Judge seeks $170B in forfeitures from Madoff, who awaits sentence

As prosecutors asked to jail Bernard Madoff for 150 years, a U.S. District Court judge Friday entered a preliminary order calling on the convicted Ponzi schemer to forfeit more than $170 billion in assets, prosecutors announced. Madoff’s wife, Ruth, will be allowed to keep $2.5 million in funds “in settlement of the claims she would have otherwise brought against the property,” acting U.S.

Iranian envoy: CIA involved in Neda’s shooting?

The United States may have been behind the killing of Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year-old Iranian woman whose fatal videotaped shooting Saturday made her a symbol of opposition to the June 12 presidential election results, the country’s ambassador to Mexico said Thursday. “This death of Neda is very suspicious,” Ambassador Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri said

Late Alves free-kick gives Brazil victory

A stunning free-kick from Barcelona full-back Daniel Alves with just two minutes remaining proved enough to give Brazil a narrow 1-0 victory over host nation South Africa in Thursday’s second Confederations Cup semifinal in Johannesburg. With the match heading for extra-time, substitute Alves smashed home a vicious strike from the edge of the area, after a foul on Ramirez by Aaron Mokeona, as Dunga’s side secured a clash with the United States — whom they have already beaten in the group stages — in Sunday’s Ellis Park final.

More killed in Iraq as U.S. nears combat troop exit

Six more people died in attacks over the last 24 hours in Baghdad, the latest in a wave of deadly strikes as U.S. combat forces prepare to withdraw from cities and towns. Those strikes followed a major blast that killed 64 people and injured about 150 others at a Baghdad market early Wednesday and a deadly blast in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Saturday that killed 80 people

Iran attacks against U.K. tap into centuries of suspicion

With protests flaring on the streets of Iran, Tehran has singled out one foreign power for particular criticism — and it’s not the one you might expect. There has been criticism of the United States, known in Iran as “the Great Satan” since the Islamic Revolution 30 years ago, but it’s the United Kingdom that Iran’s supreme leader has accused of treachery

U.S., EU complain China puts "giant thumb" on trade

The European Union and United States accused China of restricting the export of key raw materials used in the production of steel and other industrial products in a complaint filed Tuesday with the World Trade Organization. China defended the practice Wednesday on environmental and conservation grounds.

In China, V is for The Vagina Monologues

It’s been performed in more than 120 countries in at least 45 languages, and now The Vagina Monologues has officially arrived in China. After a successful run in Beijing in March, the Chinese production of Eve Ensler’s famous play swept into Shanghai this weekend. Wang Chong, the play’s Beijing-born director, translated Ensler’s script from English for a three-woman cast, taking care to closely match the meaning of hard-to-translate words like “vagina” and its less anatomical synonyms