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Clooney and Pitt were on the red carpet for the premiere The Venice Film Festival has opened with the premiere of the Coen brothers’ dark comedy Burn After Reading. The film, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, is showing out of the competition at the annual event. Before the screening, the stars posed good-naturedly for pictures and signed autograph books for fans lining up along the red carpet. There are 21 movies competing for the coveted Golden Lion this year, with entries from Ethiopia and Turkey. The festival continues with a fly-on -the-wall film about fashion designer Valentino Garavani - billed as a glimpse into a world of bygone glamour. The movie was directed and produced by special correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine,

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Democrats overcame bruised egos and a rancorous primary campaign tonight to line up solidly behind Barack Obama as their party’s official presidential nominee and open up a coordinated and devastating attack against the Republican, John McCain.

Hours after Hillary Clinton led Democrats in making Obama the official nominee, Joe Biden used his debut performance as the vice-presidential candidate to establish his bona fides as the Democrats’ attack dog.

The full frontal assault on McCain’s main strength as a candidate - his expertise on national security - was reinforced with a bravura speech from Bill Clinton intended to dispel any doubt that he was on board with Obama.

The former president thrilled convention attendees with what amounted to a whole-hearted endorsement Read more »

The next version of Microsoft Corp.’s Web browser makes it easier for people to surf the Internet without leaving a trace.

Microsoft’s latest Internet browser includes a piece of software that allows Internet users to hide the audit trail of websites they have visited.

The InPrivate feature on Internet Explorer 8, nicknamed “porn mode”, allows users to conceal the sites they have viewed at the click of a button.

Once the setting is chosen, others using the same computer will not be able to see which sites have been accessed. Other browsers have similar functions, but this one is far more prominent. Although casual users cannot see the previous user’s search history, authorities such as the police will be able to access it if necessary.

The software may be hailed as a victory for privacy campaigners, but it represents a serious threat to Microsoft’s bigger rival, Google. In allowing surfers to access websites but conceal their browsing behaviour, Microsoft prevents Internet sites from collecting information about their users — data that is then used to sell targeted Read more »

FRANKFURT — Switzerland has released millions of dollars in assets belonging to Asif Ali Zardari, a leading Pakistani politician who is expected to be named the country’s president next week, Swiss authorities said.

Mr. Zardari’s accounts were frozen in 1997 at the request of Pakistani authorities investigating allegations that Mr. Zardari had received kickbacks while he was a government official and his wife, Benazir Bhutto, was prime minister. In June, Pakistan’s attorney general notified the Swiss that he was no longer investigating Mr. Zardari, who leads one of the country’s largest political parties. The attorney general wrote that neither Mr. Zardari nor Ms. Bhutto had done anything illegal, and that the charges had been politically motivated, the Swiss prosecutor general, Daniel Zappelli, said Wednesday in a telephone interview. As a result, the Swiss dropped a money-laundering case against Mr. Zardari and released his assets. “For money laundering to be proven, you have to show it was the product of a crime, but we don’t have any evidence for a crime committed in Pakistan,” Mr. Zappelli said. The value of the assets is about $60 million, Read more »

GENEVA - A “toxic combination” of poverty and social injustice is killing people on a grand scale, a World Health Organization report said Thursday, urging states to fund healthcare to cut inequalities.

The Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, a report commissioned by the WHO and chaired by Sir Michael Marmot of University College London, said these health inequalities were avoidable but only if concerted efforts were made by governments and civil society.

“Reducing health inequities is an ethical imperative. Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale,” the report said.
Marmot told journalists that a girl born in Zambia can expect to live 43 years, Read more »

Russia harshly criticized Group of Seven members for their hypocrisy

G7 countries united against Russia and issued a joint statement in which they condemned Russia’s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the USA and Great Britain said that Russia had violated the territorial integrity in Georgia, as well as the resolution of the UN Security Council regulating relations between Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

“Russia’s decision has called into question its commitment to peace and security in the Caucasus,” the counties’ foreign ministers said in a statement. “We deplore Russia ’s excessive use of military force in Georgia and its continued occupation of parts of Georgia.”

The ministers urged Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgia to the positions Read more »

Palestinian leader insists Palestinian refugees have right to return after talks with Lebanese counterpart.

BEIRUT - Palestinian refugees in Lebanon should not be permanently resettled in the country, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Thursday after talks in Beirut with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.

“The Palestinians have the right of return and this is an issue we are discussing with the Israelis,” Abbas told a media conference after the meeting.

“We are against the resettlement of Palestinians in Lebanon,” he added.

An estimated 400,000 Palestinian refugees live in 12 camps in Lebanon. According to the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), there are around 4.6 million Palestinian Read more »