Russian President Dmitry Medvedev got more than 15,000 followers in less than 12 hours after officially opening up his Twitter account during his visit to the US.
Twitter Inc. has confirmed that Medvedev has a verified account with the social networking and microblogging service.
Medvedev's account is both in English and Russian, and he has so far added only two microblogs: US President Barack Obama and the US White House.
Showing posts with label international. Show all posts
Showing posts with label international. Show all posts
Australia gets it first Women PM.
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The change in the leadership of the ruling Labor Party comes just months ahead of a general election.
Ms Gillard's swearing in as prime minister will be a formality.
"I feel very honoured, I will be making a full statement very shortly," she told reporters after emerging from a party meeting at Parliament House in Canberra.
A party spokesman said Ms Gillard had stood unopposed at a vote of the Labor Party's 112 members of parliament at a meeting on Thursday morning.
No pay raise for the British queen: report
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London: A financial crisis is a great leveller. Proposed spending cuts by the British government are to affect the queen's annual bursary too, according to a media report.
The government may announce a one-year freeze in the Civil List, a settlement under which the queen receives money from parliament every year to perform her public duties.
Currently, the annual payment stands at 7.9 million pounds. The settlement is increased every decade, but this amount has remained frozen since 1990.
The government may announce a one-year freeze in the Civil List, a settlement under which the queen receives money from parliament every year to perform her public duties.
Currently, the annual payment stands at 7.9 million pounds. The settlement is increased every decade, but this amount has remained frozen since 1990.
Britain Suffers 300 Afghan War Deaths
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Britain marked its 300th military death in the Afghanistan war on Monday, a milestone that Prime Minister David Cameron described as “desperately bad news” and a reminder that Britain was “paying a high price for keeping our country safe.”
The milestone, gloomily awaited in Britain in recent weeks, was reached with the death on Sunday of a Royal Marine in a hospital in Birmingham. He was flown there after being wounded by a roadside bomb in the southwestern Afghan province of Helmand on June 12. He has not yet been identified.
Among the foreign powers involved in the war, Britain has suffered casualties second only to the 1,126 of the United States. But the British losses are higher proportionally when set against the two nations’ populations, overall military manpower and Afghanistan deployments. Britain, with about 60 million people, has nearly 10,000 troops in Afghanistan. The United States, with five times the population and its commitment still building from the 30,000-troop surge ordered by President Obama last year, has about 94,000 troops there.
List of Most Failed States of the World.
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Just three places below Afghanistan, Pakistan has been ranked the 10th most failed state in the 2010 Failed State Index released by the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine on Monday.
The list is topped by Somalia, followed by Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Chad.
India is ranked 87 in a list of 177 countries.
In India's immediate neighbourhood, Burma has been placed at 13, Sri Lanka (22) and Nepal 25. China is ranked at 57th place. Norway is ranked at the bottom of the list.
The list is topped by Somalia, followed by Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Chad.
India is ranked 87 in a list of 177 countries.
In India's immediate neighbourhood, Burma has been placed at 13, Sri Lanka (22) and Nepal 25. China is ranked at 57th place. Norway is ranked at the bottom of the list.
Swedish Crown Princess marries a common man.
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Sweden has celebrated a royal wedding between Crown Princess Victoria and her former fitness trainer.
Victoria, 32, tied the knot with 36-year-old commoner Daniel Westling.
More than 1,200 guests, including royals from around the world, attended the lavish ceremony in Stockholm Cathedral.
The newlyweds were transported to the Royal Palace, for an evening banquet with guests from around the world.
Victoria, 32, tied the knot with 36-year-old commoner Daniel Westling.
More than 1,200 guests, including royals from around the world, attended the lavish ceremony in Stockholm Cathedral.
The newlyweds were transported to the Royal Palace, for an evening banquet with guests from around the world.
Bin Laden Bounty hunter is held in Pakistan.
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An American man who claimed to have been on a mission to hunt down Osama Bin Laden has been arrested in northern Pakistan, police say.
They said that 52-year-old Gary Brooks Faulkner, from California, was detained in the mountains of Chitral district - just north of Peshawar.
He had a pistol, dagger and a sword and was carrying Christian literature.
Police say the man was stopped near the border with Afghanistan's Nuristan province, a known Taliban stronghold.
They say that Mr Faulkner told investigators after his arrest late on Sunday that he was on a solo mission to kill Osama Bin Laden.
"We initially laughed when he told us that he wanted to kill Osama Bin Laden," police spokesman Mumtaz Ahmad Khan told the AP news agency.
But he said that police suspicions grew when officers seized the pistol, the sword and night-vision equipment.
They said that 52-year-old Gary Brooks Faulkner, from California, was detained in the mountains of Chitral district - just north of Peshawar.
He had a pistol, dagger and a sword and was carrying Christian literature.
Police say the man was stopped near the border with Afghanistan's Nuristan province, a known Taliban stronghold.
They say that Mr Faulkner told investigators after his arrest late on Sunday that he was on a solo mission to kill Osama Bin Laden.
"We initially laughed when he told us that he wanted to kill Osama Bin Laden," police spokesman Mumtaz Ahmad Khan told the AP news agency.
But he said that police suspicions grew when officers seized the pistol, the sword and night-vision equipment.
Abby Sunderland is safe in Indian ocean, spotted by Australian Airbus A330
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Direct content from soloround.blogspot.com
We have just heard from the Australian Search and Rescue. The plane arrived on the scene moments ago. Wild Eyes is upright but her rigging is down. The weather conditions are abating. Radio communication was made and Abby reports that she is fine!
We don't know much else right now. The French fishing vessel that was diverted to her location will be there in a little over 24 hours. Where they will take her or how long it will take we don't know.
More updates as news comes in.
Laurence & Marianne
Abu Dhabi 'Capital Gate' now beats leaning tower of Pisa.
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record,
trivia,
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The 160-metre Capital Gate tower, developed by the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company, leans at 18 degrees over four times the angle of Italy's famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Khaleej Times reported.
ADNEC said the tower earned the record following an evaluation by Guinness World Records that began in January, the month the tower's exterior was completed, Gulf News reported.
Capital Gate was designed from the get-go to take an angled stance, unlike the Tower of Pisa, which slanted over with time.
The 35-storey tower's 18-degree angle is achieved by staggering the floor plates from the 12th floor up, the newspaper added.
2010 on track to become warmest year ever.
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Figures from US scientists show Arctic sea ice is at a record low, while land temperatures are likely to hit new highs.
New data from some of the world's leading climate researchers and institutions suggest that 2010 is shaping up to be one of the warmest years ever recorded.
Scientists at the US National Snow and Ice Centre Data Centre (NSIDC) report today that Arctic sea ice – frozen seawater that floats on the ocean surface – is now at its lowest physical extent ever recorded for the time of year, suggesting that it is on course to break the previous record low set in 2007.
Satellite monitoring by the NSIDC in Boulder, Colorado, shows that the melting of sea ice has been unusually fast this year, with as much as 40,000 sq km now disappearing daily.
The melt season started almost a month later than normal at the end of March and is not expected to end until September.
Meanwhile, research from the polar science centre at the University of Washington suggests that the volume of sea ice in March 2010 was 20,300 cubic km, 38% below the 1979 level when records began.
Global surface temperatures may also be at a record high, according to leading climate scientist James Hansen and colleagues at the National Aeronautic Space Administration (Nasa).
In a paper which is yet to be peer-reviewed but has been submitted to the journal Reviews of Geophysics, they suggest that the Earth has been 0.65C warmer over the past 12 months than during the 1951 to 1980 mean, and that the global temperature for 2010 will exceed the 2005 record.
New data from some of the world's leading climate researchers and institutions suggest that 2010 is shaping up to be one of the warmest years ever recorded.
Scientists at the US National Snow and Ice Centre Data Centre (NSIDC) report today that Arctic sea ice – frozen seawater that floats on the ocean surface – is now at its lowest physical extent ever recorded for the time of year, suggesting that it is on course to break the previous record low set in 2007.
Satellite monitoring by the NSIDC in Boulder, Colorado, shows that the melting of sea ice has been unusually fast this year, with as much as 40,000 sq km now disappearing daily.
The melt season started almost a month later than normal at the end of March and is not expected to end until September.
Meanwhile, research from the polar science centre at the University of Washington suggests that the volume of sea ice in March 2010 was 20,300 cubic km, 38% below the 1979 level when records began.
Global surface temperatures may also be at a record high, according to leading climate scientist James Hansen and colleagues at the National Aeronautic Space Administration (Nasa).
In a paper which is yet to be peer-reviewed but has been submitted to the journal Reviews of Geophysics, they suggest that the Earth has been 0.65C warmer over the past 12 months than during the 1951 to 1980 mean, and that the global temperature for 2010 will exceed the 2005 record.
Four-day school weeks gain popularity across US.
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Peach County is one of more than 120 school districts across the country where students attend school just four days a week, a cost-saving tactic gaining popularity among cash-strapped districts struggling to make ends meet. The 4,000-student district started shaving a day off its weekly school calendar last year to help fill a $1 million budget shortfall.
It was that or lay off 39 teachers the week before school started, said Superintendent Susan Clark.
"We're treading water," Clark said as she stood outside the headquarters of her seven-school district. "There was nothing else for us to do."
The results? Test scores went up.
So did attendance -- for both students and teachers. The district is spending one-third of what it once did on substitute teachers, Clark said.
And the graduation rate likely will be more than 80 percent for the first time in years, Clark said.
It was that or lay off 39 teachers the week before school started, said Superintendent Susan Clark.
"We're treading water," Clark said as she stood outside the headquarters of her seven-school district. "There was nothing else for us to do."
The results? Test scores went up.
So did attendance -- for both students and teachers. The district is spending one-third of what it once did on substitute teachers, Clark said.
And the graduation rate likely will be more than 80 percent for the first time in years, Clark said.
8 Scientists Share $3 Million in Prizes.
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Scientists competing to build humongous telescopes, elucidate the machinery by which brain cells signal each other and manipulate individual atoms and molecules into submicroscopic structures were among the winners of one of the richest prizes in science, the $1 million Kavli Prize, announced Thursday by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
The prizes, one each in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience, are awarded every other year. This year, eight scientists will share the money, $3 million in all, which comes from the Kavli Foundation, set up by Fred Kavli, a Norwegian-American physicist, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
The prizes, one each in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience, are awarded every other year. This year, eight scientists will share the money, $3 million in all, which comes from the Kavli Foundation, set up by Fred Kavli, a Norwegian-American physicist, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
George W. Bush Joins Facebook not twitter.
George W. Bush and/or staff have created a Facebook Page.
the third-person updates and marketing materials for former First Lady Laura Bush’s book are striking a less-than-personal note.
Still, fans of the page are effusive in their praise for the Bushes and have already built the page’s interaction count to an impressively high number. In around 15 hours, a total of two updates have spawned more than 2,900 reactions (that’s Likes and comments counted together), and the page has been Liked by more than 57,000 people.
India wants its rich heritage back from Britain.
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Britain expects India to shortly ask yet again for the return of its artefacts allegedly looted during the colonial period and now showcased in various British museums.
The Independent newspaper said the Archaeological Survey of India is now compiling a list of the stolen riches before launching a “diplomatic and legal campaign” for their restitution from institutions, including the British Museum, the royal collection and the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Among the items from the list quoted by the newspaper are the 2.3-metre-tall bronze Buddha statue excavated from Sultanganj in Bihar, which is now in Birmingham, and the Amravati railings, a series of limestone carvings dating from 100 A.D. and acquired from a Buddhist temple in Andhra Pradesh by Victorian explorers. The world-famous Kohinoor diamond, which was mined from Golconda and graced the crown of the then Empress of India is also on the list.
Indian Treasures in the UK
The Independent newspaper said the Archaeological Survey of India is now compiling a list of the stolen riches before launching a “diplomatic and legal campaign” for their restitution from institutions, including the British Museum, the royal collection and the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Among the items from the list quoted by the newspaper are the 2.3-metre-tall bronze Buddha statue excavated from Sultanganj in Bihar, which is now in Birmingham, and the Amravati railings, a series of limestone carvings dating from 100 A.D. and acquired from a Buddhist temple in Andhra Pradesh by Victorian explorers. The world-famous Kohinoor diamond, which was mined from Golconda and graced the crown of the then Empress of India is also on the list.
Indian Treasures in the UK
- Kohinoor diamond, which was set on the crown of Queen Elizabeth.
- Buddhist limestone reliefs from Amaravati.
- Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s jade cup.
- Tipu Sultan’s Dream Book.
- The Sultanganj Buddha (600 AD-800 AD), the largest known complete Indian metal sculpture.
Wembley's new 16-million pound temple.
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New tourist attraction in Wembley in London: a Hindu temple that has been set up after 16 million pounds and 14 years.
The imposing sand-coloured structure stands on 2.4 acres, and has been built without any metal support. Instead, construction techniques laid out in ancient Hindu scriptures were put to use. Many of the carvings in the temple were specially-made in Gujarat and then imported.
Wembley has a huge Indian population, but there were plenty of non-Indians checking out the new building. "It's unique, has beautiful interiors...it's been a long time coming but it's been worth it. I'm local, live a mile away from the mandir. I'll be visiting regularly," says a woman we met.
DIANA ‘WAS KILLED OVER PLAN TO EXPOSE UK ARMS DEALERS’- says lawyer.
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PRINCESS Diana was murdered because she planned to expose Britain’s role in the deadly arms trade, a leading defence lawyer claimed yesterday.
Michael Mansfield QC said she intended publishing an “explosive” diary to unmask those most closely involved with British land-mine manufacturing.
Mr Mansfield told the Hay Festival in Powys, Wales: “Everyone remembers she raised the profile of the land mines.
“Everybody is aware that the British involvement in the arms trade, particularly land mines, is and was a huge vested interest.
“It seems to me she had planned various visits. She had already been to Angola and she was going to Cambodia.
“A large number of land mines had been manufactured by the British. She claimed she had an explosive diary in which she was going to expose the people most closely involved in the British arms trade.”
Michael Mansfield QC said she intended publishing an “explosive” diary to unmask those most closely involved with British land-mine manufacturing.
Mr Mansfield told the Hay Festival in Powys, Wales: “Everyone remembers she raised the profile of the land mines.
“Everybody is aware that the British involvement in the arms trade, particularly land mines, is and was a huge vested interest.
“It seems to me she had planned various visits. She had already been to Angola and she was going to Cambodia.
“A large number of land mines had been manufactured by the British. She claimed she had an explosive diary in which she was going to expose the people most closely involved in the British arms trade.”
Britain's youngest mum, now fights for her baby.
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Pregnant at 11 and a parent by the age of 12, this is Britain's youngest mother holding her newborn baby.
Still a child herself, Tressa Middleton looks scared as she stares into the camera.
Now 16, Miss Middleton told yesterday how she is banned from seeing her daughter, who has been adopted by strangers.
She said she spiralled into depression and turned to alcohol, drugs and self-harm after giving birth.
But she said: 'I'm not a big drinker now and I don't smoke hash any more. In the past I've cut myself, but I don't any more. I'm going to give myself a couple of years to get my life sorted then fight for access to my little girl.'
Miss Middleton's pregnancy shocked Britain when it emerged she had conceived after having sex with a teenage boy while drunk at a party.
Kingfisher, Finnair voted among best airlines.
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Vijay Mallya-led Kingfisher Airlines has been voted the best Indian carrier and Finnair the best in north Europe in a global survey by an independent research agency - often called the Oscars of airline industry.
Kingfisher got the honours under three categories - best airline in India and Central Asia, best economy class seats and excellent staff service, while the Nordic carrier was awarded for its overall performance as a "four-star" airline.
London-based Skytrax announced the results after a survey among 18 million air passengers from some 100 different countries that was carried out between July 2009 and April 2010.
"Being recognised by Skytrax is an honour and we would like to thank our valued guests who chose to fly Kingfisher Airlines," said Mallya, whose business interests span airlines and Formula 1 racing to spirits and beer.
Kingfisher Airlines is one of just six airlines worldwide that currently meet the rigorous quality criteria which Skytrax set for this prestigious, top tier 5-Star airline ranking.
"The greatest attribute behind five-star status is an airline's ability to deliver the combination of product and service," said Skytrax chief executive Edward Plaisted.
"The renewal of the five-star ranking to Kingfisher Airlines reaffirms its standing as the only airline in India and one of only six airlines in the world which has been awarded this status."
Kingfisher got the honours under three categories - best airline in India and Central Asia, best economy class seats and excellent staff service, while the Nordic carrier was awarded for its overall performance as a "four-star" airline.
London-based Skytrax announced the results after a survey among 18 million air passengers from some 100 different countries that was carried out between July 2009 and April 2010.
"Being recognised by Skytrax is an honour and we would like to thank our valued guests who chose to fly Kingfisher Airlines," said Mallya, whose business interests span airlines and Formula 1 racing to spirits and beer.
Kingfisher Airlines is one of just six airlines worldwide that currently meet the rigorous quality criteria which Skytrax set for this prestigious, top tier 5-Star airline ranking.
"The greatest attribute behind five-star status is an airline's ability to deliver the combination of product and service," said Skytrax chief executive Edward Plaisted.
"The renewal of the five-star ranking to Kingfisher Airlines reaffirms its standing as the only airline in India and one of only six airlines in the world which has been awarded this status."
Queen to miss Commonwealth Games in India.
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The Queen will not attend the Commonwealth Games in India in October, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.
It will be the first time in decades she will not be at the sporting event - previously she has attended at some point during the games, either for the opening or closing ceremony.
Prince Charles will represent the Royal Family instead.
Buckingham Palace said the Queen would not be able to attend because of the volume of her engagements this autumn.
The Queen is the head of the Commonwealth, which marked its 60th anniversary in 2009.
It will be the first time in decades she will not be at the sporting event - previously she has attended at some point during the games, either for the opening or closing ceremony.
Prince Charles will represent the Royal Family instead.
Buckingham Palace said the Queen would not be able to attend because of the volume of her engagements this autumn.
The Queen is the head of the Commonwealth, which marked its 60th anniversary in 2009.
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