Army warning: unrest pushing Egypt to brink

CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) - Egypt's army chief said political strife was pushing the state to the brink of collapse - a stark warning from the institution that ran the country until last year as Cairo's first freely elected leader struggles to contain bloody street violence. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a U.S.-trained general appointed by President Mohamed Mursi last year to head the armed forces,...

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Retail rents in S'pore up 2% in 2012

SINGAPORE: Prices of shop space rose 2.0 per cent in 2012, while rentals dropped marginally by 0.3 per cent according to the latest statistics from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).Yields of retail units have dropped last year, but most market experts Channel NewsAsia spoke to are optimistic about the demand for retail space in Singapore from both investors and retailers. After...

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Porn briefly makes 'Editor's Pick' on Twitter's Vine

The current top result for "Editor's Pick" on Vine.(Credit:Screenshot taken by Roger Cheng/CNET)A pornographic video briefly made Vine's "Editor Pick" list, further raising the question of whether the video-clip-sharing app has a porn problem.The clip showed up this morning, and was spotted by The Verge, before it was quickly taken down. A video featuring the "I love NY" logo is the current top editor's...

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Gym Turned Into Morgue for Nightclub Fire Victims

Coffins lined a gymnasium in Santa Maria, Brazil, today as family members tried to identify their loved ones after a fast-moving fire tore through a crowded nightclub Sunday morning, killing more than 230 people and injuring hundreds more.A community gym near the popular Kiss nightclub has been converted to a temporary morgue were family members were led in one by one Sunday...

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Violent protests greet Egypt emergency decree

CAIRO (Reuters) - A man was shot dead on Monday in a fifth day of violence in Egypt that has killed 50 people and prompted the Islamist president to declare a state of emergency in an attempt to end a wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world's biggest nation. Under emergency powers announced by President Mohamed Mursi for the cities of Port Said, Ismailia and Suez on Sunday, the army will...

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Syria pledges to end opposition prosecutions

DAMASCUS: Syria's high judicial council has announced a suspension of prosecutions of opposition members so they can join a national dialogue, state media reported on Sunday, without detailing the nature of crimes affected by the ruling.The report comes after Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar had earlier vowed to ease the return of Syrian opposition members living in exile so that they...

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The ultimate gall of a heartless iPhone thief

An object of desire?(Credit:CNET)One should never expect justice in life.The best one can hope for is poetry. And yet, just once or twice, both manage to collide with a deliciousness that moves the soul.Here is the tale of a teenage girl who had her iPhone stolen.As The New York Times composes it, the girl had her iPhone 4S ripped from her by a teenage boy in Brooklyn's notoriously difficult Prospect...

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Dozens of stranded Arizona hikers rescued

TUCSON, Ariz. Teams on the ground and in the air rescued dozens of hikers who were stranded in an Arizona canyon after heavy rains flooded trails, authorities said. Forty to 50 adults and children were stranded Saturday along various sections of Bear Canyon northeast of Tucson as the waters rushed down mountainsides, the Pima County Sheriff's Department said. A series of 911 calls from hikers sparked...

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Authorities: 245 Dead in Brazil Nightclub Fire

A fire swept through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing at least 245 people and leaving at least 200 injured, police and firefighters said.Police Maj. Cleberson Braida told local news media that the 245 bodies were brought for identification to a gymnasium in the city of Santa Maria.That toll would make it one of the deadliest nightclub fires more than...

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Fire at nightclub kills more than 200 in Brazil

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (Reuters) - At least 200 people were killed in a nightclub fire in southern Brazil on Sunday after a band's pyrotechnics show set the building ablaze, and fleeing patrons were unable to find the emergency exits, local officials said. Bodies were still being removed from the Kiss nightclub in the southern city of Santa Maria, Major Gerson da Rosa Ferreira, who was...

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