SUPPORTERS of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi have protested outside several ministries in further defiance of a government ultimatum to dismantle their sprawling Cairo protest camps.
Oops! Please register or log in to continue. (It's quick, easy and free.) Continue
DAME Kiri Te Kanawa says she is so happy to land the role of famed opera singer Dame Nellie Melba in Downton Abbey she has named her new pet dog after the hit show.
The star said she "couldn't say yes fast enough" when she was offered the guest spot in the new series.
She plays the real-life Australian singer who was one of the biggest singing stars of the early 20th century.
Dame Kiri said she studied a diary of Dame Nellie's performances over 30 years to get into the role and chose suitable songs for the part which sees her perform at a party at the fictional country house.
The New Zealand singer said she was "not sure" she really acted in her scenes with the cast, which includes some spoken lines as well.
"I was trying to stay true to the character because as (show writer) Julian Fellowes said 'she's the only true character' that actually lived," she said.
Producer Gareth Neame said her performance had gone down a storm, adding: "It was the sight of all these tough electricians and grips and all the people you see on a film set with tears in their eyes and wiping a tear away as they heard you. It was quite a special day."
Dame Kiri admitted she was nervous before she arrived on set.
"It was a long day but I made it longer by staying up most of the night," she said.
"The most incredible thing is I took my two dogs along and Lady Carnarvon didn't want those anywhere near the place but the thing is during the time I was expecting doggy number three and she's called Abbey as in Downton.
"She's my little Downton prize".
The new series, which starts on UK television later this year, is set in 1922 and sees the characters dealing with the aftermath of the death of Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens).
A WOMAN has been charged with terror offences over video clips about the London murder of soldier Lee Rigby.
Rebekah Dawson, 21, from Hackney, east London, is accused of dissemination of terrorist publications and encouragement of terrorism, and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.
She is jointly charged along with Royal Barnes, 22, also from Hackney, who appeared at the same court on Monday to face terror charges linked to the footage.
Dawson is accused of making two video recordings on May 22, the day of Fusilier Rigby's murder, and distributing them with the intention of encouraging others in the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism.
She is also accused of encouraging terrorism by publishing a statement with Barnes entitled "Muslim laughs at British Soldier killing".
Barnes is due to appear at the Old Bailey on Friday.
Jon Ralph, Greg Davis PAUL Roos has confirmed he had spoken to Brisbane about their coaching position a month ago, as Michael Voss was left reeling from his sudden sacking.
THE US Justice Department has filed suit to block the $12 billion merger between American Airlines and US Airways, saying it would hurt competition.
Jon Ralph, Greg Davis PAUL Roos has confirmed he had spoken to Brisbane about their coaching position a month ago, as Michael Voss was left reeling from his sudden sacking.
THE US Justice Department has filed suit to block the $12 billion merger between American Airlines and US Airways, saying it would hurt competition.
CANADA'S transportation agency says a US-based rail company whose runaway oil train caused a fire and explosion that killed 47 people in a Quebec town has lost its operating licence.
Oops! Please register or log in to continue. (It's quick, easy and free.) Continue
SCIENTISTS say they have used stem cells to grow human heart tissue that contracted spontaneously in a petri dish - marking progress in the quest to manufacture transplant organs.
Oops! Please register or log in to continue. (It's quick, easy and free.) Continue
THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slashed its 2014 growth forecast for China, Australia's number one trading partner.
Updating its April World Economic Outlook on Tuesday, the IMF downgraded its world growth forecast for this year and next, driven to a large extent by "appreciably weaker" domestic demand and slower growth in several key emerging market economies.
The euro area is also expected to suffer a more protracted recession than earlier predicted.
The IMF urged policymakers everywhere to increase efforts to ensure robust growth.
"Weaker growth prospects and new risks raise new challenges to global growth and employment, and global rebalancing," the IMF warned.
It cut its world growth forecast for 2013 to 3.1 per cent and to 3.8 per cent for 2014, both 0.2 percentage points lower than it predicted in April.
For China, it now sees 2013 growth at 7.8 per cent, down 0.3 percentage points from previous, and 2014 growth at 7.7 per cent, an even larger 0.6 percentage point downgrade.
Forecasts for advanced economies that includes the G7 countries - US, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, UK and Canada - were also trimmed.
While the Washington-based institution did not provide a separate new forecast for Australia, "other advanced economies" were cut by 0.1 percentage point for both 2013 and 2014 to 2.3 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively.
"Downside risks to global growth prospects still dominate," the IMF warned.
"While old risks remain, new risks have emerged, including the possibility of a longer growth slowdown in emerging market economies, especially given risks of lower potential growth, slowing credit, and possibly tighter financial conditions."
The latter could result from an anticipated unwinding of monetary policy stimulus in the US.
Federal Treasurer Chris Bowen said the Australian economy was still expected to grow faster than advanced economies as a whole, both this year and next.
In the May budget, the government forecast growth of 2.75 per cent in the 2013/14 financial and three per cent in 2014/15.
Mr Bowen said while the IMF has revised down world growth forecasts, China and India are still forecast to grow at a solid rate in 2013.
India, another key Australian trading partner, was downgraded 0.2 percentage points to 5.6 per cent for 2013 and by 0.1 percentage point to 6.3 per cent for 2014.
"Australia is not immune from global economic and financial uncertainty," Mr Bowen said in a statement.
"This underlines the need for responsible settings and policies to help manage the transition underway in our economy, and to support productivity, jobs and growth in the face of ongoing global economic weakness."
A GERMAN artist has projected the message "United Stasi of America" onto the US embassy in Berlin, likening reported sweeping Internet surveillance by Washington to spying by the former East German secret police.
A US embassy spokesperson told AFP: "Very funny. But anyone making such a comparison knows neither the Stasi nor the United States."
The reference to the former communist Staatssicherheit or Stasi police was beamed at night onto the US mission by German artist Oliver Bienkowski, in collaboration with Internet tycoon and online activist Kim Dotcom.
"I defaced the U.S. embassy in Berlin with a truth-projection last night. 0wned!" tweeted New Zealand-based Dotcom.
Dotcom, a German national, is the founder of file-sharing website Megaupload that was shut down by US authorities who seek to extradite him on charges of racketeering, fraud, money laundering and copyright theft.
Dotcom, born Kim Schmitz, denies any wrongdoing and is free on bail in New Zealand ahead of his extradition hearing.
US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, in limbo at a Moscow airport, is also seeking to evade US justice after leaking explosive details about a vast US electronic surveillance programme and bugging of European missions.
Germany has reacted with particular alarm to the revelations about the US and British spy programmes, given its history of state surveillance under the Nazis and the communist East German regime.
A video that shows the protest message and a picture of Kim Dotcom beamed onto the US embassy on the night of Sunday to Monday has been posted online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v A2Yb3gWmm2I&feature youtu.be.
It has already garnered more than 42,000 hits on YouTube.
US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who has been holed up in a Moscow airport for more than two weeks, has agreed to an offer of political asylum from Venezuela, a top pro-Kremlin MP says.
"As was expected, Snowden agreed to (Venezuelan President Nicolas) Maduro's offer of political asylum," Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian lower house of parliament's international affairs committee, said on Twitter.
"Apparently this option looked like the most reliable one to Snowden."
Minutes after the announcement the statement was removed from his Twitter feed.
Pushkov's announcement came after the leftist governments of Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua had over the past few days offered the 30-year-old former National Security Agency contractor asylum.
A day earlier, Maduro called on Snowden to decide if he wanted to fly to Caracas.
"We have received the asylum request letter," Maduro told reporters from the presidential palace in Caracas.
"He will have to decide when he flies, if he finally wants to fly here." He called the offers from the three Latin American nations "collective humanitarian political asylum."
But it remains unclear how the world's most famous refugee would be able to leave the transit zone of Sheremetyevo, where he has been marooned without valid documents since he arrived from Hong Kong on June 23.
There are no direct flights between Moscow and Caracas. The quickest way to get to Venezuela would be to fly via Havana.
A spokeswoman for Russian national carrier Aeroflot, Irina Danenberg, said she was not aware if Snowden had been on the flight to Havana that left Moscow earlier on Tuesday. "I have no clue," she said.
There are no direct flights to Havana from Moscow on Wednesday.
