EGYPT
December 10, 2012 - 4:22PM
Egypt's opposition calls anti-referendum rallies
An opposition coalition has called on Egyptians to take to the streets for fresh protests on Tuesday. The call comes despite the president’s announcement that he had cancelled a decree granting himself extended powers.
The opposition National Salvation Front issued the statement late on Sunday after meeting to discuss how to respond to President Mohamed Morsi's decision to annul his November 22 decree, which had put all of his decisions above judicial review. That decree, which also shielded the Islamist-dominated legislative assembly that wrote the country's draft constitution from the judiciary, sparked a series of sometimes violent street protests.
While some may have seen the latest decree, issued late on Saturday, as a step in the right direction, it failed to address another of the opposition's key demands - that a December 15 referendum on the draft constitution be cancelled.
Countdown starts on North Korean rocket
December 10, 2012 - 4:22PM
Sangwon Yoon and Eunkyung Seo
North Korea entered a 13-day launch window Monday to fire a rocket as the totalitarian regime, facing cold weather and international protests over its plans, said it may delay liftoff.
There were no signs that a launch was imminent today, the first day of the window lasting until December 22 that Kim Jong Un's regime announced at the start of the month. North Korean scientists and technicians are studying whether to adjust the launch time "for some reasons," the official Korean Central News Agency said yesterday, citing an unidentified spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology.
Mahama snatches Ghana election amid meddling claims
Ghana's electoral authorities said John Dramani Mahama has won a new term as president in an election the opposition claimed was marred by tampering.
Mahama, who replaced former president John Atta Mills after his death in July, took 50.7% of the ballots cast – just enough to avoid a run-off with his chief rival Nana Akufo-Addo.
"Based on the results, I declare President John Dramani Mahama president elect," Ghana Electoral Commission President Kwadwo Afari-Gyan told a news conference in the capital Accra on Sunday.
In a brief speech at his residence following the results, an exhausted-looking Mahama said his win was a "victory for all Ghanaians", and urged the leaders of rival parties to "respect the voice of the people".
Six days of riots erupt in the 'New Northern Ireland'
A motion in Belfast to stop flying the British Union flag year round touched off the riots, but the issues run deeper.
By Jason Walsh, Correspondent / December 9, 2012
Six nights of riots, death threats issued against politicians, and a constituency office set alight. Welcome to the "New Northern Ireland."
The cause? A motion passed Monday night by Belfast City Council to stop flying the British Union flag 365 days a year. The motion, brought by the moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP), to stop flying the flag altogether was defeated, but a compromise measure, tabled by the liberal Alliance Party, suggesting the flag be flown on 18 to 20 state occasions annually was passed. The compromise motion brings City Hall into line with government buildings such as Stormont, home of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Violence erupted immediately: approximately 300 pro-British loyalists immediately attacked Belfast City Hall, at the time hosting a Christmas market, breaking their way in using bolt cutters. After a confrontation with police, during which at least 19 people were injured, including 18 police officers and Associated Press photographer Peter Morrison.
Research on stricken bats may help AIDS fight
In a government lab where scientists slice open dead animals to study the exotic diseases that killed them, Carol Meteyer peered through a microscope at hundreds of little bats and started to notice something very weird.
The bats had managed to survive the white-nose fungus that had killed millions of other bats hibernating in caves, mostly in the Northeast. But they had succumbed to something else that had left their tiny corpses in tatters, their wings scorched and pocked with holes.
Meteyer finally realized what had happened: In the struggle to fight off the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome, the bats were killed by their own hyperaggressive immune systems.
China's indie filmmakers and the way of the dragon seal
More of them are developing scripts for art house-style movies that can win censors' approval, helping an industry emerge. But is artistic integrity imperiled?
By Gabrielle Jaffe
BEIJING — Yang Jin shot his first film, "The Black and White Milk Cow," in his hometown in 2004 for $1,600. He asked villagers to be his actors, paying them only in cigarettes, and his main expense was $320 spent renting the titular cow.
The tale of poor, rural China won him a $5,000 prize atSwitzerland's Fribourg International Film Festival, but it had no chance of being seen or making money in his homeland. Because it touched on the subjects of AIDS and Chinese Christians, Yang knew it wouldn't get past the censors, and thus could never play in Chinese theaters, on TV, or even be sold legally on DVD.
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