Pakistan News update
news update
No Backing Out Now: Royal Wedding Invites Have Been Mailed
Feb 1st
Chris Jackson / Getty Images
We’re sure Kate Middleton wasn’t having doubts, but if she was it’s too late to back out now.
People reports that the Royal Wedding invitations for April 29th have been signed, sealed and are currently “in the process of being sent,” according to a source at the office of the Lord Chamberlain, the man in charge of getting the cards out.
(More on TIME.com: See all of our Royal Wedding coverage)
NewsFeed wonders if they’ve included a last minute invite for the girl who’s currently on a hunger strike for an invitation. Somehow, we doubt it. But NewsFeed is sure More >
The Revolution will not be Twitterised
Jan 31st
Wake up call: revolutions do not take place in front of a keyboard.
“Correlation does not equal causation” should be the slogan stapled to the heads of the rabid global Twitterati, who believe their millions of one-line updates have played a major role in revolutions in Moldova, Iran, Tunisia, and now, Egypt.
Wake up call: revolutions do not take place in front of a keyboard or by sharing grainy photos of people getting beaten up or killed in the streets. Remember the hype around Neda Soltani, the Iranian woman who died protesting on the streets of Iran in 2009? No justice More >
31 convicted over Indian train blaze in 2002
Jan 31st
This picture taken March 1, 2002 shows a Hindu mob waving swords at an opposing Muslim mob during communal riots in Ahmedabad. PHOTO: AFP
AHMEDABAD: An Indian court on Tuesday convicted 31 people on conspiracy and murder charges over a deadly train fire in 2002 that triggered anti-Muslim rioting in which 2,000 people were killed.
The unrest, some of the worst religious violence in India since independence, was sparked after 59 Hindu pilgrims perished in the train fire at Godhra station in the western state of Gujarat.
Hindus in the state blamed the blaze on Muslim protesters at the station, and furious mobs More >
Eastern Libya falls to anti-Gaddafi rebels
Jan 30th
People protest against the 41-year rule of Libya’s leader Muammar Gaddafi outside the United Nations building in New York. PHOTO: REUTERS
TRIPOLI: Rebel soldiers said the eastern region of Libya had broken free from Muammar Gaddafi, who witnesses said was using tanks, warplanes and mercenaries to fight a growing uprising against his rule.
Sporadic blasts could be heard in the eastern city of Tobruk, a Reuters correspondent there said, the latest sign that Gaddafi’s 41-year grip on the oil and gas exporting nation was weakening.
“All the eastern regions are out of Gaddafi’s control now … The people and the army are hand-in-hand More >
Iran Makes Waves in Israel By Sending Ships to the Suez Canal
Jan 30th
The Iranian warship Alvand in the Gulf Feb. 21.
Majid Jamshidi / AFP / Getty ImagesUprisings across the Arab world. Bearings askew. Sands shifting like nobody’s business. And into this disorienting world of new uncertainties, the Islamic Republic of Iran sends a pair of warships toward the Suez Canal, bless its heart. It’s the diplomatic equivalent of comfort food, like coming across mashed potatoes and green beans on a table where you don’t recognize any of the other foods.
The vocabulary is familiar, too. Throughout the Cold War the Sixth Fleet steamed toward the Suez to signal U.S. concern More >
Mumbai attacks: Court upholds Kasab’s sentence
Jan 29th
Relatives of Ahmedabad blasts’ victims hold a demonstration to welcome the verdict. PHOTO: AFP
NEW DEHLI: The Bombay High Court on Monday confirmed the death sentence of Ajmal Kasab for waging war against India with the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in 2008.
The court also held him responsible for the killing of senior police officials including Hemant Karkare, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief, who was shot outside Cama Hospital along with Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar.
“There is no scope of reform or rehabilitation of the convicted accused. This is rarest of rare matter so he More >
Qaddafi’s son warns of ‘rivers of blood’ in Libya
Jan 29th
Saif al-Islam warned the protests were a foreign plot and would be crushed in a “bloodbath”.
TRIPOLI: The son of Libya’s strongman Moamer Qaddafi warned Monday the country would be destroyed by civil war if protests end his father’s rule, in a speech broadcast as bursts of gunfire broke out in Tripoli.
Saif al-Islam Qaddafi offered reforms to end the violent uprising gripping the country, but he warned the protests were a foreign plot and would be crushed in a “bloodbath” if the government’s offer was rejected.
The turbulence gripping the Arab world following the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia also spread to More >
Belgium Breaks Record for Longest Time Without Government
Jan 28th
Students dressed as a lion, the symbol of Flanders, and a rooster, the symbol of Wallonia, take part in a protest against Belgian politicians in Brussels on Feb. 17
Belgium has notched up some eclectic world records over the past year. Last April, the heaviest cheese sculpture — made with 2,330 lb. (1,059 kg) of Gouda — was carved in the coastal resort of Ostend. In July, a barman in the northern town of Hamme spent a record 102 straight hours serving beer in his café. And in August, in Ostend again, 2,875 people broke the record for group Hula-Hooping. More >
Power to the people
Jan 28th
Ferdinand Marcos
Who: Tenth president of the Phillipines
Years in power: 1965 to 1986
Claim to infamy: His regime was accused of murder, nepotism, corruption and human rights violations. According to Transparency International, Marcos is the second most corrupt head of government ever.
Downfall: Marcos was implicated in the assassination of Benigno Aquino, a popular politician who was killed on his return from exile at the Manila Airport in 1983. The Marcos government banned TV coverage of the Aquino funeral and as a result, thousands of people showed up, wanting to see what was going on. The funeral march turned into an eleventh-hour impromptu More >
Frantic search for survivors in quake-hit Christchurch, New Zealand
Jan 28th
Two women hug each other in front of a collapsed building in central Christchurch February 22, 2011. PHOTO: REUTERS
CHRISTCHURCH: Helicopters and cranes plucked terrified survivors from quake-hit buildings in New Zealand Tuesday, but many remained trapped as night fell on the stricken city of Christchurch.
Some 500 police and military personnel scoured the wreckage for survivors after the 6.3-magnitude quake, which buckled roads and rained glass and rubble on streets packed with lunchtime shoppers.
As the scale of the tragedy that has claimed at least 65 lives emerged from the chaos engulfing New Zealand’s second city, rescuers worked through the night to More >
