SAI YOK - At a remote medical outpost near the jungle-blanketed Thai-Myanmar border, a villager pricks the finger of a feverish baby living on the frontline of the war on drug-resistant malaria.The tiny walk-in clinic -- and hundreds more like it scattered along Thailand's porous frontiers -- are a key part of efforts to stop the spread of the lethal new strain from Southeast Asia to the Indian subcontinent and Africa....
KUALA LUMPUR -- Eleven years ago, she was 17 going on 18 and he was 18 going on 19. Both were just on the threshold of their careers. Now they both are successful adults who have achieved outstanding feats. She might not need someone older and wiser telling her what to do, but the guy is ready to vow "I’ll take care of you."...
PARIS, Nov 03, 2012 (AFP) - A bizarre spate of young blackbird deaths at a school in England was likely caused by the feathered teens getting drunk on fermented berries, crashing mid-air and falling from the sky, vets said Saturday.
Police and animal experts were called in after more than a dozen birds were found dead at a primary school in Cumbria last August -- many of them sporting serious injuries. ...
TLACOTEPEC - Isaac Carrasco and his two daughters dutifully adorned the graves of several relatives with beds of marigolds and crosses made of red flowers for Mexico's Day of the Dead.But the nearby tombstones of his grandparents were bare and surrounded by metal bars, left this way by his aunts, who no longer mark the annual ritual....
SEOUL: South Korean pop sensation Psy's "Gangnam Style" has become the second most-watched YouTube video of all time with nearly 620 million hits as the quirky rapper continues to take the world by storm.
LY SON ISLAND, Vietnam, Nov 2, 2012 (AFP) - When gun-toting Chinese guards spotted Tran Hien's unarmed wooden fishing boat in disputed waters, they seized his vessel, detained his crew and threw him in jail.
For generations the Vietnamese islanders of Ly Son have braved typhoons and other dangers to bring home fish, but now they also have to contend with patrols sent by Beijing to assert its territorial claims. ...
OVECCI KOYU, Turkey, Nov 01, 2012 (AFP) - Sixteen-year-old Nazire was out in the fields, sitting under a tree when the shooting started. Bullets whizzed past her face and she was terrified.
The Syrian war was spilling into Turkey.
"If I had moved my head, I would have been shot and then nothing would have happened because they're Syrian soldiers and I'm just a villager,"...
THE HAGUE: Amsterdam's famous coffee shops will remain open for business with foreign thrill-seekers despite the new government's plan to restrict sales to locals only, the mayor said Thursday.
In an interview with the leftist Volkskrant, Eberhard van der Laan said the city's 220 coffee shops will continue to sell pot to customers even if they don't reside in the Netherlands....
Cavite, Philippines - Cris Valdez began life unwanted by his parents and was soon scavenging in a Philippine rubbish dump, an unlikely start for a boy now hailed as an inspiration for children around the world. Valdez, 13, won this year's International Children's Peace Prize for his work as head of a charity organisation that educates and hands out gifts to thousands of youngsters in his poverty-plagued hometown....
LOS ANGELES, Oct 30, 2012 (AFP) - Walt Disney Co announced Tuesday it is buying "Star Wars" director George Lucas's film company for $4 billion, and plans to revive the classic sci-fi series starting with a new movie in 2015.
The entertainment giant plans a new trilogy in the legendary franchise, launched with the original "Star Wars" movie in 1977, while Lucas himself said it was "time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers." ...
