News aggregator

TOYAKO, Japan, Jul 5 (IPS) - When the leaders of seven western industrial democracies and Russia gather for their meetings Jul. 7-9 in Toyako on the northern island of Hokkaido, a mountain of wishes tabled by a multitude of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from around the world would have piled up before them.

Parliament in Argentina approves controversial taxes on agricultural exports, which farmers have vowed to resist.

Parliament in Argentina approves controversial taxes on agricultural exports, which farmers have vowed to resist.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian detective has gone missing after retracting allegations he made linking Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak to the brutal murder of a Mongolian woman, police said on Saturday.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Barack Obama said Saturday that he was surprised at how the media has "finely calibrated" his recent words on Iraq, and denied that he intends to anything but end the war if he is elected....

South African President Thabo Mbeki met Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Saturday to try to help end a political crisis.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A man tore the head from a controversial waxwork figure of Adolf Hitler on the opening day of Berlin's Madame Tussauds museum on Saturday, police said.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli forces blockaded a Palestinian village on Saturday in what the army called an open-ended effort to curb protests against the construction nearby of the West Bank barrier.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Mississippi River, the most important U.S. commercial waterway, reopened to water navigation on Saturday after much of it was closed for nearly a month due to the worst flooding in 15 years.

BEND, Ore. (AP) -- Riding a green lawn chair supported by a rainbow array of more than 150 helium-filled party balloons, Kent Couch took off Saturday in a third bid to fly from central Oregon all the way to Idaho....

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia found explosives set to be used in bombs across the capital in reprisal for this week's rescue of leftist rebels' highest-profile hostages, including Ingrid Betancourt, military officials said on Saturday.

MIAMI (AP) -- The call girl involved in a scandal that brought down New York's former governor has dropped a lawsuit claiming "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis exploited her image and name on the Internet....

PATTANI, Thailand, Jul 5 (IPS) - Rohana Samu is among the fortunate. She is glad to have steady work for the past four years no matter how monotonous her job is -- working an eight-hour shift daily in a frigid room, cleaning fish.

SANTIAGO, Chile, Jul 5 (Tierramérica) - Eighteen Latin American countries are currently involved in whale and dolphin watching tourism, which brings in about 278 million dollars a year. But experts say there is a lack of standards, research and education to ensure that it is a sustainable activity.

TEGUCIGALPA, Jul 5 (IPS) - In a highly controversial decision, the Honduran Institute for Access to Public Information (IAIP) has decided to keep from public scrutiny for 10 years key documents from the Finance Ministry and the tax collection authority.

BOGOTA, Jul 5 (IPS) - At the same time that Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was welcoming U.S. Republican presidential hopeful John McCain in the north of the country, the Supreme Court issued a communiqué calling on the government to "respect and obey the decisions" of the courts.

BUTTE, Mont. (AP) -- Now that they're allies, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton will help each other raise money in a series of fundraisers in New York next week....

BUTTE, Mont. (AP) -- Now that they're allies, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton will help each other raise money in a series of fundraisers in New York next week....

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. defending champion Joey Chestnut won the annual Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on Friday by downing 64 hot dogs in a competition that stretched into a first-ever overtime.

LAGOS (Reuters) - At least 18 people, 12 of them school children, were killed when the bus they were traveling in crashed on a busy highway in the southern Nigerian state of Delta, media reports said on Saturday.