. Widespread power outages are reported as well as some rioting. "We have declared an emergency at all government hospitals and cancelled the vacations and leave of doctors and paramedics," said the health minister for Sindh Province, Syed Sardar Ahmed, to AFP. "No

Irish president Mary McAleese wrapped up a two-day visit to Toronto, Canada on Thursday by cutting the ribbon at the opening of a new park. The city's Ireland Park is dedicated to the Irish immigrants who fled the great famine to start a new life in Canada 160 years ago. More than 1,200 people were present to watch McAleese disembark the Irish naval flagship L.E. Eithne to enter the park, after earlier having laid flowers at the St. James Cemetery which holds the remains of 281 immigrants. Accompanied by 45 dignitaries, security and naval off

North Korea has agreed to speed up the shut down of their nuclear facilities, following a surprise visit from U.S. diplomat Christopher Hill. The meetings, between himself and North Korean foreign minister Pak Ui Chun, were described by Hill as "very good discussion[s]" and, "very detailed, very substantive, and I believe they were also very useful." Another big success attributed to Hill is the North Korean agreement to shut down every single one of their atomic programs. "We discussed all aspects of the six-party process. And all aspects me

Seeking to stave off the forest fires that have blanketed five Southeast Asian countries with choking haze for the past two years, Indonesian environmental and forestry officials said yesterday they would be able to reduce the number of hot spots this year by more than half. Meeting in Jambi, Sumatra, cabinet ministers from Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand heard what Indonesia plans to do this year to combat the illegal forest fires, which start each year during the August-November dry season. "We are targeting a drop of about 50 perc

CNN and YouTube have joined forces to enable YouTube users to upload videos with questions for Democratic candidates in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. CNN will choose the "most creative and compelling videos" to air live on CNN on July 23 in Charleston, South Carolina at the South Carolina Democratic Debate to be hosted by Anderson Cooper in partnership with the South Carolina Democratic Party. The debate is scheduled to be held at the Citadel, and will last for two hours. Creators of videos chosen by CNN to air live on the show will

<noinclude> __NOTOC__ Ousted and living in exile, with assets frozen in Thailand, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ordered today by the Royal Thai Police to appear on charges related to the sale of some of his family's stock holdings. The order adds to mounting, increasingly complex legal troubles for Thaksin, the telecommunications billionaire who led Thailand until he was unseated in a coup last year. Thaksin and his wife, Potjaman Shinawatra, who are both outside of Thailand, were both ordered to present themselves to th

A trial in the murder of Mongolian-born model and interpreter Altantuya Shaaribuu got under way today in Shah Alam, Malaysia, with a former adviser to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak as one of the defendants. The prosecutor said political consultant Abdul Razak Baginda, 47, plotted the October 19, 2006, murder with two police officers, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, who fatally shot Altantuya, and then blew her body up with C-4 in an attempt to get rid of the evidence. The sequence of events would be pieced

<noinclude> Bombings across southern Thailand injured 17 people today. In Yala, a bombing in a tea shop injured 14 people, while in Narathiwat, a roadside bomb injured two soldiers and a bomb on a bridge injured a government employee. Overnight, a school was burned. Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont ordered indefinite closure of all public schools in the three southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, citing insurmountable security concerns because of the south Thailand insurgency. "There are more than 700 schools in the three south

<noinclude> Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond made his first official visit outside Scotland as First Minister, meeting his counterpart in Northern Ireland, First Minister Ian Paisley. The leader of the Scottish National Party, who is calling for Scotland and Northern Ireland to present a united approach toward governance, addressed the Northern Ireland Assembly and said Stormont, and the Scottish Parliament "now share a political model based on necessary compromise." "The Deputy First Minister hasn't stopped being a nationalist and you

<noinclude> It was announced today that millions of dollars worth of foreign aid would once again be delivered to Palestine by the European Union. Aid to the Palestinian Authority had previously been ceased some 15 months ago when Hamas seized control. The announcement comes the day after Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas swore in a new emergency government in response to the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. The announcement was made in Luxembourg by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, and is said to be due to Hamas no longer being a pa

<noinclude> Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, the first President of Somalia died last week from natural causes in a Nairobi hospital. He was 99. Born in 1908 in Beledweyne, Hiiraan region in the Italian Somaliland, Osman was elected as the first President of Somalia in 1960 and served till 1967, when he was he was defeated by Abdirashid Ali Shermarke. He spent his later years in Janale in southern Somalia and in May 2007 it was erroneously reported that he died in a hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. It was later clarified, however, that he was on life su