Writer: I was threatened after questioning Russian ship hijack

A Russian writer who contradicted some authorities by suggesting that the hijacked cargo ship Arctic Sea was carrying something other than timber was fired after he fled Russia because of threats, he told CNN Friday. Mikhail Voitenko said in multiple media interviews that he caught the first flight to Istanbul, Turkey, this week to escape possible lawsuits or worse for his comments on the Arctic Sea saga.

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UN expresses concern about Suu Kyi; EU adopts more sanctions

The United Nations Security Council on Thursday expressed "serious concern" over the conviction of Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi while the European Union adopted additional sanctions against the nation. “The members of the Security Council express serious concern at the conviction and sentencing of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and its political impact,” John Sawers of Britain, Security Council president for the month of August, told reporters

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Putting Burma’s Junta on Trial

Last month two famous defendants — one adored, the other despised — appeared in courts nearly 10,000 km apart. Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, is being tried by a special tribunal in The Hague for murder, rape, torture and other war crimes allegedly committed during the decade-long conflict in neighboring Sierra Leone

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Harrington returns to form at Bridgestone

Padraig Harrington returned to top form ahead of his defense of the PGA Championship with a six-under-par 64 to lead the Bridgestone International. The Irishman has endured a miserable year after reshaping his swing, but his first round showing at Firestone Country Club in Ohio showed his hard work may be paying off. “Compared to the first six months of the year it’s obviously my low score of the year, my best score of the year,” he told reporters.

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Can Clinton Reverse the U.S-North Korea Downward Spiral of Diplomacy?

Shortly after former President Bill Clinton finished having dinner with Kim Jong Il on August 4 in Pyongyang, the North Korean state run news agency issued a release saying that the two men had met, and that Clinton had brought a message to the North Korean leader from President Barack Obama. In a flash, the White House issued its own statement: No, he hadn’t. And with that, the questions about the former President’s visit to Pyongyang — and about where relations with Kim Jong Il’s North Korea go from here — begin.

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Where the ‘Ladyboys’ Are

Life can be complicated enough for members of the transgender community — the last thing they need is to have to choose between two bathroom doors: male or female. Fortunately for students at the Kampang high school in rural northern Thailand, there’s now a third option. Introduced in May, the third bathroom features a symbol on its door of a human figure divided vertically, its blue side wearing pants and its red side sporting a skirt.

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