LOST IN THE DARK RIDE

The Vatican has criticised a crackdown on street begging in Italian cities, saying that to ask for alms was a “human right”. Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants, said he agreed with the centre right government of Silvio Berlusconi that begging “rackets”, in which fake beggars were put onto Italian streets by organised gangs to “profit from peoples generosity”, must be eliminated. However this should be done without hindering the right of the…

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Video: Russia-Georgia standoff Russia sent troops and dozens of tanks into the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia today, throwing the two former Soviet neighbours into a sudden yet undeclared state of war. In the most serious regional crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, at least 50 tanks - and possibly many more - rumbled through the Roki tunnel, which cuts through the Caucasus mountains separating South Ossetia from the Russian province of North Ossetia. “One hundred and fifty Russian tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles have entered South Ossetia,” President Saakashvili of Georgia told reporters in Tbilisi. “This is a clear intrusion on another…

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PRAGUE - An international express train crashed into a collapsed bridge in the Czech Republic on Friday, killing at least six people and injuring dozens. The EuroCity train, travelling from the Polish city of Krakow to the Czech capital, crashed at a speed of about 140 kilometres per hour near the northeast border with Poland. “An international train from Krakow to Prague ran into a collapsed bridge which fell on the rails in the area of the town of Studenka,” said Radek Joklik, Czech Railways spokesman. He said six people had been killed, fewer than a previously announced toll of 10. A fire brigade spokesman…

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TBILISI, Georgia - Russian television reports that Russian troops are moving into South Ossetia. The development comes hours after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned Georgia that its attack on South Ossetia will draw retaliation. Channel 1 television showed a convoy of Russian tanks that it said entered South Ossetia. The convoy was expected to reach the provincial capital, Tskhinvali, in a few hours. There was no immediate comment from Georgian officials. The move followed a series of statements by Russian leaders pledging to protect Russian citizens in the region.   document.write(’…

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The world’s biggest haul of Ecstasy tablets has been found concealed in 3,000 tins of tomatoes, Australian police revealed today. Nearly five million tons of the drug – with a street value of £205million – was discovered following raid on a ship which had sailed from Italy. A total of 21 people have now been arrested authorities spent a year tracking the syndicate behind the illegal cargo, which was seized in June last year. Caught red-handed: A police officer handles one of the tins filled with tablets The 4.9 tons of Ecstasy was described today by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) as the biggest haul of the drug anywhere in the world. Police said the seizure of the…

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Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s plan to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve may lower crude and gasoline prices in the short term, but it could also leave the United States more vulnerable in a supply emergency. Obama called this week for easing fuel prices by releasing some 70 million barrels of light, sweet crude from the nation’s stockpile and swapping it for less expensive heavy, sour oil. The hope is that putting more oil on the market will push down crude…

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U. S. stocks tumbled yesterday after a big loss from insurer American Inter-national Group Inc. (AIG/NYSE) fuelled fears of more fallout from the credit crisis and a cautious sales forecast from Wal- Mart Stores Inc. (WMT/NYSE) added to concerns about consumer spending. AIG’s shares had their worst day in more than two decades. The Dow Jones industrial average slid 224.64 points, or 1.93%, to close at 11,431.43, led lower by Wal-Mart and AIG. The Standard&Poor’s 500 index fell 23.11 points, or 1.79%, to 1,266.08, while the Nasdaq composite index dropped 22.64 points, or 0.95%, to 2,355.73. Wal-Mart shares fell 6.3% to US$56.96 and Target Corp. (TGT/NYSE) fell 4.7% to $45.76. Reader…

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Aug 8, 2008 7:36 PM Nepali police detained hundreds of angry Tibetan refugees who tried to storm a Chinese consular office in Kathmandu on Friday, in protests only hours before the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing. Police said the Tibetans, who arrived in busloads, and included nuns and monks, had begun a march towards the walled premises of the consular office. They said at least 740 protesters,…

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I’ve been fascinated by China since my first trip there in 1975, when my dad was the head of the United States Liaison Office in Beijing. At the time, the country was emerging from the Cultural Revolution. Poverty was rampant. Bicycles were everywhere, and people were wearing almost identical clothes. It seemed unimaginable that three decades later Beijing would be sprinting into the modern era - covered in skyscrapers, filled with cars, and home to…

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Russia engages in fierce clashes in Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region, reports say, amid fears of all-out war, while discussions at the United Nations make little progress.

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