More than 180 pilot whales were killed this week in the small town of Hvalvik in Faroe Islands during a traditional whale killing. Crowding the animals into a bay and killing them is an annual tradition for the Faroese who are descendents of Vikings, who eat pilot whales as a central part of their diet. The Faroese aren't involved in commercial whaling, so rather than selling the huge amounts of meat, they divide it evenly among their community.
AP – Mexican soldiers guard kidnapping suspects, from left to right, Mexican citizen Roman Roque, 18, U.S. …
A helicopter was used on Tuesday, May 26, to lift a traditional Swedish red cottage with white corners into its place atop of the 85 meter high Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm. The red cottage, designed by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, will stand on top of the Globe throughout the summer.
(Reuters photos)
Burjanadze said 'the only thing we have to discuss with the authorities is their resignation [AFP]
Dozens of patients were evacuated when the fire broke out on Tuesday [AFP]
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A restaurant shaped like an airplane has opened its doors for customers in Nanjing, China. The restaurant serves Western food as well as hot pot.
(Reuters photos).
Inmates in Singapore's Changi Prison participated on Tuesday, May 26, in a cooking competition. The winners will be rewarded with an opportunity to cook for visiting family members. The competition is organized by the Yellow Ribbon project, which hopes to encourage greater family and societal acceptance of ex-offenders.
(Reuters photos)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The California Supreme Court has upheld a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, but it also decided that the estimated 18,000 gay couples who tied the knot before the law took effect will stay wed.
The decision Tuesday rejected an argument by gay rights activists that the ban revised the California constitution's equal protection clause to such a dramatic degree that it first needed the Legislature's approval
The announcement of the decision caused outcry among a sea of demonstrators who had gathered in front of the San Francisco courthouse awaiting the ruling.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)—The nation's most populous state stood poised to recapture the spotlight in the debate over gay marriage as California's highest court prepared to rule on the legality of a voter-approved ban on same-sex unions.
The California Supreme Court planned to hand down its decision Tuesday in a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn November's Proposition 8.
Gay rights advocates maintain the ballot measure so dramatically revised the state constitution's equal protection clause that it needed the Legislature's approval before it could be put to voters.
If the seven-member court upholds the initiative as a constitutional expression of the electorate's will, it also will be deciding whether to sustain the marriages of an estimated 18,000 gay couples who wed before the measure passed with 52 percent of the vote.
Proposition 8 superseded the Supreme Court's May 2008 ruling that legalized same-sex unions by changing the state constitution to outlaw them. In that 4-3 decision, the court majority invalidated California's marriage statutes, holding that denying same-sex couples the right to wed amounted to state-sanctioned discrimination.
But based on the skeptical questions raised during oral arguments, legal experts have doubted the same four justices would undermine California's powerful citizen initiative process by invalidating the new ban.
Since that March hearing, however, three other states—Iowa, Maine and Vermont—have joined Massachusetts and Connecticut in making same-sex marriage legal. The trend has offered gay rights advocates hope that the court might elect to make California the sixth state to extend marriage to gays and lesbians.
"Many of us are heading into Tuesday filled with both hope and determination," said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. "And we need to be clear that regardless of how the court rules, we will need both for whatever the next steps are."
Gay rights advocates have scheduled marches throughout California and in several other states for Tuesday evening. Organizers say the gatherings will be celebratory if the court rules in their favor and angry if Proposition 8 is upheld.
Activists in the San Francisco Bay area, including several clergy members, said they planned to block the street outside the courthouse and to be arrested in a mass show of civil disobedience if the justices do not invalidate the measure.
"Words are not enough right now. We believe it's time to put our bodies on the line to show that separate is not equal," said Kip Williams, an activist with One Struggle, One Fight, a group that was launched in response to Proposition 8's passage.
In tense anticipation of the news to come, about 400 same-sex marriage supporters attended an interfaith prayer service held Monday night at San Francisco's Episcopal Grace Cathedral.
The Rev. Roland Stringfellow, with the Pacific School of Religion, said the service was meant to show how many communities of faith stand with gay couples on this issue. Among those to offer prayers were a Sikh mother, a Buddhist nun, a Jewish rabbi and Episcopal Bishop Marc Andrus.
Proposition 8's supporters, meanwhile, have not planned any organized events to accompany the decision. If a court majority invalidates the measure, angry voters would funnel their energy into unseating the justices who went along with the decision, predicted Frank Schubert, who managed the successful Yes on 8 campaign.
"If the court were to go as far as throwing it out, saying the people do not have the power to amend their constitution, then they are going to have to ultimately answer to the people," Schubert said.
One couple who will be anxiously awaiting the ruling are Karen Strauss and Ruth Borenstein, the lead plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits challenging Proposition 8.
The two women, partners for 17 years, had wanted to marry in the presence of their parents, who live in Florida. But Strauss' 84-year-old mother is dying of cancer, and they now realize she won't live long enough to attend their dream wedding no matter what.
"People who don't know us, who have nothing to lose by our decisions, had the opportunity to decide for us this most private and personal decision," said Strauss, 51, who will be across the country at her mother's bedside when the decision comes down. "That is a personally painful position to be in, whichever way it goes."
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
France hopes the base will raise its profile in the Gulf, and could help it win defence contacts [AFP]
Karadzic faces 11 charges for genocide, war crime and crimes against humanity during the Bosnia war [EPA]
Lawyers for Radovan Karadzic have called on the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal to drop charges against him, saying he was promised immunity from prosecution by Richard Holbrooke, the US peace envoy.
Holbrooke assured the former Bosnian Serb leader in July 1996 that he would not face charges if he relinquished power and left public life, according to documents filed at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague, Netherlands, on Monday.
"Dr Karadzic honoured his part of the agreement. He now seeks to require the tribunal to honour Holbrooke's part," the motion read.
Karadzic faces 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities carried out during the 1992-5 Bosnia war.
The 63-year-old claims that Holbrooke made the promise during a meeting in Belgrade, Serbia's capital.
'Another lie'
Karadzic was not at the meeting, but those present, including Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serb president, Jovica Stanisic, his intelligence chief, Momlico Krajisnik, the Bosnian Serb assembly speaker and Aleksa Buha, the foreign minister, told him of the detail, according to the motion.
Holbrooke has denied the existence of such an agreement, describing Karadzic's claim as "no more than another lie from the most evil man in Europe".
Karadzic has said Krajisnik and Buha could give evidence that Holbrooke offered the deal and claims he has 15 witnesses who support the claim. Stanisic is considered to be too ill to make a statement.
Milosevic died in 2006 while being tried for war crimes.
Peter Robinson, Karadzic's legal adviser, said documents included in the motion, such as statements, articles and a US government cable, should be enough for the tribunal to hold a hearing on the claims of an offer of immunity.
"Our hope is that they will at least have an evidentiary hearing. It's convincing enough for an evidentiary hearing for sure," he said.
Prison threat
The tribunal has said that any such deal would not be binding and could not grant Karadzic immunity from prosecution.
Holbrooke, the architect of the Dayton peace agreement that ended the Bosnian conflict, is now the US representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Karadzic would face life in prison if convicted of charges over events related to the three-and-a-half year siege of Sarajevo, which left 10,000 people dead, and the massacre of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica in July 1995.
He was arrested on a Belgrade bus in July 2008, 13 years after he was first charged by the ICTY.
The tribunal entered not guilty pleas on Karadzic's behalf in March.
Source:Agencies
The Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft was transported on Monday, May 25, to Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in preparation for the scheduled 20th expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). During a 180-day mission, due in two days, the six-member crew will receive and unload three Russian Progress craft and a Japanese HTV-1 space freighter, conduct two spacewalks and carry out a series of scientific experiments. (Reuters photos)
Sixteen new king and gentoo penguins arrived in Melbourne Aquarium on Monday, May 25, for a new breeding program. The Southern Ocean and Antarctic aquarium in central Melbourne is famous for breeding programs of endangered sea species.
Iran has sent six warships to international waters, including the Gulf of Aden, to show its ability to confront any foreign threats, its naval commander said on Monday.
Monday, 25 May 2009 14:16
Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, quoted by the ISNA news agency, made the announcement five days after Iran said it test-fired a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles). Iran said on May 14 it had sent two warships to the Gulf of Aden to protect oil tankers from the world's fifth-largest crude exporter against attacks by pirates but ISNA did not make clear whether they were among the six Sayyari talked about. Iranian waters stretch along the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman. Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 40 percent of the world's traded oil is shipped, if it were attacked over its nuclear programme."Iran has dispatched six ... warships to international waters and the Gulf of Aden region in an historically unprecedented move by the Iranian Navy," Sayyari told a gathering of armed forces officials, IRNA reported. Sayyari said that preserving Iran's territorial integrity in its southern waters called for the "perseverance and firmness" of the navy. The move to dispatch the warships "is indicative of the country's high military capability in confronting any foreign threat on the country's shores," Sayyari said. The ISNA report did not mention the threat of pirate attacks, which, fuelled by large ransoms, have continued almost unabated despite the presence of an armada of foreign warships patrolling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.In January, pirates released an Iranian-chartered cargo ship carrying 36,000 tonnes of wheat to Iran from Germany that was seized in November. In March, a regional maritime official said Somali villagers had detained another Iranian vessel. Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year, heading to and from the Suez Canal. Seven percent of world oil consumption passed through the Gulf of Aden in 2007, according to Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit.Reuters
The latest North Korean test is likely to inflame already strained relations in the region [Reuters]
Key dates in the history of nuclear weapons development in North Korea:
1986: North Korea begins operations of a 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon built with Soviet help.
1993: North Korea announces it will quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, later suspends its withdrawal.
1994: North Korea and the United States sign an agreement in Geneva. The North pledges to freeze - and eventually dismantle - its plutonium-based nuclear weapons programme in exchange for help building two power-producing nuclear reactors.
September 17, 1999: Bill Clinton, the US president, agrees to first major easing of economic sanctions against North Korea since the Korean War's end in 1953.
October 23-24, 2000: Madeleine Albright, the US secretary of state, visits Pyongyang, the highest-ranking US official ever to visit North Korea.
January 29, 2002: George Bush, the US president, labels North Korea, Iran and Iraq an "axis of evil."
October 4, 2002: North Korea tells visiting US delegation it has a uranium enrichment programme, Washington says.
November 11, 2002: US and Asian allies - Japan, South Korea - halt oil supplies to the North promised in the 1994 deal and suspend construction of two new reactors.
January 10, 2003: North Korea says it will withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
August 27-29, 2003: North Korea joins first round of six-nation talks, involving envoys from China, Japan, Russia, the US and South Korea.
February 25-28, 2004: Second round of six-nation talks.
June 23-26, 2004: Third round of six-nation talks.
February 10, 2005: North Korea announces it has nuclear weapons.
July 26, 2005: Fourth round of six-nation talks is held, ending in recess after 13 days with no agreement. September 13, 2005: Six-nation talks resume.
September 15, 2005: US blacklists Macau-based bank for alleged counterfeiting and money-laundering by North Korea, leading the bank to freeze North Korean assets.
September 19, 2005: North Korea promises to dismantle nuclear programmes in exchange for pledges of energy assistance; US says it has no plans to invade, and will respect North's sovereignty in an agreement ending talks.
November 9-11, 2005: Fifth round of six-nation talks.
January 3, 2006: North Korea says it will not return to talks unless the US lifts financial restrictions imposed in 2005.
July 5, 2006: North Korea launches seven missiles - including a long-range model - into the Sea of Japan, drawing international condemnation and a UN Security Council resolution condemning the act.
October 9, 2006: North Korea says it has conducted its first-ever nuclear test.
October 14, 2006: UN Security Council unanimously adopts a resolution imposing wide-ranging economic and diplomatic sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear test.
December 18-22, 2006: Six nations envoys meet in wake of nuclear test, no breakthrough made.
January 16-18, 2007: US and North Korean envoys meet in Berlin.
February 8-13, 2007: Six-nation talks resume in Beijing, a tentative agreement on disarming Pyongyang is reached. The draft plan contains commitments on disarmament and energy aid along with "initial actions" to be taken by certain deadlines.
July 14, 2007: North Korea says it has shut down the Yongbyon reactor.
September 6, 2007: Israeli plans attack and destroy a site in Syria. After months of speculation the US later says the site was a nuclear reactor under construction with North Korean help, following a design similar to the Yongbyon plant.
November 2007: North Korea begins disabling Yongbyon reactor under surpervision of international - including US - experts.
December 31, 2007: North Korea misses agreed deadline for it to submit a full declaration of all its nuclear activities.
May 2008: North Korea hands US officials more than 18,000 pages of records on the Yongbyon plant. The US later says it will provide 50,000 tons of much-needed food aid to North Korea as a humanitarian gesture.
June 26, 2008: North Korea hands over much-delayed declaration of nuclear activities. US announces it will remove North Korea from list of state sponsors of terrorism.
June 27, 2008: In a symbolic gesture of its commitment to ending its nuclear programme, North Korea destroys the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear plant. The reactor itself had already been disabled.
July 12, 2008: Negotiators from six nations agree on steps to verify nuclear disarmament. North Korea is to finish disabling Yongbyon by the end of October while the US, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea would complete deliveries of fuel oil and other economic aid.
July 24, 2008: Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, and Pak Ui-chun, North Korea's foreign minister, meet during the highest level of diplomatic contact between the two countries in four years, to reaffirm commitments to nuclear disablement.
August 26, 2008: North Korea announces reversal of disablement work at Yongbyon facilities in response to the US' refusal to remove Pyongyang from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
October 11, 2008: The US says it will take the North off the list following a verbal agreement it will continue dismantling the nuclear plant.
February 23, 2009: Sorth Korea says North Korea has a new type of ballistic missile capable of reaching northern Australia and the Pacific island of Guam.
April 5, 2009: North Korea launches a rocket carrying what it insists is a communications satellite, but the move draws accusations it was testing a long-range missile. The UN Security Council responds by imposing further sanctions.
April 14-25, 2009: North Korea announces move to quit six-party nuclear talks and re-start operations at partly-disabled Yongbyon. It also expelled UN inspectors, and later announced that the reprocessing of spent fuel rods has begun.
April 29, 2009: Angered by criticisms over its rocket launch, the North threatens to conduct nuclear test and test long-range ballistic missile unless the UN Security Council apologises for imposing sanctions.
May 7-12, 2009: Special US envoy on North Korea visits Asia, saying Washington is ready for direct talks with Pyongyang. But the North dismisses the offer as useless, citing the US' "hostile policy".
May 25, 2009: North Korea confirms successful underground nuclear test, raising the explosive power and level of control of its nuclear device. The test raises regional tensions and draws international condemnation.
Source:Al Jazeera
Ahmadinejad is said to face a difficult task in being re-elected next month [AFP]
Mawazine music festival ends in tragedy
The stampede caused a fence to give way, killing five women, two teenagers and four men
The mountainous region of Ausseerland celebrates on May 21-24 the 50th anniversary of the Daffodil Festival. The carnival sees the Daffodil Queen and the famous car and boat parades. The annual event, first organized in 1960, has become a highlight of the spring season and the largest flower festival in Austria.
US soldiers quarantined in their military base: minister
The arrests relate to a bombing that targeted tourists in a Cairo neighbourhood in February [EPA]
Following a century of exploration and research, Mexico removed the curtains to show the world its astounding "Teotihuacan, City of Gods" exhibition in Mexico City's anthropology museum. With more than 400 pieces on display until August 29, the exhibition shows pre-Hispanic figures representing political and various aspects of the old city. 
