Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returned home to Venezuela early Monday after more than two months of medical treatment in Cuba following cancer surgery.Chavez's return was announced in a series of message on his Twitter account, saying “we will continue our treatment here.”“We've arrived once again in our Venezuelan homeland. Thank you, my God!!” the first of the three messages said.They were the first messages to appear on Chavez's Twitter account since Nov. 1. “I'm clinging to Christ and tru

BAGHDAD (AP) ― Car bombs tore through shopping areas within minutes of each other in mainly Shiite neighborhoods of the Iraqi capital on Sunday, killing at least 37 people and wounding more than 100. The attacks come amid rising sectarian discord in Iraq and appear aimed at shaking Iraqis’ confidence in the Shiite-led government. The explosions struck at the start of the local work week and primarily targeted outdoor markets. Violence in Iraq has fallen since the height of sectarian fighting in

TOKYO (AFP) ― Chinese government ships were in waters around disputed East China Sea islands Monday, Japan’s coastguard said, as a senior Japanese diplomat prepared for meetings in Beijing aimed at mending frayed ties.Three state-run Maritime Surveillance vessels were clocked in seas off the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku Islands, which Beijing calls the Diaoyus and claims as its own, around 9 a.m., the coastguard said.Kyodo News Agency reported that Japan had made a formal protest to China about what

STOCKHOLM (AFP) ― For the first time since the mid-1990s, sales of the 100 biggest arms dealers excluding China declined in 2011 as the economic crisis prompted budget cuts, a Stockholm-based think tank said on Monday.The 100 companies’ total sales declined, including inflation, by five percent from the previous year, the first time a drop has been registered since 1994, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said.Even excluding inflation, the total fell, to $410 billion from 412 b

CHELYABINSK, Russia (AFP) ― Russian authorities halted their search Sunday for the meteorite that spectacularly struck the Urals last week, leaving about 1,200 people injured and damaging several thousand buildings.The 10-ton space rock streaked over the Chelyabinsk region in central Russia in a blinding fireball on Friday just as the world was braced for a close encounter with a large asteroid.Residents of Chelyabinsk, a city of 1.1 million and the centre of Russia’s heavy industry, were strugg

A pair of white cheap slippers given spontaneously to a barefoot stranger catapulted a South Korean undergraduate into the limelightA pair of white $3.20 slippers, given spontaneously to a barefoot stranger who boarded a public bus last Saturday, catapulted a South Korean undergraduate into the limelight.Choi Dae-ho, 22, may be a black belt in taekwondo, but instead it was his gentle act of chivalry that put him at the centre of online buzz.Despite her initial objections, Choi ― who is here on a

Ordering fresh food has never been so easy. Now, with just a click of a mouse, groceries can be delivered straight to your door thanks to online supermarkets.“Net super,” or online supermarkets, are a convenient alternative to traditional grocery shopping, especially for mothers of young children or people who don’t live near a supermarket.Many leading supermarket operators, such as Aeon Co. and Ito-Yokado Co., are offering the service in a bid to attract more customers. Shoppers can sign up onl

Russian scientists said Monday they had discovered over 50 fragments of the meteor that struck the Urals last week, creating a shockwave that injured 1,200 people and damaged thousands of homes.The giant piece of space rock streaked spectacularly over the central Russian city of Chelyabinsk on Friday before exploding with the force of 30 of the nuclear bombs dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during World War II.There was initial disappointment when Russian emergency ministry workers who

The mother of a British backpacker who survived three days in the Australian bush said Saturday she learned on a plane to Brisbane her son was alive. Claire Derry told the Sydney Morning Herald that her son, Sam Derry-Woodhead, 18, told her he drank contact lens fluid to keep going during his ordeal. ''He tried drinking his own urine and ... he wasn't able to cope much with that,'' she said. ''So he drank tiny sips of the contact lens fluid."Derry-Woodhead was in Australia during his "gap year"