Noisy lovebirds expose Russian smuggler

Smuggling the world's largest land animal across an international border sounds like a mammoth undertaking, but activists say that does not stop traffickers supplying Asian elephants to Thai tourist attractions.

According to Google Earth, the satellite image below was taken in July, 2010. Although it’s not recent, it is worth a look as it shows a quite interesting and somehow rare bird: an Iranian Antonov An-74T-200 on the apron of the airport of Sirri, Iran’s small island in the midst of the Persian Gulf, east of Hormuz.

China executed a convicted Japanese drug smuggler on Tuesday, making him the first Japanese citizen to be put to death in the country since diplomatic ties were re-established in 1972.Mitsunobu Akano, 65, was executed in the northeastern province of Liaoning, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting an announcement from China's top court, the Supreme People's Court.Akano was arrested in September 2006 at an airport in the northeastern city of Dalian while reportedly trying to smuggle 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of narcotics from China to Japan.

Some memories die hard. For Hong Kong, the economically devastating 2003 outbreak of SARS is only too fresh in the collective memory. Now, as the H7N9 avian flu virus spreads through China, killing 23 on the mainland finding its way to Taiwan, the city is desperate to stop it from getting a foothold.

The recent assassinations of two Texas prosecutors have drawn attention to brutal gangs that rule prisons in the Lone Star State and beyond.

Arjun Rudra submits:Equity markets throughout the Middle East and North Africa – a group that has been labeled ‘MENA’ – have been outpacing global equity markets in recent months, despite low volumes.

While the US is caught in a rancorous debate over allowing the government to define just what was and wasn't meant by the Second amendment, and how best to limit it and give the government even more powers, China is more focused on its version of the First.