Obama backs immigration reform for skilled tech workers

Obama announced today that he backs immigration reform.(Credit:White House)Tech companies may score a victory in their hopes to get immigration reform passed for skilled tech workers. President Obama urged Congress today to work on immigration policy that would allow foreign-born startup founders to stay in the country. At the same time, several U.S. senators introduced a bill focusing on the same....

Read More..

"Maternity Tourism": How Chinese couples buy U.S. citizenship

(CBS News) CHINO HILLS, Calif. - Any child born in the United States is automatically an American citizen. Mexican mothers have, for years, crossed the border to give birth here for that reason. Maternity tourism in America has also caught on now with mothers in China. Ada Lin, a young Chinese girl whose parents traveled to America so she could be born an American citizen/CBS News Ada Lin is 4...

Read More..

US Mom Missing in Turkey Took Side Trips

Sarai Sierra, the New York mother who disappeared in Turkey while on a solo trip, took several side excursions out of the country, but stayed in contact with her family the entire time, a family friend told ABC News.Turkish media reported today that police were trying to establish why Sierra visited Amsterdam and Munich. Police were also trying to establish the identity of a...

Read More..

French seal off Mali's Timbuktu, rebels torch library

GAO, Mali (Reuters) - French and Malian troops retook control of Timbuktu, a UNESCO World Heritage site, on Monday after Islamist rebel occupiers fled the ancient Sahara trading town and torched several buildings, including a library holding priceless manuscripts. The United States and the European Union are backing a French-led intervention in Mali against al Qaeda-allied militants they...

Read More..

"Off the scale" smog envelops Beijing again

BEIJING: Pollution levels in Beijing rose above index limits on Tuesday, the US embassy said, as a dense cloud of haze shrouded large swathes of northern China.Mask-wearing residents of the capital battled through a second consecutive day of pollution at hazardous levels, despite Beijing municipal authorities warning those with respiratory difficulties to stay indoors.It is at least the...

Read More..

'Citizen cartographers' help Google update maps of N. Korea

City center or Pyongyang, North Korea.(Credit:Google)Maps of North Korea's landscape have for decades been largely blank, but thanks to "a community of citizen cartographers," Google Maps has managed to fill in some of the blanks.Tapping input submitted to its Google Map Maker tool, the Web giant has added more detailed, up-to-date information to its maps of the reclusive nation, including streets,...

Read More..

Massive loss of life in Brazil nightclub fire

Last Updated 10:16 p.m. ET BRASILIA, Brazil Flames raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing more than 230 people as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air, stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead. It appeared to be the world's deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.Firefighters responding to the blaze...

Read More..

'Barrier of Bodies' Trapped Nightclub Fire Victims

A fast-moving fire roared through a crowded, windowless nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, filling the air in seconds with flames and a thick, toxic smoke that killed more than 230 panicked partygoers, many of whom were caught in a stampede to escape.Inspectors believe the blaze began when a band's small pyrotechnics show ignited foam sound insulating material on the...

Read More..

Nightclub fire kills 233 in Brazil

SANTA MARIA, Brazil (Reuters) - A nightclub fire killed at least 233 people in southern Brazil on Sunday when a band's pyrotechnics show set the building ablaze and fleeing partygoers stampeded toward blocked exits in the ensuing panic. Most of those who died were suffocated by toxic fumes that rapidly filled the crowded club after sparks from pyrotechnics used by the band for visual...

Read More..

Ex-CNB chief's defence asks court not to convict innocent man

SINGAPORE: The final leg of the corruption trial of the former chief of the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), Ng Boon Gay, started on Monday with the defence asking the court not to convict an innocent man just to bring home the message that corruption is wrong.Ng, 46, is accused of obtaining oral sex from 36-year-old Cecilia Sue, a former IT sales representative, in exchange for helping...

Read More..