cheese, wine & robots

Japanese media, racing figures and fans on Monday mourned the death of teenage motorcycle racer Shoya Tomizawa at a Moto2 race at Italy's San Marino Grand Prix.

US authorities have begun to consider approval for the first time the sale of genetically engineered salmon, a move that some say could open the door to more transgenic animals on American dinner tables.

A Malaysian caught smuggling 95 live boa constrictors in his luggage at the country's main airport has been sentenced to six months in prison.

Film director James Cameron said he will return to Brazil this year to make a 3D film on indigenous people of the Amazon who oppose construction of a huge dam for fear it could flood tribal lands.

The Iso writes "Las Vegas based company Righthaven found two articles from the Las Vegas Review-Journal about Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle reprinted on her web site without permission, so it did what it always does: bought the rights to the articles from the Review-Journal and sued the alleged infringer, seeking unspecified damages."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

N.Korea says it will release a S.Korean fishing boat that it seized last month.

New Zealand's Four Nations squad is chock-full of players still involved in the NRL finals.

Swine flu has killed 17 so far in NZ, but the number of people being infected appears to be falling.

China says it is investigating the qualifications of the nation's commercial pilots after revelations that more than 200 of them had falsified their resumes.

A Japanese court Monday sentenced two Greenpeace activists to suspended one-year jail terms for stealing a box of whale meat that the environmentalists said was proof of embezzlement in "research whaling".

A Japanese court has sentenced two Greenpeace activists to one-year jail terms, suspended for three years, for stealing a box of whale meat.

Samantha Stosur has advanced to the US Open quarter-finals with a tense three-set victory over Elena Dementieva.

A Japanese court Monday sentenced two Greenpeace activists to one-year jail terms, suspended for three years, for stealing a box of whale meat during an investigation, the environmental group said.

Seven people have been injured after an explosion ripped through a discotheque in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe.

Police in Pakistan say the death toll from suicide car bomber attack on a police post in the country's northwest has risen to 14, with 34 wounded.

A Japanese court has given two Greenpeace activists suspended one-year jail terms for stealing a box of whale meat during an investigation.

Pakistan's latest match in their controversial tour of Britain ended in a five-wicket Twenty20 defeat by world champions England at Sophia Gardens here on Sunday.

A Japanese freelance journalist released at the weekend in Afghanistan says his kidnappers were not Taliban but corrupt Afghan soldiers.

Australian David Blyth is one of three blind golfers who will test their skills against Asian Tour professionals at this week's Singapore Classic.

Basque separatist fighters ETA declared a ceasefire in their flagging, decades-long campaign of bombing and shooting for a homeland independent of Spain.