RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) ― Football great Ronaldo ― overweight like half of Brazil’s population ― has lost 17 kilograms in three months as part of a television reality show.Over the past three months the portly ex-striker, now a member of Brazil’s 2014 World Cup organizing committee, went through a series of grueling physical exercises and dietary re-education, all aired every Sunday on the Medida Certa (Ideal Measurements) show.Sunday night in front of a live television audience, Ronaldo tipped the

UNITED NATIONS (Yonhap News) ― U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was given an armored limousine made by South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. on Monday as he moved back into his newly renovated office in the U.N. headquarters, officials said. Ban accepted the bullet-proof Equus limousine, Hyundai’s top-of-the-line sedan, at a ceremony attended by Kim Sook, the South Korean ambassador to the U.N., and Hyundai’s executives in New York. In accordance with U.N. rules, the limousine was donated to the U.N

A book claiming to be the translation of the Bible that has filtered out all homophobic misinterpretation of the gospel has been recently published in the United States.The editors of the controversial book, titled “Queen James Bible,” said that they revised the King James Bible to accurately translate verses related to homosexuality. They pointed out that there are only eight verses in the Bible that are often cited as opposing same-sex relationships, but their interpretations were ambiguous.“T

An assassin slit the throat of Egypt's last great pharaoh at the climax of a bitter succession battle, scientists said Monday in a report on a 3,000-year-old royal murder.Forensic technology suggests Ramses III, a king revered as a god, met his death at the hand of a killer, or killers, sent by his conniving wife and ambitious son, they said.And a cadaver known as the "Screaming Mummy" could be that of the son himself, possibly forced to commit suicide after the plot, they added.Computed tomogra

From film scores to puppet shows, performances for families fill holiday season

PARIS (AFP) ― France’s leading actor Gerard Depardieu said Sunday he is giving up his French passport after the prime minister called him “pathetic” for seeking to avoid taxes by moving to Belgium.In an open letter to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, the 63-year-old “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “Jean de Florette” film star said he had been treated unfairly after years of supporting France and paying millions of euros in taxes.“I am not asking to be approved of, but I could at least be respected. Al

VIENNA (AFP) ― Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan, a major figure in 20th-century classical music, was a bigger fan of the Nazis than he made out, according to a historian who has unearthed previously unseen documents.“It is time to probe scientifically the claims that Karajan constructed and cobbled together... and which in the end he really believed himself,” said Oliver Rathkolb from Vienna University.Presenting his findings at a seminar on Friday, Rathkolb cited anti-Semitic comments fro

A Korean-Canadian female student from Toronto has received the Lincoln Alexander Award from the provincial government of Ontario for fighting against discrimination.Christie Park, a freshman majoring in business administration at Western University in London, Ontario, was presented with the award and $5,000 in prize money in a ceremony in Queen’s Park on Friday.The 17-year-old organized an Anti-Bullying Assembly at William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute, a high school in North York, Toronto

Exhibition shows change of perception of cartography

A local tribunal is mulling over whether a couple of French nudists should have to pay $50 fines for not covering up in public two years ago.Lawyers for Berthy Vaillant, co-owner of a bazaar in Heliopolis, and a client of the shop were slapped with fines for indecent exposure in August 2010, the newspaper Le Parisien said. The pair contend the punishment is overboard for showing a bit too much skin at the shop."This is an unjust and absurd fine; it's ridiculous that in the birthplace of French n

 Canadian officials warn the public not to consume Butcher's Choice Hickory Barbecue Beef Burgers because they may be contaminated with E. coli. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Loblaw Companies Ltd. said the following products -- distributed nationally -- are being recalled.-- Butchers Choice Hickory Barbecue Beef Burgers 2013 FE 10 EST 752 0 60383 89364 4.-- Butchers Choice Hickory Barbecue Beef Burgers 2013 FE 01 EST 752 0 60383 89364 4.The recall is the result of E. coli O157:H7 produ