World News

Chanting slogan, a female Iranian demonstrator holds a poster of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a pro-government rally at the Enqelab (Revolution) Sq. in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009.

photo: AP / Vahid Salemi

Hundreds of thousands at pro-government rallies in Iran
read more The Star

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of government supporters rallied across Iran on Wednesday, swearing allegiance to the clerical establishment and accusing opposition leaders of causing unrest in the Islamic state. EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to film or take pictures in...

File - An aid convoy arrives in the Gaza Strip after crossing the border between Egypt and southern Gaza, on March 9, 2009 in the border town of Rafah.

photo: WN / Ahmed Deeb

We Must Learn to Stress Borderless Acts of Goodness
read more WorldNews.com

Article by WorldNews.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. When Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah urged Muslims to be vigilant against "borderless Israeli greed and brutality," it should have awakened the citizens of the world to an important and often overlooked truth: Borderless militarism and violent aggression must not be allowed to surpass...

A local newspaper shows a photo of Japan's new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on its front page Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009, in Shanghai, China.

photo: AP

Japan unveils growth plan for next decade
read more Houston Chronicle

TOKYO - Japan's Prime Minister, faced with fading support as the country struggles to maintain its fledgling economic recovery, Wednesday outlined a new set of measures to spur growth over the next decade. The plan aims for the country's economy to expand at an average of 2 percent over the next 10 years, with gross domestic product to grow to...

Iranian lawmakers are seen in this photo taken on Sunday Oct. 24, 2004 during their visit to the Isfahan uranium conversion facility in central Iran which is nearing completion.

photo: AP / ISNA/Kholosi

Iran 'seeks Kazakh uranium'
read more Al Jazeera

Iran is attempting to reach a deal to secretly import 1,350 tons of purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan, according to an intelligence report obtained by The Associated Press news agency. The report, which was apprently drawn up by a unnamed member nation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was leaked as the US and its allies...

Hmong women wave as they sit on the back of a truck leaving their refugee camp in Phetchabun province, Thailand, on Monday, Dec. 28, 2009.

photo: AP / Sakchai Lalit

UN requests access to Hmong deportees
read more The Times

The United Nations has requested access to thousands of Hmong refugees who have been deported to Laos from Thailand. Thai soldiers forcibly removed 4,500 Hmong, including children, from refugee camps where many have been living for 30 yars, since the end of the Vietnam war. The Hmong, also known as the Meo, were recruited by the CIA to fight on the...

This image from television shows wildfires roaring across a swath of western Australia on Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009 razing almost 40 homes and sending hundreds of people fleeing for their lives, officials and witnesses said. At least three people were injured.

photo: AP / APTN

Wildfires destroy homes in Australia's west
read more The Associated Press

PERTH, Australia (AP) -- Wildfires roared across a swath of western Australia on Wednesday, razing almost 40 homes and sending hundreds of people fleeing for their lives, officials and witnesses said. At least three people were injured. Two major blazes burned out of control overnight after...

President Barack Obama speaks at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009.

photo: AP / Alex Brandon

Obama Slams Security Breach
read more Wall Street Journal

By EVAN PEREZ, JAY SOLOMON and ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said a "catastrophic breach" allowed the alleged Christmas Day bomber to set his attack into motion, as it emerged that multiple U.S. agencies met in mid-November to discuss a warning from the accused bomber's father. The father of terror suspect Umar Farouk...

In this photo taken on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009 and released Saturday, Dec. 26, 2009, from Freedom and Life for All North Koreans, U.S. missionary Robert Park, a 28-year-old Korean-American, who crossed the frozen Tumen River into North Korea from China on Christmas Day, prays for North Korean, in Seoul, South Korea.

photo: AP / Freedom and Life for All North Koreans, Seo Suk-gu

North Korea detains US missionary over illegal entry
read more Irish Times

NORTH KOREA said yesterday that it was holding an American missionary who entered the country illegally last week. He is believed to be Robert Park, a 28-year-old Christian activist who wanted to go to North Korea to highlight the country's poor human rights situation. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency...

A Hmong hilltribe family with belongings walks past a banner erected at Ban Huan Nam Khao village in Petchabun province, northeastern Thailand, after being forced to leave their homes Tuesday, July 5, 2005.

photo: AP / Apichart Weerawong

UN seeks access to repatriated Hmong in Laos
read more BBC News

The UN refugee agency has formally asked Laos for access to more than 4,000 ethnic Hmong who were forcibly repatriated from Thailand. The agency also called on the Thai government to provide details of a Thai-Laotian accord regarding the treatment of the Hmong....

Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on during a Cabinet meeting in the Moscow Kremlin, Monday, Oct. 4, 2004, with the president´s flag at right. Legal experts criticized an initiative that would give Putin more control over the hiring and firing

photo: AP Photo/ ITAR-TASS/ Presidential Press Service

Russia to Build New Weapons, Impeding Talks
read more Wall Street Journal

ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW -- Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia will build new weapons to offset the planned U.S. missile-defense system and urged Washington to share detailed data about its missile shield under a new arms-control deal. The Russian prime minister's remarks, posted on the cabinet's Web site, set a defiant tone and signaled new...