News Stories
Will Being on the Stock Market Change Facebook?
After the IPO, users may see changes to the site Facebook began trading on the Nasdaq today, priced at $38 a share. This puts the total value of the company at $104 billion, the third largest initial public offering ever after Visa and General Motors. CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook...
photo: AP / Paul Sakuma
Gay African refugees face abduction, violence and rape in Uganda and Kenya
LGBTI people fleeing persecution in home country among most vulnerable and isolated of all refugees, finds study In Uganda, 'public rhetoric demonising homosexuality has been particularly vicious' since an anti-gay bill was introduced, says the study. Photograph: Dai Kurokawa/EPA...
photo: UN / JC McIlwaine
US to announce food security plan for Africa
US President Barack Obama is set to announce a $3bn (£1.9bn) plan to boost food security and farm productivity in Africa, US officials say. They say the initiative is aimed at alleviating shortages as world food supplies are being stretched by rising demand in Asia's emerging markets. Food...
photo: UN / WFP/Phil Behan
UN says al Qaeda behind Syria suicide bombs death toll from civil war reaches 10,000
UN leader Ban Ki-moon has said he believes al-Qaeda committed a major bomb attack in Damascus that left dozens dead, and that up to 10,000 people have now been killed in Syria. United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon Photo: EPA 10:30AM BST 18 May 2012...
photo: WN / Ahmed Deeb
US mulls 'terrorist' designation for Boko Haram
Zeenews Bureau Washington: The US State Department may designate Nigeria’s militant Islamist sect Boko Haram, as a "foreign terrorist organisation”, a news agency said on Friday. Citing a document, the agency said Assistant Attorney General for National Security Lisa Monaco sent a letter to State...
photo: AP / Sunday Alamba
China shadow looming, Taiwan's Ma set for 2nd term
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan's Ma Ying-jeou is set to begin his second presidential term caught between China's desire to exert greater influence over his democratic island and Taiwanese determination to maintain their de facto independence. Ma is to be sworn in again Sunday. Since taking office in...
photo: AP / Wally Santana
Documents shed more light on Trayvon Martin shooting
ATLANTA — On the night George Zimmerman fatally shot unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida, a witness said he saw some of the scuffle — and described a black man in a dark hoodie on top of a white or Latino man, punching him repeatedly, "mixed martial arts style." Then there...
photo: AP / Orlando Sentinel, Gary W. Green, Pool
The burqa reminder
Since a 2009 trip to Kabul, I have kept a sky-blue burqa in my office as a reminder of the responsibility we have to the women of Afghanistan. As world leaders gather in Chicago this weekend to discuss Afghanistan's future, women must not just be a topic on the agenda — they must be a part of...
photo: US Army / Michael J. MacLeod
The Queen's lunch for monarchs attracts controversy
The King of Bahrain and Swaziland's King Mswati III are among controversial monarchs expected at a Windsor Castle lunch being hosted by the Queen later. Critics accuse Bahrain of human rights abuses and say King Mswati lives in luxury while his people starve. Campaigner Peter Tatchell...
photo: AP / Peter Morrison
Solution to world economic crisis must have
UNITED NATIONS, May 17 (Xinhua) -- President of the European Union (EU) Commission Jose Manuel Barroso said here Thursday that a solution to the global economic crisis must have a global dimension. "Economic crisis has global nature, its impact has been global and the remedies must also have a...
photo: EC / EC

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