GLOBAL NOVA

25 Chess Set: Charles Hollander Price:  $600,000 With 320 carats of black and white diamonds only seven of these luxury chess sets have ever been created. Although another set known as the Jewel Royale has been rumored by some websites to be the most expensive in the world at $9.8 million it was never actually created and remains little more than a concept. 24 Burger: Le Burger Extravagant Price:  $295 Sold at Serendipity 3 in New York City this deliciously expensive hamburger is held together with a solid gold, diamond-encrusted toothpick. 23 Car: 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO Price:  $35 million Not long ago this 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO became the most expensive car ever when it was sold in the United Kingdom to a private collector. 22 Camera: Susse Freres daguerreotype camera Price:  $775,000 Dating back to 1839, this daguerreotype camera sold at auction in 2007 is believed to be the oldes...

Eight injured near French mosque Worshippers leaving the Arrahma mosque in Avignon were approached by two hooded suspects at about 22:30 local time (21:30 GMT) on Sunday. The suspects, carrying a handgun and a shotgun, arrived in a Renault Clio before opening fire on the crowd,  La Provence newspaper reports . Police said they were not treating the incident as a terrorist attack. Four people were wounded outside the mosque and a family of four - including a seven-year-old girl - also suffered injuries from shrapnel while in their apartment, located some 50 metres away, La Provence said, citing a source. Two of the eight wounded were hospitalised, according to the source, who also said that worshippers leaving the mosque had not been the intended target. An eyewitness interviewed at the scene said that dozens of people near the mosque started to run when they saw the two suspects exit the vehicle and approach them with firearms. "It was a black Renault car,...

More than 140 people are feared buried in a landslide in Sichuan province in south-western China, state media say.

Daisy's tale by Eillen Ormsby

For what you pay for an Xbox, there’s a lot that seems to go catastrophically wrong. Red ring of death, DVD drive failures, and excessive overheating come to mind. Today’s frustration focuses on a more in-depth problem: why won’t my Xbox 360 read game discs? The game disc looks clean, so why is it still skipping and freezing?  If you’re like me, you’ve taken your Xbox apart, wrapped towels around it, and sacrificed a baby lamb to the YouTube gods in hopes a twelve year old’s how-to video will end your misery. All in a last-ditch effort to just play Call of Duty 47. You could send it in to Microsoft, but then that usually requires 2-4 weeks of no Xbox. Which is just not going to be an option. You’re resourceful. There’s no easy way to get inside and scrub that sucker with Windex and a paper towel, but you’re the determined type who doesn’t want to risk not being able to play GTAV every hour of every day. Just how does a laser lens work, anyway?

NEW DELHI:   Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's  visit to the US starting Sunday, two senior American Congressmen have introduced a bipartisan bill that seeks to significantly pare down the country's ties with Pakistan. Republican Ted Poe and Democrat Rick Nolan on Friday introduced the bill for revoking Pakistan's Major Non-NATO Ally or MNNA status and make "a clean break" from the country that they said had "harboured terrorists" and had "little in the way of being accountable for the money given for fighting, eradicating these groups ".  The proposal came just two days before PM Modi will arrive in Washington for extensive talks with President Donald Trump that could prominently feature terrorism and relations in South Asia as well. "Pakistan must be held accountable for the American blood on its hands," Mr Poe said in some of the sharpest comments in the Capitol yet against Pakistan. "From harbouring Os...

Actor Johnny Depp appeared to threaten US President Donald Trump during a speech at the Glastonbury Festival. "Can you bring Trump here?" he asked the audience, as he introduced a screening of his film The Libertine. After receiving jeers from the crowd, he added: "You misunderstand completely. When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?" "I want to clarify," he added, "I'm not an actor. I lie for a living [but] it's been a while. Maybe it's about time." The star acknowledged that his comments - which may have been a reference to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by actor John Wilkes Booth in 1865 - would prove controversial. "By the way, this is going to be in the press and it'll be horrible," he said. "It's just a question, I'm not insinuating anything." He is not the first US celebrity to allude to killing the president. At a rally in Washington DC, ...