CULTURE AND SPORT

British billionaire Richard Branson opened the world's first-ever commercial spaceport in the New Mexico desert, the new home for his company.

Vietnam took the lead at the Southeast Asian Vovinam Championships in Cambodia over the weekend, with nine gold and 10 silver medals.

Buses carrying 477 Palestinian prisoners were headed for Gaza and the West Bank under a swap deal to free captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Vehicles carrying Palestinian prisoners began departing from jails in Israel, setting in motion a phased prisoner exchange.

The Thai premier said reconstruction from massive floods swamping vast swathes of the country is expected to cost the government over $3.3 billion.

Roger Federer has dropped out of the top three in the ATP rankings for the 1st time since just before winning the 1st of his 16 Grand Slam titles.

A singer has lodged a petition against eight websites for allowing their visitors to illegally download songs from her latest album.

Samsung Electronics said it is trying to block the sale of Apple's newest iPhone in Japan and Australia.

The death toll from rains and mudslides across Central America rose to at least 80, officials said.

Twenty-year-old Phan Thi Ha Thanh won a bronze medal in the pommel horse event at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

Global food price volatility will be the focus of World Food Day celebrations in Rome which will also address the issue of massive farmland purchases by rich countries.

Chinese state media say that a tourist bus carrying many elderly passengers has overturned on a winding highway in southern China, leaving 10 people dead and 33 injured.

9 were killed as Syrian security forces pressed a crackdown on political dissent in protests against Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Hundreds camped out in London, Frankfurt and Amsterdam after clashes in New York and Rome in worldwide protests.

The Vietnamese national women’s football team left for Laos on Friday to take part in the 2011 ASEAN Football Federation Women's Championship.

Protesters torched cars and smashed up banks in Rome in the worst violence of worldwide demonstrations against corporate greed and government cutbacks.

ASEAN trade ministers have pledged to accelerate the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015.

Europe sought Saturday to convince its G20 partners that it can resolve a debt crisis that is threatening to drag the world economy back into recession.

Al-Qaeda donated food, money and clothes to Somalia in an apparent publicity push showing its close ties with the Shebab rebels, said a service.