http://thestar.com.my/news/worldupdates/ Update: Thursday, August 28, 2008 MYT 2:02:30 PM http://thestar.com.my/common/images/thestar_140x45.gif http://thestar.com.my/ 88 31 http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T104258Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352089-3&sec=Worldupdates DENVER (Reuters) - Democrats prepared a grand celebration on Thursday for Barack Obama, who will accept a historic presidential nomination with a speech that spells out his vision for change in America. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T081711Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352088-1&sec=Worldupdates MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev looked east on Thursday for support for Moscow's tough line over Georgia, which has inflamed relations with the West and prompted talk of a new Cold War. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T112847Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352105-1&sec=Worldupdates DENVER (Reuters) - Barack Obama burst onto the national stage four years ago with a speech describing himself as a skinny guy with a funny name and an improbable life story. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T085338Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352058-2&sec=Worldupdates NEW YORK (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the world's most powerful woman for the third straight year, topping Forbes magazine's 2008 list of the top 100 women based on their career, economic impact and media coverage. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T080835Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352087-1&sec=Worldupdates DENVER (Reuters) - Republican John McCain has made up his mind on who he will pick as his vice presidential running mate and is likely to announce his choice on Friday, a Republican official said on Wednesday. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T112144Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352106-1&sec=Worldupdates JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will easily win leadership elections in the ruling Kadima party to replace embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, poll results showed on Thursday. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T095332Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352063-2&sec=Worldupdates BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thousands of anti-government protesters defied a court order to leave Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's official compound on Thursday as the group's leaders vowed to stay until his administration fell. http://thestar.com.my/news/nastory.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T064537Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352060-1&sec=Worldupdates TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The hijackers of a Sudanese airliner surrendered to authorities in Libya on Wednesday after releasing all the passengers and crew, Libya's aviation authority said. http://thestar.com.my/news/nastory.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T071121Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352071-1&sec=Worldupdates NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Yorkers are contracting HIV at three times the national rate, the city health department said on Wednesday, attributing the difference to New York's large population of high-risk groups such as gay men and blacks. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T064753Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352059-1&sec=Worldupdates WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers have captured images of a powerful collision of galaxy clusters and say it may shed light on the behavior of dark matter. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T063112Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352061-1&sec=Worldupdates LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lesbian activist Del Martin died on Wednesday, just two months after marrying her partner of 55 years in one of the first legally recognized California same-sex weddings. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T075523Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352052-2&sec=Worldupdates DENVER (Reuters) - To shouts of "Yes we can," Democrats nominated Barack Obama on Wednesday as their presidential candidate in a historic first for a black American, backed by his ex-rivals Bill and Hillary Clinton. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T075650Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352081-1&sec=Worldupdates MANILA (Reuters) - Ten South Korean nationals, many of them Baptist pastors, were killed in the northern Philippines when the van in which they were travelling slammed into a concrete wall at high speed, officials said on Thursday. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T064739Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352057-1&sec=Worldupdates JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Abie Nathan, an Israeli peace activist who blazed trails to Egypt and the Palestinians that his country would eventually follow, died on Wednesday. He was 81. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T012648Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-351984-5&sec=Worldupdates KIEV/TBILISI (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Wednesday it wanted to discuss charging Russia more for the lease of a Black Sea naval base, a move that could aggravate regional tensions already enflamed by Moscow's conflict with Georgia. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T062908Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352038-2&sec=Worldupdates NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kidnappers freed the head of the U.N. refugee agency's office in Somalia on Wednesday but rising insecurity forced Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to close a clinic in Mogadishu that provided essential health care to hundreds of women and children. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T065220Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352054-1&sec=Worldupdates WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers working on mice have regrown the tiny hairs in the inner ear that are crucial to hearing, and said on Wednesday their findings might lead to ways to restore hearing loss in humans. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T010237Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352007-2&sec=Worldupdates PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Gustav drifted away from Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Wednesday after killing 22 people and was set to become a dangerously powerful hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico oil fields. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T031118Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352050-1&sec=Worldupdates PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy's popularity rating rose to a six-month high in August, boosted by his high-profile trips to conflict zones Afghanistan and Georgia, a new poll to be published on Thursday has found. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T031455Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352048-1&sec=Worldupdates LONDON (Reuters) - The rapid deterioration of our mental abilities as we age begins far earlier than scientists had suspected, Swedish researchers said on Wednesday. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T003439Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352039-1&sec=Worldupdates ACCRA (Reuters) - Rich nations will need to provide about $130 billion a year by 2030 to help developing countries cope with climate change, or about five times current flows, the WWF conservation group said on Wednesday. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T011634Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352047-1&sec=Worldupdates PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped an Israeli construction manager from his home in Nigeria's oil hub but the region's main militant group said on Wednesday it was not responsible and offered to help negotiate his release. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T005143Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352040-1&sec=Worldupdates DUBAI (Reuters) - A landlord is being questioned about a fire that killed 11 Asian workers in a building housing about 800 labourers, Dubai's deputy police chief said on Wednesday. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-28T000147Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-351951-3&sec=Worldupdates BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States asked Iraq for permission to keep troops there to 2015 but compromised with Iraqi negotiators on 2011, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-27T192826Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352012-1&sec=Worldupdates KIEV (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Wednesday Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had a big responsibility not to start a new Cold War which the West does not want. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-27T160354Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-351935-4&sec=Worldupdates HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will form a new government soon but he says the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change does not want to join, state media reported on Wednesday. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-27T200846Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-352018-1&sec=Worldupdates WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three U.S. soldiers killed four handcuffed and blindfolded Iraqi prisoners with pistol shots on the bank of a Baghdad canal last year, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-27T232927Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-351981-4&sec=Worldupdates BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej ordered thousands of riot police to remove an anti-government crowd occupying his office compound by the end of Wednesday, but protest leaders vowed to stay. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/28/worldupdates/2008-08-27T204710Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-351999-2&sec=Worldupdates TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Hijackers of a Sudanese airliner surrendered to authorities in Libya after releasing all the passengers on Wednesday, Libya's aviation authority said.