Taiwanese Wu You-ting has taken Iron Man fandom to a whole new level. Wu, 28, had always considered himself a fan of millionaire-turned crime-fighting cyberborg comic hero Iron Man, but it was not until he saw the film’s third installment at a local theater that he was inspired to build his own suit of armor. “I really like Iron Man. Once I went to see the movie and saw the movie theater placing the (full […]
International
Robert De Niro opens luxury hotel in Manila
MAY 19 (Reuters) — Hollywood actor Robert De Niro and Japanese Chef Nobu Matsuhisa opened luxury hotel Nobu in a 1.3 billion USD gambling complex Manila on Monday (May 18). The Nobu Hotel is one of the three hotels being built in the Manila-based City of Dreams casino-resort, a joint venture of Melco Crown and local leisure firm Belle Corp, which features a posh night club and a Hollywood-style theme park. Co-owners Matsuhisa and de […]
WHO sets up $100 million fund to deal with future crises like Ebola
MAY 19 (Reuters) — The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday (May 18) it never wants to be caught unprepared again after the onslaught of the Ebola virus with the director general admitting in Geneva that “the buck stops with me”. The WHO and its Director General Margaret Chan have come under fire for being slow to respond to West Africa’s Ebola epidemic. The virus hit Guinea first in December 2013 but it was […]
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth visits the Chelsea Flower Show
MAY 19 (Reuters) — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth attended the launch of the annual Chelsea Flower Show in London on Monday (May 18), where the finest horticulturists from all over the world exhibit their meticulously designed gardens. The Queen and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh were joined at the lavish flower show by Prince Charles and his wife Camilla as well as Prince Harry. She was shown around various gardens by officials and watched the […]
Police dog nabs suspect in shed
MAY 19 (Reuters) — A K-9 police dog in Southern California sniffed out a suspect from his hiding place inside a backyard shed and wrestled with the man until he was taken into custody on Monday (May 18). Police from Azusa, east of Los Angeles, had been in pursuit of the suspect on foot when he slipped into the yard of a residential home in the area. Earlier, police were in a pursuit of three […]
Obama gets his own account on Twitter, a million immediately follows
AFTER six years in office, US President Barack Obama sent his first ever tweet from his very own account on Twitter on Monday (May 18), quickly amassing a million followers in five hours, according to Reuters, in the latest of many White House efforts to amplify his message with social media. “Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account,” Obama tweeted from his verified @POTUS account, which had more than […]
Kerry calls for U.S. soldiers in South Korea to prepare for “every eventuality”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday (May 18) asked American troops stationed in South Korea to prepare for possible provocation from North Korea. Kerry visited Yongsan Garrison in Seoul and delivered a speech to some of the U.S soldiers stationed there. “Here, particular in this part of the world, as we see (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un engaging in these extraordinary provocative activities, building nuclear weapons against all of the UN […]
Thai defense minister denies migrants boats are pushed back to sea
Thailand’s defence minister, General Pravit Wongsuwan, on Monday (May 18) denied that the country was pushing migrant boats back into the open sea. Pravit presided over a meeting with the Royal Thai Navy’s Region 3 in the country’s southern beach town of Phuket, to follow up on the navy’s operation on the migrant crisis in southeast Asia. Southeast Asian governments have so far shown little sign of a coordinated response to the boatloads of Bangladeshi […]
Merkel urges tighter WHO management after “Ebola catastrophe”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Monday (May 18) for reforming the World Health Organization to make it more nimble in responding to crises like Ebola that has killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa. Merkel, opening the WHO’s annual nine-day ministerial meeting, said that Germany would contribute 200 million euros to help developing countries boost their defences against infectious diseases, including 70 million euros for West Africa. The WHO and its director-general Margaret […]
Shi’ite forces move in on Iraqi city taken by ISIS
A column of 3,000 Shi’ite militia fighters arrived at a military base near Ramadi on Monday as Baghdad moved to retake the western Iraqi city that has fallen to Islamic State militants in the biggest defeat for the government since mid-2014. Setting the stage for renewed fighting over the city, Islamic State militants advanced in armored vehicles from Ramadi towards the base where the Shi’ite paramilitaries were massing for a counter-offensive, witnesses and a military […]
Nearly 200 arrested in deadly Texas biker gang shootout
Nearly 200 people were arrested on Monday a shootout between rival motorcycle gangs a day earlier where nine people were killed and 18 injured at a restaurant that law enforcement called a horrific crime scene. The bikers from at least five rival gangs attacked each other with guns, knives, brass knuckles, clubs and motorcycle chains at a Twin Peaks Sports Bar and Grill in the central Texas city of Waco. No bystanders or police were […]
Kerry says North Korea remains far from steps needed for talks with U.S.
MAY 18 (Reuters) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday (May 18) North Korea has “not even come close” to taking the steps needed to rein in its nuclear weapons programme to initiate talks, adding the United States was considering further sanctions. Speaking in the South Korean capital, Kerry said Washington continued to offer the isolated North the chance for an improved relationship in return for signs of a genuine willingness to […]