Posts on ‘August 20th, 2009’

The “humanitarian situation remains serious” in Zimbabwe amid cholera, starvation and a continuing economic crisis, a United Nations official said Wednesday at a World Humanitarian Day ceremony in Harare. “Although Zimbabwe is not facing armed conflict, humanitarian threats such as food shortages and outbreak of diseases such as cholera pose a significant challenge,” said Agostinho [...]

Mexico City’s thousands of stores went green Wednesday, as amended ordinances on solid waste now outlaw businesses from giving out thin plastic bags that are not biodegradable. The law affects all stores, production facilities and service providers within the Federal District, which encompasses the city limits. Nearly 9 million people live inside the district and [...]

Described as “an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane,” Hurricane Bill was churning closer to the Atlantic island of Bermuda on Wednesday, forecasters said. Most forecast maps show Hurricane Bill passing to the west of Bermuda. Although Bill is not expected to make a direct hit on the island, forecasters cautioned that the storm is large [...]

A man who crashed his plane in the Florida Panhandle in an apparent attempt to fake his death was sentenced Wednesday to more than four years in federal prison, officials said. Marcus Schrenker, 38, of McCordsville, Indiana, pleaded guilty in June to charges of destruction of an aircraft and causing the Coast Guard to respond [...]

Spanish police shortened their list of most-wanted fugitives Wednesday with the capture of two suspected members of the Basque-region separatist group ETA, officials told CNN. Spanish and French police detained Aitzol Etxaburu and Andoni Sarasola in the Alpine ski resort of Le Corbier Villarembert in southeast France, the Spanish Interior Ministry said. Along with them, [...]

A Scottish court is expected to release convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi on compassionate grounds, senior State Department officials tell CNN. Al Megrahi, 57, is suffering from terminal prostate cancer. He is serving a life sentence for bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. [...]

A 14-year-old boy allegedly beaten at a boot camp in China for young Internet addicts was in critical condition Thursday, less than three weeks after a youth at a different camp died, Chinese state media reported. Internet use has skyrocketed in China, especially among teens. And Chinese parents have turned to hundreds of training camps [...]

Polls opened Thursday morning in Afghanistan, as the war-ravaged nation held its second-ever presidential and provincial council elections. more photos » Incumbent President Hamid Karzai was the frontrunner leading up to the ballot, which got under way amid a government-ordered ban on media coverage of violence. The action was taken to keep voters from being [...]

Security remains a top concern as Afghanistan holds its second-ever presidential election Thursday, prompting the government to ask for a ban on media coverage of violence. An Afghan police officer walks near a bank in Kabul where an armed robbery ended in a gunbattle. Afghanistan’s government has ordered the media to refrain from covering possible [...]

Agajan has a message for Afghanistan’s incumbent politicians. The turbaned, gap-toothed man may only be a humble shopkeeper, but on election day, Agajan will exercise his right and vote against the president. Cobbler Kaka Muchi [right] and friends say they will vote for Karzai, because Bamiyan province has enjoyed security in recent years. “I won’t [...]