North Korea’s new leader burnishes credentials with rocket

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) – North Korea successfully launched a rocket on Wednesday, boosting the credentials of its new leader and stepping up the threat the isolated and impoverished state poses to its opponents.The rocket, which North Korea says put a weather satellite into orbit, has been labeled by the United States, South Korea and Japan as a test of technology that could one day deliver a nuclear...

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Legendary Indian sitarist, composer Ravi Shankar dead at 92

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar, who helped introduce the sitar to the Western world through his collaborations with The Beatles, died in Southern California on Tuesday, his family said. He was 92.Shankar, a three-time Grammy winner with legendary appearances at the 1967 Monterey Festival and at Woodstock, had been in fragile health for several years and last Thursday underwent...

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Turkish ex-leader’s body shows poison, death cause unclear: media

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The exhumed body of Turkey‘s late President Turgut Ozal, who led the country out of military rule in the 1980s, contained poison but the cause of death was unclear, local media reported an autopsy as showing on Wednesday.There have long been rumors that Ozal, who died of heart failure in 1993 aged 65, was murdered by militants of the “deep state” – a shadowy group within the Turkish...

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India factory output surges 8.2%

12 December 2012 Last updated at 01:49 ETIndia’s industrial output rose more than expected in October, boosted by increased demand during the festive season in the country.Factory output rose 8.2% from a year earlier. Most analysts had forecast a rise of 4.5%.Manufacturing activity, which accounts for almost two-thirds of overall output, rose 9.6% from a year earlier.Analysts said the data was also...

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Australian prank call radio to donate profits to nurse’s family

CANBERRA (Reuters) – The Australian radio station behind a prank call to a British hospital will donate its advertising revenue until the end of the year to a fund for the family of the nurse who apparently took her own life after the stunt, the company said on Tuesday.Southern Cross Austereo, parent company of Sydney radio station 2Day FM, said it would donate all advertising revenue, with a minimum...

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Royal phone scandal highlights new media risks

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Back in 2007, as investigations were gathering strength into the UK phone hacking scandal involving journalists working under the umbrella of the Murdoch media empire, a comedy show based around prank telephone calls made a low-key debut in Britain.‘Fonejacker’ proved such a hit with the British public that the next year the program, in which a masked caller bamboozles hapless...

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“Homeland” creator: Stop using animals in military training

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Homeland” executive producer Gideon Raff is urging a cease-fire between the U.S. military and the animal kingdom.Joining with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Raff has sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, asking him to halt the use of animals in medical training exercises in favor of high-tech human simulators.In his letter, Raff – a...

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New Study Shows Avastin Not Helpful for Triple-Negative Breast Cancers

COMMENTARY | The BEATRICE trial shows that the drug Avastin does not help breast cancer patients with triple-negative breast cancers. MedPage Today reports that the BEATRICE study results were revealed at the 2012 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.BEATRICEThe BEATRICE study included 2,591 women with confirmed cases of early, invasive triple-negative breast cancers. Women were broken into four groups,...

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S.Africa’s rand, bonds edge up ahead of data

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand firmed marginally on Tuesday ahead of a slew of domestic economic data but stayed within its recent trading range, awaiting further direction from global markets.The rand was trading at 8.6700 against the dollar at 0640 GMT from Tuesday’s close of 8.6725.“The data today will not have much impact on the rand. We will continue to look at international factors,”...

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McAfee wants to return to US, ‘normal life’

BACALAR, Mexico (AP) — Software company founder John McAfee said Sunday he wants to return to the United States and “settle down to whatever normal life” he can.In a live-stream Internet broadcast from the Guatemalan detention center where he is fighting a government order that he be returned to Belize, the 67-year-old said “I simply would like to live comfortably day by day, fish, swim, enjoy my...

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