KUALA LUMPUR, A Malaysian court fined 12 Muslims on Tuesday and sentenced one of them to a week in prison for illegally protesting the construction of a Hindu temple and parading a severed cow’s head.The protest last August stoked tensions among Malaysia’s three main ethnic groups – the Malay Muslim majority and Chinese and Indian [...]

BEIRUT The discovery of large natural gas reserves under the waters of the eastern Mediterranean could potentially mean a huge economic windfall for Israel and Lebanon, both resource-poor nations – if it doesn’t spark new war between them.The Hezbollah militant group has blared warnings that Israel plans to steal natural gas from Lebanese territory and [...]

Prepare “got away” with golden lifeboat when the ship was aground. Maybe that’s the right impression for the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of oil company BP, Tony Hayward. When the company he led was a problem with leaking oil wells that pollute waters of the southern United States (USA), Hayward would leave it preached. He [...]

Amman -Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday he was ready to conduct direct talks with Israel, following allegations of Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu that the Palestinians have been avoiding the conversation.”We are ready to hold direct peace talks with Israel,” said Abbas told reporters after talks with Jordanian King Abdullah II in Jordan’s capital, [...]

Vice President Joe Biden said on Friday “the hard lifting” is done for the year and now it is time for Democrats to campaign on their achievements ahead of November 2 congressional elections.Biden spoke at a fund-raising event in Columbia, South Carolina, for Democratic Representative John Spratt’s re-election campaign. Democrats are trying to prevent Republicans [...]

Tokyo  – FIFA officials who examined the Japanese candidacy to host the 2022 World Cup gives thumbs up at the main soccer stadium outside Tokyo, according to the chairman of Japan’s candidacy. Five-member team from world soccer’s governing body had visited the 64 000 seat stadium in the satellite town of Saitama, north of Tokyo, [...]

SAO PAULO Hundreds of penguins that apparently starved to death are washing up on the beaches of Brazil, worrying scientists who are still investigating what’s causing them to die.About 500 of the black-and-white birds have been found just in the last 10 days on Peruibe, Praia Grande and Itanhaem beaches in Sao Paulo state, said Thiago [...]

WASHINGTON  President Barack Obama is thanking senators for acting to restore unemployment benefits to 2.5 million people who began losing their checks weeks ago.Senators voted 60-40 to overcome Republican delaying tactics and clear the way for a final vote later Tuesday. Three earlier votes to move the bill had stalled. Republicans want the spending to [...]

Facebook may continue business as usual while it fights a New York man’s claim he has a contract with founder Mark Zuckerberg that entitles him to 84 percent ownership of the world’s leading social networking site, a U.S. court heard on Tuesday.Paul Ceglia of Wellsville, New York, sued Zuckerberg and Facebook Inc last month claiming [...]

PHOENIX Seven other Latin American countries want to join Mexico in supporting a lawsuit challenging Arizona’s immigration enforcement law.Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Peru filed separate, nearly identical motions to join Mexico’s legal brief supporting the lawsuit filed by U.S. civil rights and other advocacy groups.A federal judge formally accepted Mexico’s filing [...]