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U.S. actress sues anti-Islam filmmaker, YouTube in federal court

Cindy Lee Garcia attends a news conference outside her attorney's office after a court hearing in Los Angeles, California September 20, 2012. (Reuters/Bret Hartman)

LOS ANGELES: An actress who said she was duped into appearing in an anti-Islam film that stoked violent protests across the Muslim world took her legal bid to federal court on Wednesday in a renewed effort to force it off YouTube. The lawsuit filed by Cindy Lee Garcia names the popular online video site YouTube and its parent company Google …

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Google’s Schmidt defends hosting of anti-Islam film

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt speaks at The Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts November 15, 2011. (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)

SEOUL: Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt defended Thursday YouTube’s hosting of an anti-Islam film that sparked violent global protests, saying the answer to “bad speech is more speech” — not a ban. Google, the parent company of the video-sharing site, has blocked access to “Innocence of Muslims” in a number of nations, including India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where it …

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At least one Lebanese hostage in Syria to be released

One of the Lebanese Shiite pilgrims that Syrian rebels have been holding hostage in Syria, hugs his mother, right, upon arrival at his house in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. (The Daily Star/Hasan Shaaban)

BEIRUT: At least one, and possibly three, of 10 Lebanese pilgrims held hostage in Syria will be released in the coming few hours,  mediators said. A mediator, who requested he remained anonymous, told The Daily Star early on Tuesday that three men would be released, identifying them as Awad Ibrahim, Ali Termos, Khalil Saleh. The Sunni Committee of Muslim Scholars of Lebanon, …

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Mine violence hits at South Africa’s political problem

Striking miners hold weapons as they wait to be addressed by former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) President Julius Malema outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 100 km northwest of Johannesburg August 18, 2012. (Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko)

MARIKANA, South Africa: The bloody protest by South African miners that ended in a hail of police gunfire and 34 deaths this week could also wound the ruling ANC and its main labor ally, laying bare workers’ anger over enduring inequalities in Africa’s biggest economy. Thursday’s shooting, bringing back memories of apartheid-era violence, underlined that after 18 years in power …

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Lebanese emigrant wins third place in Miss World

Miss Australia Jessica Kahawaty accepts her second-runner up crowd at the Miss World pageant in Ordos, China. AP Photo

BEIRUT: An Australian of Lebanese origin has won third place in this yearโ€™sย Miss Worldย competition, Al-Arabiya reported Sunday. Jessica Kahawatyย placed after Miss China Yu Wenxia, who won first place in the pageant andย Sophie Elizabeth Mouldsย of Wales, who came in second place. This was not the Lebanese beautyโ€™s first pageant. She was in the 2008 Missย Lebanon Emigrantย and also competed for Miss Lebanon …

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Japan, China islands disputes deepen with landings, protests

A protester yells anti-Japan slogans as he holds a stick in front of a banner on a commercial street in Wuhan, Hubei province August 18, 2012. (Reuters/Stringer)

EAST CHINA SEA: Several Japanese nationalists landed on Sunday on a rocky island in the East China Sea at the heart of a territorial row with Beijing, with protests in several Chinese cities also indicating ties were worsening between Asia’s two biggest economies. Tokyo and Beijing have been feuding for decades over the island chain, known as the Senkaku in …

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Poster girl Taylor eases into final

Poster girl Taylor eases into final

LONDON: Ireland’s Katie Taylor moved a step away from becoming one of the first Olympic women’s boxing champions on Wednesday when she produced a clinical performance to reach the lightweight final. The four-time amateur world champion, at the forefront of the campaign to get women’s boxing into the Olympics, beat Tajikistan’s Mavzuna Chorieva 17-9 in front of another raucous crowd …

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Favorites Brazil play South Korea in Olympic semifinals

Honduras' Arnold Peralta, left, vies for the ball with Brazil's Neymar, right, during their quarterfinal men's soccer match at the London 2012 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012, at St James Park in Newcastle, England. (AP Photo/Chris Clark)

MANCHESTER, England: The only top contender still left in the men’s Olympic football tournament, Brazil has no excuse to leave the London Games without the gold medal. First, though, it will have to get past South Korea in the semifinals on Tuesday. Brazil brought most of its top players to the Olympics and has been dominant so far, getting more …

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