|
WASHINGTON: A cloud of Cold War-style rhetoric is
rising over the 2008 White House race with Russia and President
Vladimir Putin reprising the Soviet Union’s former role as an easy
election-year target. Presumptive Republican nominee Senator John
McCain is carving out the toughest line, recalling some of the more
bombastic rhetoric of his hero ex-President Ronald Reagan, who once
branded the Soviet Union an evil empire. While offering an olive
branch to European allies estranged from the current administration,
McCain is playing it tough with the Kremlin before President George
W. Bush meets Putin by the Black Sea this weekend.
--AFP
SEOUL: South Korea on Wednesday
rejected North Korean demands for an apology over remarks by its top
general, and told Pyongyang to stop raising tensions on the
peninsula. The defense ministry message was Seoul’s first official
reaction to a series of recent hostile moves and angry rhetoric by
Pyongyang. Kim on Saturday had demanded an apology for remarks by
South Korea’s new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General
Kim Tae Young. The North interpreted his comments as hinting at a
preemptive military strike.
--AFP
WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s
ethnic Asian population is expected to grow faster than any other
group, almost doubling in the next 20 years, government officials
said Wednesday. Government statistician Geoff Bascand said the
country’s Asian population was expected to grow 3.4 percent a
year, rising from about 400,000 in 2006 to 790,000 by 2026. Asians
will make up an estimated 16 percent of the New Zealand population
by 2026, up from 10 percent in 2006.
--AFP
WASHINGTON: An international team
of astronomers has found 10 new extra-solar planets, planets that
orbit stars other than our sun, University of California, Santa
Barbara, announced on Tuesday. The new international collaboration
is called “SuperWASP,” for Wide Area Search for Planets. In the
last six months the SuperWASP team has used two batteries of
cameras, one in Spain’s Canary Islands and one in South Africa, to
discover the 10 new extra-solar planets.
--Xinhua
|
