US scales back Pakistan drone strikes during Taliban talks, say reports
Islamabad calls for restraint but senior US official denies informal agreement reached, says Washington Post
The US has cut back sharply on drone strikes in Pakistan after Islamabad asked for restraint while it pursues peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
The Post quoted an American official as saying: "That's what they asked for, and we didn't tell them no." The newspaper said there had been a lull in drone attacks since December, the longest break since 2011.
The Post said the Obama administration indicated it would continue carrying out strikes on senior al-Qaida officials if they were to become available or to thwart any immediate threat to Americans.
Wednesday 5 February 2014
Ivory poacher’s sick boast: I killed 70 elephants
North Korea and South Korea agree to first family reunions in over three years
North and South Korea have reached an agreement that will allow war-divided families to hold a brief reunion this month. The deal was struck despite calls from Pyongyang for Seoul to cancel upcoming military drills.
South Korea's Unification Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that the two countries would bring together families divided by the 1950-53 war for a brief visit. The last such reunion was allowed over three years ago.
Delegates from the Red Cross, South and North Korea had struck the deal during a meeting in the demilitarized zone, the Unification Ministry said. Reunions were to take place between February 20-25, it added without providing further details.
The reunion date coincides with annual military drills conducted by Seoul in partnership with the United States. Although North Korea has already called on South Korea to scrap the drills, which it described as preparation for an invasion, the government in Seoul on Wednesday said it would stand its ground.
Long overlooked, the Dominican Republic's colonial capital gets a face lift
The Dominican Republic is the most visited country in the Caribbean, but just 10 percent of tourists step off the beaches to visit Santo Domingo. The government's trying to change that.
Urban planners are ripping up the streets of the oldest European city in the Western Hemisphere to try to save its future.
Bulldozers crowd the streets of Santo Domingo’s colonial city, once governed by the son of Christopher Columbus and later sacked by the notorious pirate Sir Francis Drake. Workers are tearing through concrete, knocking down telephone poles, and scraping paint from fading facades, all in the name of making the area a prominent tourist attraction in a country known more for its beaches than its history.
Under an ambitious revitalization project, the Dominican government and international organizations are not only attempting to convert the colonial-era city into a destination, but are also working to create a pedestrian-friendly street design in a city overrun by motorbikes and microbuses.
China raises a generation of 'left-behind' children
February 5, 2014 -- Updated 0116 GMT
Hong Kong (CNN) -- Like millions of China's migrant workers, Chen and his wife left their only daughter behind when they went to seek work in the southern boomtown of Guangzhou three years ago.
But Chen, who once thought his home was a sleepy and safe place for his nine-year-old to grow up with her grandmother, had that belief shattered when he received pleas for help in November last year.
"She kept calling us, begging us to come home. She said she wasn't feeling well, that she was always feeling down, and that it hurt," Chen, who only gave his first name, told CNN by telephone from his hometown of Xiangxiang in central China's Hunan province.
5 February 2014 Last updated at 01:47
'Animal Pompeii' wiped out China's ancient creatures
The puzzle of how a 120-million-year-old animal graveyard in China formed may have been solved.
Scientists believe that the creatures from the lower Cretaceous era were instantly killed by volcanic eruptions similar to the violent blast that hit the Roman city of Pompeii.
Much like the residents of the city, the animals were entombed in ash and frozen in their death throes.
Lead researcher Baoyu Jiang, from Nanjing University in China, said: "Scientists have been curious for a long time in how these animals were killed and became exceptionally preserved."
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