AP - The final act of the year’s biggest pop culture sensation will not be seen on TVs, beamed out to multiplexes or heard much on the airwaves. Well, at least not in America.
Reuters - A pickup in U.S. home sales has kindled hopes for a housing recovery, but plunging prices, rising unemployment and a new wave of foreclosures are clouding prospects for a quick end to the American real estate debacle.
Reuters - Two bombs exploded in a market in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Thursday, killing six people, and gunmen on rooftops ambushed police as they arrived at the scene.
With the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan rebellion of 1959 still fresh in the memory, Beijing now has to confront the 20th anniversary of the student-led democracy movement that was crushed in Tiananmen Square. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has taken all the necessary steps to prevent — and crush, if necessary — any protests that might take place next week. In 1989, students seeking political reforms were met with tanks as the regime feared being toppled by a ragtag movement seeking a more open political system with transparency and accountability. That system was, and still is, racked with corruption. Was there any serious danger to the CCP from the student movement? Then-CCP general…
A strong earthquake has hit Honduras and Belize, leaving at least five dead and 40 injured and destroying many homes on the Caribbean coast. The 7.1 magnitude quake struck at 2.20am (0820GMT) on Thursday, 64km from Roatan, the biggest of Honduras’ Bay Islands. “We have confirmed four dead,” Randolfo Funes, an official at Honduras’ civil protection agency, said. “They were all asleep. Most of them died crushed … There will be many more dead.” A six-year-old girl in the Honduran beach town of Morazan was killed when one of the walls of her house fell on her. Another man in…
AP - Gingerly trying to advance Mideast peace, President Barack Obama on Thursday challenged Israel to stop settlement construction in the West Bank on the same day the Israelis rejected that demand. Obama pushed Palestinians for progress, too, deepening his personal involvement.
WASHINGTON — Republicans won’t try to filibuster Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court nomination, a key GOP senator conceded Wednesday, all but admitting there’s little chance of blocking her confirmation as the first Hispanic justice. But senators and advocacy groups are still girding for this summer’s battle — partly with an eye toward raising money and perhaps preparing for Barack Obama’s next nominee. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he didn’t foresee a filibuster — essentially the only way that his party could try to stop Sotomayor since Democrats hold a solid majority of votes. Still, he made it clear that Republicans were ready to…