Sepang – Several nations searched waters off Southeast Asia on Saturday after aMalaysia Airlines jet carrying 239 passengers disappeared and was presumed lost, leaving stunned relatives demanding answers. Contact with Flight MH370 was lost somewhere…
BRISBANE, Australia — A German tourist who was missing for more than two weeks in the Australian Outback survived by eating flies after becoming lost and stranded by floodwaters, police said Friday. Daniel Dudzisz was picked up by a motorist…
Michael Jackson is the subject of a new paternity scandal. A 31-year-old man named BrandonHoward has claimed for years his biological father is the late pop star. Brandon agreed to submit to a DNA test, the results of which were unveiled Thursday at…
Ukraine‘s interim prime minister has warned the Crimean parliament “no-one in the civilised world” will recognise its referendum on joining Russia. Arseniy Yatsenyuk and others in the Kiev government have called the vote “unconstitutional” and “illegitimate”. But the referendum has the support of theRussian…
Lawmakers in Crimea called a March 16 referendum on whether to break away from Ukraine and join Russia instead, voting unanimously on Thursday to declare their preference for doing so. “This is our response to the disorder and lawlessness in Kiev,” Sergei Shuvainikov, a member of the local Crimean legislature, said.
PRETORIA— A seething Oscar Pistorius fired his pistol out of a car’s open sun-roof after an argument with a police officer, ex-girlfriend Samantha Taylor told a court on Friday, the fifth day of his trial for the murder of Reeva…
Ankara – Turkey‘s embattled prime minister has warned that his government could ban social media networks YouTube and Facebook after a raft of online leaks added momentum to a spiralling corruption scandal. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already…
Australia‘s Queensland is suffering its most widespread drought on record, with almost 80% of the state now included in the list of affected areas. Queensland received little rain in February, which is normally the wettest month of the year,…
Former French PresidentNicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni have launched legal action after secret recordings of them were leaked online. Lawyers for MrSarkozy filed a request for an emergency injunction to prevent more transcripts from being…
PARIS (AP) — Facing off in Europe‘s capitals, Russia and the West began trying to build the elements of a diplomatic solution to Europe’s gravest crisis since the Cold War — even as the West appeared increasingly resigned to an entrenched Russian…
Germany‘s president arrived in Athens Wednesday on a three-day visit that will include visiting the site where Nazi troops massacred dozens of people, in an attempt to ease anti-German sentiment stoked by Greece‘s financial crisis. Joachim Gauck‘s…
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard on Wednesday said it had acquired missiles with multiple warheads, the latest armaments advance to be claimed by the Islamic Republic. At a ceremony Wednesday, Defense MinisterHossein Dehghan…
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Hugo Chavez always said his socialist project would last decades, but a year after the Venezuelan president‘s death even some of his most fervent supporters are having their doubts. AP Hugo Chavez always said his…
STEPHEN OHLEMACHER Associated Press= WASHINGTON (AP) â?? Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner is once again refusing to answer questions at a congressional hearing on the…
The research, which lends weight to campaigns for smoking to be banned in private cars and homes, found passive smoking leads to a thickening of children’s artery walls, adding some 3.3 years to the age of blood vessels by adulthood.Exposure…
NEW DELHI: India said Wednesday that it will hold national elections from April 7 to May 12, kicking off a vote that many observers see as the most important election in more than 30 years in the world’s largest democracy. The run-up to the election…
On Monday the Georges PompidouEuropeanHospital in Paris issued a statement, announcing the 76-year old unnamed-man fitted with the Carmat artificial heart in December had died Sunday. The man, suffering from terminal heart failure, lived 75 days…
PRETORIA, South Africa A witness cried and Oscar Pistorius arrived late for the afternoon session on a dramatic second day of the double-amputee Olympian‘s murder trial. A look at the happenings Tuesday in and out of the high court inPretoria: —…
After nine years in office, Estonian PM Andrus Ansip has announced his resignation to enable a successor to lead his party into 2015 elections. Mr Ansip, who at 57 is the longest-serving prime minister in the European Union, is likely to be replaced…
A snake that was eating a croc was caught on camera Sunday, according to a Mar 3 CBS12 news report. Photos of the battle between a water python and crocodile inAustralia’sLake Moondarra went viral and a feared predator-turned prey has been…
Masked attackers stabbed over 160 people at a train station over the weekend inKunming—and Beijing is blaming the violence on Uighurs from its restive Xinjiang province. Kunming, in southwest China, is one of the country’s most pleasant provincial…
New York – Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, went on trial in New York on Monday, becoming one of the highest-profile defendants to face terrorism charges in the United States. Prosecutors have accused the Kuwaiti-born Abu Ghaith,…
Having a hot temper may increase your risk of having a heart attack or stroke, according to researchers. Rage often precedes an attack and may be the trigger, say the US researchers who trawled medical literature. They identified a dangerous period…
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) – Bill Gates has returned to the top of Forbes magazine‘s annual list of the world’s richest people, as rising stock markets swelled the ranks of billionaires, which included a record number of women. With a net worth of…
ALGIERS (Reuters) – Algerian PresidentAbdelaziz Bouteflika on Monday formally registered his candidacy for April’s election, one of the few times the aging independence veteran has spoken in public since suffering a stroke last year.Bouteflika‘s…
Expressing “extreme anger” towards the United States government, Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai has said in an interview that the war in Afghanistan was not fought with his country’s interests in mind. “Afghans died in a war that’s not ours,”Karzai said in an interview with the Washington Post newspaper published late on Sunday, just a…
BEIRUT – A Spanish journalist kidnapped by Islamist rebels and held for almost six months inside Syria has been released and was safe in neighboring Turkey, his newspaper reported Sunday. Marc Marginedas, accompanied by Spanish officials, was…
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Russia‘s seizure of Crimea is a threat to peace in Europe and the situation must be “de-escalated”, NATO‘s secretary-general said on Sunday, but diplomats said the alliance was unlikely to agree on major steps to rein Russia in….
It’s not true that Sarah Palin once said “I can see Russia from my house.” That was comedian and Palin impersonator Tina Fey on “Saturday Night Live.” But back in 2008 when she was the GOP’s vice presidential candidate, trying to establish her…
BEIJING — More than 10 knife-wielding attackers slashed people at a train station in southwestern China late Saturday in what authorities called a terrorist attack byUighur separatists, and police fatally shot four of the assailants, leaving 33 people dead and 130 others wounded, state media said. The attackers, most of them dressed in black,…
Amid a cacophony of samba drums and sequinned dancers, Rio residents prepared to launch themselves into five days of hedonistic entertainment with the start of the city’s legendary carnival. The metropolis of six-million has been gearing up for weeks…
The Pakistani Taliban said Saturday it will observe a month-long cease-fire to revive failed peace talks with Islamabad. “The senior leadership of the Taliban advises all subgroups to respect the Taliban’s call for a…
MADRID (AP) — The Basque separatist group ETA confirms it has begun to store weapons beyond its members’ reach and says the secretive process eventually will render its entire arsenal harmless. ETA issued its first statement following a Feb. 21…
By Jibran Ahmad PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Militants killed 12 members of the security escort for a polio vaccination team in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, detonating a roadside bomb before opening fire on their convoy, according to officials….
WASHINGTON As Ukrainian leaders accused Russia of carrying out an armed invasion in the Crimea region, President Barack Obama on Friday warned Russia not to intervene militarily, saying the United States would stand with the world to condemn a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty. “There will be costs,” Obamadeclared in a brief.
The US actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died from taking a combination of heroin, cocaine and other drugs, the New York City medical examiner has ruled, The death of Hoffman, 46, who was found on February 2 with a needle in his arm on the floor of…
Two copies of Mein Kampf signed by Adolf Hitler were put up for auction online through Nate D. Sanders auction house and sold for $64,850, way above expectations. The two copies…
US PresidentBarack Obama has warned Russia there will be “costs” for any military intervention in Ukraine. He said he was deeply concerned by reports of Russian military movements inside the country. Ukraine’s acting president has…
AFPRIO DE JANEIRO — The crowds dance to the rhythm of the samba in a variety of costumes, from the everyday to the exhibitionist. Although the official Rio carnival is yet to begin, tens of thousands of people are already partying in the streets of…
Thousands of international troops dispatched to volatile Central African Republicare there to help keep the country from breaking apart, France’s President said on Friday, days after the French parliament voted to prolong the country’s…
By Noah Barkin BERLIN (Reuters) – In his first major speech since losing the French presidency in 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy weighed in on euro zone integration, theUkraine conflict and the risks of weak leadership in Europe to an adoring crowd of fellow…
FugitiveUkrainian president Viktor Yanukovych is pledging to fight for his country’s future but says he will not ask for military assistance. It is his first public appearance since disappearing from Ukraine. “I intend to keep fighting for the…
Updated: February 28, 2014 12:38AM KIEV, Ukraine — Dozens of armed men in military uniforms without markings were patrolling the airport in the capital of Ukraine’s strategic Crimea region on Friday as tensions in the country’s Russian-speaking southeast escalated. Russian state television quoted eyewitnesses saying the men arrived at the…
WASHINGTON – The largest group in the conservative US Tea Party movementcelebrated its fifth anniversary on Thursday with a pledge to push Congress further to the right and capture the White House in 2016. At a rally in a hotel ballroom two blocks…
North Korea has fired four short-range missiles into the sea, South Korean defence ministry officials say, in a move widely seen as a response to South Korea‘s military exercises with the US. A ministry spokesman said that the missiles were…
Spain’s economy grew between October and December as domestic demand and investments improved, data showed, adding to signs that its recovery from recession is slowly gaining traction. Gross domestic product expanded by 0.2 per cent in the fourth…
Unemployment has fallen to 12.1 per cent, official figures have revealed. As theGovernment detailed its latest plans to drive job creation, the Central Statistics Office quarterly national household survey said the number of people out of work…
Nairobi: War crimes have been committed by all sides in conflict-wracked South Sudan, Human Rights Watch said Thursday, reporting widespread atrocities in weeks of carnage in the world’s youngest nation. Thousands have been killed and almost 900,000 forced from their homes by over two months of battles between rebel and government forces, backed by…
Unemployment has fallen to 12.1 per cent, official figures have revealed. As theGovernment detailed its latest plans to drive job creation, the Central Statistics Office quarterly national household survey said the number of people out of work…
Scientists with NASA‘s Kepler mission announced Wednesday that the number of verified planets beyond our solar system (also called exoplanets) has increased by 715. These newly confirmed exoplanets orbit 310 stars,many are in multi-planet systems…
TweetDamascus, Feb 27 (IANS) A new shipment of Syria‘s stockpile of chemical weapons left its territory Wednesday, as a continued international effort to rid the war-torn country of its chemical arsenal, the UN confirmed in a…
Brazil forced the withdrawal of a line of World Cup shirts bearing suggestive motifs seen as harming the country’s image. Following a complaint by the state tourist board, official cup sponsor Adidas withdrew the shirts, which had…
A pair of al Qaeda-inspired extremists have been jailed for the murder of an off-duty British soldier who was hacked to death on a London street in front of horrified crowds. Self-described “soldier of Allah” Michael Adebolajo was sentenced…
KIEV, Ukraine For the past three months, tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been singing the Ukrainian national anthem on Kiev‘s central square, the Maidan, united in their dreams of change. In fact, the protest movement is a mixed bag of…
photo: European Community / EC
Vladimir Putin Orders Test Of Combat Readiness Of Troops In Central, Western Russia: Report
WASHINGTON: US PresidentBarack Obama told Hamid Karzai on Tuesday that he is now planning for a full US troop withdrawal because of the Afghan leader’s repeated refusal to sign a security pact. But in a rare telephone call with Afghan PresidentKarzai, Obama also held out the possibility of agreeing to a post-2014 training and anti-terror mission…
Almost exactly one year to the day since Benedict XVI stepped down as spiritual leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, the former pope has issued his first public comment on recurring rumors in the Italian media that he didn’t resign of…
This year’s elections to the European Parliament – taking place on 22-25 May across the EU – will see an unprecedented battle over the bloc’s powers and role. For the first time anti-EU parties will pose a major challenge in many countries….
KIEV, Ukraine: Hoping to reach a consensus that would heal some of Ukraine’s wounds, the country’s acting president on Tuesday delayed the seating of an interim government for at least two days, even as opposition colleagues appealed to…
WASHINGTON – Ukraine may well be the geopolitical prize nobody can afford to win. As the country begins the delicate climb out of the chaos that saw yet another political turnover, the US and the European Union have had a look at theUkrainian…
Gunmen from Islamist group Boko Haram stormed a boarding school in northeastNigeria overnight and killed 29 pupils, many of whom died in flames as the school was burned to the ground, police and the military said today. “Some of the students bodies were burned to ashes,” Police CommissionerSanusi Rufai said of the attack on the…
BRUSSELS — A firm course change in Ukraine — westward and turning away fromMoscow — would have momentous consequences for the balance of power inEurope. The move would propel the continent’s second-largest country into the orbit…
Follow @{0}FEEDBACKEMAILPRINTEASY READSHARE NAIROBI/MOGADISHU, 25 February 2014 (IRIN) – Sexual and gender-based violence is a major issue in Somalia, especially for internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in south and central Somalia. A…
YOLA, Nigeria (AP) â?? Suspected Islamic militants killed dozens of students in a predawn attack on a northeast Nigerian college, survivors say, setting ablaze a locked hostel and shooting and slitting…
Does the UN have any teeth? It is not an academic question. There will come a time when it will need teeth. The UN has been called by detractors the World’s LargestDebating Society. Sometimes it seems like they can’t agree on when to break for…
LIMA (Reuters) – Peru‘s PresidentOllanta Humala named his housing minister as his fifth prime minister on Monday in a cabinet shuffle that reappointed his…
ChancellorAngela Merkel said Monday that she is visiting Israel with most of her new cabinet in order to show Germany‘s friendship with the Jewish state and that her country is working to secure the future of Israel. Merkel was speaking at an…
ROME — In the most concrete sign to date of his intention to reform the Vatican, Pope Francis announced the creation Monday of a single authority to handle all business…….
Scientists identify oldest crystal on Earth — 4.4 billion years old
By Deborah NetburnFebruary 24, 2014, 1:05 p.m.
The oldest known material on Earth is a tiny bit of zircon crystal that has remained intact for an incredible 4.4 billion years, a study confirms.
The ancient remnant of the early Earth may change the way we think about how our planet first formed.
The crystal is the size of a small grain of sand, just barely visible to the human eye. It was discovered on a remote sheep farm in western Australia, which happens to sit on one of the most stable parts of our plane
Doctors investigating handful of cases of paralysis in one or more limbs Doctorgiving an eight-week old baby the polio vaccine. The children in California had been vaccinated against polio but the disease seems to have similar effects.Photograph:…
Reuters ALGIERS — Algerian PresidentAbdelaziz Bouteflika, the aging independence veteran who suffered a stroke last year, will run for re-election on April 17, his premier said on Saturday, a vote likely to hand him a fourth term in power….
In a solemn ceremony at the Vatican, PopeFrancis on Saturday bestowed red hats on his first batch of cardinals. Ten of the 19 new princes of the church come from outside Europe, including some of the poorest countries in the world. Their selection…
Venezuelan PresidentNicolas Maduro called on Barack Obama to “accept the challenge” and hold direct talks, as the death toll from escalating anti-government protests jumped to eight Friday. The announcement was particularly surprising because…
Reuters ALGIERS — Algerian PresidentAbdelaziz Bouteflika, the aging independence veteran who suffered a stroke last year, will run for re-election on April 17, his premier said on Saturday, a vote likely to hand him a fourth term in power….
In a solemn ceremony at the Vatican, PopeFrancis on Saturday bestowed red hats on his first batch of cardinals. Ten of the 19 new princes of the church come from outside Europe, including some of the poorest countries in the world. Their selection…
photo: AP / Osservatore Romano
Ukraine Protester Olesya Zhukovska Tweeted After Being Shot In Neck
| by MARIA DANILOVA
Posted:
Olesya Zhukovska, left, is helped after being shot in her neck by a sniper bullet, in Independence Square, the epicenter of the country’s current unrest, Kiev, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Alexander Sherbakov) | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Venezuelan PresidentNicolas Maduro called on Barack Obama to “accept the challenge” and hold direct talks, as the death toll from escalating anti-government protests jumped to eight Friday. The announcement was particularly surprising because…
Protests have been held in Arizona against the state’s passage of a bill allowing business owners to refuse service to gays on religious grounds. Hundreds rallied for demonstrations in the cities of Phoenix and Tucson, a day after the bill was…
CARACAS: Venezuelan PresidentNicolas Maduro challenged his US counterpartBarack Obama on Friday to hold “high-level dialogue” between their governments and proposed to appoint an ambassador to Washington. The sudden announcement was surprising…
LONDON/ANKARA (Reuters) – As Syria‘s war nears the start of its fourth year, Iranhas stepped up support on the ground for PresidentBashar al-Assad, providing elite teams to gather intelligence and train troops, sources with knowledge of military movements say. This further backing from Tehran, along with deliveries of munitions and equipment from…
Venezuela‘s PresidentNicolas Maduro has threatened to expel the US news network CNN from the country over its reporting of recent protests there. MrMaduro said he would take action if CNN did not “rectify its coverage”. Earlier, Mr…
BAMA, Nigeria — The latest attack by suspected Islamic extremists in Nigeria’s northeast has left 115 people dead, more than 1,500 buildings razed and some 400 vehicles destroyed, witnesses said Thursday, as a traditional ruler accused the military…
Reuters TRIPOLI — Libyans trickled to the polls on Thursday to elect an assembly to draft a constitution, with the paltry turnout reflecting deep political disillusion with the chaos pervading Libya since Moammar Gadhafi‘s 42-year rule ended in…
Facebook is buying mobile messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock, by far the company’s largest acquisition and bigger than any acquisitionGoogle, Microsoft or Apple have ever done. • ; NEW YORK — Facebook is buying mobile…
By John JohnsonPublished February 19, 2014Newser A polygraph examiner applies electrodes on the fingers of a subject.AP Photo/Fernando VergaraEuropean researchers say they’re developing a system that can sniff out lies on Twitter, Facebook,…
MEXICOCITY — One thing that Presidents Obama and Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexicoshare is they are hardly considered heroes in their homeland. Both have low domestic approval ratings that sometimes stand in sharp contrast to their images…
By John JohnsonPublished February 19, 2014Newser A polygraph examiner applies electrodes on the fingers of a subject.AP Photo/Fernando VergaraEuropean researchers say they’re developing a system that can sniff out lies on Twitter, Facebook,…
MEXICOCITY — One thing that Presidents Obama and Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexicoshare is they are hardly considered heroes in their homeland. Both have low domestic approval ratings that sometimes stand in sharp contrast to their images…
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’sHigh Court on Wednesday delayed judgment on an application by local television stations to broadcast live the murder trial of double-amputee Oscar Pistorius who is charged with murder in the shooting death of his…
At the height of the Murdoch phone hacking scandal, former prime minister Tony Blair was allegedly offering his services as a secret adviser. Tony Blair secretly offered to become an unofficial adviser to Rupert Murdoch and his media empire at the…
Envoys from Iran and six world powers noted the positive negotiating atmosphere but kept expectations low as they started talks on Tuesday in Vienna on a comprehensive deal to end the stand-off over Tehran’s nuclear programme. “We had a…
Did you know that the drought in Brazil is so bad that some neighborhoods are only being allowed to get water once every three days? At this point, 142 Brazilian cities are rationing water and there does not appear to be much hope that this crippling drought is going to end any time soon. Unfortunately, most Americans seem to be absolutely clueless about all of this. And this horrendous drought in Brazil could potentially have a huge impact on the total global food supply. As a recent RT article detailed, Brazil is the leading exporter in the world in a number of very important food categories…
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Moments before his dramatic arrest, opposition leaderLeopoldo Lopez told a sea of white-shirted supporters that he doesn’t fear years behind bars if that’s what it takes to open eyes to the damage done to Venezuela by 15 years of socialist rule. “If my jailing serves to awaken a people, serves to awaken Venezuela … then…
Envoys from Iran and six world powers noted the positive negotiating atmosphere but kept expectations low as they started talks on Tuesday in Vienna on a comprehensive deal to end the stand-off over Tehran’s nuclear programme. “We had a…
A police officer was among four people killed during gun battles as police cleared anti-government protesters who have blocked state buildings since November. The violence in Bangkok came as corruption charges were filed against ThaiPrime…
Survey for Avaaz suggests support for Ed Miliband‘s call for action with only 27% denying climate change linked to floods Water being pumped out of flooded houses near the river Thames at Chertsey, Surrey, on Monday. Photograph: Amer…
BOLSHOI KICHMAI, Russia — While Vladimir Putin and rich Olympic sponsors watch the Winter Games in gleaming arenas, boys in nearby Bolshoi Kichmai herd their goats by tying them to rickety bicycles, riding against the wind through a rocky…
VIENNA (Reuters) – Six world powers and Iran began talks in Vienna on Tuesday in pursuit of a final settlement on Tehran‘s disputed nuclear program in the coming months despite…
A police officer was among four people killed during gun battles as police cleared anti-government protesters who have blocked state buildings since November. The violence in Bangkok came as corruption charges were filed against ThaiPrime…
Survey for Avaaz suggests support for Ed Miliband‘s call for action with only 27% denying climate change linked to floods Water being pumped out of flooded houses near the river Thames at Chertsey, Surrey, on Monday. Photograph: Amer…
BOLSHOI KICHMAI, Russia — While Vladimir Putin and rich Olympic sponsors watch the Winter Games in gleaming arenas, boys in nearby Bolshoi Kichmai herd their goats by tying them to rickety bicycles, riding against the wind through a rocky…
International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi apologised to the Syrian people for the lack of progress at peace talks in Geneva after their second round ended on Saturday with little more than an agreement to meet again. As it became clear that the talks…
Army misconduct (AP) WASHINGTON — The number of U.S. soldiers forced out of the Army because of crimes or misconduct has soared in the past several years as the military emerges from a decade of war that put a greater focus on battle competence…
The Venezuelan presidentNicolas Maduro has ordered the expulsion of three US Embassy officials after Washington came to the defence of an opposition hard-liner accused by the leader of responsibility for bloodshed during anti-government protests. Maduro didn’t identify the consular officials but charged that intelligence officials who tailed them…
International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi apologised to the Syrian people for the lack of progress at peace talks in Geneva after their second round ended on Saturday with little more than an agreement to meet again. As it became clear that the talks…
Army misconduct (AP) WASHINGTON — The number of U.S. soldiers forced out of the Army because of crimes or misconduct has soared in the past several years as the military emerges from a decade of war that put a greater focus on battle competence…
WASHINGTON • The number of U.S. soldiers forced out of the Army because of crimes or misconduct has soared in the past several years as the military emerges from a decade of war that put a greater focus on battle competence than on character. Data…
PUNE: After a slow travel season last year, bookings for summer vacations have started much earlier this time, with many travellers making a beeline for long-haul destinations such as South Africa, Canada, Australia and Europe and even South America….
For decades, one golden rule has guided America‘s military involvement in Africa:Stay out. Generally speaking, the reason was a sense that the strategic stakes did not justify the risk. When we deviated from this rule, we often learned lessons the…
Geneva, February 15: The Geneva-II international conference on Syria concluded Saturday without achieving tangible results, Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab Leaguejoint envoy to Syria, said. Brahimi said a proposed agenda for the next round of talks was…
CAIRO : Deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was Sunday facing charges of espionage and carrying out “terror attacks” in Egypt, as a third trial against him was due to get under way. The latest court case is part of a relentless government crackdown targeting Morsi and his Islamist supporters since he was ousted by the military on…
International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi apologised to the Syrian people for the lack of progress at peace talks in Geneva after their second round ended on Saturday with little more than an agreement to meet again. As it became clear that the talks…
Army misconduct (AP) WASHINGTON — The number of U.S. soldiers forced out of the Army because of crimes or misconduct has soared in the past several years as the military emerges from a decade of war that put a greater focus on battle competence…
WASHINGTON • The number of U.S. soldiers forced out of the Army because of crimes or misconduct has soared in the past several years as the military emerges from a decade of war that put a greater focus on battle competence than on character. Data…
For decades, one golden rule has guided America‘s military involvement in Africa:Stay out. Generally speaking, the reason was a sense that the strategic stakes did not justify the risk. When we deviated from this rule, we often learned lessons the…
LONDON (Reuters) – Two people were killed and 32 people were rescued from a seaside restaurant on Friday as storms and strong winds battered Britain, adding more misery to areas already hit by widespread flooding and transport chaos. Gales of up to 80 miles per hour and heavy rain lashed southern England and Wales overnight, Britain’s Met Office…
Geneva, February 15: The Geneva-II international conference on Syria concluded Saturday without achieving tangible results, Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab Leaguejoint envoy to Syria, said. Brahimi said a proposed agenda for the next round of talks was…
Bahraini authorities said that a policeman has died of wounds he suffered in a bomb blast during protests marking the third anniversary of the kingdom’s anti-government uprising. A “terrorist explosion” struck in the Shia village of Dair outside the…
Where did the infamous rock that seemed to appear out of nowhere on Mars come from? The explanation, it turns out, is more simple than sci-fi. by This before-and-after pair of images of the same patch of ground 13 days apart documents the arrival of…
photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.
UgandanPresidentYoweri Museveni plans to sign a bill into law that prescribes life imprisonment for some homosexual acts, officials said Friday, alarming rights activists who have condemned the bill as draconian in a country where homosexuality…
In order to view this feature, you must download the latest version of flash player here. In a striking departure from past years, the World Press Photo top prize was given not for a hard-news image, but was awarded to John Stanmeyer for a photo of…
Ash cloud from Java island‘s Mount Kelud forces 100,000 people to flee their homes and international airports to close Villagers covering their faces from volcanic ash after Mount Kelud’s eruption: two people were killed overnight from falling debris. Photograph: Hafidz Novalsyah/AP A major volcanic eruption inIndonesia has shrouded a large swath…
SUGIHWARAS, Indonesia (Updated) — An explosive volcanic eruption on Indonesia’s most populous island blasted ash and debris 18 kilometers (12 miles) into the air Friday, killing two people while forcing authorities to evacuate more than 100,000and…
Malaysian authorities have said Valentine’s Day is a threat to Muslim values in their annual swipe at the February 14 occasion, which was marked with a mass wedding involving 138 couples. In its official Friday sermon text distributed to mosques in…
A volcano has erupted on the heavily populated Indonesian island of Java, sending a huge plume of ash and sand 17km (10 miles) into the air and forcing the displacement today of more than 100,000 people and closure of five airports.Indonesia’s…
TweetWashington, Feb 14 (IANS) Walloping a second punch, snow returned to theAmerican capital even as Washingtonians were digging out of the worst storm in four years that spread heavy snow and sleet along America‘s East Coast. About 1.2million…
Afghan authorities released 65 detainees from a detention facility Thursday in direct defiance of protests from the United States, which said the men were connected to the killing of Afghan civilians and coalition forces. The U.S. command says more…
“Ethnic cleansing” is being carried out against Muslim civilians in the Central African Republic, with international peacekeepers unable to prevent it, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. The rights group said it had documented at least 200 killings of Muslim civilians by Christian militia groups known as the anti-balaka, set up in the wake of…
A sole survivor has been found after a military transport plane with 103 people on board crashed in Algeria‘s rugged eastern region. The C-130 Hercules was carrying 99 passengers – soldiers and their families – and four…
Algiers – One survivor has been found in the wreckage of a military plane that crashed in eastern Algeria on Tuesday, a military source said. “One survivor was found and 52 confirmed dead,” Algeria`s official news agency reported. A military source…
The Palestinian official who headed Yasser Arafat’s security force at the start of theSecond Intifada is warning that armed conflict may well follow the failure of current peace talks with Israel. “They should expect a reaction,” Jibril Rajoub tells…
Iran on Monday said it “successfully” vetted two new missiles, including one with a multiple-warhead capacity typically associated with nuclear payloads. Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan described the weapon as part of a “new…
IranPresidentHassan Rouhani: “Iran’s foreign policy, based on national interests, is independent from any groups and parties”. TEHRAN – Iran is not afraid of sanctions, and all threats against Iran are childish and trivial was the message from…
LONDON – The British lender Barclays said on Tuesday that it would cut up to 12,000 jobs over the course of 2014 as part of its continued restructuring, and it reported a loss in the fourth quarter. The bank, which is cutting about 7,000 jobs in…
Two months after the beginning of military operation of French troops in theCentral African Republic, it is time to debunk a few myths. France‘s military intervention has raised eyebrows, both in and outside France, for reasons which, interestingly, are opposite. On the one hand, some African elites are, as usual, suspicious of France’s…
WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) — U.S. space agency NASA said Monday its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Odyssey orbiter have sent back clues that liquid water may still exist today on the Red Planet. The spacecraft spotted “dark, finger-like markings”…
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani Taliban has as many as 500 female suicide bombers ready to act, a representative of the group involved in peace negotiations said, underscoring the risk of further violence if talks fail. The Tehrik-e-Taliban…
Sacre Bleu! French newspaper Le Figaro is reporting that Beyoncé and President Barack Obama are carrying out a love affair. Yes, you read that correctly. PascalRostain, a French photographer, told the publication that “there is something…
SYDNEY: Australian astronomers have found the oldest known star in the universe, a discovery that may help to resolve a long-standing discrepancy between observations and predictions of the Big Bang billions of years ago. Dr Stefan Keller, lead…
GENEVA: Syria‘s warring sides headed on Monday into a new round of UN-brokered peace talks, 10 days after a debut session managed little beyond a pledge on evacuating civilians from the besieged city of Homs. After government and opposition delegates…
Further stumbling block to release of Bae, US missionary who has been held for more than a year in the NorthKenneth Bae is brought before the media inPyongyang last month. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters North Korea has rescinded an invitation for a…
Anyone thinking Bosnia‘s protests were strictly a matter of disenchanted youth might have changed their mind after a Sunday in Sarajevo. Flashes of white hair dotted the crowd which gathered in front of Bosnia’s smoke-blackened presidency building at noon. Some of these senior participants said they wanted to make sure the budding protest…
SYDNEY: Australian astronomers have found the oldest known star in the universe, a discovery that may help to resolve a long-standing discrepancy between observations and predictions of the Big Bang billions of years ago. Dr Stefan Keller, lead…
GENEVA: Syria‘s warring sides headed on Monday into a new round of UN-brokered peace talks, 10 days after a debut session managed little beyond a pledge on evacuating civilians from the besieged city of Homs. After government and opposition delegates…
Further stumbling block to release of Bae, US missionary who has been held for more than a year in the NorthKenneth Bae is brought before the media inPyongyang last month. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters North Korea has rescinded an invitation for a…
The global warming “pause” which some climate sceptics have taken as evidence that climate change is a myth could in fact be explained by a dramatic increase in the amount of heat being taken out of the atmosphere by the Pacific Ocean, a study has…
By MissyRyan KABUL (Reuters) – The Obama administration will unveil on Monday a package of aid initiatives it hopes will help Afghanistan, still one of the world’s poorest countries after a dozen years of massive international aid efforts,…
On a dusty road in the middle of nowhere, Afghanistan, an IED explodes under aU.S. Humvee. It’s an ambush: rocket-propelled grenades, rifle and machine-gun fire rain down from the nearby hills. U.S. troops fight off the attack, but several are…
KABUL (AP): The number of children killed and wounded in Afghanistan‘s war jumped by 34 per cent last year as the Taliban stepped up attacks across the country and continued to lay thousands of roadside bombs, the United Nationssaid yesterday. Overall civilian casualties were up by 14 per cent, reversing 2012‘s downward trend and making 2013 one…
By MissyRyan KABUL (Reuters) – The Obama administration will unveil on Monday a package of aid initiatives it hopes will help Afghanistan, still one of the world’s poorest countries after a dozen years of massive international aid efforts,…
On a dusty road in the middle of nowhere, Afghanistan, an IED explodes under aU.S. Humvee. It’s an ambush: rocket-propelled grenades, rifle and machine-gun fire rain down from the nearby hills. U.S. troops fight off the attack, but several are…
Yokohama: The snowfall was the heaviest in the capital for 45 years Photo: APTokyo: The heaviest snow in decades in Tokyo and other areas of Japan has left at least five dead and 600 injured across the country. As much as 27 centimetres of snow…
KABUL — A military dog captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan two months ago is in good health and being fed a diet of kebabs, his captors say. The fate of the dog became the subject of widespread speculation after the Taliban posted an Internet…
PARIS (AP) — Officials say an enormous boulder has smashed into a tourist train, derailing it and killing two people. The train derailed Saturday morning outside theFrench town of Annot, and MayorJean Ballester told BFM television that “there…
The Salvadoran man who says he spent more than a year drifting across the Pacific Ocean before making landfall in the Marshall Islands is still too weak to travel and will remain in the island nation for a while longer, an official said…
Tokyo: Heavy snow and severe weather struck Tokyo and other areas across Japanon Saturday, leaving two dead and around 90 injured, reports said. More than 600 flights were grounded as the weather agency issued a severe storm warning for the capital….
photo: US Navy / Photographer’s Mate Third Class John E. Woods
A Spanish princess headed into court Saturday for a historic judicial hearing to help determine whether she and her husband illegally used company funds for personal expenses, including lavish parties at their modernist Barcelona mansion.Princess…
VOA NewsThe United Nations says the war in Afghanistan has taken an increasing toll on civilians, making last year one of the deadliest for Afghan civilians in the 12-year war. A report released Saturday by the U.N. Assistance…
WASHINGTON — The NationalSecurity Agency is collecting less than 30 percent of all Americans‘ call records because of an inability to keep pace with the explosion in cellphone use, according to current and former U.S. officials. The disclosure…
photo: AP / Evan Vucci
Sochi 2014 begins with teams, classical music and a flying girl
By Faith Karimi and Michael Martinez
February 7, 2014
Fireworks explode over Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi, Russia, as the Olympic cauldron is lit during the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Games on Friday, February 7.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Suspect reportedly in custody in Turkey after jet bomb threat, desire to fly to Sochi
Opening began with a girl, rigged with wires, flying over floats depicting Russian landscapes
Russian President Vladimir Putin attended
Putin pushed for the International Olympic Committee to hold the Games in the nation
(CNN) — With lights, floats and flying, Russia kicked off the opening ceremony in Sochi as the world turns its attention to the costliest Olympic Games in history.
Spectators from all over the world watched the introduction of athletes that marked the official start of the Winter Olympics.
Light shows and music, lots of it, filled the air, starting at exactly 8:14 p.m. local time, or 20:14 in military time.
“Most of the ceremony focuses heavily on Russian classical music,” said Konstantin Ernst, the main creative producer of the ceremony.
“Unfortunately, unlike London, we cannot boast a plethora of famous world-known pop performers. This is why we are now focusing on what Russia is best known for musically around the world; namely, classical music.”
A pause in fighting to evacuate hundreds of civilians from besieged areas of the city of Homs in Syria is expected to begin on Friday. The ceasefire should also allow long-awaited aid into the worst hit areas. The UN welcomed reports that a “humanitarian pause” had been agreed with Syrian authorities. Rebels are also expected to back the…
Peace talks between the Pakistani government and representatives of the Taliban began on Thursday after a short delay, the first test for the government’s controversial initiative of seeking a peaceful resolution to the country’s bloody insurgency,…
Iraqi authorities are detaining thousands of women illegally and subjecting many to torture and ill-treatment, including the threat of sexual abuse, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report published yesterday. Many women were detained for months or…
When leaders fail to lead, people take charge and leaders then have to follow, saysKofi Annan, former UN Secretary General and Nobel laureate. In an exclusive interview to TOI, Annan expresses optimism that slowly and steadily, the world is gearing…
Tunis – Tunisians on Thursday marked 12 turbulent months since the assassination of opposition politician Chokri Belaid, with his family still demanding to know what happened despite the alleged assassin being shot dead this week. The charismatic…
VOA NewsThe United States‘ top diplomat on East Asia has suggested China‘s wide-ranging territorial claims in the South China Sea do not comply with international law and should be clarified or adjusted. China claims nearly the entire…
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi authorities are detaining thousands of women illegally and subjecting many to torture and ill-treatment, including the threat of sexual abuse, Human Rights Watch said in a report published on Thursday. Many women were detained for months or even years without charge before seeing a judge, HRWsaid, and security forces…
VOA NewsThe United States‘ top diplomat on East Asia has suggested China‘s wide-ranging territorial claims in the South China Sea do not comply with international law and should be clarified or adjusted. China claims nearly the entire…
New York – US stocks slipped on Wednesday as technical support offset the latest batch of mixed data, which failed to lift sentiment after a string of soft economic indicators earlier in the week. In a volatile trading session, the benchmarkStandard…
Wed Feb 05 16:00:00 EST 2014 Comments SHARE By Robert Preidt, HealthDayReporter WEDNESDAY, Feb. 5, 2014 (HealthDay News) — Too much or too little sleep can increase the risk of depression, according to two new studies. Inappropriate amounts of…
It is tempting to see statistics for overall defence spending as providing an image of sorts of the ranking of the major military players around the world. So this year’s edition of the annual reference book – The Military Balance – published by…
ARLIT, Niger/PARIS (Reuters) – When France began mining uranium ore in the desert of northern Niger in the early 1970s, Arlit was a cluster of miners’ huts stranded between the sun-blasted rocks of the Air mountains and the sands of the Sahara. The…
Rio de Janeiro: Police launched a major operation in Rio’s favelas, leaving six people dead and four wounded with the World Cup just four months away. Police moved into five favelas after a policewoman was shot to death in an attack on a…
Chinese scientists have said the “pandemic potential” of a new strain of bird flu “should not be underestimated” after the first known human infection resulted in the death of an elderly woman. The new strain is a variant of a virus known as H10N8, which scientists believe may have originated in wild birds, and later spread to poultry. The victim,…
The United Nations has accused both sides to the Syria conflict of grave violations against children. Children caught in the Syrian war are being recruited as child soldiers, used as human shields, and tortured, according to a new UN report. The report, released on Tuesday, found that in the early stages of the nearly three-year…
Rio de Janeiro: Police launched a major operation in Rio’s favelas, leaving six people dead and four wounded with the World Cup just four months away. Police moved into five favelas after a policewoman was shot to death in an attack on a…
Former South African president Nelson Mandela’s estate, worth about US$4.1 million, will be shared between his family, members of his staff, schools that he attended and the African National Congress (ANC), the movement that fought white rule and now…
The deadline is looming for Syria‘s PresidentBashar al-Assad to sacrifice his complete chemical arsenal – and it looks increasingly likely he will miss it. One thousand three hundred tonnes of chemicals are supposed to be shipped out of the country by 5 February, but it is another deadline that will slip by with no significant movement on the…
In an agreement with the NSA, the tech giants Microsoft, Twitter, Google and Facebook all released data to authorities every six months as a result of secret court orders according to their disclosure for the first time on Monday, reports the…
Published February 03, 2014Associated PressFILE – In this file image from television transmitted by the Arab news channel Al-Jazeera on Monday Jan. 30, 2006, Al-Qaida’s then deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri gestures while addressing the camera….
By Oliver HolmesBEIRUT (Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s general command said on Monday it had no links with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in an apparent attempt to reassert its authority over fragmented Islamist fighters in Syria‘s…
– A dead silence hung over the Munuki West neighbourhood of South Sudan‘s capital, Juba. Amid the tightly packed shacks, doors hung from their frames and broken furniture lay scattered outside. A lone group of soldiers was still going from house to house. They appeared to be looking for anything of value that may have been left behind, or for…
Woody Allen has called Dylan Farrow’s allegations of child molestation “untrue and disgraceful,” signaling that he would fight renewed claims dating back toAllen‘s tempestuous relationship with actress Mia Farrow in the early 1990s. The movie…
By ArdiIbrahim on 3:31 pm February 2, 2014. Category Featured, News Tags:Indonesia natural disasters, Indonesia volcanic eruptions, Mount Sinabung A villager run as Mount Sinabung erupt at Sigarang-Garang village in Karo district, Indonesia’s…
An emaciated Jose Ivan washed up Ebon Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, in a battered 24-foot fiberglass boat, claiming to have been adrift in the Pacific for 16 months after floating approximately 8,000 miles from Mexico. He also stated that he had…
US Secretary of StateJohn Kerry is due to meet top Ukrainian opposition leaders on the sidelines of a security summit in Munich, amid continuing unrest in the country. Mr Kerry said his message would be one of full support. On the eve of the…
A former New Jersey official on Friday claimed GovernorChris Christie knew about politically-motivated traffic jams as they were happening, re-igniting a political scandal that has taken a toll on the prominent Republican many had considered a…
Washington/Boston – The United States will seek the death penalty for accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is charged with planting homemade explosives devices that killed three people and wounded 264 at the Boston Marathon last year, the…
photo: AP / Charles Krupa
Mount Sinabung fills the sky over Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia, with smoke and ash as it erupts . The volcano has been erupting since September.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Hot ash up to 700 degrees raced down the mountain’s slope in just a few minutes
Jakarta Post: This is the first time Mount Sinabung’s eruptions have resulted in deaths
Article by WN.com Correspondent DallasDarling. Amanda Knox’s and Italy‘s Bridge of Sighs Amanda Knox’s back and forth guilty-not-guilty-and-guilty trial reminds one of Italy’s Bridge of Sighs and it is still troublesome court system. Out of the disintegrative patterns that had guided Europe for centuries, Venice and otherItalian city-states…
By ArdiIbrahim on 3:31 pm February 2, 2014. Category Featured, News Tags:Indonesia natural disasters, Indonesia volcanic eruptions, Mount Sinabung A villager run as Mount Sinabung erupt at Sigarang-Garang village in Karo district, Indonesia’s…
An emaciated Jose Ivan washed up Ebon Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, in a battered 24-foot fiberglass boat, claiming to have been adrift in the Pacific for 16 months after floating approximately 8,000 miles from Mexico. He also stated that he had…
updated 7:05 AM EST, Sat February 1, 2014 Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) — Gunfire erupted during anti-government protests in Bangkok, Thailand on Saturday, witnesses said. At least six people were wounded, Erawan Medical Centre said. The violence comes amid high tensions a day ahead of national elections. Witnessessaw at least eight gunmen emerge from…
US Secretary of StateJohn Kerry is due to meet top Ukrainian opposition leaders on the sidelines of a security summit in Munich, amid continuing unrest in the country. Mr Kerry said his message would be one of full support. On the eve of the…
A former New Jersey official on Friday claimed GovernorChris Christie knew about politically-motivated traffic jams as they were happening, re-igniting a political scandal that has taken a toll on the prominent Republican many had considered a…
The US and Britain have expressed concern over the Syrian government‘s delay in removing chemical weapons materials due to be destroyed under an international disarmament deal. Chuck Hagel, the US defence secretary, revealed on Thursday that he had asked his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, to pressure Damascus to comply with the agreement, and…
Washington/Boston – The United States will seek the death penalty for accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is charged with planting homemade explosives devices that killed three people and wounded 264 at the Boston Marathon last year, the…
Zlatica Hoke WASHINGTON — People in many Asian countries as well as Asiancommunities elsewhere in the world are marking the start of a new lunar year with family gatherings, fireworks and street parties. According to the ancient Chinese horoscope,…
WASHINGTON — A Navy admiral is President Barack Obama’s choice to be the next head of the National Security Agency, which is embroiled in controversy over its secret surveillance programs and massive collection of phone and Internet data….
photo: US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Robert A. Wood Sr.
American exchange student Amanda Knox says she is “frightened and saddened” after being re-convicted in the stabbing death of her roommate when they were…
Even under Google, Motorola failed to gain traction in a rapidly evolving smartphone market now dominated by South Korea’s Samsung and US-basedApple. Google agreed on Wednesday to sell Motorola to Chinese tech giant Lenovo for $2.91 billion, after a…
TORONTO — Justin Bieber was charged with assault for allegedly hitting a Torontolimousine driver several times in the back of the head last month, just hours after his attorney entered a separate not guilty plea in Florida to drunken-driving…
President Obama used broad strokes to outline the administration’s agenda during his annual State of the Union address last night, and while Democratic pundits saw it as “forward-looking,” those on the other side of the aisle…
AmericanAmanda Knox will not be in court on Thursday to hear Italian judges give their verdict in her retrial for the murder of Briton Meredith Kercher when the two were roommates studying in Perugia in 2007. Knox, who is living in Seattle, is standing trial alongside her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. She denies any involvement in…
TORONTO — Justin Bieber was charged with assault for allegedly hitting a Torontolimousine driver several times in the back of the head last month, just hours after his attorney entered a separate not guilty plea in Florida to drunken-driving…
President Obama used broad strokes to outline the administration’s agenda during his annual State of the Union address last night, and while Democratic pundits saw it as “forward-looking,” those on the other side of the aisle…
TweetWashington, Jan. 29 (ANI): A team of astronomers have found at least one supermassive black holes (SMBH) almost always becomes active and luminous by accreting a large amount of material in luminous, gas-rich, merging galaxies. A team of…
Turkey‘s central bank has sharply raised its key interest rate from 7.75 to 12% to try to stave off inflation and support the ailing national currency. The decision was taken at an emergency meeting called yesterday by the central bank after the lira…
One of the first revelations by EdwardSnowden, a former contract employee of theNational Security Agency, involved the NSA‘s use of popular services for gathering. Among these services were Facebook and Gmail, which the NSA had been using since…
MARIA DANILOVA Associated Press= KIEV, Ukraine (AP) â?? Ukraine’s president has accepted the prime minister’s resignation but has asked him to stay on in an acting…
Ukraine‘s parliament is due to debate a possible amnesty for scores of protesters arrested in anti-government demonstrations. PresidentViktor Yanukovych has said he wants to make the amnesty conditional on protesters leaving official buildings and taking down barricades. The opposition has so far ruled this out and is demanding early…
TweetWashington, Jan. 29 (ANI): A team of astronomers have found at least one supermassive black holes (SMBH) almost always becomes active and luminous by accreting a large amount of material in luminous, gas-rich, merging galaxies. A team of…
One of the first revelations by EdwardSnowden, a former contract employee of theNational Security Agency, involved the NSA‘s use of popular services for gathering. Among these services were Facebook and Gmail, which the NSA had been using since…
MARIA DANILOVA Associated Press= KIEV, Ukraine (AP) â?? Ukraine’s president has accepted the prime minister’s resignation but has asked him to stay on in an acting…
Thailand‘s government announced Tuesday it will go ahead with an election this weekend despite an opposition boycott, months of street protests and the likelihood of more violence in the country’s political crisis. The government made the…
By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO faces tough decisions next month about whether to pull all its troops out of Afghanistan after this year if PresidentHamid Karzai does not sign accords allowing them to stay, the alliance’s leader said…
The son of the assassinated former prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, has called on the country’s authorities to take military action against militant groups.Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said politicians must “wake up” to the threat posed by armed groups such as the Taliban. His comments come as the government holds urgent talks…
By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO faces tough decisions next month about whether to pull all its troops out of Afghanistan after this year if PresidentHamid Karzai does not sign accords allowing them to stay, the alliance’s leader said…
updated 10:42 AM EST, Mon January 27, 2014 (CNN) — Egypt‘s military leadership council on Monday gave newly promoted Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi — the army chief who helped oust the country’s first democratically elected president — its…
TweetROME – Thieves broke into a small church in the mountains east of Romeover the weekend and stole a reliquary with the blood of the late Pope John Paul II, a custodian said on Monday. Franca Corrieri said she had discovered a broken window…
No crisis can last forever, and the main lesson I’m taking from the 2014 World Economic Forum is that, at least as far as the world’s elite are concerned, we’ve finally put the financial crisis behind us. There are still a lot of things to worry…
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon‘s decision to look into what ails the Air Force group responsible for nuclear missiles was hardly a bolt from the blue. It followed months of accumulating evidence of trouble in a segment of the military fewAmericans even…
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. military says Afghanistan’s government has released 37 “dangerous” prisoners who pose threats to the country and the region. The…
A Dec. 31 article ran in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune under the headline “Area last for paid time off.” Facts VACATION DAYS REQUIRED The top countries for legally required paid vacation days. This does not include legal paid holidays, of which some…
– For the second time in two weeks, Egyptians flocked to the streets in Cairo onJanuary 25 to cheer the army-backed interim government. Nominally they came down to Tahrir Square to mark the third anniversary of the start of the 2011revolution, the 18-day revolt that eventually overthrew longtime PresidentHosni Mubarak. Yet there was almost…
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon‘s decision to look into what ails the Air Force group responsible for nuclear missiles was hardly a bolt from the blue. It followed months of accumulating evidence of trouble in a segment of the military fewAmericans even…
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. military says Afghanistan’s government has released 37 “dangerous” prisoners who pose threats to the country and the region. The…
A Dec. 31 article ran in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune under the headline “Area last for paid time off.” Facts VACATION DAYS REQUIRED The top countries for legally required paid vacation days. This does not include legal paid holidays, of which some…
27 January 2014, 3:44 Pope‘s DovesAttacked During Vatican PrayersTweet Two white doves released as a peace gesture by children standing with the Pope have been savaged by a crow and a seagull. The attack was witnessed by tens of thousands of…
Macklemore & RyanLewis steamrolled the competition in the early going Sunday at the 56th annual Grammy Awards. The Seattle hip-hop duo swept the rap awards in the pre-telecast for rap album (“The Heist“) and rap song and best rap sung…
CAIRO: Nearly 50 people were killed in weekend clashes that erupted during rival rallies marking the anniversary of Egypt‘s 2011 that toppled Hosni Mubarak, the health ministry said Sunday. Three years after Egyptians rose up to demand the overthrow of Mubarak, thousands of demonstrators in Cairo‘s Tahrir Square on Saturday chanted slogans backing…
Three glossy brown cows, looking somewhat bewildered, gaze out from a large photograph hanging in the reception of Ukraine’s ministry of agriculture. On the wall underneath, fresh graffiti proclaims: “Power to the People.” “We took the building last…
Demonstrators deny ministry’s claim they are holding two police captive as clashes continue in capital A protester throws a molotov cocktail during clashes with police in central Kiev, Ukraine, on Saturday. Photograph: Sergei Grits/AP Ukrainian…
Tension high in Egyptian capital as al-Qaida inspired group says it will carry out more attacks Supporters of ousted Egyptian presidentMohammed Morsi clash with police on Friday. Photograph: Nameer Galal/NurPhoto/REX An al-Qaida-inspired group has…
TweetBangkok, Jan 24 (IANS) Thailand‘s general elections, due early next month, can be postponed in view of the ongoing political unrest following anti-government protests that began in November last year, the country’s constitution court ruled…
Bangui – Sixteen people died in clashes in Central African Republic on Thursday as new interim president Catherine Samba-Panza took office with a plea for militia to lay down their arms to halt the escalating inter-religious violence. Almost one million people, or a quarter of the population of the former French colony, have been displaced by…
Australian authorities have seized more than Aus $580m (£300m) worth of drugs and assets as part of an investigation into money laundering that could be linked to terrorist activities. The haul included $26m (£13.5m) in cash. The AustralianCrimeCommission (ACC), which has tracked a global network of criminals in more than…
Israel has said it thwarted plans by al Qaeda to bomb the US embassy in Tel Avivand other targets. The plan to carry out a suicide bombing on the embassy was at an “advanced” stage, Israeli officials said. Three Palestinian men have been…
Cairo – Egypt has seen state violence on an “unprecedented scale” since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last July following mass protests again his rule, Amnesty International said in a report on Thursday. Egypt’s…
Tens of thousands of workers at the world’s three top platinum producers were set to down tools Thursday in a pay strike that could have a devastating impact inAfrica‘s largest economy. Up to 80,000 workers at Impala Platinum, Anglo American…
SYDNEY: Australian police revealed Thursday they had cracked a major global money-laundering ring with operatives in more than 20 countries and funds syphoned off to groups reported to include Hezbollah. The AustralianCrimeCommission said more than…
updated 1:43 AM EST, Thu January 23, 2014 (CNN) — A message purportedly from al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri addressed militants fighting in Syria to unite. The message, more than five minutes long, was posted online on militant websites. Its…
Chinese elites have set up extensive offshore companies that allow them to conceal funds abroad, according to a new report from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The report, which is based on leaked documents covering thousands of tax haven clients, lists more than a dozen ofChina’s wealthiest people as well as…
Two people have reportedly been shot dead during clashes between police and protesters in Ukrainian capital Kiev. The country‘s interior ministry has so far confirmed only one death, but made no comment on the cause. A second person also died…
BEIJING — Relatives of China’s president and other business and political leaders are linked to offshore tax havens that “helped shroud the communist elite’s wealth,” a U.S.-based journalism group said Wednesday. The report by theInternational…
TweetWashington, Jan 22 (IANS) A thick blanket of snow covered the eastern half of the US as a severe winter storm clobbered the country leading to closure of government offices in Washington and declaration of a state of emergency in three states….
CAIRO Jan 21 (Reuters) – Egypt‘s tourism revenue sank by 41 percent to $5.9 billion in 2013 in comparison with a year earlier, TourismMinisterHisham Zaazou said on Tuesday, a further sign of pressure on one of…
Doing the night shift throws the body “into chaos” and could cause long-term damage, warn researchers. Shift work has been linked to higher rates of type 2 diabetes, heart attacks and cancer. Now scientists at the Sleep Research Centre in…
photo: US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Ryan G. Wilber
There is clear evidence that Syria has systematically tortured and executed about 11,000 detainees since the start of the uprising, a report by three former war crimes prosecutors says. One of the authors told the BBC there was evidence of government involvement. Damascus has denied claims of abuse. The investigators examined thousands of images of…
Doing the night shift throws the body “into chaos” and could cause long-term damage, warn researchers. Shift work has been linked to higher rates of type 2 diabetes, heart attacks and cancer. Now scientists at the Sleep Research Centre in…
photo: US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Ryan G. Wilber
LONDON: More than 250 bottlenose dolphins have been rounded up by Japanesefisherman to be slaughtered for meat or sold into captivity, animal conservationists are warning. The Sea Shepherd ConservationSociety (SSCS) said dolphins were corralled…
BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime MinisterNuri al-Maliki blamed “diabolical” and “treacherous” Arab countries for a protracted surge in nationwide violence in a speech on Sunday, but stopped short of naming individual countries. The premier said suicide bombers…
KIEV: Some 200,000Ukrainian protesters massed in central Kiev on Sunday in defiance of hugely controversial new curbs pushed through by PresidentViktor Yanukovych in a bid to suppress a pro-EU protest movement. Many demonstrators wore pots and…
World powers and Iran are about due to start implementing a landmark deal curbing Tehran‘s nuclear program, amid hopes that it will pave the way for a broad settlement of a decade-old standoff and ease fears of a new Middle East war. If, as expected, the United Nations‘ nuclear watchdog confirms Monday morning (Monday night NZ time) that Iran is…
LONDON: More than 250 bottlenose dolphins have been rounded up by Japanesefisherman to be slaughtered for meat or sold into captivity, animal conservationists are warning. The Sea Shepherd ConservationSociety (SSCS) said dolphins were corralled…
BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime MinisterNuri al-Maliki blamed “diabolical” and “treacherous” Arab countries for a protracted surge in nationwide violence in a speech on Sunday, but stopped short of naming individual countries. The premier said suicide bombers…
KIEV: Some 200,000Ukrainian protesters massed in central Kiev on Sunday in defiance of hugely controversial new curbs pushed through by PresidentViktor Yanukovych in a bid to suppress a pro-EU protest movement. Many demonstrators wore pots and…
ROME (Reuters) – Silvio Berlusconi has returned to the political scene after a tax fraud conviction, striking a deal with the leader of the largest center-left party on electoral reform that could give Italy badly needed stability. But the Saturday…
BANNU, Pakistan (AP) — A bomb planted by the Taliban ripped through a vehicle carrying security forces inside a Pakistani army compound in the country’s volatile northwestern region Sunday, killing 20 troops, officials and the militants said. The…
TOKYO: Japanese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe called for “frank” summit talks withChina and South Korea to help solve historical and territorial disputes that have soured ties between the neighbours. A year of heated arguments have prevented the three…
BANNU, Pakistan (AP) — A bomb planted by the Taliban ripped through a vehicle carrying security forces inside a Pakistani army compound in the country’s volatile northwestern region Sunday, killing 20 troops, officials and the militants said. The…
19 January 2014, 1:33 Dennis Rodman In Rehab For AlcoholAbuseTweet FormerNBA basketball star Dennis Rodman has checked into an alcohol rehabilitation centre. His agent, Darren Prince, confirmed the move but would not say in which facility Rodman…
Former premier Wen Jiabao has insisted on his innocence and integrity in a letter to a Hong Kong newspaper columnist in a bid to contain damage from claims that his extended family accumulated massive wealth during his tenure at the top. “I have…
Libya has declared a state of emergency, an official said, as the air force attacked remote south to end unrest between rival armed groups that have been clashing for days. The GeneralNational Congress, Libya’s highest political authority, took the…
ISTANBUL : Syria’s exiled opposition began debating Saturday whether to join international peace talks next week after Damascus offered concessions including a ceasefire plan for the battered city of Aleppo. But the National Coalition remains riven…
SANAA, Yemen — Officials in Yemen say an Iranian diplomat has been killed in a drive-by shooting in the capital, Sanaa. Three security officials said the diplomat was leaving the Iranian ambassador’s house in the city’s southern…
KABUL: A total of 21 people, including 13 foreigners, died in a Taliban suicide assault on a popular restaurant in Kabul, police said on Saturday, with two British citizens and two Canadians among those confirmed dead. Desperate customers tried to hide under tables as one attacker detonated his suicide vest at the fortified entrance to the Taverna…
In his last two years as pope, Benedict XVI defrocked nearly 400 priests for raping and molesting children, more than twice as many as the two years that preceded a2010 explosion of sex abuse cases in Europe and beyond, according to a document…
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — UgandanPresidentYoweri Museveni refused tosign into law a tough anti-homosexual bill passed by parliament last month. But the tone of his remarks offered little cheer for the country’s beleaguered gay rights groups….
PARIS – PresidentFrancois Hollande has visited France‘s first lady for the first time since she was hospitalized for rest following a gossip magazine’s report that he was having an affair with an actress. An official at the presidential palace said…
By JULIE PACE and KIMBERLY DOZIER, The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Capping a monthslong review, President Barack Obama is expected to back modest changes to the government’s surveillance network at home and abroad while largely leaving the…
A barrage of almost two dozen missiles and shells from Syria slammed into Lebanese border towns and villages on Friday, killing seven people, including several children who were out playing, Lebanese security officials said. The attack was the latest…
GENEVA — It resembled a courtroom cross-examination, except no question was off-limits, dodging the answer wasn’t an option and the proceedings were webcast live. After decades of accusations that its culture of secrecy contributed to priest sexual abuse, the Vatican was forced for the first time Thursday to defend its record in public and at…
Henry Ridgwell LONDON — A temporary deal agreed in November between world powers and Iran regarding its nuclear program comes into force Monday. It’s seen as a stepping-stone to a broader agreement on the future of the program, which many…
ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) – Madagascar‘s electoral court declared former finance minister Hery Rajaonarimampianina president-elect on Friday despite allegations by his defeated rival that the December run-off vote was rigged. The ruling raises the…
Dozens of people were wounded in Thailand‘s capital Friday when a grenade was hurled at anti-government demonstrators marching through Bangkok at midday, an ominous development that raises tensions in the country’s political crisis and the specter of…
The U.S.Air Force has disclosed that 34 officers entrusted with the world’s deadliest weapons have been removed from launch duty for allegedly cheating — or tolerating cheating by others — on routine proficiency tests. The announcement was a…
TOKYO : More than 900 pupils at elementary schools in a central Japanese city have fallen ill in a suspected outbreak of mass food poisoning, officials said. The number of students who reported…
VOA NewsThai authorities said they will start a corruption investigation into a government subsidy program for rice farmers, in the latest setback for embattledPrime MinisterYingluck Shinawatra. The country‘s anti-corruption agency on Thursday…
TweetCairo, Jan 16 (IANS) Vote counting of Egypt‘s constitution referendum has been underway after polling stations across the country closed Wednesday evening, according to a statement of the High Electoral Committee. The constitution will be approved by winning over 50 percent of the vote, and the result of the referendum is scheduled to…
WASHINGTON — Partisan lawmakers feuding over the proper size of government reached a temporary truce Wednesday as the House easily approved a $1-trillion spending bill aimed at averting another federal shutdown. House SpeakerJohn A. Boehner…
PARIS — French PresidentFrancois Hollande conceded Tuesday that he is going through “painful moments” with his companion, who was hospitalized after a magazine reported that he is secretly having an affair with a movie actress. But the…
CAIRO (AP) — A referendum on a new constitution laid bare the sharp divisions inEgypt six months after the military removed the elected Islamist president. Pro-army voters lined up Tuesday outside polling stations, singing patriotic songs, kissing…
By Alistair Lyon BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Sunni Muslim militants staged coordinated attacks near the western Iraqi city of Falluja on Tuesday, destroying two army tanks and capturing a police station, police said. There was no immediate word on the…
Zhang Shuxia tricked parents into giving up their babies by telling them the newborns were sick or had died. A Chinese former obstetrician was given a suspended death sentence on Tuesday for abducting newborn babies and selling them to traffickers,…
Survivors of the capsized Costa Concordia have marked two years since the cruise ship grounded off Italy with a candlelight march on Giglio island and a moment of silence in the courtroom where the captain is on trial. Relatives of the 32 people…
Western intelligence agencies have visited Damascus for talks on combating radicalIslamist groups, Syria‘s deputy foreign minister has told the BBC. Faisal Mekdadsaid there was a schism between Western security officials and politicians who are pressing PresidentBashar al-Assad to step down. The growth of jihadist groups among rebels…
Lightning strikes ignited more than 250 fires in southeast Australia as firefighters battled to put out the flames and the country sweltered in a heatwave. Efforts in the state of Victoria on Wednesday focused on containing about 20 blazes. A further 18 fires had already been brought under control or were being…
CAIRO (AP) — A referendum on a new constitution laid bare the sharp divisions inEgypt six months after the military removed the elected Islamist president. Pro-army voters lined up Tuesday outside polling stations, singing patriotic songs, kissing…
By Alistair Lyon BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Sunni Muslim militants staged coordinated attacks near the western Iraqi city of Falluja on Tuesday, destroying two army tanks and capturing a police station, police said. There was no immediate word on the…
Between 200 and 300 people fleeing fighting in the city of Malakal feared dead in ferry accident on the White Nile river The ferry passengers were fleeing fighting in the city of Malakal. Photograph: SimonMaina/AFP/Getty Images At least 200 South Sudanese civilians drowned on Tuesday in a ferry accident on the White Nile river while…
Zhang Shuxia tricked parents into giving up their babies by telling them the newborns were sick or had died. A Chinese former obstetrician was given a suspended death sentence on Tuesday for abducting newborn babies and selling them to traffickers,…
TweetUmar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian man who tried to set off an explosive hidden in his underwear while aboard a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day in 2009, on Monday had his life sentence upheld by a federal appeals court. The 6th U.S. Circuit…
The WorldHealthOrganisation (WHO) is set to announce India as a polio-free nation, as the country marks its third consecutive year without any new recorded cases. The war to eradicate polio has been one of India’s public health success…
Iran and six world powers have agreed on how to implement a nuclear deal struck in November, with its terms starting from Jan. 20, officials announced Sunday. The announcement, made first by Iranian officials and later confirmed elsewhere, starts a…
photo: Creative Commons / U.S. Department of State
Sheikh Hasina has been sworn in as Bangladesh‘s prime minister for her second straight term after a election marred by violence and boycotts. Her party won a clear majority, but many seats were…
VATICAN CITY — PopeFrancis on Sunday named his first batch of cardinals, choosing 19 men from Asia, Africa, and elsewhere, including Haiti and Burkino Faso, to reflect his attention to the poor. Francis made the announcement as he spoke from…
SANGIN, Afghanistan — The NATO campaign in Afghanistan may be ending late this year, but the war is not. Insurgent strongholds will remain — 13 years after theSept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks prompted a U.S. invasion — inspiring anxiety about…
Jakarta – An Indonesian law banning the export of unprocessed minerals took effect Sunday, with the government aiming to boost local operations and create more jobs and mining companies warning of losses and layoffs. Coordinating Economic Minister…
photo: AP Photo / Environment Ministry, Rasio Ridhosani, HO
More than 25,000 Indonesians have left their homes after several eruptions from a volcano on Sumatra, on one of Indonesia‘s major islands. Vimeo Photo:Villagerswalk through mud and ash as…
Muslim men with machetes rough up a Christian man while checking him for weapons last month in Bangui, Central African Republic. (Associated Press file) NAIROBI, kenya — The death tolls are huge and the individual incidents gruesome. One estimate says nearly 10,000 people have been killed in South Sudan in a month of warfare, while in…
Jakarta – An Indonesian law banning the export of unprocessed minerals took effect Sunday, with the government aiming to boost local operations and create more jobs and mining companies warning of losses and layoffs. Coordinating Economic Minister…
photo: AP Photo / Environment Ministry, Rasio Ridhosani, HO
Living in an urban area with green spaces has a long-lasting positive impact on people’s mental well-being, a study has suggested. UK researchers found moving to a green space had a sustained positive effect, unlike pay rises or promotions,…
Abdel Fatah Al Sisi‘s The comments come just days ahead of a referendum on a new constitution. Egypt’s army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi said he would run for president if the people demand it and the military supports him, state media quoted him…
BAGHDAD — Fighting between security forces and al-Qaida-linked militants in Iraq‘s Sunni-dominated Anbar province has killed at least 60 people over the past two weeks, an official said Saturday. The head of Anbar‘s Health Directorate, Khudeir…
Google is about to introduce a big change to Gmail, which is raising plenty of eyebrows. You can now send emails to anyone with a Google+ account and they, in turn, can send you an email, even if you don’t know the person. On Thursday,…
Several people have been injured in clashes between protesters and riot police in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. Former Interior Minister and leading opposition figureYuriy Lutsenko was among those wounded. The…
Wreckage: People gather around the site of a car bombing in Hama province.Photo: Reuters Damascus: Jihadists battling rebels in northern Syria have sought to recover turf lost during nearly a week of fighting between them that has killed hundreds in the latest twist in the civil war. Thursday’s fighting came a day after the Islamic State of Iraq…
If you’re holding out for the next Android superphone, you may only have a few months to wait. Samsung has spoken out about its upcoming devices in a long interview with Bloomberg, and it plans to have the S5 out by April. Speaking…
Fidel Castro, the former president of Cuba, made his first public appearance in nine months on Wednesday night at the opening of a nonprofit art studio in theRomerillo neighborhood of Havana. The former president showed up for the opening of the…
A frozen Niagara Falls has turned into a sculpture of grand proportions, changing the scenery of the famous tourist spot into something else altogether. According to The Inquisitr on Jan. 9, the artist of this breathtaking sculpture is a visitor from…
London: Police were acting lawfully when they shot dead an unarmed Mark Duggan, the 29-year-old father of six whose killing led to the London riots ofAugust 2011, an inquest jury has found. There was uproar in the courtroom after the jury…
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. paid kickbacks to a specialty pharmacy in exchange for recommending refills of a blood transfusion drug it produces, according to an amended complaint filed Wednesday in a civil case brought by state and federal…
A political retaliation scandal that erupted around RepublicanNew Jersey Gov.Chris Christie on Wednesday may be about to get worse. In September, according to a report from the Bergen Record, paramedics trying to reach an unconscious 91-year-old…
New Jersey GovernorChris Christie on Wednesday said he was misled by his staff after fresh revelations that a top aide played a key role in closing some lanes leading to one of the world’s busiest bridges in what critics say was a political…
News that high-level contacts between Palestinian party and Tehran have resumed is likely to dismay Israel and US Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, based in Qatar, met representatives from Tehran in Ankara and Doha in recent months, and may visit Tehran in the coming months. Photograph:MohammedSaber/EPA A rapprochement between…
London: Police were acting lawfully when they shot dead an unarmed Mark Duggan, the 29-year-old father of six whose killing led to the London riots ofAugust 2011, an inquest jury has found. There was uproar in the courtroom after the jury…
A political retaliation scandal that erupted around RepublicanNew Jersey Gov.Chris Christie on Wednesday may be about to get worse. In September, according to a report from the Bergen Record, paramedics trying to reach an unconscious 91-year-old…
New Jersey GovernorChris Christie on Wednesday said he was misled by his staff after fresh revelations that a top aide played a key role in closing some lanes leading to one of the world’s busiest bridges in what critics say was a political…
In more than half of European countries, there are not enough honeybees to pollinate crops, according to new research. Scientists believe that a boom in biofuels has sparked a massive increase in the need for pollination. The shortage is particularly…
Dennis Rodman has angrily defended his visit to North Korea, ahead of a basketball game to mark leader Kim Jong-un‘s birthday. In an interview with CNN, Rodman was asked if he would raise the issue of a US citizen jailed in North Korea. The…
LONDON — An American military helicopter crashed on the coast of easternEngland on Tuesday, and all four people aboard were believed to have been killed, the authorities said. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international…
TweetNEW YORK – Eighty retired New York police officers and firefighters were charged on Tuesday in a suspected disability scam in which authorities said dozens of people falsely claimed to have been traumatized by the Sept. 11 attacks. In all, 106…
A hardline Islamist rebel group in Syria has called on its supporters to attack rival opposition factions that do not support its cause. The call by the al-Qaeda-linkedIslamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) follows days of rebel infighting that has left scores dead. It came hours after another rebel group called on ISIS to observe a…
LONDON — An American military helicopter crashed on the coast of easternEngland on Tuesday, and all four people aboard were believed to have been killed, the authorities said. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international…
TweetNEW YORK – Eighty retired New York police officers and firefighters were charged on Tuesday in a suspected disability scam in which authorities said dozens of people falsely claimed to have been traumatized by the Sept. 11 attacks. In all, 106…
Reuters January 7, 2014 – 23:12 By Lomi Kriel and Elida MorenoPANAMACITY(Reuters) – The Panama Canal and a Spanish-led building consortium expanding the major world cargo route moved nearer to a deal to keep work going amid a cost dispute…
We need to thank Newsweek for filling our New Year with joy. There is so much ineptness in a recent article by Janine di Giovanni aimed at destroying France — now a specialty of the magazine. “French bashing” is trendy again among Anglo-Saxons! Yet…
MADRID (AP) — A Spanish court has subpoenaed PrincessCristina, the daughter ofSpain‘s King Juan Carlos, as a suspect in an investigation of alleged tax fraud and money laundering, the latest blow to the royal family’s reputation. Palma de Mallorca…
TweetWashington, Jan. 7 (ANI): Researchers have discovered some of the earliest evidence for widespread tooth decay in humans. The new proof comes from skeletal remains of Stone-Age hunter-gatherers, who…
Rallying: Anti-government protesters in central Bangkok on Monday. Photo: Reuters Bangkok: Thailand’s democratically elected government fears the country’s powerful military will be lured into staging a coup if anti-government protesters shut down Bangkok again next Monday. Thai Prime MinisterYingluck Shinawatra is also facing legal…
TweetWashington, Jan. 7 (ANI): Researchers have discovered some of the earliest evidence for widespread tooth decay in humans. The new proof comes from skeletal remains of Stone-Age hunter-gatherers, who…
Janet Yellen, a key force behind the Federal Reserve‘s unprecedented and controversial efforts to boost the US economy, has been confirmed by the Senateto lead the central bank just as it begins to unwind that stimulus. When she succeeds Ben…
“Brazil has just realized what it means to organize a World Cup,” Blatter said in an interview with Swiss newspaper 24 Heures. “They started a lot too late.” Join the Discussion Delays have included financial problems, worker safety issues and…
A stunning new intelligence report surfaced this week highlighting a dire situation in Afghanistan. The NationalIntelligence Estimate (NIE) classified report suggested Afghanistan would quickly fall into chaos if US and NATO forces failed to sign a…
Reporter- Pittsburgh Business Times | Canonsburg-based drug giant Inc. has donated more than $3 million in medications to AmeriCares for its Typhoon Haiyanrelief efforts in the Philippines. The donation is the company’s biggest to the…
BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces and their tribal allies made gains in heavy fighting on Sunday in Ramadi, reclaiming parts of the city from Sunni militants aligned with Al Qaeda, security officials and tribal leaders said. Related Qaeda-Linked Militants inIraq Secure Nearly Full Control of Falluja (January 5, 2014) PowerVacuum in Middle East…
Weak leadership and rivalry between states have hampered African efforts to bring security to the conflict-hit continent A French soldier patrols Bossangoa, Central African Republic. Foreign troops have struggled to stem sectarian clashes….
A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has said that pre-marital sex was “immoral” and against the “tenets of every religion”. Judge Virender Bhat made the remarks after ruling that sex between two adults on the promise of marriage…
Getty LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Eusebio, the Portuguese soccer star who was born into poverty in Africa but became an international sporting icon and was voted one of the 10 best players of all time, has died aged 71, his longtime club Benfica said. He…
By Serajul Quadir & Nandita Bose on 5:26 pm January 5, 2014. CategoryInternational Tags: Bangladesh ABangladeshi army soldier stands guard in front of a polling station as armed forces were deployed to maintain the law and order during the tenth…
New York: New York could soon join a growing group of American states that allow limited use of marijuana, with Governor Andrew Cuomo planning to announce an executive action that would grant access to the drug for those with serious illnesses, a…
BAGHDAD (AP) — A new wave of bombings hit Iraq‘s capital, Baghdad, killing at least 20 people Sunday, officials said, the latest assault by militants who have been fighting Iraqi security forces and allied tribes in country’s west. The deadliest attack took place in Baghdad’s Shiite northern Shaab neighborhood, when two parked car bombs exploded…
FALLUJAH (Iraq): Iraq has lost Fallujah to Al Qaeda-linked fighters, a senior security official said on Saturday, putting militants back in control of the city in Anbar provincewhere American forces repeatedly battled insurgents. But security forces…
Reuters January 4, 2014 – 18:54 By Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI (Reuters) – African countries have started evacuating their citizens from the Central African Republic in recent days amid deteriorating humanitarian conditions and inter-religious…
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — In the Bost Hospital here, a teenage mother named Bibi Sherina sits on a bed in the severe acute malnutrition ward with her two children. Ahmed, at just 3 months old, looks bigger than his emaciated brotherMohammad, who is…
TUNIS: Tunisian lawmakers rejected Islam Saturday as the main source of law for the country that spawned the Arab Spring as they voted for a second day on a new constitution. The voting comes amid concerns that a January 14 deadline for the new…
Face-to-face talks between warring parties in South Sudan have been delayed, government and rebel delegations said Saturday, dashing hopes of a swift ceasefire to end raging battles and risks of all-out civil war. South Sudan Information MinisterMichael Makuei, part of the delegation to the talks in…
WASHINGTON — South Sudan is in many ways an American creation, carved out of war-torn Sudan in a referendum largely orchestrated by the United States, its fragile institutions nurtured with billions of dollars in American aid. But a murky, vicious…
Across a number of emerging markets, the coming year will mark a consequential political transition. This could ultimately prove much more important that the U.S.Federal Reserve‘s scheduled tapering in early 2014, which is expected to precipitated…
As survivors of Haiyan — November’s super typhoon in the Philippines — slowly put their lives back together, the rest of Asia has been marking the anniversary of another disaster. Shortly after Christmas nine years ago, a huge tsunami swept across…
Hercules, the first gripping winter storm of 2014, barreled across 22 states Thursday night, affecting approximately one-third of the nation and killing at least nine. New England was among the strongest hit regions, with some cities in the area…
ADDIS ABABA: South Sudan‘s warring parties opened negotiations on Friday to end nearly three weeks of raging conflict in which thousands are feared dead and that has taken the world’s youngest nation to the brink of all-out civil war. Governmentand rebel negotiating teams are at a luxury hotel in neighbouring Ethiopia‘s capitalAddis Ababa, with…
A woman’s appendix ruptured while she waited for emergency surgery at theMitchells Plain hospital in Cape Town last year. A 69-year-old former matron ofJubilee district hospital in Pretoria died barely five hours after the same hospital sent…
Three people have been killed in Cambodia as police opened fire to try to quell a protest by garment factory workers. Workers armed with sticks, rocks and Molotov cocktails clashed with armed police in the capital Phnom Penh, according to witnesses….
LONDON — The New York Times and Guardian newspapers have called for clemency for EdwardSnowden, saying that the espionage worker-turned-privacy advocate should be praised rather than punished for his disclosures. The papers — both of which have…
HARTFORD (USA): The northeastern US, including New York City, prepared on Thursday for heavy snow, strong winds and frigid temperatures that threatened to slow the…
WASHINGTON: The USNational Security Agency is making strides toward building a “quantum computer” that could break nearly any kind of encryption, The Washington Post reported Thursday. The Post said leaked documents from fugitive ex-NSA contractor…
NEW YORK — William Bratton was sworn in as New York City’s police commissioner on Thursday afternoon, marking the start of his second term at the helm of the city’s police department and his first under progressive new mayor Bill de Blasio. De…
The latest attempt to rescue passengers on board a research ship that has been trapped in Antarctic ice for more than a week was delayed again Thursday after sea ice prevented a barge from reaching one of the rescue vessels. The AustralianMaritimeSafetyAuthority‘s Rescue Coordination Centre, which is handling the operation, said earlier on…
Comment () Tweet MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — An official says 10 people have been wounded in a grenade attack at a restaurant south of Kenya’s coastal city ofMombasa. Kwale County Commissioner Evans Achoki said one of the two men on a motorcycle…
Moscow, January 01: Russian PresidentVladimir Putin Wednesday visited some victims of recent terror blasts in Volgograd city and discussed public security with senior officials. Two suicide bombings struck in Volgograd, the first at a railway…
photo: AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Presidential Press Service, Dmitry Astakhov
Published December 31, 2013FoxNews.com Millions around the world welcomed 2014 on Tuesday, as fireworks, dancing and all-night revelry marked huge displays of jubilation and unity around the globe. Crowds that filled New York City‘s Times Square…
Greenland‘s economy relies on fishing and hunting, but the government has ambitious plans to develop the country’s resource industries. In places like Narsaq, there’s a fear that mining could destroy the environment and traditional…
Published December 31, 2013FoxNews.com Millions around the world welcomed 2014 on Tuesday, as fireworks, dancing and all-night revelry marked huge displays of jubilation and unity around the globe. Crowds that filled New York City‘s Times Square…
Greenland‘s economy relies on fishing and hunting, but the government has ambitious plans to develop the country’s resource industries. In places like Narsaq, there’s a fear that mining could destroy the environment and traditional…
BARELY had typhoon Yolanda left Cebu in November when local developers buckled down to build systems to help in rescue, relief and rebuilding efforts. Couple Kristoffer Vincent Loremia and Yvonne, who sought shelter with their newborn child Xhian…
Related Articles Civilians ‘going without food’ in South Sudan UN camp 30 Dec 2013Captured twice and looted twice, a state capital in South Sudan fears third battle 29 Dec 2013 South Sudan rebel leader dashes ceasefire hopes 28 Dec 2013 Leaders in…
RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press= JUBA, South Sudan (AP) â?? Uganda‘s president on Monday warned South Sudan’s rebel leader against rejecting the government’s offer of a cease-fire, saying regional leaders would unite to “defeat” the former vice…
RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press= JUBA, South Sudan (AP) â?? Uganda‘s president on Monday warned South Sudan’s rebel leader against rejecting the government’s offer of a cease-fire, saying regional leaders would unite to “defeat” the former vice…
The Obama administration Monday called on Syria to honor promises to surrender its chemical weapons stockpile, a day after international experts acknowledged delays in removing some of the most lethal toxins from the country. U.S. officials conceded…
photo: Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
Seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher is fighting for his life after sustaining severe head injuries in a skiing accident in the French Alps resort of Meribel, doctors say. “We can say that his condition is life-threatening,”…
WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies warn in a new, classified assessment that insurgents could quickly regain control of key areas of Afghanistan and threaten the capital as soon as 2015 if American troops are fully withdrawn next year, according…
Washington, December 28: For the more than 1.3 million people who have been jobless in the US for over six months, the holiday season came to a crashing halt Saturday with the cancellation of the federal government’s unemployment insurance payments….
BEIRUT: A Beirut car bomb that killed an anti-Syria politician underscores howLebanon has become a “microcosm of regional conflicts”, with violence escalating as Damascus and its ally Tehran become more emboldened, analysts say. Friday’s bombing…
The assassination of former Prime MinisterSaad Hariri aide and former ministerMohamad Chatah in Beirut on December 27, is the latest in a series of attacks aimed at destabilising Lebanon and bringing it closer to the Syrian conflict. That Lebanon should witness this kind of spillover from the Syrian crisis is not surprising: Lebanon is host…
Police have arrested 10 people in India after a 21-year-old woman was gang-raped twice in one night be two apparently unrelated groups of men. Six of the men arrested have been charged with gang-raping the woman on the evening ofDecember 24, on…
Nationalities of dead service members unclear after Taliban claim responsibility for car bombing in east of capital US trucks clear away an armoured vehicle hit by a bomb attack in Kabul that killed three. Photograph: Omar…
LONDON — They’re portrayed as pickpockets who will steal British jobs. There arepredictions they will beg, the unruly young ones will stir up riots, and some will even try to sell babies. For months, Britain’s tabloids have repeatedly…
STUTTGART, Germany — A NavySEAL undergoing medical treatment in Kenya for injuries suffered during the Dec. 21 rescue mission in South Sudan has been transferred to…
A Chinese icebreaker was on Friday due to reach the frozen seas where a scientific mission ship is trapped off Antarctica, as those onboard welcomed the easing of blizzard conditions. The AustralianMaritimeSafetyAuthority, which is co-ordinating…
At least 34 children have died in relief camps set up for thousands of people who fled their homes during Hindu-Muslim clashes in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in September, an official report says. The…
Jingle right along with us this week, folks, for the usual up and down sleigh ride! Most Important ClimateMessage: “You CAN Do Something About It” is what people need to hear most, says a new , reports Emily Atkin at Climate Progress. And it’s true,…
And so we find the stories out of Iran happen to be true and
not the work of some “Axis of Evil” fear-mongerer
that simply wishes to extoll the horrors of Iran’s emerging
nuclear energy program. I thought, perhaps erroneously,
that compiling a Top Ten of Top Ten Lists locatable on the Internet.
There he teaches tolerance and the ability to control and
understand the mutant powers his students have developed.
And so we find the stories out of Iran happen to be true and
not the work of some “Axis of Evil” fear-mongerer
that simply wishes to extoll the horrors of Iran’s emerging
nuclear energy program. I thought, perhaps erroneously,
that compiling a Top Ten of Top Ten Lists locatable on the Internet.
There he teaches tolerance and the ability to control and
understand the mutant powers his students have developed.