Jonas Savimbi, the vicious, charismatic rebel who fought Angola's socialist government in a 27-year civil war, died 10 years ago Wednesday, leaving behind a haunting legacy of violence.
Savimbi was killed in a firefight with government forces on February 22, 2002, the denouement of a brutal conflict that grew out of Angola's messy independence from Portugal in 1975 and lasted until the signing of a peace treaty six weeks after his death.
Full StoryFrance's top two football divisions have witnessed an unwelcome upsurge in racist abuse from the terraces in the 2011-12 season to date, a police report released on Monday revealed.
According to Antoine Boutonnet, head of the National Division for the Fight against Hooliganism (DNLH), "a worrying phenomenon is the return of racism in the stands".
Full StoryA Vienna museum launched Monday an unusual contribution to celebrations marking 150 years since Gustav Klimt's birth with an online search for the kitschiest objects adorned with the artist's work.
The Wien Museum's "Worst of Klimt" campaign invites people to post on its Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/WienMuseum "the most horrible or most absurd Klimt products."
Full StoryA small Oslo theater plans to stage a controversial Danish play based on a manifesto written by the Norway gunman who killed 77 people in July 2011, a theatre official said Monday.
"Naturally, the problems linked to July 22 have been widely discussed in the public debate for months but the language used has until now been primarily legalese, journalese and, most recently, psychiatric," Kai Johnsen, the artistic director of the Drama House (Dramatikkens hus) told Agence France Presse.
Full StoryOne man prays to heal the legs he broke in a car accident. An older woman pleads for grandchildren. Another visitor has come to see "God's secretary."
These believers are part of a growing phenomenon in Israel, where hundreds of thousands of people from starkly different backgrounds flock to the tombs of ancient Biblical figures or modern-day rabbis, seeking blessings and claiming they've witnessed miracles.
Full StoryIn a dimly lit tent in Yemen's Change Square, Nobel peace laureate Tawakkul Karman has laid out a blueprint of her country's future: a modern state with equality and rule of law.
Karman, a passionate 32-year-old, has toned down her once inflammatory rhetoric, no longer demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh be brought to international justice, and throwing her support behind Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, who will replace Saleh after Tuesday's election.
Full StoryHong Kong's last dedicated Cantonese opera theatre won a new lease of life Saturday after it was saved from closure by a feng shui master who struck a deal with the property owner.
The 1,000-seat Sunbeam Theatre has been synonymous with the operatic heritage of China's southern Cantonese-speaking minority for 40 years since it opened in 1972, and has earned landmark status on Hong Kong's art scene.
Full StoryAustralia began marking the 70th anniversary of Japan's World War II bombing of Darwin Saturday, an event that gave birth to its alliance with the U.S. and is seen as the nation's "Pearl Harbor".
Air raids on the remote northern city of Darwin on February 19, 1942 killed at least 243 people and injured hundreds more in a wave of destruction authorities vastly downplayed at the time.
Full StoryHe has barely begun learning guitar, but already six-year-old Xcaret Gonzalez is dreaming big.
He aspires to play well enough some day to form his own band -- one playing the mariachi music that is an important part of his Mexican background, and which has been declared part of world cultural heritage.
Full StoryA Florida company that found sunken treasure from a 19th century warship must return more than a half-million silver and gold coins to the Spanish government by next week, a federal judge in Tampa ruled Friday.
In addition, Spain does not need to reimburse the deep sea recovery firm, Odyssey Marine Exploration, for its costs of preserving and storing the treasure, the ruling said.
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