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Rescue teams battle landslides to reach Sichuan as 1,100 aftershocks follow quake that left at least 180 people dead.
Last Modified: 21 Apr 2013 08:55
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Thousands of rescuers are fighting to thwart a rising death toll as they search earthquake-shattered villages in southwest China for survivors.
Rescue teams battled landslides and collapsed roads to reach isolated parts of Sichuan province on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, in images aired on state broadcaster CCTV.
At least 180 people have so far been confirmed dead, with 6,000 injured in Saturday's 6.6 magnitude quake.
Soldiers searched through the night and day for survivors in villages where houses had been destroyed and treated some of the injured.
China's new Premier Li Keqiang has rushed to the disaster zone and was shown by CCTV eating breakfast in a tent.
"The rescue effort is our first duty," he told state media.
Drones should be banned from private use, says Google's Eric Schmidt
Google executive chairman says in Guardian interview that technology has potential to 'democratise the ability to fight war'
The use of cheap, miniature "everyman" drones needs to be banned by international treaties before such devices fall into the hands of private users including terrorists, the head of Google has said.
In an extended interview with the Guardian, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google and an adviser to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, warned of the potential of new technology to "democratise the ability to fight war", and said drones could soon be used to harass and spy on neighbours.
"You're having a dispute with your neighbour," he hypothesised. "How would you feel if your neighbour went over and bought a commercial observation drone that they can launch from their back yard. It just flies over your house all day. How would you feel about it?"
Hello Lenin! How the 'Red Elvis' went East
Book traces fate of Cold War defectors who went the 'wrong way'
With his wavy hair and raunchy stage voice, Dean Reed was feted by the rulers of communist East Germany as socialism's answer to Elvis Presley. He was one of the most famous Westerners to defect to the East during the entire Cold War. Yet Reed, an American singer with socialist convictions who moved to East Berlin in 1973, was not an isolated case among the disgruntled Westerners who defected the "wrong way" during Europe's post-war division.
Where Is Lieutenant Adkins?, a new book by the German author Peter Köpf, reveals that there were hundreds of Dean Reeds.
N Korea 'moves two more missile launchers'
April 21, 2013 - 3:33PM
Seoul: North Korea has moved two more missile launchers to its east coast, where preparations are apparently under way for a missile test as tensions simmer on the peninsula, reports say.
Expectations had been high that Pyongyang would carry out a test to coincide with celebrations marking the birth of North Korea's late founding leader Kim Il-sung on April 15 but it did not materialise.
April 25 could be another possible date for a missile launch, the report said, quoting military officials in Seoul. That is the founding anniversary of the North's military.
The North Korean military last week moved two launchers believed to be for Scud missiles to the northeast province of South Hamgyong, Yonhap news agency said, citing a senior Seoul official.
Commission accuses Egypt's Mursi of ignoring atrocities
Some members of a high-level commission that issued a report detailing security abuses and atrocities during and after Egypt's 2011 uprising accused President Mohammed Mursi of ignoring their findings.
The fact-finding commission, comprised of judges, security officers, rights lawyers and families of victims, was formed last year by Mursi to investigate rights violations that took place from the beginning of the revolt that toppled long-time president Hosni Mubarak until the end of the nearly 17 months of military rule that followed.
Mursi formed the commission a month after he won elections in June, vowing to install justice and look into thousands of violations against protesters. But two years since Mubarak's ouster, rights groups complain of a lack of transitional justice to hold Mubarak and other former officials accountable for crimes committed during the revolution.
Conservatives 'likely to win Paraguay poll' |
Businessman Horacio Cartes of the Colorado Party leads in most polls ahead of presidential election on Sunday.
Last Modified: 21 Apr 2013 03:42
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A newcomer in the Paraguayan political scene, who has admitted that he did not start voting until four years ago, said he is trying to put a new face on a party with a long history of corruption.
Wealthy businessman Horacio Cartes, 56, is the Colorado Party's candidate and leads most polls ahead of the election on Sunday.
Paraguayans will likely vote to put the Colorado Party back into the presidency, restoring the center-right party to power after leftist President Fernando Lugo broke its 60-year reign in 2008.
Cartes's main rival is Efrain Alegre, a 50-year-old lawyer and career politician in the ruling Liberal Party, which took over the presidency after Lugo was impeached in a lightning-quick trial that prompted diplomatic sanctions against the country.
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