NEW YORK (AFP) ― The New York Times backed up its push for a digital future Tuesday by naming Mark Thompson, the outgoing director general of the BBC, as the paper’s new president and chief executive.The Times issued a statement saying: “BBC Director-General Mark Thompson will become its next president and CEO. He will also become a member of the company’s board of directors.”Thompson, 55, will start work in November.The Times, which is America’s most prestigious newspaper as well as a growing o

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) ― A Texas law enforcement officer attacked as he brought an eviction notice to a house Monday was among three people, including a shooter inside the home, killed Monday near a Texas university.A 65-year-old man also died, while three other law enforcement officers and a 55-year-old woman were wounded, in the shootings at an off-campus home not far from the Texas A&M University’s football stadium, College Station Assistant Police Chief Scott McCollum said.Brazos County

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AFP) ― President Barack Obama took aim at his Republican rival’s newly-announced running mate Monday, accusing Paul Ryan of blocking help for farmers during a swing through drought-stricken Iowa.Obama launched a three-day campaign bus tour of a key swing state that nurtured his White House dream four years ago, as Ryan ― Mitt Romney’s pick for vice president ― tried to spoil the president’s political homecoming.But Ryan swiped back as his own coming out party also hit Iowa,

Bridgette and Bradley Jordan, living in Centralia, Illinois, may have the basketball legend’s last name, but that is all they have in common with 1.98-meter-tall Michael Jordan.The 23-year-old Bridgette Jordan is 68 centimeters, and her brother, 21, stands at 97 cm. Both of them have Majewski osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type ll, a rare disease associated with brain and skeletal abnormalities. The siblings’ lives are somewhat different from others. They take showers in the sink and use a

(MCT)Police searching an apartment for drugs found a woman they believe was kept padlocked in a bedroom for long periods of time over the last several years — perhaps as long as a decade.State police said members of their street gang unit discovered the 44-year-old woman on Thursday as they searched the Paterson home of 42-year-old Michael Mendez, believed to be a member of the Latin Kings street

(123rf)Police shot and killed a man they say lunged at them with a knife in a confrontation that began in Times Square and drew officers and spectators on a chase that ended with shots fired near one of New York's most heavily touristed areas.The encounter played out Saturday around 3 p.m., when officers approached a 51-year-old man they say appeared to be smoking marijuana near West 44th Street a

CAIRO (AFP) ― Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on Sunday ordered the surprise retirement of his powerful defense minister and scrapped a constitutional document which handed sweeping powers to the military.In a move that drew thousands of Islamist supporters to Cairo’s Tahrir Square in celebration, Morsi effectively dismissed Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who ruled Egypt for more than a year after the revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.The president also scrapped a

YANGON (AFP) ― Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi held talks with the country’s president on Sunday in their first official meeting since she took up her role as a member of parliament.The democracy champion met Myanmar leader Thein Sein in the capital Naypyidaw early Sunday, according to Zaw Htay of the president’s office, who was unable to give details of the subjects under discussion.He added that Railway Minister Aung Min, a key figure in efforts to resolve the country’s ethnic confl

BANGKOK (AFP) ― Deadly floods, power blackouts and traffic gridlock ― many of Asia’s biggest cities are buckling under the strain of rapid economic development, extreme weather and an exodus from the countryside.Poor strategic planning, paltry investment in infrastructure and a lack of political will have also left the region’s overcrowded metropolises highly vulnerable to the pressures of climate change, experts say.Over the past year Bangkok and Manila have been hit by the most devastating flo