28 June 2015

Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster

In this April 29, 2015 photo, Tama, a cat stationmaster, Japan’s feline star of a struggling local railway, receives a birthday cake on her 16th birthday in Kinokawa, Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan. Tama was mourned by company officials and fans and elevated into a goddess at a funeral Sunday, June 28, 2015. Tama died of a heart failure on June 22.
Tama the stationmaster, Japan's feline star of a struggling local railway, was mourned by company officials and fans and elevated into a goddess at a funeral Sunday.

US same-sex marriage ruling likely to impact other countries

Filipino LGBTs (Lesbians Gays Bisexual and Transgenders) hold hands as they gather for a Gay Pride rally Saturday, June 27, 2015 in Mania, Philippines to push for LGBT rights and to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court decision recognizing gay marriages in all U.S. states as a victory for their cause. The rally was scheduled to commemorate the 1969 demonstrations in New York City that started the gay rights movement around the world. Jonas Bagas, executive director of the pro-LGBT rights group TLF Share, said the U.S. court ruling “will reverberate in other corners of the world.”
The landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriages has no legal force outside the United States, but gay rights activists in many parts of the world believe the court ruling will help their cause.

In the Philippines, in India, in Australia and elsewhere, gay rights advocates think the U.S. ruling may help change attitudes, just as American activists — and judges, educators and legislators — had earlier been influenced by the easy acceptance of same-sex marriage in some European countries, where the laws were changed smoothly without much fuss.

27 June 2015

Dozens killed in attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and France

Injured people are treated near the area where an attack took place in Sousse, Tunisia, Friday June 26, 2015. A young man unfurled an umbrella and pulled out a Kalashnikov, opening fire on European sunbathers in an attack that killed at least 28 people at a Tunisian beach resort — one of three deadly attacks from Europe to the Middle East on Friday that followed a call to violence by Islamic State extremists.
A young man pulled a Kalashnikov from a beach umbrella and sprayed gunfire at European sunbathers at a Tunisian resort, killing at least 39 people — one of three deadly attacks Friday from Europe to North Africa to the Middle East that followed a call to violence by Islamic State extremists.

United Nations charter, signed in San Francisco, turns 70

In this May 8, 1945, file photo, members of the executive committee of the United Nations conference meet in the Opera House in San Francisco to consider conference procedure. Seventy years ago leaders of 50 war-weary countries gathered in San Francisco to create an international order that would save future generations “from the scourge of war.” With that, the United Nations was created.
Hundreds of people packed the rotunda of San Francisco City Hall to mark the 70th birthday of the signing of the United Nations charter.

26 June 2015

Mother, baby rescued 4 days after Colombia plane crash

In this photo distributed by Colombia's Air Force, a rescue worker puts Maria Nelly Murillo on a stretcher after she and her baby were airlifted for medical treatment to Quibdo, in Colombia's western state of Choco, Wednesday, June 24, 2015. Rescuers reached Murillo and her 1-year-old son after they survived a June 20 plane crash in the jungle, shortly after taking off from Quibdo. The pilot was killed, and Murillo suffered some injuries and burns, but the baby was unhurt.
A Colombian woman who survived a plane crash with her months-old baby, drinking coconut water to stay alive, was rescued after four days lost in the jungle.

Heat wave subsides in Pakistan as death toll reaches 860

Pakistani volunteers collect donations to help heatstroke victims in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, June 24, 2015. A cool wind from the sea and pre-monsoon rains brought the first signs of respite to southern Pakistan on Wednesday as the death toll from a scorching heat wave climbed to over 800, a high figure even for a nation accustomed to sizzling hot summers.
The devastating heat wave that struck southern Pakistan last weekend is slowly subsiding but the toll was still climbing Thursday, to a total of 860 confirmed deaths, a senior health official said.

25 June 2015

Flamingo in Brazilian zoo gets artificial leg

Veterinarians place a specially-made prosthetic leg on a Chilean flamingo at a zoo in Sorocaba, Brazil, Tuesday, June 23, 2015. The flamingo's left leg was partially amputated a month ago to halt an infection. Veterinarian Andre Costa says the bird wouldn’t have survived with just one leg.
A pink flamingo in Brazil has gotten a new leg to stand on — an artificial one.
Zookeepers at a zoo in southeastern Brazil said this week they think it's the first time a flamingo has used a prosthetic leg.
The 6-year-old Chilean flamingo at the Sorocaba zoo fractured his left leg a month ago.

23 June 2015

Report: economic growth failing to help world's poorest kids

A homeless girl sits on a footpath as commuters walk past in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 23, 2015. A new report by UNICEF warns that economic growth is still failing to help millions of the world’s poorest children. In India, there are countless children living with grinding poverty, sleeping on sidewalks, begging at traffic intersections and relying on government-run lunch programs that often provide their only full meal for the day.
Global resolve to rescue impoverished children from lives of squalor, disease and hunger has fallen short, with economic development in many countries still leaving millions of the most vulnerable behind, according to a UNICEF report released Tuesday.

22 June 2015

Taliban suicide bomber, gunmen attack Afghan parliament

An Afghan security officer stands guard at the entry gate of the Afghan parliament after an attack by the Taliban, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, June 22, 2015. The Taliban attacked the Afghan parliament on Monday, setting off at least one large bomb and igniting a gunbattle with security forces, police and witnesses said.
The Taliban launched a complex attack on the Afghan parliament Monday, with a suicide car bomber striking at the entrance and gunmen battling police as lawmakers were meeting inside to confirm the appointment of a defense minister, police and witnesses said.

21 June 2015

Millions across India, world take part in Yoga Day exercises

A young Exile Tibetan practices yoga at the Tibetan Children's Village School in Dharmsala, India, Saturday, June 20, 2015. Sunday, June 21, marks the first International Yoga Day, which the government of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is marking with a massive outdoor New Delhi gathering.
Millions of yoga enthusiasts bent and twisted their bodies in complex postures across India and much of the world on Sunday to mark the first International Yoga Day.

19 June 2015

UK police probe whether 2 men stowed away beneath plane

A general view of the NotOnTheHighStreet.com offices on Kew Road, south west London, Friday, June 19, 2015, after a stowaway plunged to his death from a plane and landed on the shop. A man is in critical condition in a London hospital after he was found stowed away in the undercarriage of a plane that had just completed a 10-hour flight, and police are investigating whether a man found dead on a west London rooftop had fallen from the same plane.
A man was in critical condition in a London hospital after he was found stowed away in the undercarriage of a plane that had just completed a 10-hour flight, and police are investigating whether a man found dead on a west London rooftop fell from the same plane.
Authorities at Heathrow Airport found the man in the undercarriage of a British Airways plane after it landed Thursday morning on a flight from Johannesburg. Police say they believe they know his identity and that he is 24 but they are awaiting confirmation before they release any details.

18 June 2015

Muslims worldwide to mark the start of Ramadan on Thursday

Indonesian Muslim children carry torches during a parade marking Ramadan in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, June 16, 2015. Ramadan, the holy fasting month, is expected to begin on Thursday June, 18. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Muslims around the world will mark the start of Ramadan on Thursday, a month of intense prayer, dawn-to-dusk fasting and nightly feasts.
Muslims follow a lunar calendar and a moon-sighting methodology that can lead to different countries declaring the start of Ramadan a day or two apart. However, this year religious authorities in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Indonesia and most other parts of the world announced based on their sightings of the moon that daily fasting would begin Thursday.

10 June 2015

Mumbai court bans joyriding in iconic horse-drawn carriages

A family enjoys a ride on a horse drawn carriage popularly known as ‘victorias’ in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, June 9, 2015. The horse drawn carriages are one of city’s tourist attractions.
The blingy joyrides will soon be ending in Mumbai.
Tourists hoping to roll down the city's cacophonous streets in one of its famed, horse-drawn carriages will have to do so before June 2016, when a court has ordered the carriages be banned, saying it was a form of animal cruelty.

9 June 2015

AP Interview: Iran partially opens stadium doors to women

Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Shahindokht Molaverdi listens to a question during an interview with The Associated Press at her office in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 8, 2015. Molaverdi said a limited number of women will be allowed to watch Volleyball World League games in Tehran later this month as it lifts a ban on Iranian women attending male sporting events.
A limited number of Iranian women will be allowed to watch Volleyball World League games in Tehran later this month, a senior government official has told The Associated Press, part of a government move to allow women and families to attend male sporting events.