| World News  | DR Congo rebels defend fighting
Al Jazeera
The renegade general battling government forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has told Al Jazeera he accepts partial responsibility for the upheaval. But in the exclusive interview, Laurent Nkunda also defended the actions of his National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), saying they were "looking for a solution" to the country's many problems. "If you can compare Congo with other countries, there is no...
photo: AP / Jerome Delay
|  | Bush to promote action plan to deal with crisis
The Boston Globe
WASHINGTON—President George W. Bush, struggling to get ahead of a global financial crisis, hopes to win more converts for an action plan designed to demonstrate that governments have the will and the means to halt the turmoil. Embarking Friday on what could be his final overseas trip as president, Bush was headed to a summit of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Lima, Peru. Bush and eight of the...
photo: AP /Richard Drew
|  | Shiites in Baghdad protest planned US-Iraq pact
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Thousands of followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr converged on a central Baghdad square Friday for a mass prayer to protest a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact. The demonstrators waved Iraqi flags and green Shiite banners, chanting, "No, no to the American agreement!" and, "No, no to the agreement of humiliation!" Iraq's parliament is...
photo: AP / Khalid Mohammed
| Business News  | UK govt may force banks to lend
TVNZ
Nov 22, 2008 12:41 AM British finance minister Alistair Darling is considering tougher laws to force banks to lend to small businesses which are struggling with the effects of the global credit crunch, newspapers reported on Friday. The reports said Darling was looking at measures which could include capping interest rates on loans to small firms, while a leading Labour politician accused the banks of "navel gazing". Darling will deliver his...
photo: AP / Luke MacGregor/pool
|  | Oil rises towards $50
Inquirer
Most Read Business Business sees bleakest Xmas since 2001 Oil rises towards $50 Lapid confused by Senate coup Gokongwei and the ex-BSP chief - 2 Mellon: Philippines may gain from crisis Dollar recovers some ground in Asia Oil drops 7% to 3.5-year low below $50 More job losses darken global outlook Asian stocks bounce back from 5-year low No truth to call center layoffs--Arroyo Play of financial words Market plunges 4.15% Business Most Read...
photo: WN / Rubielyn Bunag
|  | European, Asian markets rebound despite US losses
Houston Chronicle
LONDON - European and Asian stock markets rebounded Friday as expectations of a recovery on Wall Street prompted investors to scoop up battered financial and energy shares. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 42.78 points, or 1.1 percent, at 3,917.77, while Germany's DAX was 46.59 points, or 1.1 percent, higher at 4,266.79. The CAC-40 in France was up 34.62 points, or 1.2 percent, at 3,015.04. The modest bounceback in Europe came...
photo: WN / Denise Yong
|  | In 2d crack at China market, Dunkin' Donuts alters recipe
The Boston Globe
The sweet potato doughnuts are a dead giveaway: This is no ordinary Dunkin' Donuts. And it was no ordinary store opening in Shanghai yesterday for the Massachusetts chain. Dancers in lion costumes exorcised evil spirits and summoned luck and fortune. Hundreds of customers lined up for their first chance at Dunkin's offerings at the new shop, a two-story venue with couches and cushy chairs. The new store heralds the chain's return...
photo: WN / sweet
| Entertainment News  | Plug pulled on Geldof switch-on
BBC News
Bob Geldof has pulled out of switching on Christmas lights in a town he is claimed to have called ugly. Mr Geldof has another commitment on 29 November and was...
photo: UN /Mark Garten
|  | Jennifer gets stalker order
News24
Los Angeles - Jennifer Garner has obtained a court order against "stalker" Steven Burky. The 36-year-old actress - who is expecting her second child with husband Ben Affleck - writes in court papers that Burky, who she alleges has been harassing her since 2002, has neared "the point of becoming dangerous and threatening". "Mr Burky has been stalking and harassing me, sending packages and letters containing delusional and paranoid thoughts and...
photo: APphoto
|  | Travolta finds his inner dog
Canada Dot Com
John Travolta dropped out of the film version of the TV soap Dallas and washed his hands of the Hairspray sequel, but he still has a few other films up his sleeve. Next year, you can see the Travolta magic in the comedy Old Dogs with Robin Williams. Then he co-stars in the Tony Scott remake of the 1970s heist thriller The Taking of Pelham 123. Currently, the actor provides the lead voice in the animated motion picture Bolt. Bolt is a spoiled TV...
photo: New Line Cinema
|  | 'Batman' draws on actor's lighter touch
Chicago Sun-Times
Diedrich Bader is bringing lightness to the Dark Knight. The former co-star of ''The Drew Carey Show'' provides the voice of Batman in the new animated superhero team-up series ''Batman: The Brave & The Bold,'' airing at 7 p.m. Fridays on Cartoon Network. But his take on the popular character will be sharply different...
photo: WN
|  | TELEVISION CRITIC'S CHOICE: WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEK
Globe and Mail
TODAY Books Into Film Bravo, 8:30 p.m. The literary series profiles J.K. Rowling, who discusses her muse and methods behind the Harry Potter novels. The program also includes interviews with Potter film stars Maggie Smith and Daniel Radcliffe. Crusoe NBC, CITY-TV, 9 p.m. The still-clean-shaven Robinson Crusoe (Phillip Winchester) is alarmed when castaway pal Friday (Tongayi Chirisa) catches a fever that causes violent behaviour. A rare plant is...
photo: (AP Photo/Bill Haber) /
|  | Movies
Review Journal
OPENING THIS WEEK BOLT The star of a TV series about a heroic superdog discovers he's not as amazing as the feats he performs when he's forced to deal with the real world on a New York-to-Hollywood trek. John Travolta and "Hannah Montana's" Miley Cyrus lead the vocal cast of Disney's latest computer-animated romp. At multiple locations in 2-D and digital 3-D versions. (96 min.) PG; mild action and peril. THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS In this...
photo: WN / Rubielyn Bunag
|  | Rosie Will Get the Last Laugh
Fox News
Rosie Will Get the Last Laugh | Sting, Costello, but No Fat Lady | Brangelina Ban at People? Rosie Will Get the Last Laugh It’s Rosie O’Donnell vs. Barbara Walters, and sorry: Rosie will get the last laugh. O’Donnell is set to take TV by storm next Wednesday when she debuts her "Rosie Live" show on NBC at 8pm. The live variety show — which will undoubtedly get a lot of press and viewers — is a try out for...
photo: WN / Aruna Gilbert
| Health News  | Fall Babies May Have Higher Asthma Risk
ABC News
By AUDREY GRAYSON ABC News Medical Unit Nov. 21, 2008 FONT SIZE Parents who are concerned about having a child with asthma may want to consider which month they conceive, a new study suggests. the time of year in which a child is born may have something to do with his or her asthma risk, a new study suggests. Children born in the fall months, before the height of cold and flu season,...
photo: WN / Denise Yong
|  | Pill as good as chemo on lung cancer, but costlier
The News & Observer
LONDON - Some advanced lung cancer patients already treated with chemotherapy might be able to skip some of the bad side effects of another series of chemo by taking a pill instead, a study suggests. An international study showed patients on Iressa, an expensive, newer targeted treatment, survived about as long as those on another course of chemotherapy. "This will provide us with another drug in our...
photo: WN / Sweet Radoc
|  | Calls for generic cigarette packs
Independent online (SA)
Johannesburg - Health experts from across the world meeting in Durban this week are discussing proposals to strip tobacco manufacturers of one of their last marketing tools: eye-catching packaging. Representatives of the 160 countries that are party to the 2003 World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control have been meeting in Durban since Monday to discuss guidelines on the...
photo: WN / Rubielyn Bunag
|  | 'I got a black eye from the relationship,' says Boris Becker as he insists fiancée ...
The Daily Mail
Wimbledon champion Boris Becker has spoken of his personal 'hell' at the SMS-message break-up of his engagement to Sandy Meyer-Woelden. Boris, 40, said he had 'never been so suddenly and violently in love' with anyone as he had been with the daughter of his late trainer. 'All my friends warned me that everything was going too fast,' he said. 'Even my mother said that to me. 'That is just the way I fell in love and there’s nothing I could do...
photo: (AP Photo/Rene Tillmann)
|  | HIV tests not yet as routine as cholesterol checks
The News & Observer
WASHINGTON - Two years after the government urged making HIV tests as common as cholesterol checks, there are small gains but still one in five people infected with the AIDS virus doesn't know it, scientists said Thursday. Eleven states that once required special consent for HIV testing have changed their laws, a key step to making an HIV test part of the standard battery that patients expect. But HIV specialists meeting Thursday said other...
photo: .(AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
|  | Mystery meat has Framingham all abuzz
The Boston Globe
FRAMINGHAM - The evidence: a 5-pound shoulder cut, a scrap cut, covered in gristle, a 10-pound roast, and a slice of liver. The crime scene: the town green. For five weeks, butcher-quality cuts of red meat - it appears to be beef - have been appearing regularly beneath a tree in the historic Town Centre Common, and the caper has perplexed just about everybody in town. Police and town health officials are investigating. Residents are bewildered,...
photo: WN / Hana Kotulanova
|  | Cozy up to comfort food
The News Tribune
EDITOR'S NOTE: Drop-In Dining is a dining report about a new or new-to-us restaurant. Reporters drop in unannounced and sample the food, on TNT's dime, then report what the scene and food was like. Have a suggestion for a drop-in dining feature? E-mail us at ">. If you're looking for a port in these stormy, troubled times, comfort food is as good a place to start as any. At BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse, new in Tacoma this fall, you'll find comfort...
photo: WN / Yolanda Leyba
|  | African farmers turn backs on tobacco
Independent online (SA)
Most African farmers grow tobacco because they are poor and lack alternative ways to earn a living, but with encouragement, many Tanzanian farmers are giving the killer crop the cold-shoulder. This is according to Lutgard Kagaruki, from the Tanzania Tobacco Control Forum, who addressed a panel at the World Health Organisation's tobacco control conference in Durban this week. Tanzania is the second biggest grower of tobacco in Africa after Malawi,...
photo: Creative Commons / auntnanny
| Politics News  | Gates meets with Obama team
News24
Washington - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates met on Thursday with president-elect Barack Obama's defence team, opening a more substantive phase of the political transition at the Defence Department. Gates, who is rumoured to stay on at the Pentagon after Obama takes office on January 20, met with the leaders of the Obama transition team, John White and Michele Flournoy, Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morrell said. "It was a very positive...
photo: US DoD / Cherie Cullen
|  | Nepal PM Prachanda offers to quit
The Times of India
21 Nov 2008, 1635 hrs IST, TNN Text: KATHMANDU: Facing strengthening public anger over the murder of two youths, allegedly by his own party cadres, and facing a persistent challenge to his leadership from his own comrades, Nepal’s Maoist prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda offered to quit on Friday , only three months after having assumed office. ‘If my stepping down as PM...
photo: AP / Binod Joshi
|  | Turkey steps up efforts to boost weakening economy
The Guardian
(Adds comments, details) By Daren Butler ISTANBUL, Nov 21 (Reuters) - The Turkish government is stepping up efforts shore up the weakening economy by raising guarantees on savers' bank deposits, media said on Friday, a day after confirming a deal was near with the IMF. Turkey's current state guarantee covers a maximum 50,000 lira ($30,000) per person but this will be raised within a week due to concerns of unfair competition for banks after...
photo: AP Photo
|  | Global crisis poses problems for Rudd
TVNZ
Nov 21, 2008 10:13 PM Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd marks one year in power with his voter approval riding high, but the global financial crisis is threatening to derail his reform plans and puncture his popularity. Rudd led the left-leaning Labor Party to power on Nov. 24, 2007, pledging to rein in government spending, fight climate change, bring troops home from Iraq and apologise to Aborigines for past injustices. But one year into a...
photo: AP / Wong Maye-E
|  | Mugabe's land of starvation...
Independent online (SA)
By Angus Shaw Mhangura - Katy Phiri, who is in her 70s, picks up single mealie kernels spilled from trucks that ferry the harvest to market. She says she hasn't eaten for three days. Rebecca Chipika, nine, prods a stick into a termite mound to draw out insects. She sweeps them into a bag for her family's evening meal. These scenes from a food catastrophe are unfolding in Doma, a rural district where journalists rarely venture. It's a stronghold...
photo: AP / Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi
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