Korea
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By Andray Abrahamian
The launch on Wednesday by North Korea of a rocket came five days before the first anniversary of Kim Jong-il's death and early in the government's stated window, which extended to December 22. The United States' National Security Council spokesman Tom Vietor reacted by calling the launch a "highly provocative act that threatens regional security", while China reportedly expressed "regret" over the incident.
With South Korea's election on the 19th, it seems a strange time to stir the pot, given that the launch would, if anything, hurt the liberal candidate. It is his policies that will most benefit Pyongyang. Like everywhere, though, domestic concerns trump
international ones when it comes to political calculations
With South Korea's election on the 19th, it seems a strange time to stir the pot, given that the launch would, if anything, hurt the liberal candidate. It is his policies that will most benefit Pyongyang. Like everywhere, though, domestic concerns trump
international ones when it comes to political calculations
EUROPE
EU clinches deal ahead of banking union showdown
Thursday has bought an early morning deal between EU finance ministers on a new banking supervisor. It is a single but important step towards a full banking union.
European finance ministers struck a deal in the early hours on Thursday to give the European Central Bank (ECB) new supervisory powers over eurozone banks.
"We have a deal," confirmed an EU official. The news immediately impacted on the markets, sending the euro to a high of 1.3080 against the U.S. dollar.
After 14 hours of heated talks, finance ministers came to an agreement which would give the ECB power to police the biggest banks in the eurozone and intervene in struggling smaller banks.
Earlier, ministers had been oprimistic about coming to an agreement. "We have worked out proposals," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said on his arrival for the talks in Brussels with the 26 other finance ministers belonging to the bloc.
Belgium to probe murder of African hero Lumumba
By AFP
Posted Thursday, December 13 2012 at 04:43
Posted Thursday, December 13 2012 at 04:43
More than 50 years after the assassination of Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba, a court in the former colonial power Wednesday gave the go-ahead to a long-awaited judicial probe into his death.
At stake is the role of a dozen Belgians in the January 17, 1961 assassination of Lumumba, the first lawfully elected premier of the Congo who is viewed as a hero across Africa for his role in the continent's struggle for independence.
Lumumba was deposed in a coup barely 12 weeks after his June 1960 election, and subsequently arrested and executed by firing squad in a murky Cold War era episode said to have involved the CIA.
Opening of upscale hotels marks turning point in Haiti's reconstruction
Several hotels are scheduled to open or begin construction over the next few months in Haiti, raising expectations of the country's recovery from the devastating 2010 earthquake.
By Susana Ferreira, Reuters / December 12, 2012
The opening of the upscale Royal Oasis Hotel in Haiti on Wednesday ushered in a new phase in the country's post-earthquake reconstruction, while providing a sharp contrast to the plight of hundreds of thousands still homeless almost three years after the disaster.
The elite Oasis hotel in Petionville, a business and social hub in the hills south of Port-au-Prince, is part of the Occidental hotel chain and is the first in a string of international brand-name hotels opening in the coming months.
A Best Western Premier is scheduled to open its doors in January, and the newly reincarnated El Rancho is set to follow in February under the management of the Spanish group NH Hoteles.
Portrayal of C.I.A. Torture in Bin Laden Film Reopens a Debate
By SCOTT SHANE
Published: December 12, 2012
WASHINGTON — Even before its official release, “Zero Dark Thirty,” the new movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, has become a national Rorschach test on the divisive subject of torture.
The film’s unflinching portrayal of theCentral Intelligence Agency’s brutal interrogation of Al Qaeda prisoners hews close to the official record, offering a gruesome sampling of methods like the near-drowning ofwaterboarding.
What has already divided the critics, journalists and activists who have watched early screenings is a more subtle issue: the suggestion that the calculated infliction of pain and fear, graphically shown in the first 45 minutes of the film, may have produced useful early clues in the quest to find the terrorist leader, who was killed in May 2011.
Tobacco companies see Africa as fertile ground
Smoking rates are declining or flat in much of the world. But they're rising in Africa, where even a child can afford the cost of a single cigarette.
December 12, 2012, 5:15 p.m.
DIEPSLOOT, South Africa — On the sunny side of a dusty township street, next to the metal gates of a school, Lucas Moyana's little shop is just a board propped on four plastic crates like a child's lemonade stand. For a couple of coins, he sells being cool, sells being free.
A schoolboy in uniform hurries up, barely glancing at the cookie packets, lollipops and candies, grabs a Dunhill cigarette from a red box, puts a match to it and drops 22 cents on the table before hurrying away.
Moyana is at his stand, just a few yards from the school gates, most days from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Asked why he set up next to the school, he looks awkward. "I just decided this was a good spot," he says vaguely, basking in the hot spring sun. Every few minutes, a customer tosses some change onto his table, plucks a cigarette, lights it.
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