NEW DELHI: India's top judge said Monday that the Italian ambassador cannot claim diplomatic immunity in a growing dispute over two Italian marines who skipped bail while on trial for murder.Chief Justice Altamas Kabir said Daniele Mancini, who had negotiated the marines' release last month so they could vote in Italy's election, had waived his immunity by giving an undertaking to a court that the pair would return....
WASHINGTON, March 17, 2013 (AFP) - When Barack Obama last went to the Middle East, he bore a soaring speech for the ages. This time, he says he's just going to listen and will carry no grand plans.
Obama will visit Israel, the West Bank and Jordan this week on his first visit as president, four years after asking in Cairo for a "new beginning" for America with the Muslim world. ...
STOCKHOLM: An open letter to Sweden's justice minister, accusing authorities of using racial profiling in their hunt for illegal immigrants, stirred heated debate Thursday after going viral on social media websites.In a letter published in daily Dagens Nyheter, author Jonas Hassen Khemiri, whose father is of Tunisian origin, asked Beatrice Ask to "change skins" with him for a day....
SYDNEY: Police said Friday they had shut down one of the largest child sex exploitation rings seen in Australia which was dealing in abhorrent and disgusting images.Australian Federal Police arrested and charged 21 people aged between 22 and 76 from around the country but would not give any further details about them beyond saying they were from all walks of life....
DEIR EZZOR, Syria, March 15, 2013 (AFP) - Stung by mounting allegations of human rights abuses, Syrian rebels are keen to show off their treatment of prisoners from the increasingly brutal conflict.
Rebel commanders acknowledge that in the past there were excesses and that some captured soldiers were summarily executed. But they insist that now all rebel fighters have strict orders about the treatment of prisoners. ...
BEIJING: China's parliament named Xi Jinping as president Thursday, four months after he took charge of the Communist Party with pledges of reform that have raised hopes but so far yielded little change.Top officials of the world's most populous nation, including Xi himself, took part in a leadership vote at the Great Hall of the People here, taking turns to place red papers into ballot boxes, but the outcome was never in doubt....
LATEST UPDATE (3.15am Malaysian time) VATICAN CITY: Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, 77, has become Pope Francis I. He's the first non-European ever to become Pope. He is believed to have finished to second to Benedict in 2005. He assumed the name Pope Francis the First. ...
MANILA: Nearly two thirds of people in the Asia-Pacific region have no clean, piped water at home despite the region's strong economic growth, according to a major report released on Wednesday.Water security is a major concern for most countries in the region, but the problem is poor management and a lack of investment in infrastructure rather than short supplies, said the report released by the Asian Development Bank....
NEW DELHI: India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned Italy on Wednesday that there would be consequences unless it returned two of its marines who skipped bail while on trial here for murder.Reflecting growing anger in India, the normally mild-mannered Singh told MPs it was unacceptable that both men had remained in Italy after being allowed home to vote in elections last month....
JAKARTA -- The Aceh government has removed a provision in a draft local law which allows for a stoning to death punishment for adulterers. The provision was removed from Aceh's draft of 'Qanun Jinayat', a set of by-laws that replaces elements of the Criminal Code with Shariah provisions for Muslims....
