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Yemeni militants seize palace, attack president’s home

Full ArticleDawn

21 Jan 2015
SANAA: Shia militia fighters attacked Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi’s residence and seized the presidential palace on Tuesday in what officials said was a bid to overthrow his embattled government. As the UN Security Council began an emergency meeting over the unrest, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was “gravely concerned” and called

Houthi Shiite Yemeni chant slogans during clashes near the presidential palace in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Jan. 19, 2015.

President Barack Obama in State of the Union: America is turning the page

Full ArticleThe Florida Times Union

21 Jan 2015
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama urged the nation Tuesday night to “turn the page” on years of economic troubles, terrorism and lengthy wars, arguing that his presidency had ushered in an era of smarter American leadership and a growing U.S. economy. “It’s now up to us to choose who we want to be over the next fifteen years, and for decades to

President Barack Obama in State of the Union: America is turning the page

	Three ways to protect our precious forests

These top strategies help mitigate climate change by safeguarding forests, which cover nearly one-third of the land area of the planet

 

	Domestic violence damages health and shortens lives

Research shows that abuse leads to increased risk of low birth weight and premature birth of a woman’s children, sexually transmitted disease and damage to mental health

 

UN says despite progress fight against Ebola is far from won

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? Close to 1,000 new cases of Ebola were recorded in the last three weeks despite progress in combatting the deadly disease and “the fight is far from won,” the U.N. mIssion chief in West Africa said Tuesday. Ismael Ould Cheikh

 

US-built Ebola treatment centers in Liberia are nearly empty as outbreak fades

TUBMANBURG, LiberiaNear the hillside shelter where dozens of men and women died of Ebola, a row of green U.S. military tents sit atop a vast expanse of imported gravel. The generators hum; chlorinated water churns in brand-new containers;

 

Sixth Avenue headquarters. In an October 11, 2009 article in the New York Times, Fox articulated that its hard news programming runs from "9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. on weekdays" and "are objective" but makes no such claims for its other broadcasts

On Tuesday, Hidalgo told CNN that she intends to sue Fox Newsover the network’s incorrect coverage of so-called “no-go zones” for non-Muslims, saying that the channel had “insulted her city.” “When we’re

 

A person walk near the remains of a man lying near a bus stop that was damaged in shelling by the Ukrainian army in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015.

DONETSK, Ukraine — Shelling in the eastern Ukrainian region ofDonetsk killed at least six civilians Tuesday, as fighting intensifies between government and rebel forces. AP reporters saw the bodies of two people killed while waiting for a bus in the

 

Indian School Student wear the musk of Tiger and Join the Rally to Save the Tiger in India at Kolkata in Eastern India

The number of tigers in India has risen dramatically in less than a decade, an official report has revealed. The estimated population of the endangered big cat has increased from 1,411 in 2006 to 2,226 in 2014, according to the report published by

Isis threat to Japanese hostages exposes risk in Abe’s counter-terror strategy

Full ArticleThe Guardian

20 Jan 2015
Latest Islamic State video specifically condemns Japan’s $200m aid package forMiddle East countries fighting jihadis
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, right, escorts Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe upon his arrival at the Palestinian Authority headquarters, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015.

Rocketing vaccine cost warning

The price of life-saving vaccines has skyrocketed leaving some countries struggling to fully immunise children, Medecins Sans Frontieres warns. A report by the charity says there has been a 68-fold increase in prices between 2001and 2014. It accused

 

SA’s health workers to help fight Ebola in Sierra Leone

Related articles SA role in Ebola vaccine clinical trial Rewards outweigh the risks in Africa Ebola outbreak in West Africa appears to be slowing down, says UN In this article Companies and organisations: World Health Organisation | Department of

 

This Aug. 28, 2014, photo shows a Muslim enclosed area between the road to Bangui blocked by an anti Balaka district and Chretien neighborhood in Boda, Central African Republic.

PARIS/BANGUI (Reuters) – A French charity worker and a churchman were abducted on Monday in Bangui, the capital of Central African Republic, the French Foreign Ministry and the Caritas charity said. The 67-year-old woman was working for a charity

 

In this photo taken Friday, Oct. 21, 2011, marble statues of ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, right, and Plato, left, are seen on plinths in front of the Athens Academy.

ATHENS, GreeceHuman bones found in a resplendent ancient tomb in northern Greece belong to at least five individuals, including an elderly woman and a baby, Greek officials said Monday. The announcement by theCulture Ministry further muddles a

 

A Houthi Shiite Yemeni wearing an army uniform stands guard at a street leading to the Presidential palace during clashes in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Jan. 19, 2015

19 January 2015, 20:06 Yemen: Rebels Surround Prime Minister‘s Home Tweet Rebels have seized control of Yemen’s state-run media and surrounded the Republican Palace where the Prime Minister lives, according to a government spokesman. Gunfire and

 

Turkey's new President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a ceremony where he formally took charge of the presidency from his predecessor, Abdullah Gul, at the Cankaya Palace in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014. Erdogan said that as the first president to be elected by the people _ instead of parliament _ his tenure would usher in an era of a “new Turkey, a great Turkey.”

VOA News Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan convened aCabinet meeting in a rare move Monday, raising concerns among critics of a power grab from what was once a largely ceremonial position. Erdogan, who was prime minister for 11 years before his

 

 Thousands of friends and relatives of the 85 victims of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community ce

An Argentine special prosecutor in charge of investigating the bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires in 1994 was found dead Sunday in his apartment of a gunshot wound.lRelated Mexico & the AmericasArgentina defaults on

 

 

 

 

 

 

Europe beefs up terror fight

Full ArticlePhiladelphia Daily News

19 Jan 2015

PARISFrench police are keeping nine people in custody as part of an antiterror investigation connected to last week’s attacks in Paris that have put Europe on high alert, officials said Sunday. They said three women who were arrested have been released. Amid the heightened European vigilance, a far-right rally inGermany planned for Monday was

Soldiers patrol the street in Paris, France, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015, following terrorist attacks.





Sierra Leone News: Bonthe Island suspected Ebola case…Lab test proves negative

Residents and descendants from the Bonthe Island in Bonthe District will now breathe a sigh of relief after a laboratory test on the blood sample of a suspected Ebola patient who went to the Government hospital with high fever has proved negative.

 

Ghana Remains At High Risk Of Ebola

Although Ghana has not recorded any case of Ebola since its outbreak in three West African countries, the country still remains at high risk of contracting the deadly virus, a team of Chinese medical specialist in Ghana has warned. The team of

 

Two Earth-sized planets could be hiding in our solar system

At least two planets that could be bigger than Earth might have been hiding at the edge of our solar system, scientists have claimed. The undiscovered planets are thought to be even further from the Sun than Neptuneand the dwarf planet Pluto.

 

London St. Pancras International, the UK terminus of the Eurostar high speed train, and domestic terminus for trains north to Leicester, Nottingham  and Sheffield.

LONDON: Eurostar passenger services remained sporadic through the Channel Tunnel on Sunday after rail operators worked to restore normal traffic on the system a day after a smoke alarm triggered a shutdown. Services for thousands of

 

Prime Minister David Cameron speaks, during a visit to the 2014 Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire, England, Monday July 14, 2014.

David Cameron has set out the Tory path to full employment, promising to keep Britain the “jobs factory of Europe” by backing small business.The Prime Minister admitted it had been a “tough few years” for UK plc, but said the country was “coming out

 

Vice President Joe Biden speaks to seniors

Multiple gunshots have been fired from a vehicle near the homeof US Vice President Joe Biden in the US state of Delaware, the US secret servicehas said. Biden and his wife were not at home at the time of the shooting onSaturday night and no

 

Miss Lebanon, Saly Greige, poses for photos after she painted on a wall in Miami's Wynwood area, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015.

After the image was seen by people from Lebanon, Saly Griege was ridiculed by her own citizens for posing with a contestant from an enemy country. Some others called for her to be stripped of her title of Miss Lebanon, reports The Telegraph. The fact

Islamic State in Iraq free 350 Yazidis

Full ArticleBBC News

17 Jan 2015
The Islamic State (IS) militant group has freed around 350 members of the Yazidi religious community in northern Iraq. The group of mainly elderly Yazidis crossed out of IS-controlled territory and were received by Kurdish officials near the city ofKirkuk. It is not yet clear why militants released them. IS attacked the Yazidi minority community
In this Sunday Jan. 11, 2015 file photo, a Yazidi fighter stands on a damaged Iraqi armored vehicle that had been used by fighters from the Islamic State group near Sinjar, northern Iraq.





File - Palestinians walk in the rubble of their home in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on October 12, 2014 which was destroyed during the 50-day conflict between Hamas militants and Israel.

Israel‘s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has slammed the decision by the International Criminal Court to launch a preliminary investigation into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories, saying it is “absurd”. Speaking in West Jerusalem

 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie arrive to Amman

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday pledged US$2.5 billion in humanitarian and developmental aid for the Middle East as he launched a regional tour that is to include visits to Jordan and Israel. In a speech in Cairo, Abe pledged US$200

 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses the media during a joint press conference with Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, as part of a meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, April 30, 2014.

As the anti-immigration protests have grown in scale, so has the visibility of Chancellor Merkel’s appeal for tolerance – attending a 3,000 strong peace rally in Berlin on January 13th, organised in solidarity with the victims of the

 

Backdropped by a Yemeni flag, an anti-government protestor shouts slogans during a demonstration demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011.

Shia rebels in control of Yemen‘s capital say they have seizedPresident Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s chief of staff, a claim confirmed by a senior official. Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, who is also secretary general of the national dialogue set up

 

Traveling by boat allows passengers enjoy the views of the Xiling Gorge in western Hubei. The main navigable rivers are the Heilong Jiang; Yangtze River; Xiang River, a short branch of the Yangtze; Pearl River; Huangpu River; Lijiang River; and Xi Jiang.

BEIJING: Twenty-two people including eight foreigners have been confirmed dead after a tugboat sank on a trial voyage on the Yangtze,China’s longest river, state media reported Saturday. The vessel was raised Saturday, 40 hours after it sank while

 

This photo taken March 1, 2013 and released on Tuesday March 5, 2013, by the French Army Communications Audiovisual office (ECPAD) shows French soldiers from the 2e REP legionnaires regiment patrolling in the desert in Northern Mali.

At least one U.N. peacekeeper was killed when suspected Islamists militants attacked a U.N. base in the northern Malian town of Kidal on Saturday, residents said. Gunfire erupted from the area of the U.N. and French military camps in

 

Obama tells Congress that sanctions on Iran could lead to war

Full ArticleStars and Stripes

17 Jan 2015

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama vowed Friday to stop any attempt byCongress to ratchet up sanctions against Iran while the U.S. and partner countries negotiate over its nuclear program. Obama also warned lawmakers that they would be responsible if a sanctions drive were to lead to the collapse of the ongoing talks. A diplomatic failure could

File - President Barack Obama participates in a video teleconference with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President François Hollande of France, Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom, and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy, in the Situation Room of the White House, July 28, 2014.





Young blonde girl scratching her nose waiting the athletes during the quarter marathon Nike 10k in the Rambla Of Montevideo, Uruguay, 07th November 2009

Poor sleep in teenage years could be an early warning sign for alcohol problems, illicit drug use and “regretful” sexual behaviour, research suggests. US scientists found adolescents with bad sleep habits were more likely to engage in risky

 

Palestinians carry the body of the Popular Resistance Committees leader Zuheir al-Qessi during his funeral in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on 09 March 2012.Israel killed four Gaza militants on Saturday as violence sparked by the death of a militant leader Zuheir al-Qessi a day earlier escalated with gunmen firing more than 90 rockets at Israel, injuring four people, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.Photo by Ahmed DEEb/wn

VOA News The International Criminal Court is opening a preliminary probe into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories. The examination announced Friday will determine whether a full investigation is merited. If a full probe does go

 

Children?s take out a rally in Dal Lake Srinagar on 25, October 2009. To kick off awareness rally of Climate Action about global warming.

Last year was globally the hottest on record, climate experts have confirmed. Global temperatures were 0.69C (1.24F) above 20th centuryaverages, making 2014 the warmest year in records dating back to 1880, the USNational Oceanic and Atmospheric

 

A Gabonese fan shows off his support for his team with a placard during the African Nations Cup in Gabon. 23rd January, 2012.

BATA (Equatorial Guinea): The African Football Confederation(CAF) on Friday expressed confidence that adequate measures have been taken in host nation Equatorial Guinea to protect against Ebola as the Africa Cup of Nationsprepares to get underway.

 

Pope Francis bags for sale inside a mall in Manila, Philippines during the 2015 Papal Visit.

Pope Francis yesterday called on the Philippine government to tackle corruption and hear the cries of the poor suffering from “scandalous social inequalities” in Asia’s most Catholic country. The pope went to Malacanang Palace, the presidential

 

I love Pope Francis t-shirts on display inside a mall in Manila, Philippines during the 2015 Papal Visit.

9:38 AM ET Scott Neuman Twitter i i Pope Francis holds a Virgin Mary statue as he arrives at the Mall of Asia arena in Manila, Philippines, on Friday. The pontiff has issued a strong statement supporting the church’s teachings on artificial

 

This is the lovely view at Yosemite National Park in California, USA. El Capitan is at the left side of the photo and one of the highest waterfalls in the park is on the right side.

Two American climbers say they hope their achievement will inspire others, following 19 days spent clinging to a vertical rock face. Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson became the first free climbers to scale the sheerDawn Wall of the El Capitan rock

2 men reach top of Yosemite’s El Capitan in historic climb

Full ArticleYahoo Daily News

16 Jan 2015
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Day after day, the two Americans who completed what had been considered the world’s most difficult rock climb bloodied their fingertips, endured bruising falls and balanced their bodies on handholds as small as coins. But while living for more than two weeks on a sheer granite wall, they still enjoyed a few
El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, August 2005 viewed from the valley floor, USA





Italy Accused of Paying al-Qaeda Ransom to Free Girls

Full ArticleThe Daily Beast

16 Jan 2015
Two young Italian aid workers were freed but Italian government critics say the $12 million price will fund more terrorist attacks. ROMEGreta Ramelli andVanessa Marzullo, the two young Italian aid workers who were kidnapped in Syrialast July may feel lucky to be alive, but they should feel even luckier that they are Italian. The two women were
Italian aid workers, 21-year-old Greta Ramelli, left, and 20-year-old Vanessa Marzullo, arrive at Ciampino's military airport, near Rome, early Friday, Jan. 16, 2015.





 

Homes burn after being hit by a shell in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014. Strong explosions were heard early Sunday on the outskirts of the main rebel-held city in eastern Ukraine near the airport, raising new fears that a cease-fire signed two days ago is on the verge of collapse. Blasts powerful enough to be heard in downtown Donetsk came from the area near the airport, which has been under the control of government troops since May and has come under unremitting attacks from pro-Russia separatist rebels since then.

DONETSK: Heavy artillery and shelling rocked Ukraine’s east on Thursday as the army and pro-Russian rebels waged a fierce battle for a key airport, forcing monitors to flee and threatening all-out conflict. The fighting came as Ukraine made renewed

 

Member of Imperialist Forum take part in a protest rally against Israeli attacks on Gaza in Kolkata on Aug 8, 2014

Margaret Besheer UNITED NATIONS— A senior United Nationsofficial warned Thursday that Israeli and Palestinian leaders are engaged in a “downward spiral,” making the quick resumption of peace talks unlikely. U.N.Deputy Political Chief

 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, gestures to the crowds, with Hezbollah's commander in south Lebanon Sheik Nabil Kaouk, at right, during a rally organized by Hezbollah in the southern border town of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon, on Thursday Oct. 14, 2010

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah has detained one of its own operatives who has confessed to spying for Israel, its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged for the first time on Thursday, in a case that has shattered the

 

Pope Francis celebrates a Mass in Sibari, southern Italy, Saturday, June 21, 2014

Pope Francis said on Thursday there are limits to freedom of speech, especially when it insults or ridicules someone’s faith. He spoke about theParis terror attacks while en route to the Philippines, defending free speech as not only a

Pope Francis Commemorative Stamp on display inside a mall in Manila, Philippines during the 2015 Papal Visit.

Pope Francis has landed in the Philippines, home to Asia‘s largest Catholic population, following a visit to Sri Lanka. Here are some glimpses of his trip as it unfolds: ___ TEARS OF DISAPPOINTMENTVincent, a one year old toddler, sits with his mother

 

In this image provided by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, Officer Raymond Ketchmark, left, Officer Franklin Foulks, Jamal Rutledge, center, Officer Robert Norvis and Sergeant Todd Bunin, right, pose for a photo at the Fort Lauderdale jail in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Monday, Jan. 12, 2015.

An arrested teen saves a police officer in trouble and goes from being in trouble himself to an instant hero. The incident that happened last Sept. showed just how much Jamal Rutledge, 17, is willing to help someone.

Five Yemenis transferred by US from Guantanamo to Oman, Estonia: Pentagon

Full ArticleSouth China Morning Post

15 Jan 2015

The Pentagon transferred five Yemenis held at Guantanamo prison to foreign custody on Wednesday in the first handover of detainees this year, sending four toOman and one to Estonia despite Republican calls for a moratorium on the resettlements. US officials said all five Yemenis, held for a dozen or more years at the military prison at a US Navy

Detainees at Joint Task Force (JTF) Guantanamo, Cuba, bow and touch their foreheads to the ground as they observe morning prayers before sunrise inside Camp Delta Oct. 28, 2009.

In this photo taken on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012, flags for sale that combines the slogan of EU aspiration with the red-and-yellow stripes, blue triangle and white star of the “estelada” flag that symbolizes Catalonia's independence drive are laid out in a printing shop in Girona, Spain. Catalonia holds elections on Sunday that will be seen as a test of the regional government's plans to hold a referendum on independence, and one of the key issues emerging is the theoretical place of a free Catalonia in Europe.

Regional President Artur Mas said Catalonia will hold early elections in September, asking voters to cast their ballots on independence fromSpain for the second time in a year. The vote will be held on Sept. 27 while the campaign will kick off on

 

National Mall, Between Independence and Constitution Aves. from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument NW and SW, USA

CINCINNATI — A man who plotted to attack the U.S. Capitol and kill government officials inside it and spoke of his desire to support the Islamic State group was arrested on Wednesday, the FBI said. A criminal complaint filed inU.S. District Court in

 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left, bows to Emperor Akihito, second from right, and Empress Michiko, right, before giving a speech during a ceremony to mark the day Japan recovered its sovereignty under the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1952, in Tokyo Sunday, April 28, 2013.

Japan announced its biggest defense budget on Wednesday as it prepares plans to scrap the constitutional ban on military operations overseas. The 4.98 trillion yen ($42 billion) budget was announced as talks took place between China and Japan on

 

FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2014 file photo, French comedian Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala arrives for his press conference in a theater in Paris, France.

11:46 AM ET Krishnadev Calamur Twitter i i Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala, the French comedian better known as Dieudonne, has been arrested and held on charges of apologizing for terrorism in the wake of a Facebook post that referred to last week’s deadly

 

File - Dominic Ongwen, commander of the Sinia Brigade of the Lord's Resistance Army.

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) – The U.S. Embassy in Uganda says U.S.Special Forces in Obo, Central African Republic, have handed over a Lord’s Resistance Army commander who is charged with war crimes to Ugandan troops. U.S. Embassyspokesman Daniel Travis

 

File - Giorgio Napolitano (front, left), President of Italy, arrives at the Palais des Nations, seat of the UN Office at Geneva (UNOG), with Sergei Ordzhonikidze (right), Director-General of UNOG, 4 March, 2011.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano handed in his resignation as head of state on Wednesday, leaving Prime Minister Matteo Renzi with the politically delicate task of finding a successor. The 89-year-old Napolitano, widely respected outside Italy as

 

File - Jonathan Evans, former Director General of MI5, the UK's domestic security and counter-intelligence service.

The former head of MI5 has warned the Britain faces a descent into “vigilantism” unless tougher security measures are enforced to ease the “vulnerability and fear” felt by citizens after events in the Middle East. Lord Evans of Weardale, who retired

Charlie Hebdo publishes new issue, one week after attack

Full ArticleBBC News

14 Jan 2015

The new edition of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has gone on sale, with a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad on its cover. Three million copies are being printed – a week after Islamist gunmen murdered eight journalists at the magazine and four other people in Paris. The cartoon shows the Prophet weeping while holding a sign

 

Citizens gather to pay tribute to victims of the terrorist attack against the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, Friday, Jan. 9, 2015, Pezenas, France.

 

 

 

 

File - Jonathan Evans, former Director General of MI5, the UK's domestic security and counter-intelligence service.

The former head of MI5 has warned the Britain faces a descent into “vigilantism” unless tougher security measures are enforced to ease the “vulnerability and fear” felt by citizens after events in the Middle East. Lord Evans of Weardale, who retired

 

File - A young girl carries necessities to her tent in an earthquake survivor camp in the Del Mas area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 21, 2010.

Five years ago in the frantic and confusing days following the devastating Haitian earthquake, a traumatised boy named Sonson Yvenord was found at a makeshift orphanage. Sonson’s mother and father were killed when their home collapsed after the

 

File - Rangers from 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, as part of a combined Afghan and coalition security force operating in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, await a CH-47 for extraction, 14 February, 2012.

Originally posted at TomDispatch. About a year ago, I hit the road for a couple of months. I went to Albany and Albuquerque, Berkeley andBoston, Chapel Hill and Chicago, Seattle and Schenectady. I wasn’t reporting. I wasn’t writing. I

 

Pope Francis waves to the crowd from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 13, 2013.

Pope Francis brought calls for reconciliation as well as justice as he arrived in Sri Lanka at the start of a weeklong Asian tour, saying the island nation can’t fully heal from a quarter-century of ethnic civil war without pursuing the truth about

 

Palestinians celebrate in Gaza Strip, the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate, Mohamed Morsi (portrait) in the Egyptian elections on June 24, 2012. Arab governments and leaders welcomed the election of Morsi as Egypt's first president following the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. Photo By Ahmed Deeb/wn

8:05 AM ET Eyder Peralta Twitter i i A supporter of oustedPresident Hosni Mubarak reacts in a courtroom to a verdict ordering a retrial inCairo on Tuesday. Ahmed Abd El-Gwad/AP hide caption itoggle caption Ahmed Abd El-Gwad/AP A supporter of ousted

 

Sleeping child - Baby

The key to learning and memory in early life is a lengthy nap, say scientists. Trials with 216 babies up to 12 months old indicated they were unable to remember new tasks if they did not have a lengthy sleep soon afterwards. The University of





Cristiano Ronaldo wins 3rd FIFA Player of the Year award

Full ArticleBoston Herald

13 Jan 2015

ZURICH — Cristiano Ronaldo hopes his third FIFA Player of the Year award brought him closer to being remembered as one of soccer’s all-time greats. The Portugueseforward, who led Real Madrid to its record 10th European title, received 37.66 percent of votes of national team coaches and captains and selected media to add to the FIFA

FILE - In this Sept. 23, 2014 file photo Real's Cristiano Ronaldo holds the ball as he celebrates his four goals during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Elche at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain.






Divers retrieve 2nd black box from AirAsia crash

Full ArticlePhiladelphia Daily News

13 Jan 2015

PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia (AP) – Divers retrieved the crashed AirAsia plane’s second black box from the bottom of the Java Sea on Tuesday, giving experts essential tools to piece together what brought Flight 8501 down. The cockpit voice recorder was freed from beneath the heavy remnants of a wing at a depth of about30 meters (100 feet), a day after

Sailors aboard the littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth make preparations to launch a Tow Fish side scan sonar system from the ship's 11-m rigid hull inflatable boat in support of Indonesian-led efforts to locate missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501, Java Sea, 4 January, 2014.

 

 

 

 

Living among Gaza’s dead

Full ArticleAl Jazeera

13 Jan 2015

Hesham el-Moghraby stands in the centre of his living room, looking down at two large tombs. He takes his baseball cap off, runs one hand over his head, and puts the cap back on. “There is no other place that I know,” Moghraby tells Al Jazeerafrom inside his family’s dark shack, which brims with piles of salvaged tyres, firewood, plastic tubing,

File - A cemetery east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Pope Francis waves to the crowd from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 13, 2013.

Pope Francis brought calls for reconciliation as well as justice as he arrived in Sri Lanka at the start of a weeklong Asian tour, saying the island nation can’t fully heal from a quarter-century of ethnic civil war without pursuing the truth about

 

Palestinians celebrate in Gaza Strip, the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate, Mohamed Morsi (portrait) in the Egyptian elections on June 24, 2012. Arab governments and leaders welcomed the election of Morsi as Egypt's first president following the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. Photo By Ahmed Deeb/wn

8:05 AM ET Eyder Peralta Twitter i i A supporter of oustedPresident Hosni Mubarak reacts in a courtroom to a verdict ordering a retrial inCairo on Tuesday. Ahmed Abd El-Gwad/AP hide caption itoggle caption Ahmed Abd El-Gwad/AP A supporter of ousted

 

Militias of the al-Qaida breakaway group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) deploy in an area in Tikrit

The Twitter and YouTube accounts belonging to U.S. Central Command were taken over briefly by hackers who say they are loyal to the Islamic State group. The Twitter account on Monday posted threats to U.S. soldiers, warning “We are coming watch your

 

The tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial in Ottawa Canada Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial, Confederation Square, in Ottawa King George VI unveiled the National War Memorial, Confederation Square, in Ottawa, Ontario, during his 1939 visit, months before the Second World War began.

TORONTO (AP) – Canadian police have arrested a third man in an alleged terrorist conspiracy. Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday that 21-year-old Suliman Mohamed has been charged with participating in the activity of a terrorist group. On

 

Real Madrid's world player Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal, center, FIFA President Joseph Blatter and Ronaldo's son Ronaldo Junior stand together at the FIFA Ballon d'Or 2013

Real Madrid’s Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo won the Ballon dO’r for the third time at a glittering ceremony here on Monday night.Ronaldo, who was the winner last year as well as in 2008, edged out two other contenders,

 

Nigeria’s ignored massacre: 2,000 slaughtered by Boko Haram, 30,000 flee their homes

Full ArticleBelfast Telegraph

12 Jan 2015

One of Africa‘s most senior church leaders has accused the West of ignoring the threat of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram, days after the reported slaughter of up to 2,000 people by the group. Ignatius Kaigama, the Catholic Archbishop of Jos and president of the Nigerian Bishops Conference, spoke as bodies lay strewn on the ground in Baga,

File - People inspect damaged shops following a Monday bomb explosion at a Market in Bauchi, Nigeria. Tuesday. Dec. 23, 2014.




Millions of Iraqis displaced by ISIL

Full ArticleAl Jazeera

12 Jan 2015

Resallah Khalil, a 29-year-old mother of seven, has been living in an old warehouse hall in southern Baghdad along with her sister-in-law’s eight-member family. The dark, stuffy, overcrowded hall is divided into dozens of 24-square-metre rooms by torn, unwashed clothes, and shelters around 1,000 people – most of whom are women and children.

In this photo taken Saturday, Jan. 10, 2015, internally displaced Yazidi women bake bread at a refugee camp in Bamarny village in Dahuk of the Kurdistan region, 260 miles (430 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq.
photo: AP / Seivan Salim




French President Francois Hollande welcomes Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the Elysee Palace, Paris, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. A rally of defiance and sorrow, protected by an unparalleled level of security, on Sunday will honor the 17 victims of three days of bloodshed in Paris that left France on alert for more violence.

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photo: AP / Thibault Camus

Journalists hold up their press cards during a minute of silence outside the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, a day after masked gunmen stormed the offices of a satirical newspaper and killed 12 people. Protesters in some U.S. cities — repeating the viral online slogan "Je Suis Charlie" or "I Am Charlie"— demonstrated against the deadly terror attack on a Paris newspaper office, joining thousands around the world who took to the streets to rally against the killings.

France 24 is reporting as many as 700,000 people marched in cities across France leading organizers to expect a massive turnout for today’s rally in Paris. Over 2,000 police officers are being deployed in the city with even more guarding areas

 

Princess Lady Diana of Wales In Madame Tussaud Wax Museum, Amsterdam

Now, some 18 years later, a new West End play, which opened inLondon last week, entitled, Truth, Lies, Diana, alleges, among other things, that indeed the future King of England’s mother was carrying a “Muslim baby,” as noted in

 

British Prime Minister David Cameron leaves after giving a statement to the media about Scotland's referendum results, outside his official residence at 10 Downing Street in central London, Friday, Sept. 19, 2014. Scottish voters have rejected independence, deciding to remain part of the United Kingdom after a historic referendum that shook the country to its core. The decision prevented a rupture of a 307-year union with England, bringing a huge sigh of relief to the British political establishment.

David Cameron will discuss the growing threat of cyber attacks with President Barack Obama in the White House this week, as details emerged of a major espionage campaign against the British energy sector. The PM and president will discuss the fallout

 

Italy's Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini addresses the media during an EU summit in Brussels, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2014. European Union leaders have nominated Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini to become the 28-nation bloc's new foreign policy chief for the next five years. The EU leaders also elected Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to succeed European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in December as EU summit chairman and behind-the-scenes broker of compromises among national leaders.

TRIPOLI, Libya: The United Nations announced Saturday a new round of peace talks between Libya’s warring factions in Geneva next week, as theEuropean Union warned the country was at a “crucial juncture”. “This dialogue is an important opportunity

 

The SpaceX CRS-1 Falcon 9 launches on 8 October 2012. At one minute, 10 seconds after liftoff, Falcon 9 reaches supersonic speed.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX pulled off another successful launch of supplies to the International Space Station on Saturday, but its revolutionary attempt to land the leftover booster on an ocean barge fared less well. The company’s billionaire

 

In this Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011 photo, police officers armed with AK-47 rifles stand guard at sandbagged bunkers along a major road in Maiduguri, Nigeria. The radical sect Boko Haram, which in August 2011 bombed the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria, is the gravest security threat to Africa's most populous nation and is gaining prominence

Hundreds of bodies remain strewn in the bush in Nigeria from an Islamic extremist attack that Amnesty International on Friday suggested is the “deadliest massacre” in the history of Boko Haram. District head Baba AbbaHassan said most

France attacks: World leaders gather for mass Paris rally

Full ArticleBBC News

11 Jan 2015

World leaders are gathering in Paris ahead of a march in the French capital to show unity after three days of terror that left 17 people dead. Some 40 leaders are to go to the rally, expected to dwarf Saturday marches that saw 700,000 take to the streets. About 2,000 police officers and 1,350 soldiers are being deployed across the French capital to

World leaders are gathering in Paris ahead of a march in the French capital to show unity after three days of terror






 

AirAsia crash: object on sonar may be fuselage, say searchers

Full ArticleThe Observer

11 Jan 2015

Indonesian searchers with wreckage from AirAsia flight 8501. Photograph: AchmadIbrahim/AP Indonesian search teams have said a sonar scan may have located the fuselage of the AirAsia airliner that crashed two weeks ago with the loss of all 162 people on board. Searchers have also been detecting pings, believed to be from the aircraft’s black box

A multinational grouping of naval vessels participates in search operations at the location of AirAsia Flight QZ8501's tail in the Java Sea, 7 January, 2014.






French leader declares “war” on radical Islam after attacks

 

11 Jan 2015

A sign Saturday night on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris reads, in English, “Paris isCharlie,” a sign of solidarity with the victims of the Wednesday massacre at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. (Peter Dejong, The Associated Press) RelatedStories Jan 11:Hundreds gather in solidarity in New York after Paris attacksViolence fuels debate among

A police officer closes the bullet ridden door next to a body lying in the kosher market, in Paris, Friday Jan. 9, 2015.






 

Charlie Hebdo attack: French police hunt accomplices

Full ArticleBBC News

10 Jan 2015

Police in France are hunting for any accomplices of the gunmen who killed 17 people in two days of terror attacks. One key figure is Hayat Boumeddiene, the partner of Amedy Coulibaly, who was killed when police stormed a supermarket inParis on Friday. She was said to be with Coulibaly when a policewoman was killed and is described as “armed

Citizens gather to pay tribute to victims of the terrorist attack against the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, Friday, Jan. 9, 2015, Pezenas, France.






The SpaceX CRS-1 Falcon 9 launches on 8 October 2012. At one minute, 10 seconds after liftoff, Falcon 9 reaches supersonic speed.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX pulled off another successful launch of supplies to the International Space Station on Saturday, but its revolutionary attempt to land the leftover booster on an ocean barge fared less well. The company’s billionaire

 

In this Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011 photo, police officers armed with AK-47 rifles stand guard at sandbagged bunkers along a major road in Maiduguri, Nigeria. The radical sect Boko Haram, which in August 2011 bombed the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria, is the gravest security threat to Africa's most populous nation and is gaining prominence

Hundreds of bodies remain strewn in the bush in Nigeria from an Islamic extremist attack that Amnesty International on Friday suggested is the “deadliest massacre” in the history of Boko Haram. District head Baba AbbaHassan said most

 

Pakistani investigators inspect a car damaged by an explosion in the residential area of Lahore, Pakistan on Friday, March 12, 2010

ISLAMABAD — At least eight people were killed in an overnight attack at a Shiite mosque in Pakistan, as the government established nine military courts for speedy trial of terrorists, officials said Saturday. The bomber detonated his explosives

 

Protesters clash with police in central Kiev, Ukraine, early Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014.

DONETSK: Four Ukrainian soldiers and two civilians were reported killed on Friday in an upsurge in mortar and rocket attacks just days ahead of mooted international talks on the country’s crisis. Local authorities in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk

 

File - A masked bodyguard talks with radical Musliml cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, left, before Friday prayers in the street outside the North London Central Mosque Friday, Feb. 28, 2003.

By Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) – The radical London clericAbu Hamza al-Masri was sentenced to life in a U.S. prison on Friday for his conviction on terrorism-related charges, including his role in the 1998 kidnapping of Western tourists in Yemen

 

Cuba's President Raul Castro delivers the closing speech during a session of the National Assembly of Popular Power in Havana, Cuba, Sunday Aug. 1, 2010

Cuba has released more than two dozen political prisoners in the past two days, following a pledge to free detainees as part of last month’s agreement to normalize relations with the United States, according to human rights groups and activists. The

 

Tourists in London, United Kingdom.

With the world’s eye being trained on movements of ISIS, theIslamic State in Iraq and Syria, more focus has been zeroing in on Syria. The UKofficial reported that “a significant proportion” of British citizens, believed to number

Internally displaced people gathered at Bangui's airport in Bangui, Central African Republic, Friday Dec. 6 2013, cheer at the sight of landing French military helicopters, a day after gun battle between Seleka soldiers and Christian militias left over 100 dead and scores wounded.

UNITED NATIONS — A United Nations commission of inquiry says it has found evidence of ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Central African Republic, but it couldn’t prove that genocide has occurred amid months of unprecedented sectarian

 

File - In this photo taken on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014, a huge TV screen shows Russian President Vladimir Putin as he speaks to political experts at a meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club at a Nakhimov's Square in Sevastopol, Crimea. Russia dismissed new U.S. sanctions as useless.

Ten months after annexation by Russia, Crimea is living through its most troubled holiday season yet. Ties with Ukraine are at breaking point, andWestern sanctions make life difficult, in what used to be a popular tourist destination. There have

 

This Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014, photo, shows the remains of the burned out Federal Government College in Buni Yadi, Nigeria.

8 January 2015, 18:20 ‘Dozens Killed’ As Boko Haram Attacks Villages Tweet Boko Haram militants in Nigeria have reportedly killed dozens of people in the northeastern region of Kukawa over several days, according to witnesses. Musa Bukar, head of the

 

A roof of a house and its lawn are covered with snow as seen on this February 2, 2013 photo during a winter storm in Pocahontas, Illinois, USA.

Record-breaking blustery cold gripped the US East andMidwest, forcing school closings, train delays and flight cancellations with no end in sight before the weekend. Snow expected to accumulate to 1 meter deep was falling in upstate New York near

 

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, meeting with HE Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 27-5-14.

Sri Lankans on Thursday voted in large numbers in the tightest-ever presidential race in which incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa, seeking a record third term, is involved in a grim battle for survival. Mr. Rajapaksa, the hero of the military victory over

 

The Bayside Bridge crosses over the northwesternmost end of Tampa Bay, connecting Clearwater, Florida and Largo, Florida.

Five-year-old Phoebe Jonchuck was found dead this morning after her father threw her into Tampa Bay waters just after midnight. According toSt. Petersburg police, an officer heading home from work was driving southbound toward the Skyway Bridge when

 

Nigeria President, Goodluck Jonathan, left, greets some of the parents of the kidnapped girls from the Chibok government secondary school, in Abuja, Nigeria. Tuesday, July 22, 2014.

Abuja, January 08: Nigerian President Goodluck JonathanThursday kicked off his campaign for re-election in the West African country as the nation prepares for general elections next month. Jonathan‘s re-election campaign kicked off in Lagos, the
photo: AP

The orphans of Gaza

Full ArticleAl Jazeera

08 Jan 2015

The rooms of the al-Amal Institute for Orphans in Gaza City could belong to any child, with Donald Duck stickers plastered to the walls and stuffed teddy bears arranged in rows upon tidy bedspreads. But the brightness is a facade: These children draw war. They sketch rockets and Israeli fighter jets, pictures of people shattering

File - Palestinian children play near the remains of a dwelling following an Israeli airstrike, east of Gaza City, Sunday, 12 February 2012.

 

 

Pills, Drugs

8 January 2015, 7:43 New Antibiotic Could Help Fight SuperbugsTweet Scientists have discovered an antibiotic which could be used to treat tuberculosis and drug-resistant infections caused by superbugs in the future. The antibiotic, named

 

Nasa finds 8 new planets in ‘life zone’

LONDON: Nasa‘s Kepler space telescope has found eight planets in the so-called Goldilocks zone of their stars, just at the right distance to contain liquid wa-ter and, possibly, life. Two of them have been touted as most Earth-like— Kepler-438b and

 

File - Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, left, and CIA Dir.ector John Brennan, right, take their seats on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014, prior to testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on current and projected national security threats against the US.

Getty Images North AmericaDirector of National IntelligenceJames Clapper US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has said at a cybersecurity conference that he suspects his North Korean counterpart to be behind the hack of Sony Pictures.

 

A Yemeni police investigator collects pictures of police cadets who were killed in a car bombing outside a police academy in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) ? A suicide bomber driving a minibus killed at least 33 people on Wednesday as cadets gathered to enroll at a police academy in the heart of Yemen’s capital Sanaa, authorities said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the

 

FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi of Argentina reacts after scoring his third goal against Arsenal during their Champions League quarterfinal second leg soccer match at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images See Also After he had , there’s in Europe that Lionel Messi could leave Barcelona in a historic transfer. As a general rule all Messi transfer rumors are to be taken with a grain of salt. For one thing there are

 

 A Palestinian girl walks past a large billboard of Palestinian Presiden Yasser Arafat in Gaza. WN/Ahmed Deeb

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has confirmed that the Palestinians will officially become a member of theInternational Criminal Court on April 1, the U.N. press office said on Wednesday. On Friday the Palestinians

 

President Paul Biya of Cameroon at the inauguration of the new U.S. Embassy to Cameroon, 16 February 2006.

ABUJA (Reuters) – A man purporting to be the leader of Nigerianmilitant sect Boko Haram has threatened to step up violence in neighboringCameroon unless it scraps its constitution and embraces Islam. The video posted online this week shows a man
photo: US DoS file

 

 

 

 

 

 

FRANCE IN SHOCK






EU wants explanation from Turkey on migrant smugglers

Full ArticleYahoo Daily News

06 Jan 2015

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union wants Turkey to explain how human traffickers could have taken two cargo ships filled with migrants out of the country and toward the EU without the authorities noticing. European Commissionspokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said Tuesday that “given what has happened in recent days with

Migrants wait after disembarking from the cargo ship Ezadeen, carrying hundreds of migrants, in the southern Italian port of Corigliano, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015.






Tail of missing AirAsia plane discovered in Java Sea

Full ArticlePhiladelphia Daily News

07 Jan 2015

PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia (AP) – Divers and an unmanned underwater vehicle spotted the tail of the missing AirAsia plane in the Java Sea on Wednesday, the first confirmed sighting of any major wreckage 11 days after Flight 8501 disappeared with 162 people on board, an official said. Following days of strong currents and murky water that hindered the

 Logistics Specialist 3rd Class Norrik Hodge stands watch on the bridge wing of the littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth, Jan. 3, 2015. Fort Worth is currently on station conducting helicopter search and recovery operations as part of the Indonesian-led efforts to locate missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501.





Guatemala's former dictator Jose Efrain Rios Montt stands in court before the judge enters to announce the verdict for his genocide trial in Guatemala City, Friday, May 10, 2013.

The Associated PressGUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt’s retrial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity was postponed Monday, dismaying victims who have long sought to see him punished for the massacre of

 

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., center, walks with Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., left, and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Calif., after walking off the House floor in protest of a contempt of Congress vote for Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday, June 28, 2012, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Republicans are set to take control of both chambers ofCongress for the first time in eight years. New and re-elected senators and all representatives will begin the swearing-in process at midday. At the top of theRepublican agenda is approval of

 

AirAsia X

SURABAYA: When fashion store owner The Meiji Thejakusuma bid goodbye to relatives before boarding AirAsia’s Flight 8501, she light-heartedly quipped she would “spend time alone at sea” on her birthday, which she planned to mark with a New Year’s

 

Afghanistan's presidential election candidates Abdullah Abdullah, center left, and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, center right, shake hands after signing a power-sharing deal at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014. Afghanistan's two presidential candidates signed a power-sharing deal Sunday, capped with a hug and a handshake, three months after a disputed runoff that threatened to plunge the country into turmoil and complicate the withdrawal of U.S. and foreign troops.

KABUL: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani marked his first 100 daysin power on Tuesday, still struggling to form a government as a new political stalemate threatens to fuel the Taliban insurgency. The deadlock over senior cabinet positions has underlined

 

Sepp Blatter

Jordan’s Ali bin Al-Hussein will stand against Sepp Blatter for presidency of football’s world governing body FIFA, and declared on Tuesday that years of controversy surrounding “the beautiful sport” must end. “I am seeking the presidency of

 

Ukrainian government army soldiers examine weapons captured from rebels in the city of Slovyansk, Donetsk Region, eastern Ukraine Saturday, July 5, 2014.

KIEV (Reuters) – At least 12 Ukrainian serviceman were killed and more than 20 injured when some military trucks collided with their bus in eastern Ukraine, police said on

 

Journalists work at the Stock Exchange in Madrid Monday July 23, 2012.

REUTERS/Brendan McDermidThis is not a good way to start2015. European markets opened up this morning, after major sell-offs both in eastAsia and the middle east. The major indices are now close to flat. Here’s the scorecard: France‘s CAC 40: -0.50%
photo: AP / Paul White

Let the Iraqi Army have its day

Full ArticleAl Jazeera

06 Jan 2015

On January 6, Iraq will hold its annual Army Day parade in Baghdad. The ceremony evokes mixed feelings amongst Iraqis: after all, the parade marches under massive crossed swords wielded by giant bronze hands modelled on those of Saddam Hussein himself. For the Kurds it is an ominous ritual, a leftover from an era when Baghdad’s military power far

File - An Iraqi Soldier from the 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade of the 7th Iraqi Army Division passes out toys to children while on patrol in Hit, Iraq.






Thousands flee homes in Kashmir as India-Pakistan clashes spread

06 Jan 2015

About 6,000 civilians in Indian-controlled region leave homes as intense shelling reported along border

File - Indian army men stand on top of a mountain, during an encounter between suspected militants and Army soldiers on their base at Mohra, in Kashmir, India on December 05, 2014.

 

 

 

 

Journalists work at the Stock Exchange in Madrid Monday July 23, 2012.

REUTERS/Brendan McDermidThis is not a good way to start2015. European markets opened up this morning, after major sell-offs both in eastAsia and the middle east. The major indices are now close to flat. Here’s the scorecard: France‘s CAC 40: -0.50%

 

Indian army soldiers take positions encounter the site of a gunbattle with armed suspected militants at Pindi Khattar village in Arnia border sector, about 43 kilometers (27 miles) south of Jammu, India, Friday, Nov. 28, 2014. Heavily armed suspected militants fought a fierce gunbattle with soldiers in the Indian portion of Kashmir that started Thursday, and three civilians were among the nine dead, authorities said. Arnia is the sector where Indian and Pakistani troops had exchanged massive shelling and firing in late September and October, killing 20 people and wounding more than 100 on both sides.

Four civilians and a soldier have been killed as India andPakistan continued to exchange fire in the disputed Kashmir region, officials say. APakistani military statement said the civilians have been killed in firing by Indianforces near the city

 

Mexico Violence : 2014 Iguala students missings

The wife of the former mayor of the Mexican city where 43 students went missing has been charged with organised crime and money laundering. Maria de los Angeles Pineda was transferred to a high security prison to await trial. She had brothers in a..

Barack Obama advised to make laws to ensure US ‘torture’ techniques are never used again

File - Detainees at Joint Task Force (JTF) Guantanamo, Cuba, sit on prayer rugs as they observe morning prayers before sunrise inside Camp Delta Oct. 28, 2009.

Barack Obama has received recommendations for a series of policy changes designed to ensure that the US government never again resorts to the sort of enhanced interrogation techniques used on detainees in the aftermath of 9/11. The recommendations,

 

Boston Explosions

The trial of a man suspected of bombing the Boston Marathonin 2013 has begun with jury selection as it emerged that prosecutors rejected a deal that would have spared him from the death penalty. Chechen-AmericanDzhokhar Tsarnaev (21) is accused of

 

Pyramids-Giza-Cairo-Egypt-ayt1

CAIRO // Czech archaeologists have unearthed the tomb of a previously unknown queen believed to have been the wife of Pharaoh Neferefre who ruled 4,500 years ago, officials in Egypt said on Sunday. The tomb was discovered in Abu Sir, an Old Kingdom

 

 

 

 

France seeks end to Russia sanctions over Ukraine

05 Jan 2015

French President Francois Hollande says he wants Western sanctions on Russia to be lifted if progress is made in talks on the Ukraine conflict this month. He did not specify which sanctions – imposed by the EU, US and Canada – could be lifted. The sanctions began after Russia annexed Crimea in March. Mr Hollande said Russian President Vladimir

File - A Ukrainian soldier leads pro-Russian separatists during an exchange of prisoners outside Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, Friday Dec. 26, 2014.

 

 

 

 

Taiwan former President Chen Shui-bian is seen behind barbed-wire at the Tucheng Detention Center in Taipei County, Taiwan, Friday, Sept. 11, 2009.

After serving about one-third of a 20-year sentence on corruption charges, Taiwan’s ex-president, Chen Shui-bian, was granted medical parole Monday. The move was seen as a conciliatory gesture by the rulingNationalist Party – weakened in

 

File - Photograph of the grave of Alexander Litvinenko, Highgate Cemetery, London, United Kingdom.

Ahead of an inquiry into the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian agent’s son Anatoly talks to Peter Marshall about family life with his father and the long struggle to emerge from the shadow of his murder

 

Papandreou and his wife attend the Quadriga Award 2010 ceremony on 3 October 2010 in Berlin.

Former Prime Minister George Papandreou launched his new party on Saturday, as current Deputy Prime Minister and PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos insisted that his party would play a pivotal role in political developments after the January 25

 

A Piper Seneca aircraft ready for Flying during the Inaguration the Bharat Aviation Limited Flying Training Institute at Behala Flying Club in Kolkata on Friday  01 November 2013

A seven-year-old girl walked three-quarters of a mile through rugged terrain Friday night – after surviving a plane crash that killed her father, mother, sister, and cousin. The child had been aboard her family’s Piper PA-34heading from Key West,

 

Amal Alamuddin, human rights lawyer and fiancee of US actor George Clooney attends the 'End Sexual Violence in Conflict' summit in London, Thursday, June 12, 2014. The Summit welcomes governments from over 100 countries, over 900 experts, NGOs, Faith leaders, and representatives from international organizations across the world.

BRITISH human rights lawyer Amal Clooney claimed in an interview published yesterday she was threatened with arrest in Egypt after identifying flaws in the judicial system that later contributed to the convictions of three Al-Jazeera journalists

 

In this photo taken Monday, April, 21. 2014, soldiers stand guards in front of government secondary school Chibok, were gunmen abducted more than 200 students in Chibok, Nigeria

KANO (Nigeria): Suspected Boko Haram gunmen have kidnapped 40 boys and young men in a remote village in northeast Nigerian Bornostate on New Year’s Eve, residents who fled the isolated settlement said on Saturday. Scores of Boko Haram militants

 

An Israeli soldier guards the road leading towards a Patriot missile defense battery positioned on the Carmel Mt., not picctured, in northern Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012.

Official says Israel is weighing the possibilities for large-scale prosecution in the US and elsewhere of President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior Palestinians. Israel is looking at ways to prosecute senior Palestinians for war crimes in the United

War with Isis: The West is wrong again in its fight against terror

Full ArticleThe Independent

04 Jan 2015

Islamic State (Isis) will remain at the centre of the escalating crisis in the Middle East this year as it was in 2014. The territories it conquered in a series of lightning campaigns last summer remain almost entirely under its control, even though it has lost some towns to the Kurds and Shia militias in recent weeks. United Statesair strikes in

An F/A-18E Super Hornet from the Sunliners of Strike Fighter Squadron 81 makes the final launch of 2014 from the flight deck of aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) as the ship conducts flight operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility supporting Operation Inherent Resolve involving strike operations in Iraq and Syria as directed, Arabian Gulf, 31 December, 2014.

File - Photograph of the grave of Alexander Litvinenko, Highgate Cemetery, London, United Kingdom.

Ahead of an inquiry into the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian agent’s son Anatoly talks to Peter Marshall about family life with his father and the long struggle to emerge from the shadow of his murder

 

Papandreou and his wife attend the Quadriga Award 2010 ceremony on 3 October 2010 in Berlin.

Former Prime Minister George Papandreou launched his new party on Saturday, as current Deputy Prime Minister and PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos insisted that his party would play a pivotal role in political developments after the January 25

 

A Piper Seneca aircraft ready for Flying during the Inaguration the Bharat Aviation Limited Flying Training Institute at Behala Flying Club in Kolkata on Friday  01 November 2013

A seven-year-old girl walked three-quarters of a mile through rugged terrain Friday night – after surviving a plane crash that killed her father, mother, sister, and cousin. The child had been aboard her family’s Piper PA-34heading from Key West,

 

Amal Alamuddin, human rights lawyer and fiancee of US actor George Clooney attends the 'End Sexual Violence in Conflict' summit in London, Thursday, June 12, 2014. The Summit welcomes governments from over 100 countries, over 900 experts, NGOs, Faith leaders, and representatives from international organizations across the world.

BRITISH human rights lawyer Amal Clooney claimed in an interview published yesterday she was threatened with arrest in Egypt after identifying flaws in the judicial system that later contributed to the convictions of three Al-Jazeera journalists

 

In this photo taken Monday, April, 21. 2014, soldiers stand guards in front of government secondary school Chibok, were gunmen abducted more than 200 students in Chibok, Nigeria

KANO (Nigeria): Suspected Boko Haram gunmen have kidnapped 40 boys and young men in a remote village in northeast Nigerian Bornostate on New Year’s Eve, residents who fled the isolated settlement said on Saturday. Scores of Boko Haram militants

 

An Israeli soldier guards the road leading towards a Patriot missile defense battery positioned on the Carmel Mt., not picctured, in northern Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012.

Official says Israel is weighing the possibilities for large-scale prosecution in the US and elsewhere of President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior Palestinians. Israel is looking at ways to prosecute senior Palestinians for war crimes in the United
photo: AP / Ariel Schalit

 

Italy takes control of drifting ship carrying 450 migrants

Full ArticleDawn

03 Jan 2015

BRINDISI: Italian sailors managed on Friday to take control of a crewless merchant ship as it drifted towards the country’s southern shores in rough seas with 450 migrants on board, in the second such incident in two days. Six coastguard officers were lowered from a helicopter onto the deck of the Ezadeen as it floated some 40 kilometres off

The Moldovan-flagged Blue Sky M carrying hundreds of migrants arrives at the southern Italian port of Gallipoli, some 170 kilometers (108 miles) south of Bari, Italy, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014.



Palestine on the ropes

Full ArticleAl Jazeera

03 Jan 2015

Even though I was at an end-of-year retreat, I stayed up late last Monday to catch the breaking news covering the outcome of a vote that was taking place at the UN Security Council. It concerned a Palestinian proposal “put in blue” to the UN earlier in the week and that Ambassador Dina Kawar of Jordan had submitted to a vote at the Security

The Security Council voted on a draft resolution submitted by Jordan on the establishment of “a sovereign, contiguous and viable State of Palestine” within 12 months, 30 December, 2014. Riyad H. Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, addresses the Security Council after the vote which failed.




U.S. imposes sanctions on North Korea for Sony hack

Full ArticlePhiladelphia Daily News

03 Jan 2015

WASHINGTON – Two weeks after blaming North Korea for hacking into Sony Pictures, the Obama administration on Friday imposed new sanctions on the repressive government as part of what it described as a broader attempt to tackle threats to U.S. cybersecurity. Under a new executive order signed by President Obama, the Treasury Department imposed

File - President Barack Obama boards Marine One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., en route to the White House following a trip to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Lakehurst, N.J., Dec. 15, 2014.



In this courtroom sketch, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Lewin, foreground, gives his opening statement to the jury in the trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, left, as lead defense attorney Steve Zissou, third from left, and Judge Lewin Kaplan, right, look on in Manhattan Federal Court Tuesday, October 12, 2010 in New York. Ghailani, 36, faces a life sentence in prison if he is convicted of conspiring with others, including Osama bin Laden, to simultaneously blow up embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998. Among the 224 victims were 12 Americans.

CAIRO (AP) — Abu Anas al-Libi, a man accused by federal prosecutors of being an al-Qaida member involved in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, died of complications from liver surgery, his wife said Saturday. He was 50. U.S.

 

Flames and smoke rise from a bushfire in the Bunyip Sate Forest near the township of Tonimbuk, 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009. Walls of flame roared across southeastern Australia, razing scores of homes, forests and farmland in the sunburned country's worst wildfire disaster in a quarter centur

SYDNEY (AP) ? Thousands of Australians fled their homes as wildfires raged across the nation’s south on Saturday, with firefighters struggling to contain the blazes fanned by strong winds. Six homes were destroyed by the fires in South Australia and

 

Palestinian Hamas security stand guard near an Egyptian watch tower on the border with Egypt in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on July 5, 2013. Egyptian official said the country's border crossing with Gaza Strip in northern Sinai has been closed indefinitely, citing security concerns. The decision comes hours after suspected Islamic militants attacked four sites in northern Sinai and Egyptian soldier was killed early today, targeting two military checkpoints, a police station and el-Arish airport, where military aircraft are stationed. Photo by Ahmed Deeb /  WN

Gaza City , January 03: Egyptian soldiers firing from across the border shot dead a Palestinian man in the Gaza frontier town of Rafah today, medics said, although the motive was not immediately known. The border troops shot the 23-year-old man “in

 

Tollywood Actress  Koel Mullick  during the Cancer Awarness Walkathon  on the  ocassion of World Cancer Day organised by Ray of Hope , infront of Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata on Saturday 04 Febuary 2012

Why are some types of cancer so much more common than others? Sometimes it’s due to faulty genes inherited from one’s parents and sometimes to behaviors like smoking a pack of cigarettes every day. But in most cases, it comes down to

 

President Barack Obama talks about health care reform as he announces his nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, not pictured, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, July 13, 2009

The new sanctions authorized by executive order from Obamawill affect three North Korean entities, including a government intelligence agency and a North Korean arms dealer. The United States imposed fresh sanctions onNorth Korea on Friday in its

Specialist Philip Finale, right, directs trading at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, April 19, 2010

NEW YORK: US stocks lost ground on Friday, reversing an initial climb, as investors found few reasons to buy in the new year after data came in below forecasts. In a sign of tepid economic conditions, construction spending unexpectedly fell in

 

Part of Rue Minet al Hosn, where Rafik Hariri was assassinated on February 14, 2005.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday extended for three years the mandate of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which was set

Where Afghan law fails women

Full ArticleAl Jazeera

02 Jan 2015
Afghan women have come a long way since the dark days of the Taliban regime. Yet a key obstacle to this progress continues to be high levels of violence against women. The legal system has failed to protect women adequately when it comes to some of the most common crimes against them; rape, domestic violence, underage and forced marriages.
U.S. Army Sgt. Lidya Admounabdfany writes down information from a local woman at the Woman's Center near the Zhari District Center outside of Forward Operating Base Pasab, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, Dec. 17, 2011.

 

 

 

 

2014 Shanghai stampede

SHANGHAI — Like hundreds of thousands of other revelers, 24-year-old Pan Haiqin decided to ring in the new year on Shanghai’s famed riverfront as the skyscrapers flashed and sparkled. But as the crowd grew and then turned into an

 

Atocha railway station, Madrid Spain's railway system, the Red Nacional de Ferrocarriles Españoles (Renfe) operates the vast majority of Spain's railways. In Madrid, the main rail terminals are Atocha in the south and Chamartín in the north.

MADRID (AP) — Police have evacuated people from Madrid‘sAtocha train station and halted trains in and out of the busy city-center station following a bomb threat that police says was a

 

MS Norman Atlantic

BRINDISI, Italy (Reuters) – Tug boats hauled the burnt-out hulk of the ferry that caught fire on Sunday off the coast of Greece to a southern Italianport on Friday, opening the way for an investigation into the cause of the blaze that killed at

 

A man observes the remains of destroyed vehicles and buildings in the town of Mpeketoni, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the Somali border on the coast of Kenya Monday, June 16, 2014.

Reuters NAIROBI— Kenya‘s High Court on Friday suspended some of the anti-terrorism measures signed into law two weeks ago by PresidentUhuru Kenyatta, saying objections raised by the opposition over the laws’ constitutionality should

 

Relatives weep during the handover ceremony of the body of Hayati Lutfiah, one of the victims of AirAsia Flight 8501, to her family at the police hospital in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2015. Searchers were racing "against time and weather" Thursday to recover the dead from the crash, with a window of good conditions slammed shut by another onslaught of wind and heavy rain.

A passenger aboard AirAsia Flight 8501 has become the first victim of the crash to be returned to her family, one of many painful reunions to come, as search crews struggled against wind and heavy rain to find more than 150 people still missing.

Vice President Joe Biden gestures as he speaks during a photo-op as he meets with President Barack Obama for lunch in the Private Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Brazil‘s President DilmaRousseff are pledging close cooperation between their countries as the United States seeks to repair its damaged relationship with Brazil. The two leaders met Thursday in Brasilia on the

 

Liverpool's Steven Gerrard celebrates scoring a goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Liverpool at Villa Park Stadium in Birmingham, England, Sunday, March 31, 2013.

STEVEN Gerrard is set to make the shock announcement that he will leave Liverpool at the end of the season, according to reports. Reds captain Gerrard’s Anfield future has been the subject of speculation for several months and he is believed to

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy peace and love in your neighborhood…..Hello 2015






Nasa to hack Mars rover Opportunity to fix ‘amnesia’ fault

Full ArticleBBC News

31 Dec 2014

Mars rover Opportunity, which has been exploring the Red Planet for more than 10 years, is suffering from memory problems, Nasa has said. The six-wheeled vehicle – not to be confused with Curiosity, which launched in 2011 – keeps resetting unexpectedly. The Opportunity team thinks an age-related fault affecting the flash memory used by the robot is

File - This stereo view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows "Lunokhod 2 Crater," which lies south of "Solander Point" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The view combines several images taken by Opportunity's Pancam and was obtained on the rover's 3,644th Martian day (sol) of exploration (April 24, 2014).




Newly elected Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi gives a press conference in Tunis, Wednesday, Dec.24, 2014. The 88-year-old political veteran has been elected president of Tunisia, a country whose young people once electrified the world by overthrowing its 73-year-old dictator in 2011 and triggering the Arab Spring uprisings across the region.

Tunisia‘s new president has pledged a rule of reconciliation and consensus as he took his oath before the newly elected parliament to complete the country’s democratic transition. [TICON-A SLIDESHOW] [TICON-A VIDEO] The inauguration of Beji Caid

 

People gather at the site of a suicide bombing as Yemeni security officials collect debris in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014.

December 31, 2014 — Updated 1045 GMT (1845 HKT) Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) — A suicide bomber blew himself up at a gathering for Shiite rebels Wednesday, killing at least 18 people in Yemen‘s southern city of Ibb, town officials said. Hundreds of Houthis

 

An aerial view of the Cooper Field Athletic Complex at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

6:50 AM ET Eyder Peralta Twitter The United States has released five more detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Pentagon said the three Yemenis and two Tunisians were transferred toKazakhstan. The detainees are latest

 

Handgun exhibited in the National World War I Museum at the Liberty Memorial, 100 W. 26th Street, Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

HAYDEN, Idaho – A 29-year-old woman described as a “beautiful, young, loving mother” was fatally shot by her 2-year-old son at a northern Idaho Wal-Mart in what authorities called a tragic accident. The little boy reached intoVeronica J. Rutledge’s

 

Protests Rally in Moscow for Alexey Navalny

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin’s chief political foe was convicted along with his brother on Tuesday in a fraud case widely seen as a vendetta by the Kremlin, triggering one of Russia‘s boldest anti-government demonstrations in years. Police

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko meet on the sidelines of the ASEM summit of European and Asian leaders in Milan, northern Italy, Friday, Oct. 17, 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin is looking to get relief from Western economic sanctions imposed since Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and its support for a pro-Russia insurgency in eastern Ukraine. To that end, he has scheduled a series of meetings on the sidelines of a two-day ASEM summit of European and Asian leaders.

Ukraine‘s Western-backed leader Petro Poroshenko has promised to meet Russia‘s Vladimir Putin and involve US President Barack Obamain his stalled push for peace with pro-Kremlin fighters in the separatist east. The surprise announcement on Monday

 

Shukria Barakzai attending a breakfast with members of U.S. Congress and Afghan Parliamentarians at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

By Jessica Donati KABUL (Reuters) – No one ever claimed responsibility after a suicide bomber rammed into the vehicle of celebrated female parliamentarian Shukria Barakzai. She walked away from the wreckage after the Nov. 16 blast that killed three
photo: Creative Commons

Iran Hangs Seven on Christmas Day

Man being hung near Tehran, Iran / AP

Man being hung near Tehran, Iran 

BY:

The Iranian regime hanged seven citizens on Christmas morning and at least 12 others in the days before and after the holiday, according to Iranian dissidents monitoring the human rights situation.

Seven prisoners being held in Iran’s Abdelebad prison were hanged “at dawn on Christmas day,” according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an Iranian opposition group.

The latest round of state-sanctioned killings—which have hit an all time high in the past year—came just days after President Barack Obama praised Iran in an interview at the White House and said that it could be a “successful” member of the international community.

Obama claimed that Iran can be a “very successful regional power” if it decides to relinquish some portions of its contested nuclear weapons program, according to the interview, which was conducted with NPR.??”They’ve got a chance to get right with the world,” Obama was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, in the days leading up to Christmas, Iran “secretly hanged” another 10 prisoners who were being held in one of the regime’s most infamous and brutal prisons, according to the NCRI.

Iran also has been reportedly assisting the United States in recent days in its fight against the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AirAsia Confirms Debris In Java Sea Is From Missing Jet

Relatives of passengers of the missing AirAsia Flight 8501 react upon seeing the news on television about the findings of bodies on the waters near the site where the jetliner disappeared in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, on Tuesday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ferry fire: Italian government has no idea how many people have died

Full ArticleThe Independent

30 Dec 2014

The Italian government does not know how many passengers are missing after a deadly ferry blaze in the Adriatic in which at least ten people died. At the end of the rescue operation last night the country’s transport minister Maurizio Lupi said there were serious discrepancies in the ship’s manifest and that there could still be people unaccounted

 

In this image taken from video and released by the Italian Navy, a woman is lifted from the deck of the Italian-flagged ferry Norman Atlantic by a rescue helicopter after it caught fire in the Adriatic Sea, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014.

 

 

 

 

 

Philippines Storm

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Flash floods and landslides triggered by Tropical Storm Jangmi left at least 31 people dead and seven missing in the Philippines, including in areas still recovering from last year’s Typhoon Haiyan, officials said

 

Alexey Navalny

MOSCOW — Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption campaigner who is a leading foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found guilty of fraud and given a suspended sentence of three and a half years on Tuesday, while his brother was sent to

 

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner speaks during the G20 Business Summit in Seoul Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010. World leaders are coming together in Seoul Nov. 11-12 to discuss the state of the global economy as it emerges from the financial crisis.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) ? A wet floor caused Argentine President Cristina Fernandez to slip and fracture her left ankle, the government said Monday, providing the first details of the South American leader’s latest of several health setbacks.

 

Gartnavel General Hospital

The Ebola patient is being treated at Gartnavel Royal Hospital inGlasgow. Photo: AP London: A healthcare worker has been diagnosed with Ebola a day after flying home to Glasgow from Sierra Leone, the Scottish government said. The patient is being

 

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addresses the media during an EU summit in Brussels, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2014. EU leaders, in a one day summit, are set to decide who will get the prestigious job as the 28-nation bloc's foreign policy chief for the next five years. They also discuss the current situation in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he will meet the leaders of Russia, France and Germany next month in an attempt to restore peace to Kiev‘s eastern territories. He also acknowledged Kiev lacked the resources to regain control by military

 

EU Ebola Coordinator and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner

Print 29 December 2014 – The head of the United Nations Ebolaemergency response mission is set to open a treatment facility in Liberia near theSierra Leonean border during a visit to review where the UN can do more to help, as the World Health

 

Virgin Atlantic Airways Boeing 747-400 (G-VGAL) takes off from Manchester Airport, England.

LONDON — A Virgin Atlantic jet bound from London to Las Vegasturned back and made an emergency landing at Gatwick Airport on Monday after developing a problem with its landing gear. The airline confirmed the Boeing 747-400, carrying 447

ISIL killed ‘nearly 2,000’ in Syria in months

Full ArticleAl Jazeera

29 Dec 2014
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has killed 1,878 people since the declaration of their “caliphate” in Syria on June 28, according to the SyrianObservatory for Human Rights. The Observatory, which monitors the Syrian conflict, documented the deaths of 1,175 civilians, including four children and eight women. The execution
This image posted by the Raqqa Media Center, which monitors events in territory controlled by Islamic State militants with the permission of the extremist group, shows militants with a captured pilot, center right, wearing a white shirt in Raqqa, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2014.

An Airbus A320-216 aircraft (PK-AXC) of Indonesia AirAsia at Singapore Changi Airport on 7 August 2011.

There is “insufficient evidence” that objects spotted in the sea by planes hunting for missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 are from the missing jet, authorities have said. Unidentified debris was spotted by Australian planes in an area where the Airbus

 

Senai International Airport (IATA: JHB, ICAO: WMKJ), officially known as Sultan Ismail International Airport (Malay: Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Sultan Ismail), is an airport located in the town of Senai, near Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The airport is the secondary hub for AirAsia.

An Indonesian family of 10 said on Monday they had a miraculous escape when they arrived too late to catch AirAsia Flight QZ8501, which went missing shortly after take-off en route to Singapore. Christianawati (36), said the 10

 

File - A North Korean soldier stands watch on the North Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone as U.S. Sailors assigned to the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group tour the DMZ in Panmunjom, South Korea, July 17, 2008.

Seoul minister says he is willing to meet in south or Pyongyangfor rare high-level talks

 

In this photo released by an official website of the Iranian supreme leader's office, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, waves to the crowd at the conclusion of his speech in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Photograph:European Pressphoto Agency Iran’s supreme leader has stepped into the debate over police violence and race in America, likening police shootings of black people in Ferguson and elsewhere to

 

Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Gary Roughead visit Sailors and Marines at the ISAF Joint Command in Kabul, Afghanistan.

KABUL – The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan formally ended its combat mission on Sunday, more than 13 years after an international alliance ousted the Taliban government for sheltering the planners of the Sept. 11, 2001attacks on American cities.

 

File - A man walks past a burnt out building following an attacked by Boko Haram in Bama, Nigeria, Thursday, Feb, 20. 2013. The latest attack by suspected Islamic extremists in Nigeria's northeast has left 115 people dead.

YAOUNDE (Reuters) – Some 1,000 suspected Boko Haramfighters from Nigeria attacked five towns in northern Cameroon over the weekend and briefly occupied a military camp on Sunday before being removed by the air force, an army spokesman said. The

 

Palestinian children protest against the Egyptian leadership's decision to close the border tunnels with Gaza Strip along the Egypt-Rafah border, in the southern Gaza Strip on September 15, 2012. The tunnels, brings a wide variety of goods, including food, fuel and building materials, into the coastal territory which has been under an Israeli blockade Since Hamas seized control of the coastal strip in 2007.Photo by Ahmed Deeb / WN

The children were to have toured Arab towns in Israel and areas that had been under threat of Gaza rockets. Photograph: MahmudHams/AFP/Getty Images Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip prevented a group ofPalestinian children who lost parents in the

Iran expands ‘smart’ Internet censorship






Russia revises military doctrine to name NATO as chief threat

Full ArticleThe Los Angeles Times

26 Dec 2014

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed into law a new defense doctrine that identifies NATO as the chief threat to Russian security and claims the right to use nuclear weapons to counter any aggression that “threatens the very existence” of Russia. The revisions to the 2010 defense mission statement were few but appeared

 

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a news conference in Moscow, Russia, 18 December, 2014.






 

A North Korean soldier looks at the southern side through a pair of binoculars at the border village of the Panmunjom (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 19, 2013.

NORTH Korea blasted US President Barack Obama today as a “monkey” for inciting cinemas to screen a comedy featuring a fictional plot to kill its leader, and threatened “inescapable deadly blows” over the movie. The isolated

 

Sloviansk ( Slaviansk ) city council under control of armed forces.

The Associated Press DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainianauthorities and pro-Russia rebels exchanged nearly 370 prisoners Friday, a major step toward easing hostilities in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine handed over 222prisoners and the rebels released 145

 

Smoke rises above the Jinnah International Airport where security forces continue to battle militants Monday, June 9, 2014, in Karachi, Pakistan

December 27: At least 20 militants were killed today in a retaliatory action by Pakistan Army when the terrorists attacked military check posts in the volatile tribal region near the Afghan border. The militants attacked the check posts in Shindara

 

Real's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring his side's 3rd goal during the Champions League semifinal

Over the last few months Ronaldo has been linked to a move toManchester United, Chelsea, and Barcelona, even though the latter is only likely to happen once hell has frozen over. However Mendes is adamant that Ronaldo won’t even consider

 

A street scene in the Somali port city of Kismayo, where today a team of Kenyan engineers with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) searched a former police station for improvised explosive devices (IEDs).  The extremist group Al Shabaab withdrew from Kismayo, 3 October, 2012.

NAIROBI, KenyaGunmen attacked the African Union‘s main base in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Thursday leading to an exchange of gunfire between militants and soldiers that killed at least nine people, including three soldiers, an official

 

From right, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin's Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev walk after Putin's state-of-the nation address in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012.

MOSCOW — Russia named NATO‘s military buildup near its border as the main military threat and raised the possibility of using precision conventional weapons as a “strategic deterrent,” according to the nation’s new military doctrine signed

 

Turkey's new President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inspects an honor guard during a welcoming ceremony before a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north of ethnically divided Cyprus on Monday, Sept. 1, 2014. This is Erdogan's first visit abroad since his election last month. Cyprus was divided in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of union with Greece.

Turkey‘s president has said the country has the freest press in the world, amid suggestions press freedoms are being eroded under his rule. “Nowhere in the world is the press freer than it is in Turkey. I’;m very sure of myself when I say

Sony’s PlayStation, Micosoft’s Xbox offline in ‘hacker attack’

Full ArticleDeccan Herald

26 Dec 2014

The online gaming networks for Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox consoles — hot gifts this Christmas — have gone dark in what hackers said was a coordinated attack. The outage started Christmas Day and went into Friday, PlayStation and Xbox said on their Twitter feeds, adding that they were working to restore service. A new Twitter user

Andrew House speaks at an event to announce the Sony Playstation 4 Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in New York.

 

 

 

 

Protestants marching through ?stiklal St. towards Taksim Square.

ANKARA: A Turkish court on Friday ordered the release of a 16-year-old high school pupil arrested for “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following accusations his detention was the latest sign of the country veering to authoritarianism. The

 

Federal Minister for Interior Senator A. Rehman Malik & Federal Minister for National Regulations and Services Dr, Firdous Ashiq Awan addressing a press conference at Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) on 09-3-2013

Islamabad, December 26: Former Pakistani interior ministerRehman Malik Friday said that the Supreme Court should order the hearing of theBenazir Bhutto assassination case on a day-to-day basis and in a military court if needed. “It is requested to

 

Britain'sKate Middleton  the Duchess of Cambridge attends an Autumn gala evening dinner and reception in aid of Action on Addiction at L'Anima Restaurant in London, England, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014. Kate is patron of the charity and will meet charity supporters during a pre-dinner reception.

Having attended church with the royals, the Duchess and Prince William both headed for dinner with Middleton’s folks, even though that kind of thing isn’t exactly considered to be “royal protocol,” as Kate and William were

 

A police officer walks past an engine block of last Friday suicide bomber's vehicle by the wall of the state police headquarters in Kano, Nigeria, on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. The radical Islamist group Boko Haram were responsible for the attack.

The Associated Press KANO, Nigeria (AP) — A 13-year-old says her father gave her to Boko Haram extremists and that she was arrested after refusing to explode a suicide bomb in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city in the north. Nigeria has suffered

 

President Benigno S. Aquino III presides over a cabinet meeting in Malacanang Friday, June 29, 2012. The meeting is about budget preparation for next year.

The Philippine government and communist rebels said on Friday that formal negotiations to end a lengthy insurgency could restart shortly, though the rebels’ armed wing announced it was beefing up its guerilla campaign.Peace talks regarding one of

 

19th October 2001, A Tibetan carrying his free Tibet banner at the main temple in Mcleod Gan town of Dharamshala, India during prayer and fast event held for those Tibetan who are suffering under the Chinese rule in Tibet.

REUTERS/David GrayProtesters supporting an independentTibet lie on the ground holding placards as they hold a demonstration near theG20 leaders summit venue in Brisbane November 15, 2014. BEIJING (Reuters) –Chinese police have fired on Tibetan

 

US Navy 020828-N-1058W-025 Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush congratulates Sailor aboard USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75).

Former President George H.W. Bush has had to spend anotherChristmas in the hospital. The 90-year-old has been at Houston Methodist Hospitalsince Tuesday. Bush, the

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pope Francis condemns persecution in Christmas address

Full ArticleBBC News

25 Dec 2014

25 December 2014 Last updated at 11:50 GMT Pope Francis has delivered his traditional Christmas address from the balcony of St. Peter”s Basilica. He used it to denounced the “brutal persecution” of religious and ethnic minorities and talked about victims of conflicts in Syria and Iraq. Share this story

Pope Francis delivers his "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and to the world) blessing from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2014.






ISIL claims pilot captured after jet downed

Full ArticleAl Jazeera

24 Dec 2014

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has shot down a warplane from the US-led coalition over northern Syria, according to a

File - This undated image posted on a militant website on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014 shows fighters from the al-Qaida linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) marching in Raqqa, Syria.



Paris - France - Street - People

French jobless claims rose to a record after President Francois Hollande failed to revive the nation’s economy in the first half of his mandate. The number of people actively looking for work in France

 

Night at Circular Quay in Sydney. View includes the Central Business District, Circular Quay, and the Sydney Opera House

24 December 2014, 11:19 Two Men Arrested In Sydney OverAttack Plot Tweet Two men have been arrested in Australia as part of an ongoing counter-terrorism investigation into a group accused of plotting to kill a random member of the public in Sydney.

 

Indian paramilitary soldiers stand guard near the site whereby attacks on villages in the Indian state of Assam kill dozens of people

NEW DELHI — Long-simmering land and ethnic disputes erupted in bloodshed in northeastern India when rebels launched coordinated attacks on tribal settlers in Assam state, killing at least 63 people, officials said Wednesday. The killings took place

Omar Abdullah resigns as J-K CM

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah adressing a press conference in Srinagar Monday on 22, December 2014.

Jammu,, December 24: A day after the assembly elections in the state threw a hung verdict, Omar Abdullah on Wednesday resigned as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. “Bio changed :-),” he tweeted. Taking a jibe at the People’s Democratic Party

 

French President Francois Hollande, center, reviews troops, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013, of the twelfth cuirassiers regiment in the military base of Olivet, near Orleans, central France, before delivering his New Year's greetings to French army forces.

NANTES, France — The white van barreled into the Christmas market and the unsuspecting crowd, striking 10 people in this coastal city before the driver began stabbing himself with a knife. After a third day of seemingly random violence at the height

 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a campaign rally ahead of local elections in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, Dec. 8, 2014. Modi was in Kashmir for the third time in a month, campaigning heavily in hopes of helping his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party win a first-ever majority in India's only Muslim-majority state, where rebels have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989. Below is a map of Jammu and Kashmir state.

PTI Suspected Bodo militants on Tuesday killed 37 people–mainly tribals–and they included four women in a series of attacks at four places in Sonitpur and Kokrajhar districts of Assam. Police said that 10 others were also injured in the attack

 

Canada Body Parts

MONTREAL (AP) — A jury found a Canadian man guilty on Tuesday of killing and dismembering his Chinese lover and mailing the body parts to schools and political parties around the country. Luka Magnotta was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2012

Experimental DNA vaccines show promise in Ebola fight

Full ArticleThe Times of India

23 Dec 2014

LONDON: Scientists may have finally found an effective vaccine against Ebola, with two experimental DNA vaccines to prevent Ebola virus and the closely relatedMarburg virus proving to be safe and generating a similar immune response in healthy Ugandan adults as reported in healthy US adults earlier this year. The vaccines given separately and

Residents of the Handicapped Youth Development Centre under a 21 day quarantine in Freetown, Sierra Leone, following the death of a resident of the Centre from Ebola, 14 December, 2014.

An OLPC machine in e-book mode.

Use of a light-emitting electronic device such as e-books in the hours before bedtime can adversely impact sleep, overall health, alertness and the circadian clock, a new study has found. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) compared the

 

 KLdy1 - May07 - Floating Village of Chong Kneas, Cambodia - poverty - living in boats and wooden hut above Tonle Sap river - fisherman - aid - slum area. (dy1)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – An unlicensed medical practitioner suspected of negligently infecting more than 100 villagers in northwestern Cambodia with the virus that causes AIDS was charged Monday with murder and other crimes, a prosecutor said. Yem

 

In this Thursday, April 2005 file photo, Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus poses for a photograph in Rome.

NEW YORK — At least 60 journalists around the world were killed in 2014 while on the job or because of their work, and 44 percent of them were targeted for murder, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. An “unusually high

 

Ukrainian presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko during his press conference in Kiev

MOSCOW — Leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany on Monday reached an agreement to call another round of Ukraine peace talks this week, the latest attempt to negotiate a settlement to the conflict that has badly strained the ties between

 

Tunisian presidential candidate Beji Caid Essebsi gives a speech in front his supporters after the second round of the country's presidential election, in Tunis, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014. Tunisian polling firms have declared Beji Caid Essebsi, an 88-year-old official from previous regimes, as the winner of Sunday's presidential runoff, cementing his dominance over a country where his party already controls Parliament.

Supporters of former Tunisian prime minister and presidential candidate Beji Caid Essebsi celebrate after claims of victory. Tunis: Veteranpolitician Beji Caid Essebsi has claimed victory in Tunisia‘s presidential run-off, seen as the final step to

 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange addresses a meeting via videolink from Ecuador's London embassy during the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012.

The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks released what it said are two classified documents from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency detailing efforts to protect the identities

 

A woman dressed in traditional Bengali costume attends Sindur (a symbol of marraige for Hindus) on the closing day of Durga Puja festival at Kolkata on Saturday 04 October 2014. Sindur is the blood-red powder usually smeared on the forehead and the parting of the hair of Hindu married women. The Hindu Festival of Durga Puja, the Goddess of divine power against all evils, celebrates the killing of a demon king by the goddess ended Saturday with colourful celebrations all over the country

Hardline Hindu groups came under fire after 200 Christians were converted in the Indian prime minister‘s home state, amid increasing concern at the right-wing government’s perceived pro- Hindu tilt. //–> Monday, December 22, 2014 Hardline Hindu

Spain: Princess Cristina to be tried for fraud

Full ArticleThe Malta Independent

22 Dec 2014

A Spanish judge on Monday ordered the king’s sister, Princess Cristina, to be tried along with her husband on charges of tax fraud – making her the first member of the country’s royal family to face charges in court since the royalty was restored in 1975. In issuing the indictment, Judge Jose Castro went against a prosecutor’s Dec. 9 recommendation

 FILE - In this April 5, 2013 file photo, Spain's Princess Cristina walks towards her office in Barcelona, Spain. A Spanish court has subpoenaed Princess Cristina, the daughter of Spain's King Juan Carlos, as a suspect of tax fraud and money laundering, the latest blow to the royal family's reputation. Palma de Mallorca court judge Jose Castro on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2014 ordered the 48-year-old princess to appear March 8 for questioning concerning investments and finances relating to her partnership with her husband Inaki Urdangarin in a firm called Aizoon.





Official from hated Ben Ali regime claims victory in Tunisia presidential election

Tunisian presidential candidate Beji Caid Essebsi gives a speech in front his supporters after the second round of the country's presidential election, in Tunis, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014. Tunisian polling firms have declared Beji Caid Essebsi, an 88-year-old official from previous regimes, as the winner of Sunday's presidential runoff, cementing his dominance over a country where his party already controls Parliament.

Supporters of former Tunisian prime minister and presidential candidate Beji Caid Essebsi celebrate after claims of victory. Tunis: Veteranpolitician Beji Caid Essebsi has claimed victory in Tunisia‘s presidential run-off, seen as the final step to

 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange addresses a meeting via videolink from Ecuador's London embassy during the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012.

The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks released what it said are two classified documents from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency detailing efforts to protect the identities

 

A woman dressed in traditional Bengali costume attends Sindur (a symbol of marraige for Hindus) on the closing day of Durga Puja festival at Kolkata on Saturday 04 October 2014. Sindur is the blood-red powder usually smeared on the forehead and the parting of the hair of Hindu married women. The Hindu Festival of Durga Puja, the Goddess of divine power against all evils, celebrates the killing of a demon king by the goddess ended Saturday with colourful celebrations all over the country

Hardline Hindu groups came under fire after 200 Christians were converted in the Indian prime minister‘s home state, amid increasing concern at the right-wing government’s perceived pro- Hindu tilt. //–> Monday, December 22, 2014 Hardline Hindu

Lights from a NYPD police vehicle illuminate a downed tree on 6th Avenue, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in New York. Sandy continued on its path Monday, as the storm forced the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds and soaking rain.

A timeline of events on Saturday in the hours before and moments after two NYPD officers were shot in their cruiser by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, a 28-year-old man who vowed online to shoot two “pigs” in retaliation for the police chokehold death of Eric

 

President Barack Obama addresses the nation in a live televised speech from the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013.

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama said Sunday that he does not think a recent North Korean cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment was “an act of war.” But, he told CNN‘s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union” that

 

Padang (means field) is the capital and largest city of West Sumatra, Indonesia. It is located on the western coast of Sumatra at 0°57?0?S 100°21?11?E / 0.95°S 100.35306°E / -0.95; 100.35306. It has an area of 694.96 square kilometres (268.3 sq mi) and a population of over 750,000 people.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – A strong earthquake has struck off the coast of eastern Indonesia, but there are no reports of injuries or damage, and authorities say a tsunami is not likely. The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude-6.6 quake struck

 

A Tunisian prepares his ballot to vote in a polling station in Tunis, Tunisia, Sunday Dec. 21 , 2014. Tunisians voted on Sunday for a new president in a runoff between a symbol of the country's previous regimes and a veteran human rights activist who came to power after the revolution of 2011.

Tunisians voted today for a new president in a run-off between a symbol of the country’s previous regimes and a veteran human rights activist who came to power after the 2011 revolution. The run-off between the two candidates is the third election in

NK Moral Hacks Attack US Virtual Hacks and Win, for Now

Full ArticleWorldNews.com

21 Dec 2014

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling Since America‘s movie industry shows what is supposed to occur, and nothing occurs unless it is in the movies, most Americans are unaware that the age of artificial intelligences and automated perceptions and living is already here. And since media technologies alter psychological attachments and

 

A poster for the movie "The Interview" is carried away by a worker after being pulled from a display case at a Carmike Cinemas movie theater, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, in Atlanta.

 

 

 

 

Police union links cop killings to protests; NYPD critics condemn shootings

21 Dec 2014

Add comment Reprints + – Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, speaks during a news conference after the bodies of two fallen NYPDpolice officers were transported from Woodhull Medical Center, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2014, in New York. Photo Credit: AP / John Minchillo advertisement | advertise on newsday A police union

Bulletproof vests lie on each side of an NYPD patrol car as investigators work at the scene where two NYPD officers were shot in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York on Saturday, Dec. 20, 2014.

 

 

 

 

A Tunisian prepares his ballot to vote in a polling station in Tunis, Tunisia, Sunday Dec. 21 , 2014. Tunisians voted on Sunday for a new president in a runoff between a symbol of the country's previous regimes and a veteran human rights activist who came to power after the revolution of 2011.

Tunisians voted today for a new president in a run-off between a symbol of the country’s previous regimes and a veteran human rights activist who came to power after the 2011 revolution. The run-off between the two candidates is the third election in

 

Pakistan army troops stand guard at a road leading to the central prison on the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2014.

Taliban gunmen killed 141 people – most of them children – at a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar earlier this week. There are many emotions among the bereaved and the survivors. You didn’t need to see the pools of blood in every corner

 

The people of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, continue to rebuild their lives following the devastating tsunami which destroyed most of the homes in the region.

“I had never seen in my life so much destruction and death on such a massive scale. I remember going to a place called Lambaro, just outsideBanda Aceh, and that was my first interaction – seeing hundreds of corpses being laid out outside the shops.”

 

File - Russian President Vladimir Putin greets the crowd during a visit to Sevastapol celebrating Victory Day and the 70th anniversary of Sevastopol’s liberation, 9 May, 2014.

With a growing economic crisis and less money to share among the oligarchs, there is talk of splits in the Kremlin elite that could undermine the president’s power
photo: Russian Presidential Press and Information Office

Cuba's President Raul Castro speaks during celebrations marking Cuba’s Revolution Day in Guantanamo, Cuba, Thursday, July 26, 2012.

HAVANA — Cuban President Raul Castro sent a blunt message toWashington Saturday as the White House works to reverse a half-century of hostility between the U.S. and Cuba: Don’t expect detente to do away with the communist system. Castro’s speech to

 

File - Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta gestures to the crowd after his inauguration in Kasarani, near Nairobi in Kenya Tuesday, April 9, 2013.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – An official in Kenya is criticizing theUnited States for raising concerns about a new Kenyan law aimed at fighting terrorism. President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the law Friday, and critics in Kenya have said it will be used to

 

Police patrol near a house where eight children have been found dead in a Cairns suburb in far north Queensland, Australia, Friday Dec 19, 2014

CAIRNS: Australian police said Saturday they had arrested the mother of all but one of eight children reportedly stabbed to death in the northern city of Cairns, as vigils were held to mourn the tragedy. Officers have not revealed the cause of death
photo: AP / Graeme Bint

 

 

 

 

 

Kepler spacecraft finds a second life – and an important new exoplanet

Full ArticleSun Sentinel

20 Dec 2014

NASA‘s Kepler spacecraft should have been rendered useless by a 2013 hardware failure, but instead its secondary mission — called K2 — has just yielded its first major discovery in the form of a particularly exciting exoplanet. The limping spacecraft, which was designed to survey the galaxy for new planets, has been kept on the road because of

 

Kepler with distant solar system. Artist's rendition of Kepler spacecraft.



Palestinians hold their national and the Egyptian flag during a rally in front of the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on June 16, 2011, demanding it to be open permanently and without restrictions or conditions on the passengers. ( Photo By Ahmed Deeb/wn)

The Rafah crossing will be reopened on Sunday and Monday to allow those stranded on the Egyptian side to go to Gaza. Egypt is to reopen theRafah border crossing with Gaza on Sunday for the second time in two months

 

South Korea North Korea Party Anniversary

North Korea on Saturday called for a joint investigation with theUnited States into a crippling cyber attack on Sony Pictures, claiming it had means to prove Pyongyang had nothing to do with it. The proposal comes after US President Barack Obama

 

Palestinians take part in a rally in solidarity with al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem organised by Palestinian security forces, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Associated PressJERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military struck a Hamas site in the Gaza Strip early Saturday in its first airstrike on the Palestinianterritory since this summer’s war. The Israeli military said the airstrike on what it called a

 

Colombian soldiers stand in formation at the Military Fort in La Macarena, Colombia, Friday, Sept. 24, 2010. Colombia's military killed Jorge Briceno, also known as Mono Jojoy, the field marshal and No. 2 commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in bombing raids and combat targeting a major encampment at the edge of the country's eastern plains, in the hills near La Macarena.

Colombia‘s Farc rebels have killed five soldiers in an ambush, hours before they are meant to start an indefinite, unilateral ceasefire, the army says. The leftist rebels attacked a patrol before dawn in Santander de Quilichao, a rural area of

 

Antarctic tourism may pose disease threat to penguins

For those who go, it’s the trip of a lifetime – and it wouldn’t be complete without a selfie with penguins. But growing tourism to the Antarctic, in combination with its warming climate, could be placing penguins at a risk of infectious diseases.

 

Alexei Navalny

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian prosecutors said on Friday Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny should be imprisoned for 10 years for stealing 30 million rubles ($500,000) in a case dismissed by critics of President Vladimir Putin as part of his campaign to stifle

 

 14th Nov 2007. Koya Iraqi Kurdistan. the Kurdish peshmarga military in Kurdistan. Jamal

At least 142 Iraqis were killed and eight more were wounded.The Pentagon reported the deaths of two senior Islamic State militant leaders and a third mid-level leader. About 100 militants were killed in an ongoing operation near Sinjar. That would

Silence of the sheikhs puts Washington’s Iraq strategy in doubt

Full ArticleCanberra Times

19 Dec 2014

Washington: The US plan to save Iraq from the advances of the so-called Islamic State was in trouble even before it was conceived – years before its unveiling in September, the marauding fundamentalists had systematically eliminated hundreds of the Iraqi tribal warriors who Washington believed would take up arms against the new threat posed by IS.

File - An elderly Iraqi man explains his community's situation to Soldiers in the city of Abu T-Shir, Iraq, Oct. 16, 2008.




 

 A K-9 unit is on stand by as members of the police and private security guards check cars going into the building housing the Australian embassy Thursday, Sept. 9, 2004 in Manila´s financial district of Makati. Philippine troops went on full alert

Eight dead children and a woman suffering from stab wounds were found inside a home in a northern Australian city on Friday, police said.Police believe the 34-year-old woman with chest wounds is the mother of seven of the children, and the eighth

 

Obese man

VITNIJA SALDAV, Associated Press 9:10 p.m. EST December 18, 2014 CONNECTTWEETLINKEDINCOMMENTEMAILMORE London – — Obesity can be a disability, the European Court of Justice ruled Thursday — a decision that could have widespread consequences across the

 

File - An FBI release shows one of the suspects, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, wanted in connection with the Boston Marathon Bombings.

The Boston Marathon bombing suspect, in his first court appearance in more than a year, told a judge on Thursday that he was satisfied with his lawyers’ preparations for the January start of his trial over the deadly 2013 attack. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev,

 

Central African Republic

Joe DeCapua A growing number of fighters in Central African Republic’s two year old civil war are children. It’s estimated there may be as many as 10-thousand child soldiers, four times more than when the conflict began. listen to De

 

A tunisian woman wrapped in her national flag makes her way through tombs while attending the funeral of slain opposition leader Chokri Belaid at el Jallez cemetery near Tunis, Friday Feb. 8, 2013.

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) – A new video has surfaced claiming responsibility for the 2013 assassinations of two Tunisian politicians in the name of the Islamic State group. The video features four armed, bearded men, including one identified last year as

 

A Boston police officer pauses on the finish line during a tribute in honor of the one year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings

Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appeared in court for the first time in more than a year this morning while attending a final pretrial hearing at the federal courthouse in Boston. Tsarnaev, 21, who has marked the passing of two

 

Bodies lay in the streets of Bangui, Central African Republic, Friday Dec. 6 2013, a day after gun battles between Seleka soldiers and Christian militias left over 100 dead and scores wounded.

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) – Clashes in Central African Republic between Muslim and Christian fighters have killed 28, left dozens wounded and sent civilians fleeing for safety, a Red Cross official said Thursday. The fighting began

 

 

 

 

 

President Obama Right To Call For Trade With Cuba: Half Century Of Failed Embargo Is Enough

Full ArticleForbes

18 Dec 2014

President Barack Obama used negotiations over bringing home a couple of imprisoned Americans as an opportunity to refashion the entire U.S.-Cuba relationship. He’s aiming to reopen the embassy, relax trade and travel restrictions, and improve communication systems. Of course, sustained caterwauling began immediately from the usual

File - President Barack Obama, with Vice President Joe Biden, convenes a National Security Council meeting on Cuba in the Situation Room of the White House, Nov. 6, 2014.






The Pope’s Diplomatic Miracle: Ending the U.S.-Cuba Cold War

17 Dec 2014

As the first Latin American Pope, Francis was the power behind the historic thawing of U.S.-Cuban relations, the Vatican revealed today. Vatican City — Shortly after the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was elected as Pope Francis in March 2013, he reached out to American president Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro to

Pope Francis and President Barack Obama meet at the Vatican Thursday, March 27, 2014






NORFOLK (Jan. 26, 2012) Sailors form the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) stand by as the French navy amphibious assault ship FS Mistral (L9013) approaches Naval Station Norfolk. Kearsarge is sponsoring Mistral during their visit to the United States

Thomson ReutersRussian sailors board their Russian navyfrigate Smolny at the STX Les Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard site in Saint-Nazaire See Also SAINT-NAZAIRE, France (Reuters) – A ship carrying the Russiansailors who have been training for

 

Abubakar shekau

Lagos, December 18: Armed men suspected to be members of the deadly Boko Haram group have killed 32 people and abducted 185 others in Gumsuri village northeast Nigeria‘s Borno state, a security source and witnesses told Xinhua Thursday. Among those

 

Geert Wilders gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in The Hague, Netherlands, Thursday, July 15, 2010. Maverick Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders  says he is launching an international "freedom alliance" to spread his anti-Islam message across the West. He said he will launch the international movement late this year, initially in five countries: the United States, Canada, Britain, France and Germany.

18 December 2014, 10:41 Geert Wilders Prosecuted For ‘IncitingHatredTweet Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders has hit out at the decision to prosecute him on charges of inciting racial hatred, calling it a “travesty”. It comes after the

 

People who participate in the release operation of two police officers and a soldier, hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, are surrounded by media members as they ride an International Red Cross vehicle at a rural area of Miranda, some 210 miles southwest of Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, Feb.14, 2013.

Colombia’s largest guerrilla group declared on Wednesday it would begin an indefinite, unilateral ceasefire, in a challenge to the government to halt hostilities while the two sides continued negotiations toward an end to 50 years of war. But the

 

This citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Revolution Against Assad's Regime which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows dead bodies on a street in Aleppo, Syria Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013.

The bodies of 230 people killed by the Islamic State group have been found in a mass grave uncovered by their relatives in Syria‘s Deir Ezzorprovince, a monitoring group said. The discovery brings the number of Shaitat tribal members killed

In this photo released by Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service in Tokyo on Sunday, March 7, 2010, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il claps during a massive rally Saturday, March 6, 2010, marking the completion of the Vinalon Complex, in Hamhung, North Korea

North Korea on Wednesday marked the third anniversary of the death of former leader Kim Jong Il, ending a traditional period of mourning and setting the stage for his son Kim Jong Un to further entrench himself as the country’s unchallenged

 

Britain's bishop of Durham Justin Welby speaks during a news conference following the announcement that he will become the next archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace in London, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012.

London, December 17: The first female bishop in the Church of England was announced Wednesday, ending the history of only a male being the bishop of the church. Downing Street announced Wednesday that Rev. Libby Lanewill be the new Bishop of

 

 

 

 

Obama: ‘It’s Time For A New Approach’ On Cuba

Full ArticleBusiness Insider

17 Dec 2014

President Barack Obama made a statement from the White House on Wednesday at noon following the . “Neither the American or the Cuban people are well-served by a policy that’s rooted in events that took place before many of us were born,”Obama said. Obama described the changes as the most “significant” to occur inAmerica‘s Cuba policy in decades.

In this image from TV, US President Barack Obama shakes hands with Cuban President Raul Castro at the FNB Stadium in Soweto, South Africa, in the rain for a memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela, Tuesday Dec. 10, 2013.




In this photo released by Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service in Tokyo on Sunday, March 7, 2010, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il claps during a massive rally Saturday, March 6, 2010, marking the completion of the Vinalon Complex, in Hamhung, North Korea

North Korea on Wednesday marked the third anniversary of the death of former leader Kim Jong Il, ending a traditional period of mourning and setting the stage for his son Kim Jong Un to further entrench himself as the country’s unchallenged

 




EU Ebola Coordinator and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner

Al Jazeera

Up to one million people are at risk of going hungry in West African nations battling the Ebola virus due to border closures, quarantines and crop losses, UN food agencies have said. The deadly haemorrhagic fever that has killed 6,800 people has

 

Lt. Gen. Raheel Sharif called on Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif at PM House, Islamabad on 27th November, 2013

December 17: Pakistan PM ends moratorium on death penalty (Second Lead) (18:28) Islamabad, Dec 17 (IANS/EFE) Pakistan Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif has ended a moratorium on the death penalty in terrorism cases after the Taliban massacred 148 people,

 

Engineers work on a model of the Mars rover Curiosity at the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012.

Nasa‘s Mars rover Curiosity has found carbon-containing compounds in samples drilled out of an ancient rock, the first definitive detection of organics on the surface of earth’s neighbour planet, scientists said. The rover also found spurts of

A Palestinian members of Hamas's armed wing sits on a military vehicle during an anti-Israel rally in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip,

The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which fought Israeli forces for nearly two months this year, won a court ruling that could lead to it being removed from a European Union list of terrorist organizations. The EUGeneral Court in Luxembourg said

 

A Pakistani soldier walks out of the Army Public School that was attacked the day before by Taliban gunmen in Peshawar, Pakistan, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014.

Pakistan has begun three days of national mourning for the 132 children and nine school staff killed in an attack on an army-run school in northwest Peshawar city on Tuesday for which the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, claimed

 

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Thursday, March 25, 2010

NEW YORK (AP) — Falling oil prices and a plunge in the Russian ruble dominated the news Tuesday. But the U.S. stock market headed higher for the first time in a week. The ruble continued its slide against the dollar, despiteRussia‘s central bank

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obama warns Islamic State

Full ArticleThe Columbus Dispatch

16 Dec 2014

FORT DIX, N.J.President Barack Obama used a holiday-season visit to a U.S. military base yesterday to issue a tough warning to Islamic State militants, saying a U.S.-led coalition will permit no safe haven to the group and will destroy it eventually. Obama spoke to hundreds of camouflage-wearing

An F/A-18E Super Hornet from the Sunliners of Strike Fighter Squadron 81 launches from the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, to undertake strike operations in Iraq and Syria as directed during Operation Inherent Resolve, 4 December, 2014.

 

 

Greenland ice ‘adding to rising sea levels’

Full ArticleBelfast Telegraph

16 Dec 2014

Melting ice from the coast of Greenland could make a much bigger contribution to rising sea levels than has previously been thought, a new study suggests. Scientistsbelieve a previously overlooked side-effect of global warming could greatly increase the rate of melting of the vast Greenland ice sheet. The ice covers 1.7 million square kilometres

File - Arctic ice viewed from aboard the Norwegian Coast Guard vessel, "KV Svalbard", during Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to the Polar ice rim to witness firsthand the impact of climate change on icebergs and glaciers.

 

 

 

 

 

‘At least 20 students killed’ in Taliban attack on army school in Pakistan

Full ArticleThe Independent

16 Dec 2014

Taliban gunmen in Pakistan have reportedly killed up to 20 students and taken hundreds more hostage alongside their teachers at an army-run school in the northern city of Peshawar. A spokesperson for the terrorist group told agencies that suicide bombers had been sent into the Army Public School to target army personnel on orders not to harm young

Pakistani army troops arrive to conduct an operation at a school under attack by Taliban gunmen in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military school in the northwestern Pakistani city, killing and wounding dozens.

Wisconsin Avenue in Friendship Village is an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States.

A suspect in five killings has barricaded himself in a homeoutside Philadelphia, local media outlets reported. Police had discovered the bodies of five people, all shot at close range, in three separate locations in suburbs northwest of

 

Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore speaks to the media after a meeting with France's President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, Sept, 18, 2012.

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Transitional authorities in Burkina Faso have suspended the political party of the president who was forced from power earlier this year. Monday’s decision came a day

 

In this photo taken Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013, French President Francois Hollande addresses the troops at the airport following his two-hour-long visit to Timbuktu, Mali.

Reuters DAKAR— France urged African nations on Monday to step up cross-border cooperation to tackle security challenges from Islamist groups in southern Libya to Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria, as it seeks to scale back its military commitments on the

 

Parents leave a staging area after being reunited with their children following a shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of New York City, Friday, Dec. 14, 2012.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – The families of nine of the 26 people killed and a teacher wounded two years ago at the Sandy Hook Elementary Schoolfiled a lawsuit against the manufacturer, distributor and seller of the rifle used in the shooting. The

 

NYSE Euronext market indicators are shown on a board on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, Oct. 12, 2009 in New York

17-year-old Mohammed Islam is the founder of his high school’s investing club and has made $72m in trading oil and gold futures before even graduating high school.

 

President John Dramani Mahama, foreground speaks during his inauguration ceremony, in Accra, Ghana, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013.

His Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama has been retained as the chairman of the Economic Community Of West African States(ECOWAS) till May 2015, as reported earlier by Peacefmonline.com. This is

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apparent Hostage Situation Erupts in Sydney

 

 

 

World watches end of Sydney cafe siege

AS the siege exploded in Sydney’s Lindt Cafe, the world watched.

IN the United States, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC and other 24-hour news channels had already dedicated most of their Monday morning programming to coverage of the emergency.

When the situation climaxed with hostages fleeing and heavily armed authorities storming the cafe in Sydney’s central business district, people around the world watched live.

 

Sydney Siege Gunman Identified As Iran-Born, Self-Described Cleric Man Haron Monis

One of the very strange non-sequiturs in today’s Syndey hostage siege, now approaching its 15th hour, is that the gunman who prepared for a long standoff with authorities somehow forgot to pack the ISIS flag and as reported earlier, has been said to demand it from the outside world. Strange to say the least. But the bigger question remains: who is he? Now, courtesy of a report in Australia’s The Age we know. The man who continues to hold more than a dozen people hostage, placing Sydney’s CBD into lockdown is no stranger to the NSW police or the judiciary.  Self-described cleric, Man Haron Monis, 50, first came to attention of police when he penned poisonous letters to the family of dead Australian soldiers seven years ago. Last year he was charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife and mother of two.

 

 






 

Kerry in talks on bid for Palestinian statehood

15 Dec 2014
ROME: US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Rome on Sunday for a flurry of meetings about a looming UN showdown amid a European-led drive to push towards Palestinian statehood. US officials told reporters accompanying Mr Kerry that Washington wanted to learn more about the European position. In the

 

Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov walk through the U.S. Ambassador's residence in Rome before their meeting on December 14, 2014.






Sydney cafe siege: Australia becomes the latest country to have its sense of invulnerability shattered

Full ArticleThe Independent

15 Dec 2014

For the past 10 years or so, Australian governments – and the public – have kidded themselves that they could have it both ways. They could join US-led adventures inAfghanistan and Iraq, earning themselves kudos with Western allies. And they could feel more or less safe from any kind of terrorist backlash, convinced thatAustralia was too small

A hostage runs to armed tactical response police officers for safety after she escaped from a cafe under siege at Martin Place in the central business district of Sydney, Australia, Monday, Dec. 15, 2014.






File - President Barack Obama and Cecilia Muñoz, Director of the Domestic Policy Council, talk with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in the Outer Oval Office, July 11, 2013.

CNN
December 14, 2014 — Updated 1439 GMT (2239 HKT)Washington (CNN) — An unlikely ally is offering a glimmer of hope that President Barack Obama can make good on his vow to close Guantanamo Bay before leaving office. Republican Sen. John McCain, a

British torture inquiry not afraid to embarrass PM, head says

Full ArticleThe Guardian

14 Dec 2014

Intelligence committee chief Sir Malcolm Rifkind says he will ask US for missing passages revealing any UK involvement in torture and rendition

File - British Prime Minister David Cameron, center, points as he poses for the media whilst bidding farewell to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, right, and Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif following their meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Friday, Dec. 5, 2014.






Ebola Sierra Leone

Peter Clottey A spokesman for Sierra Leone’s government says banning of all public celebrations during Christmas festivities is part of the administration’s effort to contain the Ebola outbreak. Abdulai Bayraytay says security agencies

 

U.S. soldiers patrol near the site of a suicide attack in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010

Indonesian rescue volunteers carry a body past a destroyed house in an area severely hit by landslides during last Wednesday's earthquake in the Sumatran Island village of Jumanak, in Padang Pariaman, Indonesia, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009.

BANJARNEGARA, Indonesia — A mudslide set off by torrential rains rushed down hills into a village in central Indonesia and swept away scores of homes, killing at least 18 people and leaving 90 others missing, officials said Saturday. About 105 houses

 

Afghan police officers, one with flowers in the barrel of his weapon, leave their checkpoint

A series of attacks across Afghanistan have killed more than a dozen people, including 12 workers clearing land mines in the country’s south and six Afghan soldiers in Kabul. The largest attack on Saturday targeted the Shorab camp in Helmand

 

Indian paramilitary troops stand guard after restriction was imposed in some areas in Srinagar, India, Saturday on 15, March 2014. city and other districts of kashmir valley following the death of a youth in alleged police firing at Naidkhai in North kashmir bandipora district last night.

BANGALORE, India (AP) – Police in southern India said Saturday they have detained a man believed to be behind a popular pro-Islamic State group Twitter account. Mehdi Masroor Biswas, a 24-year-old engineer, was being questioned by authorities, said a

 

Michelle Bachelet Jeria, President of Chile, addresses the Head of State Segment of the UN Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru, 10 December, 2014.

Climate talks in Lima ran into extra time amid rising frustration from developing countries at the “ridiculously low” commitments from rich countries to help pay for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
photo: UN / Mark Garten

 

MH17 investigation: Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko promises quick resolution

Full ArticleThe Guardian

13 Dec 2014

Speaking on a visit to Australia, Poroshenko vowed to expose those responsible for the deaths of the 298 people on the Malaysia Airlines flight

 

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, center, speaks as Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, right, listens in the Crisis Management Centre at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra, Australia Friday, Dec. 12, 2014.






Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., emerges after a unanimous vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approving him to become America's next top diplomat, replacing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013.

By Patricia Zengerle BOGOTA (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of StateJohn Kerry urged Colombian negotiators on Friday to move quickly in peace talks aimed at ending 50 years of war so that the Andean country can move on and achieve “enormous

 

Italian premier Matteo Renzi gestures prior to a confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies, in Rome, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014. The Senate voted 169-139 to confirm Renzi's broad coalition, which ranges from his center-left Democrats to center-right forces formerly loyal to ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi. Renzi needed at least 155 votes to clinch the victory, one of two mandatory confidence votes. The second vote, in the Chamber of Deputies, is expected later Tuesday. Renzi's coalition has a comfortable majority in the lower chamber.

ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Friday proposed tougher laws against corruption amid an investigation in Rome into a mafia-like group that offered bribes to officials in exchange for lucrative public contracts. The government

 

Public sector workers walk past a statue on the Vittoriano monument, tomb of the unknown soldier, holding flags of labor unions as they protest against the Italian government's spending cuts, in Rome, Friday Sept. 28, 2012.

MILAN (AP) — Striking Italian union workers marched Friday through more than 50 Italian cities to protest government economic reforms that they say erode their rights. The thousands of protesters clashed with police in some cities, including

 

2014 Hong Kong protests

Rush-hour traffic yesterday streamed through the heart of Hong Kong for the first time in more than two months after police cleared the territory’s main pro-democracy protest camp with mass arrests, but activists vowed that their struggle would

 

Japan's Liberal Democratic Party President Shinzo Abe arrives for a press conference at the party headquarters in Tokyo Monday, Dec. 17, 2012, a day after the party's landslide victory over the ruling Democratic Party of Japan led by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in parliamentary elections. Abe stressed Monday that the road ahead will not be easy as he tries to revive Japan's sputtering economy and bolster its national security amid deteriorating relations with China.

Japan is set to hold a general election this weekend that looks likely to return Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to power and might even give him the momentum to press ahead with badly needed structural changes. Billedas a referendum on

 

Buckingham Palace in Westminster, United Kingdom.

LONDON (AP) — A mushroom with hallucinogenic properties was found growing at Buckingham Palace but no one suspects Queen Elizabeth IIof cultivating the magic mushroom. The Amanita muscaria
photo: WN / Periasamy

 

File - President Barack Obama gestures during a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden in the Oval Office, Aug. 27, 2014.

Once upon a time the job of president of the United Statesseemed clear-cut: you knew who the enemy was, and you knew you had the economic and military measure of them. You were seen as the most powerful man in the world. That isn’t necessarily

 

Muhammadu Buhari, a presidential candidate with the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) arrives to cast his vote in Daura, Nigeria, Saturday, April 20 2007. Voters seeking a new leader able to provide life's basics overcame a failed truck bombing at Nigeria's electoral commission headquarters and polling station disarray to cast ballots Saturday in general elections meant to cement democratic rule in Africa's unruly giant.

Nigeria‘s oppostion has chosen former military dictatorMuhammadu Buhari to challenge President Goodluck Jonathan at next year’s presidential elections, according to results released from party primaries. Buhari, a Muslim northerner who overthrew a

 

Afghanistan's security forces walk around the French Cultural Center

Kabul: Two Taliban suicide attacks have hit Kabul, one targeting a play at a French-financed school, killing at least seven people just as NATOforces are due to pull out of Afghanistan. The bombers targeted a bus carryingAfghan troops in the

 

Masked Palestinians throw stones towards Israeli security forces, not pictured, during clashes erupted after demonstration against an anti-Islam film called "Innocence of Muslims" that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad, in Shuafat refugee camp, Jerusalem, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012.

Palestinian officials escalated their threats to cut security ties with Israel and push the United Nations Security Council to recognise the state ofPalestine as thousands turned out for the funeral of Ziad Abu Ein, a senior government minister who

 

People gather at the site of a blast at the Nyanya Motor Park, about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the center of Abuja, Nigeria, Monday, April 14, 2014

JOS, Nigeria (AP) – Twin explosions rocked downtown Jos, in central Nigeria, on Thursday and killed about 20 people, witnesses said. The blasts occurred as store owners were shutting their shops and Muslims were preparing for prayers Thursday

 

A sign on a door of a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., building warns of windy conditions, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A powerful storm churned throughNorthern California Thursday, knocking out power to tens of thousands and delaying commuters while soaking the region with much-needed rain. In Santa Cruz, about an hour south of San Francisco,

 

An Interpol image shows an undated photo of Luka Rocco Magnotta, a Canadian fugitive recently captured in Berlin.

By Allison Lampert MONTREAL (Reuters) – The Canadian man who killed and dismembered a Chinese student in Montreal in 2012 was “a man on a mission” who had planned to commit such an act and film it six months in advance, the prosecutor in
photo: Interpol

President George W Bush ‘knew everything’ about CIA interrogation

Full ArticleBBC News

11 Dec 2014

Former US President George W Bush was “fully informed” about CIA interrogation techniques condemned in a Senate report, his vice-president says. Speaking to Fox News, Dick Cheney said Mr Bush “knew everything he needed to know” about the programme, and the was “full of crap”. has defended its use of methods such as

 

 

File - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld shares a laugh with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney during his farewell parade at the Pentagon.

 

 

Rick Snyder, Michigan governor, Talks with Michigan Municipal League Board

12:49 PM ET Krishnadev Calamur Twitter i i Gov. Rick Snyderspeaks today flanked by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan (left) and emergency manager Kevyn Orr. Snyder said that the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy will end at midnight. Paul Sancya/AP hide

 

Members of the September 11th Education Trust meet in a restaurant overlooking the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012 in New York. The trust is a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching the lessons of 9/11

The most incredible and false claim in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA interrogation program is that the program was neither necessary nor effective in the agency’s post-9/11 pursuit of al-Qaida. The report, written by the

 

This photo combo shows Indian children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, left, and Malala Yousafzai, right

OSLO, Norway — Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India on Wednesday received the Nobel Peace Prize for risking their lives to fight for working to protect children from slavery, extremism and child labor at great risk to

 

President Dilma Rousseff receives members of the Movement Free Pass, at the Presidential Palace

Brazil‘s National Truth Commission has delivered a damning report on the killings, disappearances and acts of torture committed by government agents during the country’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship. The 2,000-page report was delivered to

 

Front row from left, China's former President Hu Jintao, newly appointed President Xi Jinping, newly installed Premier Li Kiqiang and former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sing the Chinese national anthem at the closing session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing China, Sunday, March 17, 2013. China's new leader pledged a cleaner, more efficient government Sunday as the country's ceremonial legislature wrapped up a pivotal session that installed the latest generation of communist leaders in a once-a-decade transfer of power.

Thomson ReutersFile photo of Liu Tienan attending a news conference in Beijing See Also BEIJING (Reuters) – The former deputy head ofChina’s top planning agency was jailed for life on Wednesday over a bribery scandal that exposed graft at the

 14th Nov 2007. Koya  Iraqi Kurdistan. The Iranian Kurdish peshmarga, military in Iraq. Jamal

Baghdad, December 10: The Peshmerga military forces of Iraq‘sKurdish semi-autonomous region said Wednesday that up to 727 Kurdish fighters have been killed fighting the Islamic State (IS) Sunni radical group. A statement issued by the Peshmerga said

 

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011, in New York.

US stocks are coming back. After a sell off earlier this morning, the US stock indexes have come roaring almost all of the way back. The Nasdaq is leading the move higher moving into positive territory, though the Dow and S&P500 are still in
photo: AP / Richard Drew

Some Democracies also Behead Their Humanitarians

Full ArticleWorldNews.com

09 Dec 2014

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling Over the last century democracy has become regarded as the ideal system of government. Osama bin Laden, and others like him, didn’t think so. But if democracy is a pre-eminently legitimate form of government that provides a political and social structure within which people can live happy, fulfilled

A photograph of James Foley, the freelance journalist killed by the IS group, is seen during a memorial service in Irbil, 350 kilometers (220 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, August 24, 2014. Foley, the U.S. journalist slain by Islamic State militants after being held in captivity for nearly two years, was remembered in a small ceremony in Irbil on Sunday.



Front row from left, China's former President Hu Jintao, newly appointed President Xi Jinping, newly installed Premier Li Kiqiang and former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sing the Chinese national anthem at the closing session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing China, Sunday, March 17, 2013. China's new leader pledged a cleaner, more efficient government Sunday as the country's ceremonial legislature wrapped up a pivotal session that installed the latest generation of communist leaders in a once-a-decade transfer of power.

Thomson ReutersFile photo of Liu Tienan attending a news conference in Beijing See Also BEIJING (Reuters) – The former deputy head ofChina’s top planning agency was jailed for life on Wednesday over a bribery scandal that exposed graft at the

 

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011, in New York.

US stocks are coming back. After a sell off earlier this morning, the US stock indexes have come roaring almost all of the way back. The Nasdaq is leading the move higher moving into positive territory, though the Dow and S&P500 are still in

 

The Dome of the Rock Mosque is seen in the background as Palestinian Muslim worshippers walk following the Friday prayer in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, Friday, March 26, 2010.

An American citizen was indicted in an alleged plot to blow up Muslim holy sites in Israel, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday.lRelatedHomeIsrael orders more probes of suspected crimes by its forces in GazaSee all related 8 According to the

 

File - The cell of a non-compliant detainee at Camp Delta, Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A Senate committee report summary detailing torture methods used as part of a secret US detention and interrogation programme is a stark reminder of the ongoing impunity for the many appalling human rights violations perpetrated in the name of

 

Smoke rises from the airport outside Donetsk, Ukraine, Monday, May 26, 2014

Crash investigators will try to reconstruct the Malaysia AirlinesBoeing 777 that was shot down over eastern Ukraine in July from wreckage that was brought by truck to a Dutch air force hangar. Members of the national SafetyBoard will piece together

 

File - Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov gestures whilst viewing art pieces from the collection of late cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and his widow Galina Vishnevskaya displayed in Konstantinovsky Palace outside St. Petersburg on Monday, May 12, 2008.

LONDON: It was Russia‘s richest man and Arsenal football club owner Alisher Usmanov who bought James Watson‘s Nobel Prize medal at an auction last week, it was revealed on Tuesday. Interestingly, Usmanov has decided to hand back the medal to the DNA

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry walks with French President Francois Hollande after their meeting at Elysee Palace in Paris on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013.

PARIS (AP) — A Frenchman held for more than three years by al-Qaida’s North African branch was freed Tuesday, days after two of the men implicated in his abduction were reportedly released from a prison in Mali.Negotiations among the governments of

Transparency International released its global report ranking 175 countries on a corruption perception scale. Nina dos Santos breaks down the rankings.




CIA Torture Report Set for Senate Release Over Bush Objections

Full ArticleBloomberg

09 Dec 2014
The Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee are preparing to issue their report on the harsh interrogation tactics the CIA used on terrorism suspects, defying the objections of current and former U.S. officials including formerPresident George W. Bush. The panel plans to release today a summary of a 6,200-page report concluding that the
File - Guards from the Navy Expeditionary Guard Battalion escort a detainee to the medical facility in Camp Four, Guantanamo, Nov. 23, 2007.






The real lessons from Hagupit

Full ArticleCNN

09 Dec 2014

December 9, 2014 — Updated 0423 GMT (1223 HKT) Editor’s note: Mong Palatino is an activist on youth issues and former member of the Philippine House of Representatives. He blogs at ASEAN Beat. The views expressed are his own. (CNN) — Seeing the first set of images from the typhoon zone in the Philippines is like experiencing a dreadful sense of

 

 

Children living along coastal areas in Manila evacuate to safer grounds as the local government ordered the pre-emptive evacuation in anticipation of Typhoon Hagupit which is expected to make its fourth landfall in Batangas province south of Manila Monday, Dec.8, 2014 in the Philippines.

An Ultra-orthodox Jewish man holds his ID card as he waitS to vote in Bnei Brak, Israel, during legislative elections, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013.

Israel’s parliament officially ended Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s third term after less than two years, as campaigning intensified for the March 17 election. The Knesset voted 93-0 to dissolve itself following Netanyahu’s decision to fire two

 

File - Health workers clad in protective gear in Monrovia, during the visit of Herve Ladsous, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, to Liberia to assess how the UN Mission in the country (UNMIL) can further support the fight against Ebola, 11 September, 2014

Sierra Leone has overtaken neighbouring Liberia as the country with the highest number of Ebola cases, the latest World Health Organizationfigures suggest. Its latest estimate of the cumulative number of cases since the start of the outbreak

Greece's Prime Minister Antonis Samaras speaks to his conservative party lawmakers at the Greek Parliament in Athens, Tuesday, July 24, 2012.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras plans to bring forward the process of choosing a new president to this month, a move that may trigger snap elections in Europe’s most indebted state as early as January. “Political

 

Traffic moves down Wiliston Road in Burlington, Vt., Thursday, March 14, 2007. A trial is scheduled to begin March 22 in Burlington, Vt., on a civil suit pitting four Vermont car dealers, two Detroit auto makers and an industry group against the state of Vermont, which plans to impose new emissions standards aimed at reducing carbon-dioxide emission

The Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo wants to ban diesel cars and the pollution they bring from the streets of the French capital. But not long ago, diesel engines were thought to be environmentally friendly. What could have gone wrong? Opinion on diesel

Disabled Palestinians participate in the race of wheelchairs, during a rally marking the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, in Rafah in the southern in Gaza strip,

Geneva, December 08: The year 2014 has been “devastating” for children, as millions of them were exposed to armed conflicts, Ebola outbreak and torture, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said Monday. According to the Unicef, as many as 15

 

Syria conflict: UN in record humanitarian aid appeal

The UN has asked for $16.4bn (£10.5bn; 13.3bn euros) for its aid operations in 2015, with the largest single sum – $7.2bn – going to help Syrianrefugees. Its last annual humanitarian appeal was for $13bn, making the new request a record for the

 

A man walks in front of the engraved wall depicting a Chinese character that means "law" inside the Hefei City Intermediate People's Court where a murder trial of Gu Kailai, wife of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, takes place Thursday Aug. 9, 2012 in Hefei, Anhui Province, China.

BEIJING: A Chinese court on Monday sentenced eight people to death on charges of leading terror groups and setting off explosives in two attacks that left 46 people dead in the far western region of Xinjiang, home of the MuslimUighur minority, state

Risks of nuclear war is rising because of global tensions and insecure stockpiles, warn experts

Full ArticleThe Independent

08 Dec 2014

Urgent action is needed to minimise the risk of a nuclear war, more than 120 senior military, political and diplomatic figures from across the world have warned. Ahead of the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, which starts today, the experts

Soldiers take a break during a mission at Camp Stanley, South Korea on Nov. 9, 2011: Operation Saber Strike II was focused on Soldiers being able to detect, identify and defend against; Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear threats.

Risks of nuclear war is rising because of global tensions and insecure stockpiles, warn experts
Full Article The Independent 08 Dec 2014
Urgent action is needed to minimise the risk of a nuclear war, more than 120 senior military, political and diplomatic figures from across the world have warned. Ahead of the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, which starts today, the experts…


Members of Leftist women organization block the traffic to protest against the recent rape at Contai in East Medinipur in Kolkata on Aug 19, 2014

Uber has been banned from operating in the Indian capital ofNew Delhi following sexual assault allegations against one of its drivers. A 26-year-old woman told police that she was raped by her cab operator after booking a taxi through Uber’s

 



The Washington Post sign is seen on its building in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008. The Post Company reported a 13 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings, the result of some one-time restructuring costs and a continued erosion of revenue at its flagship newspaper.

12:45 PM ET Scott Neuman Twitter i i Jason Rezaian, an Iranian-American correspondent for The Washington Post, smiles as he attends a presidential campaign even for President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran in 2013. Rezaian, who was arrested in July, was

 

In this May 14, 2009 file photo, reviewed by the U.S. military, Guantanamo detainees pray before dawn near a fence of razor-wire, inside Camp 4 detention facility at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba

MIAMI — Six prisoners held for 12 years at Guantanamo Bayhave been sent to Uruguay to be resettled as refugees, the U.S. governmentannounced today — a deal that had been delayed for months by security concerns at the Pentagon and

 

Hagel: Afghan training is key in war's final act

Add comment Reprints + – U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speaks to American troops at Tactical Base Gamberi in eastern Afghanistan, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2014. Hagel was winding up a two day visit, his last to Afghanistan as secretary of defense. (AP

 

Veteran, 99, recalls painful memories of Pearl Harbor attack

LOS ANGELES (Tribune News Service) — As an 8 a.m. bugle sounded a raising of Old Glory aboard the U.S.S. Arizona, U.S. Navy seaman FordRice saw a strange plane emblazoned with rising suns roar by toward the great battleship. That’s when the

 

File - Pakistani men from tribal forces hold their weapons as others chant slogans against the Taliban in Raghagan, near Khar, in the troubled Bajaur agency, Pakistan, Friday, Sept. 26, 2008.

Nine fighters killed by drone missiles in Afghanistan, as US hands over Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan leader to Islamabad

 

Global Movement Against Child Marriage Grows Stronger

Marcia Almeida was a child bride at the age of 16 inMozambique, where more than half of all girls marry before they are 18. MAPUTO, Mozambique –- Marcia Almeida holds her 3-month-old daughter inside a patterned capulana, a sarong that doubles as a
ONE MILLION EVACUATED
 



Qassem Suleimani: can this man bring about the downfall of Isis?

 

Full ArticleThe Observer

07 Dec 2014

Qassem Suleimani with a group of peshmerga fighters in Kurdistan Photograph:None Qassem Suleimani is not used to defeat. So, when the Iraqi army fled in the face of the Sunni insurgent group, Islamic State (Isis) in June, the Iranian general was on unfamiliar ground. In 48 fateful hours from 10 June, six divisions of Iraqi forces had capitulated,






File - In this Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2013 file photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, then chief of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Ghasem Soleimani, attends a meeting of the commanders of the Revolutionary Guard with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran.

 

 

Ukrainian presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko, speaks to press at a polling station after his vote during the presidential election in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, May 25

KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Saturday a preliminary agreement had been reached to hold talks in Minsk on Dec. 9 on implementing the steps of a September ceasefire deal with eastern separatists, Interfax reported.

 

Russia - France

MOSCOW (Reuters) – French President Francois Hollande metRussian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the Ukraine crisis during a brief stopover at a Moscow airport on Saturday. Putin looked nervous as he greetedHollande, who was on his way back to

Somalia's new Prime Minister Abdiwali Sheikh Ahmed is seen after his election, in Mogadishu, Somalia, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2013. Somalia's parliament on Saturday approved as the new Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed, a political newcomer and economist who faces tough challenges in the war-torn nation.

Politicians said possible candidates included Finance MinisterHussein Halane and Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, a former holder of the premiership. Members of parliament voted Somalia’s prime minister out of office on Saturday for the second

 

Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, visits Kabul, March 10, 2013. Hagel is traveling to Afghanistan on his first trip as the 24th Secretary of Defense to visit U.S. Troops, NATO leaders, and Afghan counterparts. (DoD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo)

8:35 AM ET Scott Neuman Twitter i i Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is greeted by Gen. John F. Campbell (right) after arriving in Kabul on Saturday. Hagel announced that an additional 1,000 U.S. troops would remain behind in country after Dec. 31.

 

	Military has given millions in surplus equipment to Wis. police

(TNS) — The Dane County Sheriff’s Office used a controversial military surplus program to acquire 151 rifles from the Department of Defense.Madison police and 23 other law enforcement agencies across Wisconsin each received a mine-resistant armored

 

A Philippine Air Force Huey helicopter flies away from a camp of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front on top of Mt. Palaw, Sultan Gumander town in Lanao del Sur, Southern Philippines after dropping off troops and supplies Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2002. The MILF camp, captured by government troops last October 10, was allegedly occupied by MILF and Abu Sayyaf rebels led by Isnilon Hapilon who fled Basilan island to escape military pursuers. Army soldiers engaged the rebels in several running gunbattlesand killed nine and captured one

6 December 2014, 10:07 Swiss Hostage Kills Guard And Flees Militants Tweet A Swiss wildlife photographer captured by Islamist rebels in thePhilippines over two years ago has escaped after killing his guard with a machete. Members of the Abu Sayyaf

Peacekeeper in Liberia tests positive for Ebola virus

A UN peacekeeper in Liberia has tested positive for Ebola and will be flown to the Netherlands for treatment. The Nigerian soldier is expected to arrive in the Netherlands this weekend and will go into isolation at the UniversityMedical Centre in
photo: UN / UN

 

Luke Somers: British-born photojournalist ‘killed by al-Qaeda after failed rescue attempt in Yemen’

Full ArticleThe Independent

06 Dec 2014

A British-born photojournalist has reportedly been killed by al-Qaeda militants inYemen during a failed rescue attempt by US special forces. Luke Somers, 33, had been held hostage since being kidnapped in the capital, Sana’a, in September 2013as he left a supermarket. His captors had taunted his family after a previous attempt by American and

 

This image made from video posted online by militants on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows Luke Somers, an American photojournalist born in Britain and held hostage by al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen.

	Military has given millions in surplus equipment to Wis. police

(TNS) — The Dane County Sheriff’s Office used a controversial military surplus program to acquire 151 rifles from the Department of Defense.Madison police and 23 other law enforcement agencies across Wisconsin each received a mine-resistant armored

Bill Cosby's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

According to E! News, the damage to Cosby’s star on the Walk of Fame was discovered Friday morning. The 77-year-old comedian has been accused by some two dozen women of drugging them and sexually abusing them. While there are numerous

Egypt's ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi sits in the defendant cage in the Police Academy courthouse during a court hearing on charges of inciting the murder of his opponents, in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 3, 2014.

Unverified leaked recordings appeared to show senior officials colluding before trial of ousted president

 

Zhou Yongkang, State Councilor; Minister of Public Safety and commissioner of National Narcotics Control Commission; People's Republic of China

updated 1:32 PM EST, Fri December 5, 2014 Zhou Yongkang was once one of nine members of China’s top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee. (CNN) — China’s former top domestic security official, Zhou Yongkang, has been arrested as

 

File - A view of an honour guard at the Vatican.

The Independent

Vatican officials will be forced to work from a strict new financial rulebook from 1 January 2015, as Pope Francis makes the final push to clean up the Holy See after decades of sleaze. The accounting manual will improve the Holy See’s financial

Cour de marbre, Palace of Versailles with the French flag raised ready for Bastille Day 2011

PARIS — Thousands of Holocaust survivors and family members in the United States and elsewhere will be entitled to compensation from a $60 million French-U.S. fund announced Friday, as reparations to those deported byFrance‘s state rail

 

Candidate to Rome's Mayor Ignazio Marino scratches his forehead during a tour part of his electoral campaign in Rome, Monday, June 3, 2013. Studied under pioneering U.S. surgeon. Saved lives transplanting livers on two continents. Helped create cutting-edge transplant center in Mafia-plagued Sicily. Elected mayor of Rome? Whether Ignazio Marino adds that last credential to his impressive resume will be decided by a runoff election in Rome's mayoral race. The June 9-10 balloting pits the surgeon against incumbent Gianni Alemanno, a former neo-Fascist street protester who in 2008 became the city's first right-wing mayor in decades.

Rome‘s mayor is weighing whether to stop using a bicycle and accept a limousine escort from police after facing threats from mobsters allegedly in cahoots with city politicians over lucrative municipal contracts. Mayor Ignazio Marino told reporters

Does AI really threaten the future of the human race?

Full ArticleBBC News

05 Dec 2014
The end of the human race – that is what is in sight if we develop full artificial intelligence, according to Stephen Hawking in an interview with the BBC. But how imminent is the danger and if it is remote, do we still need to worry about the implications of ever smarter machines? My question to Professor Hawking about artificial intelligence
File - Dr. Stephen Hawking, a professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge, left, and his daughter Lucy Hawking talk about their co-authored children's book "George's Secret Key to the Universe" Monday, April 21, 2008, at George Washington University's Morton Auditorium in Washington.

 



 

A year later, recalling the ‘Mandela Magic’

Full ArticleCNN

05 Dec 2014

December 5, 2014 — Updated 0121 GMT (0921 HKT) (CNN) — Last December 5, just after 7 p.m. South African time, I got a text message from one member of Nelson Mandela‘s family. “It’s imminent.” And so that’s how I knew a great man was taking his final breaths. “It’s done,” said the next message from those who were with him at the end. It was 9 p.m.

Nelson Mandela, Deputy President of the African National Congress of South Africa, raises his fist in the air while addressing the Special Committee Against Apartheid in the General Assembly Hall, 22 June, 1990.






It’s Official: A Secretary Of Defense Nominee Has Been Chosen

Full ArticleBusiness Insider

05 Dec 2014

Lee Jin-man/APUS Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter during a news conference at the US Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, on March 18, 2013. See Also Ashton Carter, the former theoretical physicist who was briefly second-in-command at the Pentagon under Chuck Hagel, will be President Barack Obama‘s nominee to succeed Hagel as secretary of

Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter addresses the officers and crew of the USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) moored in Yokosuka, Japan, on July 21, 2012.






 

Typhoon Ewiniar formed in the western Pacific on June 29, 2006, a hundred miles south of the Yap Islands in the Federated States of Micronesia. The tropical depression gathered power and size as it traveled in a zigzagging fashion over the next several days, tracking northwest, then east, northwest again, then north. It passed almost directly through the Yap Islands before turning northwest yet again on a projected track towards the southern end of Japan. Fortunately for the island residents, Ewiniar was still a tropical storm during its passage through the island chain. As of July 4, 2006, Typhoon Ewiniar was 880 kilometers (550 miles) northwest of the Yap Islands.  This photo-like image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite on July 4, 2006, at 2:40 p.m. local time (04:40 UTC). The typhoon had a very distinct and clear spiral structure in this image, hinting at its intensity. Most of the islands of the area, including Yap, are hidden under the clouds, though the Philippines are visible well to the storm’s west. Sustained winds in the storm system were estimated to be around 200 kilometers per hour (125 miles per hour) around the time the image was captured, according to the University of Hawaii’s Tropical Storm Information Center.

 






Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Friday, March 15, 2013, to announce that the Obama administration will add 14 interceptors to a West Coast-based U.S.-based missile defense system reflecting concern about North Korea's focus on developing nuclear weapons and its advances in long-range missile technology.

Thomson ReutersU.S. President Obama listens to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel after the president announced Hagel‘s resignation at theWhite House in Washington See Also WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Thursday his

 

40 people rescued from flash floods in California

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A dayslong storm took a parting shot as it moved out of the drought-stricken state Thursday, dumping more heavy rain that triggered flash floods and stranded more than three dozen people in their cars inSouthern California. Five

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe delivers a speech following his inauguration in Harare, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013.

Reuters HARARE, ZIMBABWE— Ninety-year-old Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe purged the deputy seen just months ago as his most likely successor, denouncing her before party loyalists as leader of a “treacherous cabal” bent on removing him

 

Orion Crew Module mockup.jpg  Orion  A mock-up of the Orion space capsule heads to its temporary home in a hangar at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.  In late 2008, the full-size structural model will be jettisoned off a simulated launch pad at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to test the spacecraft's astronaut escape system, which will ensure a safe, reliable method of escape for astronauts in case of an emergency.  NASA's Constellation program is building the Orion crew vehicle to carry humans to the International Space Station by 2015 and to the moon beginning in 2020.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER – NASA plans to try again Friday to launch its next-generation space capsule Orion after a wayward boat, wind gusts and fuel valve problems scrubbed Thursday’s launch.lRelated NewsOrion spacecraft arrives at Cape

 

In this Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011 photo, a police officer armed with an AK-47 rifle walks past pedestrians as he patrols a major road in Maiduguri, Nigeria. The radical sect Boko Haram, which in August 2011 bombed the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria, is the gravest security threat to Africa's most populous nation.

DAMATURU, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian police and soldiers repelled an attack by gunmen on a French-owned cement factory on Thursday in northeast Nigeria, where security forces are battling an Islamic

 

File - An endangered gray wolf peers out from a snow covered shelter.

Published December 04, 2014Associated Press Facebook0 Twitter0 livefyre Email Print This undated handout photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a gray wolf. Scientists have found that, contrary to what many people think, killing

Wind gusts stall launch of new Orion spacecraft

Full ArticleThe Associated Press

04 Dec 2014

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA stood poised to usher in a new era of exploration Thursday with the premier launch of its new Orion spacecraft. The unmanned test flight was set to begin with a sunrise liftoff, but was delayed after a boat strayed into the launch-danger zone and a minor rocket issue popped up. Then a wind gust halted the countdown

NASA’s Orion spacecraft, mounted atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket, is visible inside the Mobile Service Tower where the vehicle is undergoing launch preparations, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37, Florida.

 

 

 

How science is solving today’s development problems

Full ArticleThe Guardian

04 Dec 2014

Ebola, climate change and food security are just some of the challenges that research and science can help us face, and bring knowledge that we can act on

In this photo taken on Friday, Nov. 28, 2014, health workers wearing Ebola protective gear spray the shrouded body of a man with disinfectant as they suspect he died from the Ebola virus, at a USAID, American aid Ebola treatment center at Tubmanburg on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia.

 

 

Soldiers stand guard by communications towers in Corinto in southern Colombia, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009

The Colombian government and Farc rebels have agreed to resume peace talks, which were suspended last month over the abduction of an army general, mediators say. Officials from Cuba and Norway, the two countries brokering the peace process, said a

 

Five million children out of school in West Africa due to Ebola

DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Some five million children are out of school in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone because of the deadly Ebola outbreak, according to a report by the Global Business Coalition forEducation. Schools and other public

 

Thai Army Chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-Ocha, center, and other high ranking Thai officers are shown on television announcing the military takeover in Bangkok

Steve Herman BANGKOK— The two top generals of the junta running Thailand on Wednesday defended the May 22 coup that ousted the civilian government but told international audiences in Bangkok they are committed to a return to democracy. Prime Minister

 

India Bhopal Anniversary

BHOPAL, India (AP) — Three decades after lethal gas swept through Bhopal, the central Indian city remains haunted by memories of the world’s worst industrial disaster. Hundreds of survivors of the gas leak that claimed thousands of lives took to the

 

Knesset chamber, celebrating 61 years of the Knesset. The size of the Knesset, currently at 120 members, has often been a source of cause for proposed reforms.

JERUSALEM — Israeli lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a motion on Wednesday to dissolve the Knesset in a preliminary vote, paving the way for early elections after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to iron out differences with coalition

 

Ukraine Parliament

The Associated Press KIEV (AP) — Ukraine’s parliamentapproved the formation of a new government Tuesday, bringing an end to weeks of behind-the-scenes political wrangling following an October election that ushered in a group of pro-Western parties.

 

UN food aid system fails Syria's refugees

Syrian refugees are leaving grocery stores with empty shopping bags this week. A UN-backed “e-card” system had enabled millions of the displaced to buy food in Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan; but funds dried up on December 1 and families now

Afghanistan at crucial juncture

03 Dec 2014

On Thursday, the so-called London Conference on Afghanistan will convene. Of all the high-profile international conferences that have been held on Afghanistan over the years – in Bonn, Tokyo, and Istanbul – this comes at a crucial juncture. At the end of October, British forces lowered the flag at Camp Bastion – from where they had engaged in

 

File - U.S. Army Spc. Samnith Thy, right, a security force team member for Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Farah, provides security outside a youth meeting in Farah City, Afghanistan, Dec. 2, 2012.

 

 

 

UN food aid system fails Syria's refugees

Syrian refugees are leaving grocery stores with empty shopping bags this week. A UN-backed “e-card” system had enabled millions of the displaced to buy food in Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan; but funds dried up on December 1 and families now

 

Russia, the West, and Gas Pipelines

The US/EU discouragement of the South Stream project to supply natural gas to Western Europe is a prime example of rigid ideology gunning for confrontation no matter the cost, a permanent war mindset directed to Russiaand China and broader

 

EU, U.S. present Russia with united sanctions, energy front: draft

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. and EU leaders on Wednesday will pledge to work together on sanctions and on strengthening Europe and Ukraine‘s energy security as they seek to present a united front to Russia, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.

 

File - Physicist and best-selling author Stephen Hawking appears in Seattle, Saturday, June 16, 2012.

British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has warned that development of artificial intelligence could mean the end of humanity. In an interview with the BBC, the scientist said such technology could rapidly evolve and overtake mankind, a

 

China's 'fox hunt' must do more than attack the symptoms of corruption

The anti-corruption campaign that has been sweeping acrossChina is extending beyond its borders. Two high-profile international meetings last month – the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Beijing and the G20 summit in Brisbane – both

Rain both welcomed, feared in drought-scarred state

LOS ANGELES — Heavy rain from a powerful Pacific storm swept through parched California today, providing some relief from a three-year drought but prompting evacuations in wildfire-scarred communities threatened by mudslides and flooding. The rain

 

Portrait of Richard III of England, painted c. 1520 (approximate date from tree-rings on panel), after a lost original, for the Paston family, owned by the Society of Antiquaries, London, since 1828.

Scientists studying the DNA of Richard III, the Plantagenet king whose body was found buried beneath a Leicester car park, have revealed that there was marital infidelity among his aristocratic relatives. Paternity tests on the DNA of a living
photo: Creative Commons
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    U.S. weighs a new front to create safe zone in Syria











    Climate change impacts heat up UN talks in Lima

    02 Dec 2014

    LIMA, Peru With 2014 on track to become the warmest year on record and time running short, more than 190 nations began talks on a new worldwide deal to limit greenhouse gas emissions and keep global warming from causing irreversible damage. New targets for fossil fuel use were announced ahead of the climate conference by the U.S., the European

    Peru's Minister of the Environment and new President of COP20, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, talks during the opening ceremony of the Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru, Monday, Dec. 1, 2014.






    A lab officer prepares blood samples from a cancer patient for further DNA testing, Thursday April 19, 2007 at a medical lab at the National University Hospital in Singapore, a country well known for its advanced medical treatment and research facilities. The number of cancer cases in Asia is set to rise dramatically by 2020 due largely to longer life spans and changing lifestyles, threatening a health crisis as poorer countries in the region struggle to keep up.(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

    A personal DNA test that has sparked controversy in the US has been approved for use in the UK by regulators. The Medicines and HealthcareProducts Regulatory Agency (MHRA) says the 23andMe spit test, which is designed to give details about a

    Children from Hownslow Manor school take part in an assembly based on the upcoming World Aids Day, in London Tuesday Nov. 29, 2005. World Aids Day takes place on Dec. 1, with recent World Health Organisation figures showing that some 40 million people are now infected with the HIV virus. Teaching awareness in schools could be one of the many ways of trying to reduce the number of future infections, which in Britain rose again in 2004. The number of Children under the age of 15 in Britain who are affected is 1650

    HIV is evolving to become less deadly and less infectious, according to a major scientific study. The team at the University of Oxford shows the virus is being “watered down” as it adapts to our immune systems. It said it was taking longer

    WHO: Ebola Stabilizing in Some Places But Far From Over

    Lisa Schlein GENEVA, SWITZERLANDThe World Health Organization reports the Ebola epidemic in West Africa is slowing down and stabilizing in some places, but is far from over. The World Health Organization reports two United Nations targets have been

    Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, left. shakes hands with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, after a press conference in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, June 8, 2010.

    © AFP/File Alain JocardTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pictured, on Monday holds talks in Ankara with his Russian counterpartVladimir Putin to tighten links which have survived potentially grave disputes over the Syria and Ukraine crises

    Smoke rises after a bomb blast at a bus terminal in Jos, Nigeria, Tuesday, May 20, 2014. Two explosions ripped through a bustling bus terminal and market frequented by thousands of people in Nigeria's central city of Jos on Tuesday afternoon.

    Twin blasts have exploded in the north-eastern Nigerian city ofMaiduguri in a crowded market where two female suicide bombers killed 70 people a week ago. Eyewitness reports say rescue workers are evacuating the dead and injured while police say it

    In this Nov. 28, 2014 photo , lawmaker Robert Biedron, Poland’s first openly gay lawmaker

    Voters in Poland have elected the country’s first openly gay mayor. [TICON-A VIDEO] Robert Biedron, who already made history in 2011 by becoming the first openly gay politician in parliament, was elected mayor of the small city of Slupsk in northern

    Indian actess and model Gauhar Khan poses for photographers as she walks the green carpet for 15th annual International Indian Film Awards Saturday, April 26, 2014, in Tampa, Fla.

    The incident took place when the actor-model was shooting for a reality show. Bollywood actor and model Gauhar Khan was today slapped for wearing a short dress while hosting a reality show, India‘s Raw Star, in Mumbai.Khan was slapped by an audience

     

     

     

     

     

    Pope urges Muslim leaders to condemn violence

    Full ArticleAl Jazeera

    01 Dec 2014

    Pope Francis has urged Muslim leaders to “clearly” condemn violent attacks carried out in the name of Islam after returning from a historic three-day visit toTurkey. The Catholic pope made the remarks on Sunday during a press briefing on board a plane carrying him back to Rome after wrapping up a three-day visit to Turkey. Francis said he had made

     
    Pope urges Muslim leaders to condemn violence

     

     

     

    Hong Kong protesters clash with police at government HQ

    01 Dec 2014

    HONG KONG: Police unleashed pepper spray and baton charges at students who tried to storm Hong Kong‘s government headquarters early on Monday, as tensions soared in the third month of pro-democracy protests. With morning rush hour under way, fresh scuffles broke out between police and demonstrators at the main Admiralty protest site. Tearful

    Police officers throw a pro-democracy protester on the main road outside government headquarters in Hong Kong Sunday, Nov. 30, 2014.

     

     

     

     

    Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, left. shakes hands with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, after a press conference in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, June 8, 2010.

    © AFP/File Alain JocardTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pictured, on Monday holds talks in Ankara with his Russian counterpartVladimir Putin to tighten links which have survived potentially grave disputes over the Syria and Ukraine crises

    Smoke rises after a bomb blast at a bus terminal in Jos, Nigeria, Tuesday, May 20, 2014. Two explosions ripped through a bustling bus terminal and market frequented by thousands of people in Nigeria's central city of Jos on Tuesday afternoon.

    Twin blasts have exploded in the north-eastern Nigerian city ofMaiduguri in a crowded market where two female suicide bombers killed 70 people a week ago. Eyewitness reports say rescue workers are evacuating the dead and injured while police say it

    In this Nov. 28, 2014 photo , lawmaker Robert Biedron, Poland’s first openly gay lawmaker

    Voters in Poland have elected the country’s first openly gay mayor. [TICON-A VIDEO] Robert Biedron, who already made history in 2011 by becoming the first openly gay politician in parliament, was elected mayor of the small city of Slupsk in northern

     14th Nov 2007. Koya  Iraqi Kurdistan. The Iranian Kurdish peshmarga, military in Iraq. Jamal

    Iraq has uncovered the existence of 50,000 “ghost soldiers”,Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said, promising a crackdown on corruption. “The prime minister revealed the existence of 50,000 fictitious names” in the military, said a statement
    photo: WN.Jamal Penjweny / Jamal Penjweny

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Sepp Blatter: Fifa boss faces more questions after World Cup claims

    30 Nov 2014

    Just when you thought you had heard it all about Fifa and its handling of the selection process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, along comes more. Just when you might have assumed it could not get any worse, it does. More intrigue. More suspicion. And more allegations. The publication by the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee of a

     
    In this Thursday, Dec. 16, 2013 file photo, FIFA president Sepp Blatter, right, and Qatar Football Association (QFA) President Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Ahmed al-Thani exchange documents after officially appointing Qatar as the host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, in Doha, Qatar.

     

     

    Arabs Are About To Ask The UN For A Concrete Timetable On The Creation Of A Palestinian State

    Flickr/kevkrabbe See Also CAIRO (Reuters) – Arab League foreign ministers agreed on Saturday to formally present a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council that will set a timeframe for the creation of a Palestinian state. The

    Chuck Hagel, you had the worst week in Washington, congrats: Chris Cillizza

    By Chris Cillizza It’s a unique Washington tradition that when someone is removed from a high-level government post, that person must not only act as though he or she left voluntarily, but also must do so in a public setting.Witness Chuck Hagel, the

    More than 16,000 sickened with Ebola, 7,000 died

    More than 16,000 people have been infected with Ebola and nearly 7,000 have died, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization. The new death toll, released late Friday by the UN agency, represents an increase of more than 1,000

    This video image taken from Egyptian State Television shows 83-year-old former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak laying on a hospital bed inside a cage of mesh and iron bars in a Cairo courtroom Wednesday Aug. 3, 2011, as his historic trial began on charges of corruption and ordering the killing of protesters during the uprising that ousted him from office. The scene, shown live on Egypt's state TV, was Egyptians' first look at their former president since Feb. 10, the day before his fall when he gave a defiant speech refusing to resign.

    An Egyptian court is to deliver its verdict in the murder retrial ofHosni Mubarak, almost four years after the long-time president was overthrown in a popular uprising. Mubarak, 86, is accused along with seven of his former police commanders of

    Police called to 'Black Friday' supermarket crowds

    28 November 2014 Last updated at 08:23 GMT Police have been called to more than 10 UK supermarkets amid crowd surges as people hunt for “Black Friday” offers. Greater Manchester Police appealed for calm after attending five Tesco stores, making “at