Whisky boycott urged over Lockerbie bomber’s release

Americans are being urged to boycott Scottish products as continued outrage over last week’s release of the Lockerbie bomber prompted an emergency meeting of parliament. A Web site set up to vent anger at the decision to send Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi back to Libya calls on Americans to avoid travel to Scotland and cease buying Scottish products such as whisky

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Report: Koreas hold rare high-level talks

South Korea’s unification minister met with North Korea’s unity leader Saturday in another sign that icy relations between the two rival nations could be thawing, the South’s state media reported. The meeting was the first high-level cross border contact in nearly two years, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. South Korea’s Unification Minister Hyun In Taek held talks with Kim Yang Gon, head of the North’s Workers’ Party unification, the agency reported

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N. Korean delegation arrives to honor Kim

A North Korean delegation arrived in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday to mourn former South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung, best remembered for trying to foster better relations between the two neighbors, the South’s media reported. “Mourning the passing of the late president Kim Dae-jung …” said the great white wreath adorned with a black ribbon delivered on behalf of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. The six-members of the delegation bowed their heads in front of the altar set up in honor of the late president.

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Iranian hard-liners criticize reformist

Legal action must be taken against Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karrubi for claiming post-election detainees were being raped behind bars, said the governor of Tehran province, as hard-line criticism grew against the reformist. “If such a person has made such accusations that have infuriated the people and it is shown that he cannot prove them, then legal steps must be taken with regards to this person,” said Gov. Morteza Tamaddon, according to the Iran Labor News Agency.

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Report: Kim Jong Il meets Hyundai official

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il met with Hyundai’s chairwoman, who had come from South Korea seeking the release of an employee detained since March, South Korean media reported. Yonhap, South Korea’s official news agency, said Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun traveled to North Korea on August 10 for what was planned as a three-day mission. Yu Seong-jin — the employee detained since March — was freed and returned home Thursday, Yonhap added.

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Shooting the boss (and getting paid for it)

To thank him for letting them spend the last two hours of their workweek playing video games on the company dime, Kevin Grinnell’s employees often single him out and shoot him in the head. To be fair, the employees at Grinnell Computers aren’t firing real weapons at their boss but are instead releasing the stresses of their week in a multiplayer online game known as Combat Arms. Most Fridays for the last couple of months, the six employees of the Beaumont, Texas-based company have been encouraged to spend from 3 p.m.

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Black politician targeted by German far-right

A black politician campaigning in eastern Germany has become the victim of a racist campaign by a far-right party. The National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) says it is trying to persuade Zeca Schall, a German citizen who came from Angola 21 years ago, to leave the country. Schall is a member of the Christian Democratic Union, the party led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and has been named as a CDU expert for the integration of minorities.

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Britons pour love on ‘evil’ healthcare system

Britons including Prime Minister Gordon Brown have leapt to the defense of their creaking healthcare service after President Barack Obama’s plans for a similar system in the United States were branded "evil" by Republicans. Tens of thousands of people have joined a Twitter group expressing pride in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), which offers free taxpayer-funded medical care to all British residents, while leading politicians have spoken out in support. Republican former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin earlier this week condemned Obama’s plans to introduce a public heath insurance scheme as an “evil” move that would result in “death panels” deciding who would live or die

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U.N. experts say Iran tortured to extract confessions

Three independent United Nations human rights experts have accused Iran of torturing confessions from detainees charged with fomenting political unrest, the international organization said Thursday. “No judicial system can consider as valid a confession obtained as a result of harsh interrogations or under torture,” said Manfred Nowak, who is the U.N

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Iran speaker rejects detainee rape claims

Iran’s influential parliament speaker dismissed allegations that post-election detainees were raped while in custody, calling the claims by an opposition leader "sheer lies," state-run media reported Wednesday. Ali Larijani said that a special panel of Iran’s parliament, or Majlis, conducted a “precise and comprehensive inquiry” into the treatment at Tehran’s Evin and Kahrizak prisons, and found “no cases of rape or sexual abuse,” Press TV reported

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