The White House on Monday dismissed North Korea’s threat of a nuclear strike in the event of United States attack as ”deeply hypothetical” and urged Pyongyang to rejoin nuclear negotiations. North Korea vowed on Monday to counter any strike by the US with its ”mighty nuclear deterrent”, accusing Washington of raising tension on the Korean peninsula.
A huge asteroid, known as 2004 XP14, skimmed about 432 820km from the Earth late on Sunday and early on Monday. That’s slightly farther away than the moon. It was expected to be visible as a small moving dot to amateur sky watchers with good telescopes in North America and as a fainter object viewed from Europe.
Michael Schumacher cruised to his third win of the season in the United States Grand Prix on Sunday as he led home a Ferrari one-two after an incident-filled race. Schumacher beat Felipe Massa by 7,9 seconds as he took a record fifth win at the Indianapolis circuit and cut Spaniard Fernando Alonso’s lead in the World Championship to 19 points.
United States mining company Phelps Dodge sealed a -billion deal last week that will create the world’s largest nickel producer and the leading publicly quoted supplier of copper. The agreement is part of a frantic scramble for mining companies as the price of commodities is driven higher by the red-hot Chinese economy and its demand for raw materials.
The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States authenticated a new audio-taped message on Friday in which al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden vows to wage holy war in Iraq and Africa, while the White House brushed off the message as old news. In the fourth tape this year, Bin Laden hails Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the slain al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, as a ”lion of Islam”.
The Bush administration has refused to abandon military tribunals for Guantánamo Bay inmates despite the United States Supreme Court ruling the ”war on terror” trials illegal, which leading newspapers called a victory for law. The court ruled on Thursday that President George Bush had no authority to order such tribunals.
Officers who went to a Cleveland, Ohio, home to serve a search warrant found a skeleton in the bed where an 80-year-old woman said her mother was sleeping. Police believe the remains belong to the woman’s 98-year-old mother, who had not been seen in at least three years.
Yahoo! will consider refunding money to thousands of advertisers dating back to January 2004 and pay ,95-million in attorney fees to settle a class-action lawsuit
alleging the internet powerhouse has been profiting from bogus sales referrals generated through a sham known as ”click fraud.”
Hurricane Katrina fraudsters who billed the United States government for fictitious services and filed claims for phantom hotel guests, and even Dom Perignon champagne, have managed to cost taxpayers up to -billion, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Visions dawned on Monday of a new golden age of philanthropy with Bill Gates atop a mammoth $60-billion charity machine, with a global punch to rival world aid bodies and even governments. Investment guru Warren Buffett’s $31-billion donation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will double the size of Gates’ fund and make it by far the world’s largest charitable foundation.
Torrential rain has triggered flooding and power outages throughout the Washington region, shutting down some federal offices and disrupting transport links to the United States capital on Monday. Commuters faced long delays around Washington after rain pounded the east coast overnight.
Arthur Malvin, a composer and lyricist who won two Emmy Awards for his work with Carol Burnett and Frank Sinatra, has died. He was 83. Malvin died at his Century City home on June 16 after a long illness, said his daughter, Janet Malvin. Malvin won an Emmy in 1968 for writing music for a Frank Sinatra television special, A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim.
Bearing a message from the Russian who invented the world’s most common assault rifle, activists will press governments at a United Nations conference on small arms to ensure such weapons are not used to trample human rights. The groups and some officials at the conference advocate a fundamentally new approach for trade in the light arms that are said to kill 1 000 people a day.
While the international community has invested Sierra Leone’s recovery in trials and tribunals, Sierra Leoneans themselves have relied on family and sheer inner will to rebuild lives devastated by the country’s civil war. The award-winning documentary <i>The Refugee All Stars</i> captures this resilience of the human spirit in a Guinean refugee camp.
A new breed of artificial human sex companion has been unveiled that promises to take the air out of old-fashioned inflatable dolls. My Party Doll, a southern California-based manufacturer, displayed two prototypes of their  000 love buddies at the 10th annual Erotica-LA Convention, which ended on Sunday.
Legendary television producer Aaron Spelling, who launched a string of star-making global hits such as Dynasty, Charlie’s Angels and Beverly Hills 90210, died following a stroke on Friday. He was 83. Spelling had produced about 200 television shows from the 1960s to date.
The United States government has secretly monitored banking transactions around the globe since the September 11 2001 attacks, officials said on Friday, defending the programme as a crucial part of the war on terror. It is the latest in a series of covert measures that is likely to spark fresh concerns about potential privacy infringements and Americans’ civil liberties.
The United States military is relying ever more on space satellites to help wage combat in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, though analysts say that Washington’s space supremacy could be threatened by rivals in the future. The Pentagon is using sophisticated satellites that orbit Earth in a bid to track down its enemies and keep a round-the-clock watch on unfriendly foes.
FBI agents have arrested at least seven people in Miami who reportedly plotted to attack the Chicago Sears Tower skyscraper, according to official statements and news reports. The arrests on Thursday were ”part of an ongoing investigation into a terrorist-related matter,” said the United States attorney’s office in Miami.
The United States plans to keep pressing for an international force in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur province, despite fierce opposition from Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir. On Tuesday, al-Beshir rejected the deployment of an international force for Darfur, declaring that his country would not be ”recolonised”.
A United States court of appeals has struck down a lower court ruling requiring a sex offender to undergo periodic sexual-arousal testing, saying such a practice was ”Orwellian”. In its decision handed down Tuesday, the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said it could not agree with the March 2005 judgment by a Los Angeles district court.
Vincent Sherman, who directed — and romanced — Bette Davis, Rita Hayworth and Joan Crawford during his heyday as a leading Hollywood filmmaker in the 1940s and 1950s, has died. He would have been 100 on July 16. His death at the Motion Picture and Television hospital was announced on Monday by his son, Eric Sherman.
The man at the helm of Sears, Roebuck and Company when the retailer built the Chicago high-rise that bears its name has died. Arthur H Wood was 93. Wood’s signature is on the last beam used to build the Sears Tower. The country’s tallest building was completed in 1973.
A Florida dog that chomped for help by cellphone, saving the life of her owner in a diabetic seizure, fetched a humanitarian award in Miami on Monday. Belle the beagle dialled the emergency number 911 on her owner Kevin Weaver’s cellphone last February when he began to convulse and lapsed into unconsciousness.
United States President George Bush on Monday warned Iran of "progressively stronger political and economic sanctions" if Tehran refuses to freeze sensitive nuclear activities in return for talks. "If Iran’s leaders want peace and prosperity … they should accept our offer," Bush said in a speech to the US Merchant Marine Academy.
Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, the architect of United States-China policy and Washington’s point man on Sudan, resigned on Monday to take up a position with Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs. "It is time for me to step down," Zoellick told a news conference at the State Department, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by his side.
An oil and gold-encrusted portrait by Gustav Klimt that was the focus of a battle between the Austrian government and the subject’s niece was purchased for a record-setting amount by a New York museum, an attorney said. The New York Times, citing experts familiar with the negotiations, reported the portrait sold for -million.
Colin Montgomerie was the only player to pass golf’s toughest test in the red colours on Thursday, as his one-under 69 gave him the first-round lead in the 2006 US Open. Montgomerie’s was the only under-par effort on a day when a wind-blown Winged Foot humbled a host of top players, including Tiger Woods.
Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, said on Thursday he would give up the daily running of Microsoft by July 2008 to concentrate on his foundation’s work tackling health and education problems. The Microsoft co-founder wanted a two-year transition "to ensure that there is a smooth and orderly transfer of Gates’ daily responsibilities", Microsoft said in a statement.
A diminutive grandmother donned a cap and gown on Wednesday and fulfilled a dream she had abandoned 80 years earlier — she got her high school diploma. ”I felt like I had missed something,” Josephine Belasco said when asked what inspired her to complete the schooling she began at Galileo High School when it opened in 1924.
A handful of Mentos candy dropped in a Diet Coke bottle produces an explosive soda geyser — and a multitude of internet videos of giddy people trying the experiment in backyards and bathtubs. Hundreds of videos have sprung up of people slipping Mentos into soda bottles and watching the Coke fountain jet about 2m high.
Doctors in Los Angeles are prepared for a marathon surgery to separate 10-month-old twin girls joined from the chest to the pelvis. The operation, scheduled to begin early on Wednesday, was expected to last 24 hours. It was considered more complex than other separation surgeries involving conjoined twins because so many organ systems were involved.