Global news and relationship

Ryosen Kojima opens a sliding door, enters the Zen Buddhist temple that his family has operated for four generations, and lights two candles. He then kneels and performs a prayer, chanting and rhythmically sounding a bell by his side. Lined up in front of the priest on a table are dozens of containers covered in brocade that hold the cremated ashes of the deceased. Fifteen sets of ashes do not have name tags on them. They belong to unidentified North Koreans who have washed up dead on the shores of this sparsely-populated Japanese peninsula in recent months. Kojima says he used to receive the remains of four or five North Koreans a year from the municipal government. This is the largest number of cremated North Koreans he has seen in 20 years. "I feel sorry for them," he says. Kojima says he used to receive the remains of four or five North Koreans a year from the municipal government. This is the largest number of cremated North Koreans he has seen in 2...

You have a date with your new love interest on Friday, so you start planning on Tuesday.  What will you wear?  How should you behave?  What will you talk about?  If you are spending an inordinate amount of time strategizing your outfit, your hairstyle, and even your conversation topics before going on a date with your new paramour, you are probably not  dating  the right person.  How do you feel when the two of you are together?  Amorous or anxious? Experiencing  stage fright every time the two of you go on a date, hoping you look good enough, are charming enough, or say all of the right things, is an uncomfortable, awkward way to spend an evening, and signals that you are probably in a relational mismatch.  Sure, he or she might be a great person, but not for  you . Stage Fright: Performance  Anxiety Predicts Failure A date should not feel like a performance.  Dinner conversation should not feel like...

The ANC party that has governed South Africa since Mandela defeated apartheid is meeting to choose a new leader amid warnings its future is under threat. It is an important moment for the party - and the country. It is struggling with unemployment of nearly 30%, a dwindling economy where 55% are below the poverty line, and political scandal. :: What's happening? Thousands of delegates from the ANC (African National Congress) are gathering outside Johannesburg for a five-day conference where they will vote for a new leader to replace President Jacob Zuma. :: Why is it important? The new ANC leader is likely to become South Africa's next president. But they badly need to repair the party's reputation: it has been tarnished by scandal and corruption allegations against President Zuma and its popularity is falling. For the first time, the 105-year-old party collected under 60% of the votes in last year's municipal elections. President Z...

The US permanent representative to the UN, Nikki Haley, has accused Iran of supplying Yemen's rebel Houthi movement with missiles to attack Saudi Arabia. She showed reporters the remnants of a ballistic missile that came close to hitting Riyadh's airport last month. It "might as well have had 'Made in Iran' stickers" on it, she said, adding that Iran was violating UN resolutions. Iran denies arming the Houthi movement, which has fought a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's government since 2015. Iran said the claims were "irresponsible, provocative and destructive". But Mrs Haley said several technical details - the absence of stabiliser fins and a series of valves on the side - marked the missile as Iranian-made. Yemen crisis: Who is fighting whom? Saudis accuse Iran of 'direct aggression' She added that it had the potential to kill hundreds of civilians, and that this highlighted the "undeniable fact that the I...

CNN: anchor Anderson Cooper's Wednesday tweet labeling President Trump  a "pathetic loser" was the result of someone taking his assistant's phone, according to the network. A person stole the smartphone belonging to Cooper's assistant, the only other person with access to the anchor's Twitter account, after he "left his phone unlocked and unattended at the gym early this morning," a CNN spokesperson told The Hill. "Geolocation tools confirm that the tweet in question was not sent from Anderson Cooper’s phone. Anderson was in Washington, and we have proof the tweet was sent from New York, from a phone belonging to his assistant," read the statement.

Just 10 rivers are carrying 90% of the plastic entering the oceans, a study has found. Two of them are in Africa - the Nile and the Niger - while the others are in Asia: the Indus, Ganges, Amur, Mekong, Pearl, Hai he, Yellow and Yangtze. As well as being some of the world's longest rivers, they have big populations alongside them. The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany, also said they tend to be in countries where waste control could be better. :: Yangtze River, China This was the worst offender, according to research published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. It carries up to 1.5 million tonnes of plastic into the sea every year. In contrast, the Thames puts 18 tonnes of plastic into the ocean