A blind legal activist who escaped house arrest in his Chinese village is under the protection of American officials, activists said Saturday, creating a diplomatic dilemma for the U.S. and China days ahead of a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.Chen Guangcheng, who has exposed forced abortions and sterilizations in villages as a result of China's one-child policy, fled from his g

World News April 29, 2012

British police on Wednesday asked Portugal to reopen the case of missing girl Madeleine McCann, saying that as the fifth anniversary of her disappearance approaches there is a possibility she is still alive.Police also released a new image of what McCann would likely look like today, expressing hope that she would be found even years after the then-3-year-old vanished on May 3 while on a trip to P

Social Affairs April 26, 2012

A man was in custody on Thursday after he allegedly kidnapped, handcuffed and repeatedly sexually assaulted a Japanese woman, reportedly a tourist, in Sydney.Chief Inspector Rick Johnson told reporters the victim, 29, got to know the man after arriving in Australia in January. She travelled around the country and met up with him again on Tuesday.It was then that her ordeal began."The offender made

Social Affairs April 25, 2012

Almost 70 dwarves will soon live with dignity and comfort in a village in north-eastern India that is being set up with special homes adapted to their stature, a news report said Tuesday.A theatre personality in Assam state planned the village in the central Udalguri district, the IANS news agency reported."I have got land for the project 'Amar Gaon' meaning Our Villagein Assamese," Pabitra Rabha

World News April 25, 2012

U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday he knows what it's like to come out of college in debt and that's why Congress can't let student loan rates skyrocket.Obama took his campaign to get Congress to take action to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where 8,000 people jammed Carmichael Arena to hear him."Michelle and I, we've been in your shoes. Like I said, we didn't come from weal

World News April 25, 2012

South Korea plans to take bids for its stake in Woori Finance Holdings Co. in a third attempt to sell the nation’s largest financial company by assets.The government will hold an international auction and announce details on the plan soon, Financial Services Commission Chairman Kim Seok Dong said in Seoul today. Local and foreign investors’ bids will be treated equally, he said.The sale is part of

April 25, 2012

Standard & Poor's on Monday downgraded its credit rating outlook for Argentina from stable to negative, after Buenos Aires seized control of the country's largest oil company YPF."In our view, the recent government policies could increase risks to Argentina's macroeconomic framework, squeeze its external liquidity, and hinder medium-term growth prospects," the ratings agency said in a statement.As

World Business April 24, 2012

Chinese President Hu Jintao met with a top North Korean envoy in a reaffirmation of traditional ties following Chinese pique over Pyongyang's recent attempted rocket launch.State broadcaster CCTV made no mention of the failed April 13 launch in its report on Hu's meeting Monday with Workers' Party international relations chief Kim Yong Il at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing.Hu

North Korea April 24, 2012

The FBI warned Monday that more than 300,000 Internet users worldwide could lose their Web access starting in July following a multi-million-dollar scam.But users can breathe a sigh of relief as a solution is just a few clicks away at dcwg.org, a website the FBI created so people could check whether they have been infected with malware and remove any malicious software.Six Estonians were arrested

Technology April 24, 2012

Criminality worldwide generates proceeds in the trillions of dollars each year, making crime one of the world's ``top 20 economies,'' a senior U.N. official said MondayWith the scope of global crime _ and particularly organized crime _ threatening emerging economies and fomenting international instability, Yury Fedotov called for concerted world action to combat the trend.``We need to recognize th

World News April 24, 2012

Seven businesspeople have been detained on charges of illegally releasing the personal information of more than 11 million people, selling some of the data to insurance companies for profit, police said Monday.The Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency said they apprehended two people who operate an Internet shopping mall on suspicion of sharing the private information of 11.75 million clients and memb

Social Affairs April 23, 2012

A Texas teenager was arrested for allegedly conning folks in the El Paso area with a false story about battling cancer.Angie Gomez, 19, Horizon City, was indicted by an El Paso County grand jury on theft-by-deception for allegedly accepting about $17,000 in donations based on claims she had been stricken with leukemia.She was locked up Friday on $50,000 bond.Gomez had told her high school classmat

Technology April 23, 2012