Switzerland's largest city has permitted the use of controversial posters which call for a ban on the construction of minarets on mosques in the European country. The posters are part of a campaign by the nationalist Swiss People's Party (SVP) and feature a veiled woman against a background of a Swiss flag pierced by several minarets resembling missiles. The cities of Basel and Lausanne have described the posters as racist and banned them in publicly-owned spaces. However, Zurich is among ...

France Telecom, which faces a political storm over a spate of employee suicides, on Monday appointed Stephane Richard, a former top aide of France's economy minister, as deputy chief executive of the telecoms group. "Louis-Piere Wenes, the current deputy chief executive in charge of operations in France, has asked Didier Lombard, chairman and chief executive of France Telecom, to relieve him from his responsibilities," the statement said. Didier Lombard has accepted this request ... As of today, Stephane Richard is ...

Roman Polanski in 1993 agreed to pay his sexual assault victim $500,000 to settle a damage claim she filed against the fugitive film director, according to court papers released Friday. Polanski still owed the money -- plus another $100,000 in interest -- three years after the settlement, according to the documents. It's not clear if Polanski ever completed paying the claim, which was filed 12 years after the crime. The court papers document efforts by the victim's lawyers to garnish ...

Vodafone on Tuesday announced it would start selling Apple's popular iPhone in the UK from early next year, in a move that should bolster efforts to turnround the mobile operator's ailing British business. It means there will be three UK mobile operators selling the US technology company's iPhone from next year: Vodafone, Orange and O2. Some analysts said a price war over the iPhone could ensue, making the relatively expensive handset more affordable for consumers. But the operators, if they ...

A small part that tells computers on some highly-automated Airbus aircraft how fast the plane is flying became a concern again Wednesday. European aviation authorities ordered airlines to check "pitot tubes" that have come under suspicion since the crash of Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean in June. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued the emergency airworthiness directive Wednesday, requiring airlines to check Goodrich Corp.-manufactured pitot tubes aboard Airbus A330 and A340 models in the next five ...

Top seeds Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic cruised to straight sets second round wins at Flushing Meadows on Thursday to advance their bid for the U.S. Open title. Roddick, the 2003 tournament winner and fifth seed, dispatched Marc Gicquel of France 6-1 6-4 6-4, nailing 13 aces and making just 10 unforced errors to the Frenchman's 37. Earlier, the fourth-ranked Serbian Djokovic cast aside Carsten Ball of Australia, 6-3 6-4 6-4, making just 18 unforced errors to ...

The Guatemalan army stole at least 333 children and sold them for adoption in other countries during the Central American nation's 36-year civil war, a government report has concluded. Many of those children ended up in the United States, as well as Sweden, Italy and France, said the report's author and lead investigator, Marco Tulio Alvarez. In some cases, the report said, parents were killed so the children could be taken and given to government-operated agencies to be adopted abroad. ...

Third seed Venus Williams stepped up her bid for her third U.S. Open title with a convincing 6-4 6-2 win over fellow American Bethanie Mattek-Sands on Wednesday. Williams was on the brink of defeat against her first round opponent Vera Dushevina of Russia, but cut out the unforced errors in her second match at Flushing Meadows. But there was disappointment for former world number one Amelie Mauresmo of France as she bowed out of the hardcourt grand slam. The 17th ...

Libyans on Tuesday celebrated Col. Moammar Gadhafi's 40 years of rule with lavish pageantry -- complete with a lengthy parade, an elaborate stage production and spectacular fireworks. The massive celebration for 67-year-old Gadhafi came less than two weeks after Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, who was convicted of murdering 270 people by blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, was freed from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds. The world watched as al Megrahi, who has ...

World number one Dinara Safina and most of the top women's seeds at the U.S. Open coasted through to the second round, but Ana Ivanovic was knocked out by Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko in a playoff thriller that was decided by the last point. Safina, who crashed out of the second round of the Rogers Cup in Canada in late August, survived a scare from Australian teen Olivia Rogowska, winning 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-4. In other women's first round play, number ...