Russian election: Crowds gather for Moscow protests

Protesters gather in Moscow, St Petersburg and Vladivostok Thousands of protesters have gathered in Moscow in a show of anger over disputed parliamentary polls. The opposition says the protest - on an island just south of the Kremlin - could become the largest the country has seen in two decades. Smaller rallies have taken place in cities across the country. Protesters allege there was widespread fraud in Sunday's polls - though the ruling United Russia party saw its share of the vote fall sharply. Hundreds of people have been arrested during anti-Putin protests over the past week, mainly in Moscow and St Petersburg. At least 50,000 police and riot troops were deployed in Moscow ahead of Saturday's...

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Posted in: Politics,Russia,Society

Moscow Braces for Anti-Putin Rally

Russian authorities have decided to allow the opposition to hold a massive protest against election fraud. Rally organizers said Friday up to 30,000 protesters are expected at the demonstration Saturday, on a square across the river from the Kremlin. The announcement of the rally follows a violent crackdown on a series of demonstrations earlier this week, after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party won parliamentary elections Sunday. The prime minister's party barely held on to the lower house, but opposition parties and observers contend the winning results were probably inflated. Mr. Putin appears to be set to win the March election, which would return him to the president's office. Thursday, he lashed out at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton because...

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Posted in: Politics,Russia,Society

Pro-Democracy Protests Put Putin, Russia at Turning Point

Supporters of Russian communist party hold a rally to protest against violations at the parliamentary elections in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, December 9, 2011. Is the Arab Spring moving North to become the Russian Winter? With democracy demonstrations to take place across Russia on Saturday, the world’s largest nation may be at a crossroads.From his prison cell near the Arctic Circle, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed Russian tycoon, captured the core of Russia’s political impasse when he predicted a few weeks ago that the key question would not be who will win Russia’s elections, but how much will the fraud undermine the legitimacy of Vladimir Putin’s government?On Saturday, barely one week after Russia’s parliamentary...

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Posted in: Europea,Politics,violence

No explosive found in northern Vietnam's deadly bike explosion

No traces of explosives were found in the motorbike explosion that killed a pregnant woman and critically injured her daughter in northern Vietnam last week, a news website quoted a local official as saying on Tuesday. With the latest finding, it can be concluded that the accident wasn’t a murder related to personal conflicts, as initially suspected, the unnamed official said on Giao Duc Vietnam (Vietnam’s Education) – the news website of Vietnamese universities’ association. According to the official from the Ministry of Public Security’s forensic science institute, initial inspections also identified that the explosion started at the bike’s battery adjacent to the fuel tank. Inspections are still underway to...

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Posted in: Society,Vietnam

4,000 years old but still in working order

Quang Tri Province’s best known tourist attractions are DMZ tours, Cam Lo Market, and relics of an uprising led by a man who was crowned as King Ham Nghi in 1885, becoming the eighth emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty. But the north central province also has some lesser known gems to offer to visitors, one of them being a network of wells that is said to be 4,000 years old. The wells belong to the Neolithic period when wet rice cultivation was practiced. During a recent visit to Hao Son Village in Gio Linh District, we saw the network of 14 shallow wells that the Ministry of Culture and Information recognized as “the nation’s historic and cultural relic” in the early 1980s. The wells are only about 20km northwest...

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Posted in: Tour in Vietnam

Bill Gates Teams With China on New Nuclear Reactor

Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has teamed with China to jointly develop a new type of nuclear reactor, which would be better for the environment and reduce the need for uranium enrichment and reprocessing. Gates says the traveling wave reactor technology is low-cost, very safe and will generate little waste. He spoke at a news conference Wednesday in Beijing following talks with officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology.Gates says about $1 billion will be put into the project over the next five years. The reactor is being developed through TerraPower, a company co-founded by Gates, and the state-owned China National Nuclear Cooperation. The company says that once produced, the Generation Four reactor will offer a "zero-emission, proliferation-resistant...

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Posted in: Asia,Science

Egypt's Islamists Claim Victory in Election Runoffs

Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzoury (file photo) Egypt's largest Islamist party claimed victory Wednesday after electoral officials said it won a majority of runoff contests in the first round of parliamentary elections.The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party said 24 of 44 winners announced by the election officials were its candidates, while another four were from its allies. The Brotherhood's party had already won the largest share of seats reserved for parties in last week's vote, securing 37 percent of ballots in Cairo, Alexandria and seven other provinces, compared to 24 percent for its nearest rival, the ultra-conservative Salafist Nour party.  Egypt's liberal coalition was a distant third.Two more...

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Posted in: European,Politics

U.S. stocks end higher, with Dow up 1.4% on week

By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday, with the three benchmark indexes scoring gains for the week, as European leaders agreed to closer fiscal ties and U.S. consumer confidence hit a six-month high. “It’s an important step towards being able to right their fiscal house, and for the euro to remain the single currency,” Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott, said of the accord reached at the European Union summit. “But it doesn’t cure the immediate issue of low or in some countries negative growth,” he added of the euro region. Logging a second consecutive week of gains, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ...

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Posted in: Business,USA

Skywatchers await lunar eclipse

Refracted sunlight can turn the Moon a spectacular shade of red Skywatchers in Australia, Asia and North America are gearing up for a total lunar eclipse on Saturday. This is the second total lunar eclipse this year and the last until 2014. This type of eclipse occurs when the Earth casts its shadow over the Moon. But indirect sunlight can still illuminate the Moon turning it a dramatic shade of red. The shadow starts falling at 11:33 GMT and ends after 17:30 GMT. The eclipse will last 51 minutes eight seconds. The action will unfold on Saturday night (local time) in Australia and Asia, where views will be the best. Viewers in the western half of the US will have the best views on Saturday well...

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Posted in: Science

N.Y.U. to Offer Classes on Occupy Wall Street

Protesters living inside the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park in October. Occupy Wall Street is becoming a teachable moment for New York City college students. New York University plans to offer two classes next semester on the protest movement, whose participants frequently marched and rallied around the school’s Greenwich Village campus this fall. The for-credit undergraduate class, offered through the university’s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, examines economy and culture. The class has a rotating focus, and for the coming semester, it will be called “Why Occupy Wall Street? The History and Politics of Debt and Finance.” “The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations are catching on across the United states,...

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Posted in: Society,USA

Activists: Tibetan Dies After Self-immolation

(Breakingnews) Tibetan groups in exile say a former Buddhist monk has died several days after setting himself on fire to protest Chinese rule in Tibet. Activists said Friday that Tenzin Phuntsog died of his burns in a hospital in Tibet on December 6. Chinese officials have not confirmed his death. Rights groups said Tenzin Phuntsog had set himself on fire on December 1 near the Karma monastery in Tibet's Chamdo area. The rights groups say he had been scattering leaflets criticizing Beijing and shouting anti-China slogans just before he set himself on fire. Chinese police put out the flames and took him to hospital. Ten former or current monks and two nuns have set themselves on fire in ethnically Tibetan parts of southwest China this year to protest religious repression....

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Posted in: China,Politics,Tibet,violence

China WTO Anniversary Marked by Progress, Challenges

Forklift arranges shipping containers near Shanghai port, China, March 2, 2011 (file photo). It was 10 years ago this Sunday, Dec. 11th, when China joined the World Trade Organization.Since then, the country has grown to become the world's second largest economy and millions of Chinese have been lifted out of extreme poverty. But while China made dramatic reforms after joining the global trade club, analysts say the process of moving away from being a state-planned to a more open economy has not been a definitive success, and many challenges remain.The view from BeijingFrom China’s perspective, the past decade has been a period of historic change.According to a recent opinion piece in the state-run China Daily, since becoming a...

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Posted in: China,Society

Vietnam Benefiting From Closer Ties With U.S. Despite ‘Continued and Worsening Crackdown’ on Dissent

By Patrick Goodenough Secretary of State Hillary Clinton applauds after signing a memorandum of understanding for U.S. support of HIV/AIDS programs in Vietnam, in Hanoi on Thursday, July 22, 2010. (AP Photo) (CNSNews.com) – As the Obama administration pursues its “Pacific century” vision, some critics worry that one country with which it seeks to develop a new partnership is continuing to get away with human rights abuses, despite some modest signs of improvement. Vietnam’s communist government over the summer and fall arrested at least 15 religious activists – members of the Catholic and Presbyterian churches – charging most under a controversial “subversion” article of the country’s penal code that carries a range of punishments...

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Posted in: Asia,Society,USA,Vietnam

Eurozone leaders reach new deal without backing of Britain

EU leaders reach deal without Britain (CNN) -- A majority of European leaders agreed early Friday on a new deal to try to resolve the continent's debt crisis, but Britain refused to back a broader treaty change. The 17 members of the eurozone, which share the embattled single currency, reached a deal for a new intergovernmental treaty to deepen the integration of national budgets. Six other EU nations supported the deal. "We're doing everything we can to save the euro," President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said at a news conference in Brussels following a marathon summit meeting of EU leaders. But the new plan, which leaders are aiming to have ready by March, did not get the backing of Britain Three other countries -- the Czech Republic,...

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Posted in: European,Politics,Society

Pope on preparing for Christmas: ''We must let ourselves be illumined by the ray of Light that comes from Bethlehem''

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 5, 2011 - Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave Sunday before and after praying the midday Angelus. Dear brothers and sisters! This Sunday marks the second stage of Advent. This period of the liturgical year highlights two figures who had a pre-eminent role in the preparation of Jesus Christ’s entering into history: the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist. Today’s text from the Gospel of Mark focuses precisely on the latter. In fact it describes the personality and mission of the Precursor of Christ (cf. Mark 1:2-8). Beginning with externals, John is presented as a very ascetic figure: he is clothed in camel skins, he eats locusts and wild honey and he lives in the wilderness of Judea (cf. Mark 1:6). Jesus himself, once contrasted him with...

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Posted in: Religion,Vatican

Virginia Tech: Ross Truett Ashley named as gunman

Police were unable to say what Ashley's motive was for killing the officer The gunman who shot a Virginia Tech police officer and then turned the gun on himself was a 22-year-old from a nearby university, police say. Police and Virginia Tech named Deriek Crouse's killer as Ross Truett Ashley, a Radford University student. Officials said Ashley had stolen a car on Wednesday from a real estate office in Radford, which was later found on the Virginia Tech campus. The shooting triggered a campus lockdown. Ashley, who was enrolled part-time at Radford, reportedly entered a real estate office with a handgun and demanded the keys to an employees' vehicle, police said. The vehicle, a white Mercedes SUV,...

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Posted in: Society,USA,violence

Religious freedom for China's future

By Bernardo Cervellera - Asianews The arrest, kidnapping and self-immolation of Tibetan monks are only one of the many faces with which China reasserts its power over religion. Even Catholic priests suffer arrests, control, the disappearances of bishops, disdain for the Pope and the Holy See. Religious awareness is growing in Chinese society, but Beijing is trying to wipe it out. Yet, only religion can save China from implosion. Rome (AsiaNews) – Once again news of more arrests of Tibetan monks has reached us, after the terrible images of young monks and nuns who set themselves on fire for freedom. The violence against the Tibetan communities is only one aspect of the machine that dominates religions in China and tries to destroy...

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Posted in: China,Politics,Religion,Society

Vietnamese blogger arrested, family demands to know where he is and how he is

 Police raid home of writer Huynh Ngoc Tuan, who spent 10 years in prison. His nephew arrested, fines against him and his two children announced. In November they were charged with "propaganda against the Party and State." Hanoi (AsiaNews) - The Vietnamese police have targeted an entire family of bloggers,  arresting Huynh Ngoc Le,  nephew of the writer Huynh Ngoc Tuan, 48 (pictured), who has spent 10 years in prison, up to 2002 , who has been fined. Economic sanctions also against his two children. According to Radio Free Asia, the episode took place last Friday at Tam Ky, in central Vietnam. Huynh Thuc Vy, Huynh Ngoc Tuan's daughter, a hundred officers arrived at 15, blocked the road and began a search of their...

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Posted in: Asia,Society,Vietnam

TOEIC IDOM: UNIT 4 - SALES AND MARKETING

Person A: Did you attend Sally’s presentation?  Person B: No, I missed it, but I read her e-mail,  Person A: It was great. No one expected her to be so plugged in to the customers’ needs. She really blew them away. I think the new product released will jumpstart our sales this quarter. It’s a long short, but I think we may reach the 5 million dollar mark.  Person B: The new program is very user-friendly, which should increase sales.  Person A: I agree. I think that the new management has a good game plan. First of  all, they have an excellent team. The new vice president has hired really good salespeople who interface well with the customers. She knows that good customer relationships are critical to our success. She’s also spending a lot on this new marketing...

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Posted in: Learning English