The U.N.'s top human rights body voted overwhelmingly  Friday to condemn Syria over the slaughter of more than 100 civilians last week, but Damascus appeared impervious to the crescendo of global condemnation following a string of horrific massacres.Syria's most important ally and protector, Russia, voted against the measure by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Russia has refused to support

New York City plans to ban the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks in an effort to combat obesity.The proposed first-in-the-nation ban would impose a 16-ounce (.4-kilogram) limit on the size of sweetened drinks sold at restaurants, movie theaters, sports venues and street carts.Under three-term Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the city has campaigned aggressively against obesity, including outlawi

LONDON (AP) — Britain's Supreme Court has endorsed the extradition of WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange to Sweden, bringing the secret-spilling Internet activist a big step closer to prosecution in a Scandinavian court.But a question mark hung over the decision after Assange's lawyer made the highly unusual suggestion that she would try to reopen the case, raising the prospect of more legal wrangling

THE HAGUE(AFP) - Former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic went on trial Wednesday accused of carrying out a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing and Europe's worst massacre since World War II."Ratko Mladic assumed the mantle of the criminal goal of ethnically cleansing Bosnia," prosecutor Dermot Groome told judges as the trial opened at the Yugoslav war crimes court in The Hague.Mladic, 70,

BEIRUT (AFP) - At least 15 civilians were "summarily executed" by regime forces in a neighbourhood of the central Syrian city of Homs overnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday."After regime forces raided the neighbourhood of Shammas, 15 civilians were found summarily executed," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based watchdog told AFP, qualifying the killings a "mas

Seoul City announced on Wednesday that it will increase the number of hydrogen power systems for a stable electricity supply in case of blackouts or other emergencies.Under the plan, 29 hydrogen fuel cell power plants will be built and 102 hydrogen fuel cells will be installed by 2014. The facilities are expected to generate 230 megawatts of electricity per hour that could meet the energy demands

The Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared producers of TV network MBC’s investigative program, “PD Notebook,” from having to compensate a group of viewers for airing inaccurate information.Justice Yang Chang-woo said the claims for damages did not have merit since the plaintiffs did had no connection to the content of the program. “The program targets a random audience and the pain they feel is stric

Prosecutors said Wednesday they have arrested the chief of a suspended savings bank over allegations he embezzled billions of won (millions of U.S. dollars) and gave out more than a hundred billion won in illegal loans.Lim Suk, the chief executive of Solomon Savings Bank, was arrested in Seoul late Tuesday after the prosecution determined he could destroy evidence related to the allegations he emb

NEW DELHI (AP) _ India is planning to test launch a new nuclear missile that for the first time would give it the capability of hitting the major Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai.The government has hailed the Agni-V missile, with a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles), as a major boost to its efforts to counter China's regional dominance and become an Asia power in its own right. The test