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Magical views from top of the world for solar eclipse

Full ArticleThe Times of India

20 Mar 2015

LONGYEARBEN: All eyes will be on the skies on Friday for a total solar eclipse expected to offer spectacular views, if only in the far northern Svalbardarchipelago and Faroe Islands. A partial eclipse of varying degrees should also be visible, weather permitting, across most of Europe, northern Africa, central Asiaand the Middle East. On Friday,

File - View of a partial solar eclipse as seen from Kolkata, Eastern India, 2011.




Russia drafts UN resolution on east Ukraine election talks

Moscow has circulated a draft UN Security Council resolutionwhich calls on the Kiev government to immediately start negotiations with pro-Russia leaders in eastern Ukraine on holding local elections. The Russianresolution, which was submitted in

 

Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) und der franzoesische Praesident Francois Hollande (r.) unterhalten sich zu Beginn ihres Treffens am Donnerstag (23.08.12) auf der Dachterasse im Bundeskanzleramt in Berlin

European Union leaders said Thursday that they won’t lift economic sanctions against Russia until the peace agreement on eastern Ukraineis fully implemented. EU President Donald Tusk said the decision reached at a two-day summit showed the common

 

Alexis Tsipras arrives at the Presidential Palace before being sworn in as the new Greek Prime Minister in central Athens, Monday, Jan. 26, 2015. Radical left leader Alexis Tsipras has been sworn in as Greece's new prime minister, becoming the youngest man to hold the post in 150 years.

EU leaders hardened their stance against Greece yesterday as reports suggested deposit outflows from Greek banks accelerated this week. The country is facing a potential cash crunch within weeks. While Greek prime ministerAlexis Tsipras held talks

 

The View of New Jersey from the Pier on the Hudson River.

(Body is identified as missing journalist) NEW YORK, March 19 (Reuters) – A body found in a New Jersey river has been positively identified asDavid Bird, a Wall Street Journal reporter who disappeared more than a year ago, officials said on

 

Piazza di san bernardo, Rome Italy

ROME (Reuters) – Italy‘s Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said he would step down on Friday after his ministry was embroiled in a corruption inquiry involving billions of euros in public works contracts. Lupi has faced mounting pressure to resign

 

Women residents pass by a group of Ukrainian government army soldiers in the village of Debaltseve, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine Wednesday, Dec 24, 2014.

A former US Senate candidate says the United States, theEuropean Union and Israel are fomenting violence in eastern Ukraine, not Russiaor pro-Russian forces. Mark Dankof, a political commentator and broadcaster inSan Antonio, Texas, made the

 

Smoke rises up at a crash site of a passenger plane, near the village of Hrabove, Ukraine, Thursday, July 17, 2014. A Ukrainian official said a passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down Thursday as it flew over the country and plumes of black smoke rose up near a rebel-held village in eastern Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines tweeted that it lost contact with one of its flights as it was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over Ukrainian airspace.

Reuters AMSTERDAM— A metal fragment from the crash site ofMalaysia Airlines flight MH17 matches a surface-to-air BUK rocket, a Dutchbroadcaster said on Thursday, supporting a theory that the plane was downed by pro-Russian separatists in eastern

Thai former PM Yingluck to face trial over rice scheme

19 Mar 2015

BANGKOK: Thailand‘s former premier Yingluck Shinawatra was Thursday ordered to stand trial on charges of negligence over a bungled rice subsidy scheme, in a case that could see her jailed for up to a decade. ? The decision is the latest legal move against Yingluck – Thailand’s first female prime minister and sister of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin

File - In this Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015 photo,  Thailand's former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra arrives at parliament in Bangkok, Thailand. Thailand's attorney general on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015,  pressed criminal charges against former Prime Minister Yingluck for negligence




The Yahoo logo is seen in New York

SHANGHAI: US internet company Yahoo is shutting down its presence in China, it said, with reports saying at least 200 people will be laid off. The closure of the research centre in Beijing office will eliminate 200 to 300 jobs, Bloomberg reported,

 

Caroline Kennedy

Japanese police are investigating phone calls threatening to killU.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and another American envoy, authorities said Wednesday. Tokyo police are investigating the calls to the U.S. embassy and similar ones targeting Alfred

 

Shafqat Hussain

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: The execution of Shafqat Hussain has been postponed for 72 hours just a few hours before his hanging was scheduled to take place on Thursday morning. Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memonconfirmed that Shafqat Hussain’s

 

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter addresses officers and crew members of the USS Blue Ridge in Yokosuka, Japan, July 21, 2012.

The Pentagon confirmed today that a top al Shabab leader who planned the deadly Westgate Mall attack in Kenya was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Somalia last week. Adnan Garar was a senior member of the Somali terror group and believed to have been

 

Rand Paul speaking to Tea Party Express supporters at a rally in Austin, Texas. USA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Rand Paul will declare his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination on April 7, MSNBCreported, citing multiple sources inside the Kentucky lawmaker’s camp. “This will be an

Tunisia museum shooting

Gunmen opened fire at a leading museum in Tunisia’s capital, leaving at least eight dead and six wounded, including foreign tourists, authorities said. Security forces filled the area around the National Bardo Museum in Tunisafter the attack.

 

Breastfeeding

A long-term study has pointed to a link between breastfeeding and intelligence. The research in Brazil traced nearly 3,500 babies, from all walks of life, and found those who had been breastfed for longer went on to score higher on IQ tests as

Struggle in Brussels and Berlin over Fate of Greece

Endgame: Power Struggle in Brussels and Berlin over Fate of Greece

European Commission President Juncker wants to keep Greece in the euro zone, no matter what the price. Member states, though, are beginning to lose their patience. Who will ultimately have the final say ?

 




ECB besieged by protests as Draghi opens $1.4 billion tower

Full ArticleKathimerini

18 Mar 2015

As the European Central Bank prepares to inaugurate its new headquarters four months after moving in, more than 10,000 protesters are seeking to spoil the party.Frankfurt, the euro area’s financial capital and home of the common currency, is bracing for demonstrations and sit-ins on Wednesday at locations throughout the city by

Demonstrators dressed as clowns pass by a burning police car Wednesday, March 18, 2015 in Frankfurt, Germany.

Lufthansa counters are closed at the airport in Duesseldorf

Representational Image Lufthansa has cancelled 750 flights or about half the total due to a strike planned by pilots for Wednesday, affecting thousands of passengers in a long-running dispute over early retirement benefits and plans to expand budget

 

An anti-government protester waves an Egyptian flag as stands on a pole in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Feb. 4, 2011.

CAIRO (AP) – Egypt‘s chief prosecutor on Tuesday referred a police officer to trial for the killing of a female protester during a peaceful demonstration nearly two months earlier in a widely documented shooting. The death of 32-year old Shaimaa

 

An Iraqi Army soldier during Operation NANNO II in the southern section of Baghdad. U.S. Army Soldiers from Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 502 Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

NAJAF, Iraq — The Iraqi forces’ operation to retake the city ofTikrit has stalled as troops suffer heavy casualties at the hands of Islamic Statemilitants, raising concerns over whether the pro-government fighters are ready for major offensives.

 

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.

(CNN)Millions of Israelis are casting their votes to determine their country’s next Prime Minister and the make-up of its parliament. Polls opened Tuesday at 7 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET) and will close at 10 p.m. Ballots are for political parties

 

Foreign Ministers from the P5+1 nations - John Kerry of the United States, Philip Hammond of the United Kingdom, Sergey Lavrov of Russia, Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany, Laurent Fabius of France, and Wang Yi of China - sit at a table with Baroness Catherine Ashton of the European Union and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif of Iran and his delegation in Vienna, Austria, on November 24, 2014, before a multilateral meeting about the future of Iran's nuclear program.

VOA News The negotiations on Iran‘s nuclear program continue Tuesday in Switzerland with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad

Warm water eroding another glacier, study finds

Full ArticlePhiladelphia Daily News

17 Mar 2015

A hundred years from now, humans may remember 2014 as the year that we first learned that we may have irreversibly destabilized the great ice sheet of West Antarctica, and thus set in motion more than 10 feet of sea level rise. Meanwhile,2015 could be the year of the double whammy – when we learned the same about one gigantic glacier of East

File - The massive Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica is seen out the window of NASA's DC-8 research aircraft as it flies at an altitude of 1,500 feet, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009.




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.

(CNN)Millions of Israelis are casting their votes to determine their country’s next Prime Minister and the make-up of its parliament. Polls opened Tuesday at 7 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET) and will close at 10 p.m. Ballots are for political parties

 

Foreign Ministers from the P5+1 nations - John Kerry of the United States, Philip Hammond of the United Kingdom, Sergey Lavrov of Russia, Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany, Laurent Fabius of France, and Wang Yi of China - sit at a table with Baroness Catherine Ashton of the European Union and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif of Iran and his delegation in Vienna, Austria, on November 24, 2014, before a multilateral meeting about the future of Iran's nuclear program.

VOA News The negotiations on Iran‘s nuclear program continue Tuesday in Switzerland with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad

 

This booking photo provided by the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office shows Robert Durst, after his Saturday, March 14, 2015

NEW ORLEANS – Robert Durst couldn’t explain away the similarities between his handwriting and a letter he said “only the killer could have written” that alerted police to his friend’s shooting 15 years ago. Confronted with new evidence by the makers

 

Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek economist. He is the current Finance Minister of Greece .

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis tangled yet again withBerlin after German television aired a 2013 video apparently showed him making a rude gesture toward Europe’s economic powerhouse. Varoufakis denied brandishing his middle finger – known

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens during a press conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2014. Netanyahu defended Israel's intense bombardment of Gaza, saying that despite the high civilian death toll it was a "justified" and "proportionate" response to Hamas attacks.

JERUSALEM — In a frenzied last day of campaigning on Monday,Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state and vowed to strengthen construction in East Jerusalem settlements as he appealed to hard-line voters on

 

Magnets for sale decorate a tourist shop, one showing an image of U.S. President Barack Obama smelling a cigar, at a market in Havana, Cuba, Monday, March 16, 2015. The magnet in the bottom row, second from left, reads in Spanish: "Here, nobody gives up," a popular quote attributed to Cuba's late revolutionary hero Camilo Cienfuegos. Magnets to the right show Cuba's revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

HAVANA – Cuban and US delegations began Monday a third round of talks aiming to restore diplomatic relations and open up embassies. The meeting is a follow-up to the second round of talks on Feb. 27 in Washington, said a statement from Cuba‘s

 

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

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) ? Nigerian troops have ousted Boko Haramfrom a northeastern town while Cameroon soldiers killed several of the extremists in an attack on a Nigerian village, military officials reported Monday of the latest successes in a

Hundreds of thousands march to ask Brazil president’s ouster

Full ArticleWPXI

15 Mar 2015

Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians marched peacefully Sunday in more than 50 cities around the country to demand President Dilma Rousseff‘s impeachment and to criticize government corruption amid a sprawling graft inquiry at state-run oil firm Petrobras. The biggest protest was in Sao Paulo, an opposition stronghold where some 210,000 gathered on

 

Demonstrators march to demand the impeachment of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, March 15, 2015




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

The ceasefire deal between government forces and pro-Russia activists is not holding amid fresh clashes in the country’s volatile eastern regions, says Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. “In total, the ceasefire has been

 

Rescue personnel work at the site where a tourist bus crashed killing at least 54 people, near the city of Joinville, southern state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, Sunday, March 15, 2015.

Sao Paulo, March 15: A tourist bus plunged 400 metres into a ravine in Santa Catarina province of Brazil claiming 50 lives, police said on Sunday. The victims of Saturday’s bus crash comprised eight children, three adolescents, 24 women and

 

Pakistan - Lahore Church

LAHORE: Roman Catholic Church, and Christ Church in Lahore‘s Youhanabad area have been attacked. Both churches have high attendance onSundays on account of mass. Initial reports suggest two suicide bombers carried out the attack. Youhanabad is

 

TV host Jeremy Clarkson gestures as he takes his place in the stands before the Champions League round of 16 second leg soccer match between Chelsea and Paris Saint Germain at Stamford Bridge stadium in London, Wednesday, March 11, 2015. The controversial Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended by the BBC, in the wake of what has been described as a "fracas" with a producer.

Jeremy Clarkson called BBC bosses to apologise over the the fracas which led to his suspension in an attempt to draw a line under the matter, a friend of the star has said. AA Gill, a “mate” and colleague of the Top Gearpresenter, labelled the BBC’s

 

A Van Hool bi-articulated bus in Utrecht, Netherlands.The oldest bi-articulated bus system still in use is in Curitiba, Brazil.

At least 42 people were killed when a tour bus plunged into a wooded ravine in southern Brazil, according to the regional government. The toll had initially been put at about 30 but the number rose as rescuers continued to find bodies at the

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.

VOA News U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday again slammed a letter signed by 47 Republican senators that warned Iran about a prospective landmark nuclear deal, calling the letter irresponsible and incorrect. Speaking at a news conference

Afghanistan gave CIA money to Al Qaeda to free diplomat: report

Full ArticleDawn

15 Mar 2015

WASHINGTON: Afghanistan used about $1 million provided by the CIA to a secret government fund to pay Al-Qaeda in 2010 for a diplomat’s release, The New York Times reported Saturday. The terror group’s leader at the time, Osama bin Laden, worried that the Americans knew about the payment and were either tracing the cash or had laced it with

File - U.S. Army Specialist David Reaves, from Hartsville, S.C., provides security alongside an Afghan National Army Soldier at an ANA compound in Parwai village in eastern Afghanistan's Nuristan province, Aug 26, 2010.

Pakistan - Lahore Church

LAHORE: Roman Catholic Church, and Christ Church in Lahore‘s Youhanabad area have been attacked. Both churches have high attendance onSundays on account of mass. Initial reports suggest two suicide bombers carried out the attack. Youhanabad is

 

A Van Hool bi-articulated bus in Utrecht, Netherlands.The oldest bi-articulated bus system still in use is in Curitiba, Brazil.

At least 42 people were killed when a tour bus plunged into a wooded ravine in southern Brazil, according to the regional government. The toll had initially been put at about 30 but the number rose as rescuers continued to find bodies at the

 

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.

VOA News U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday again slammed a letter signed by 47 Republican senators that warned Iran about a prospective landmark nuclear deal, calling the letter irresponsible and incorrect. Speaking at a news conference

 

CIA Director-nominee Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, John Brennan, second from left, shakes hands with the president's choice for Defense Secretary, former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, second from right, as the president, center, speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013, where he made to announcement. At left is Acting CIA Director Michael Morell, at right is current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

WASHINGTON: In the spring of 2010, Afghan officials struck a deal to free an Afghan diplomat held hostage by al-Qaida. But the price was steep ? $5 million ? and senior security officials were scrambling to come up with the money. They first turned

 

Kurdish peshmerga forces mourning

VOA News The Kurdish regional government in Iraq says it has evidence that Islamic State militants used a chemical weapon against Kurdish peshmerga forces. The Kurdistan Region Security Council released a statement Saturday alleging that chlorine was

 

Cyclone Pam - Vanuatu

Suva, March 14: A terrifying tropical cyclone which smashed intoVanuatu in the South Pacific wreaked widespread devastation, aid agencies said on Saturday, raising fears that dozens may have died in what may be one of the region’s worst weather

 

In this Sunday, April 13, 2014 photo, a person tries to extinguish flames as sparks fly during a forest fire in Valparaiso, Chile

A serious forest fire spread quickly on Chile’s coast on Friday and threatened to reach the nearby port cities of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.Officials said the fire began at an illegal garbage dump in

Cyclone Pam leaves trail of destruction in Pacific’s Vanuatu

Full ArticleThe Times of India

14 Mar 2015

SUVA, Fiji: A huge tropical cyclone smashed into Vanuatu in the South Pacific, terrifying residents and leaving “complete devastation” with fears on Saturday that dozens of people may have died. The full extent of the damage is unknown, with limited communications in place after maximum category five storm CyclonePam slammed directly into the

Tropical Cyclone Pam at its peak of intensity located east of Vanuatu, 13 March, 2015.

An Iraqi army soldier - Tikrit

Iraqi forces besieging dozens of die-hard fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Tikrit will have liberated the city within three days, a spokesman said. Karim al-Nuri, a top leader from the Badr militia and the spokesman of

 

‘Decisive’ phase of Libya talks to start next week, UN envoy says

The United Nations special envoy to Libya says a decisive phase of negotiations between Libya’s warring factions is set to start next week. “The UNmission has decided to give the parties time to organize and prepare for this decisive

 

Petrobras Protests - Brazil

Thousands of government supporters across Brazil have been taking part in marches to show their backing for President Dilma Rousseff. The opposition has called for Ms Rousseff’s impeachment over a a huge corruption scandal in the state-owned oil

 

Petro Porochenko au Conseil de l’Europe Strasbourg 26 juin 2014

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has confirmed the de-escalation of battle between government troops and pro-Russia forces in eastern regions a month after a truce deal came into effect. “The fact that we have not had military losses for

 

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.

A Putin spokesman has insisted that the Russian president is perfectly healthy, but that hasn’t stopped mass media and social media speculation, including trending hashtags such as #Putinisdead and #whereisPutin.The Kremlin today released a

 

Paris rally in support of the victims of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting, 11 January 2015.

PARIS – Two suspects have been placed under formal investigation by French magistrates for alleged links to the Paris attacks of January, the Paris

 

A protester carries a Tunisian flag during a sit-in in support of the Tunisian people organized by the committee for solidarity with the people's uprising in Tunisia and Lebanon, in front of the U.N. headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2011.

TUNIS: Tunisian authorities arrested a popular comedian and a television show host on Friday for having “offended” president Beji Caid Essebsi, the prosecutor’s office said. “The prosecutor has decided to place in detention” satirist Migalo, whose

 

 

 

 

Julian Assange: Swedish prosecutors ask for London interview

Full ArticleThe Guardian

13 Mar 2015

Lawyer for WikiLeaks founder accused of sexual assault and rape welcomes move to question him in Britain rather than Sweden

 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange talks to members of the media during a news conference in London, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft onboard launches from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 41, Thursday, March 12, 2015, Florida.

AFP An Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Florida on Thursday with a quartet of NASA science satellites designed to map bursts of energy and charged particles triggered by criss-crossing magnetic fields around Earth. The 20-story-tall rocket, built and

 

Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol, left, and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon take part in a news conference Friday, Aug. 15, 2014

THE troubled American community of Ferguson, Missouri — scene of months of protests and racial tension — is on a knife edge again after two police officers were shot. One officer was shot in the face, and the other in the shoulder, after

 

Italian fugitive Cesare Battisti, right, is escorted by police officers while leaving court in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009. Battisti, a former leftist rebel wanted by his native country for political killings in the 1970s and who escaped from prison 1981, was called by a judge on Thursday to face allegations that he has been using a fake identity while living in Brazil.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil‘s federal police on Thursday arrested former Italian communist militant Cesare Battisti on a judge’s deportation order. The arrest comes despite former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2010 rejecting Italy‘s

 

This image made from video posted on a militant website Saturday, July 5, 2014, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, purports to show the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, delivering a sermon at a mosque in Iraq

BEIRUT, March 12 (Reuters) – The leader of the Islamic Statemilitant group that controls parts of Syria and Iraq has accepted a pledge of allegiance from Nigerian Islamists Boko Haram, his spokesman said in an audio message transmitted on Thursday.

 

This undated image made available by CERN shows a typical candidate event including two high-energy photons whose energy (depicted by red towers) is measured in the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter.

The world‘s largest particle accelerator, which famously discovered the long-sought Higgs boson in 2012, will soon start up again at almost double the energy of its first run. After a two-year hiatus for upgrades, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC),

 

Guinea Police secure the area around a man who collapsed in a puddle of water on the street, and people would not approach him as they fear he may be suffering from the Ebola virus in the city of Conakry, Guinea, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2014. The man lay in the street for several hours before being taken to an Ebola control centre for assessment. The World Health Organization has began an emergency meeting on the Ebola crisis, and said at least 932 deaths in four countries are blamed on the virus, with many hundreds more being treated in quarantine conditions.

The tally of Ebola-related deaths has passed the grim milestone of 10,000, mostly in West Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. The UNhealth agency said on Thursday that Guinea,

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila attend a service in the Annunciation Cathedral after his inauguration in the Kremlin in Moscow, Monday, May 7, 2012.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is in good health, the Kremlin said on Thursday, dismissing rumours that the leader was suffering from an illness after a foreign trip was cancelled. A Kazakh governmental source said Putin’s trip to Astana

2 police officers have been shot during protests in Ferguson, Missouri

Full ArticleBusiness Insider

12 Mar 2015

APPolice form a line outside the Ferguson Police Department as people demonstrate nearby Wednesday, March 11, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo. See Also FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Two police officers were shot outside the Ferguson Police Department early Thursday as protesters gathered following the resignation of the city’s embattled police chief, the St. Louis

Police and protesters square off outside the Ferguson Police Department, Wednesday, March 11, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo.

Obama Phones

Cuba and the United States have re-established direct telephone links for the first time in 15 years, Cuba’s state telecommunications company says. The company, Etecsa, said initially the link would only be for phone calls. Telephone calls have

 

First Lady Michelle Obama holding a sign with the hashtag "#bringbackourgirls"

Amid universal outrage at Boko Haram‘s kidnapping of 200 girls in northern Nigeria last spring – and galvanized by the #BringBackOurGirls Twitter campaign – President Barack Obama sent 80 troops in May to aid in surveillance and

 

Police wearing riot gear point their weapons at a car as it pulls away after tear gas was used by authorities Monday, Aug. 11, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo

The Ferguson, Missouri, mayor said Wednesday that the city is committed to keeping its own police department, despite the resignation of ChiefThomas Jackson in the wake of a scathing federal report that found the agency tainted with racism and

 

With smoke from a burn pit billowing into the sky, an Iraqi soldier watches.

BAGHDAD, March 11 (Xinhua) — Iraqi security forces on Wednesday recaptured large parts of Tikrit city, capital of Salahudin province after 10 days of major offensive against the Islamic State (IS) militant group, while the extremist militants

 

Irish Red Setter Thendara Satisfaction, known as Jagger runs in this undated image, made available from Oakdene.Be on Monday March 9, 2015. The co-owners of the Irish setter feared poisoned at Britain's leading dog show, Crufts, are devastated by his death.

A dog that died following a Crufts show was likely to have been poisoned after the competition, a vet investigating the death has claimed. A three-year-old Irish setter named Jagger, who competed as “Thendara Satisfaction”, was fed beef chunks laced

 

US Army Chief Warrant Officer Bert Shober, Chinook helicopter maintenance test pilot for Company B, 3rd Battalion, 82nd Aviation Regiment (Task Force Talon) flying close behind a CH-47F Chinook helicopter  during a aviation mission in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.

Tampa Bay Times Wednesday, March 11, 2015 5:36am PENSACOLA — Seven Marines and four soldiers were missing early Wednesday after an Army helicopter crashed during a night training exercise at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle. Related

 

Visitors offer prayers in front of the main entrance of Okawa Elementary School where 74 of the 108 students went missing after the March 11, 2011 tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, northern Japan, Tuesday, March 11, 2014. Japan on Tuesday marks the third anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed 15,884 people and left more than 2,600 unaccounted for in vast areas of its northern coast.

Remembrance services four years after earthquake, tsunami and meltdown at Fukushima power plant are tinged with frustration at slow pace of rebuilding

China says Muslim Uighurs have joined Islamic State group

Full ArticleTampa Bay Online

11 Mar 2015

BEIJING (AP) ? Chinese officials say that members of the country’s Muslim Uighurethnic minority have gone overseas to fight with the Islamic State group, which controls sections of Syria and Iraq, and returned to take part in plots at home. Authorities in the far-western region of Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan andPakistan, will strengthen

In this July 17, 2014 file photo, armed Chinese paramilitary policemen stand on duty near wanted posters at a check point in Aksu in western China's Xinjiang province.

This undated file photo posted on Monday, Nov. 4, 2014 by the Raqqa Media Office of the Islamic State group, a militant extremist group, shows Islamic state group fighters in Kobani, Syria.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A video posted online by Islamic Statemilitants on Tuesday showed a boy fatally shooting Muhammad Musallam, anIsraeli Arab accused by the group of having signed up as a jihadi to spy for Israel‘s intelligence service. The

 

In this photo taken Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi seen during a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, not seen, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Berlusconi arrived on a private visit

Italy’s highest court has confirmed an acquittal for former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on charges of abuse of office and paying for sex with a minor, giving him a boost as he is trying to hold onto his role as a conservative leader. At the

 

Nicolas Maduro

CARACAS: President Nicolas Maduro was seeking special decree powers from Venezuela‘s parliament on Tuesday in response to new US sanctions, drawing opposition protests of a power-grab. If as expected the government-controlled National Assembly

 

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton makes a facial gesture as she is introduced before delivering her farewell remarks to State Department employees at the State Department lobby in Washington, before departing the State Department for the final time as Secretary of State, Friday, Feb. 1, 2013.

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a news conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday.Photo: Reuters New York: Hillary Clinton has attempted to defuse a growing crisis over her controversial use

 

Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, speaks on stage during an introduction of the new iPhone 5 at an Apple event in San Francisco, Wednesday Sept. 12, 2012.

The Central Intelligence Agency has secretly attempted for years to crack the security protections on a number of Apple products, including the iPhone and iPad, according to newly revealed documents from EdwardSnowden. CIA spies have been at work

 

Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

BEIJING (Reuters) – China has jailed two men for selling military secrets, including hundreds of photos of the country’s lone aircraft carrier, to foreign spies, state media reported on Friday, without saying which countries were buying them. The

 

Egyptian soldiers keep guard on the border between Egypt and Rafah in southern Gaza Strip, on July 8, 2013. A series of attacks on security checkpoints in the North Sinai towns of Sheikh Zuweid and El Arish close to Egypt's border with Israel and Gaza, where one soldier was killed. The Rafah border crossing with Egypt and Gaza remained closed since Friday. Photo by Ahmed Deeb / WN

A suicide bomber and roadside explosives targeting police and military in northeastern Egypt‘s restive Sinai Peninsula killed two and wounded 46 early Tuesday, security officials said. In a city south of Cairo, two suspected militants died when a

Frontline Ukraine: ‘How Europe failed to slay the demons of war’

Full ArticleThe Guardian

10 Mar 2015
In an extract from his new book, historian Richard Sakwa argues that the current conflict has its roots in the exclusion of Russia from genuine partnerships since the end of the cold war … 
Women walk back dropped by a destroyed building in Vuhlehirsk, Ukraine, Monday, March 9, 2015. More than 6,000 people have died in eastern Ukraine since the start of the conflict.

 

 

 

 

Egyptian soldiers keep guard on the border between Egypt and Rafah in southern Gaza Strip, on July 8, 2013. A series of attacks on security checkpoints in the North Sinai towns of Sheikh Zuweid and El Arish close to Egypt's border with Israel and Gaza, where one soldier was killed. The Rafah border crossing with Egypt and Gaza remained closed since Friday. Photo by Ahmed Deeb / WN

A suicide bomber and roadside explosives targeting police and military in northeastern Egypt‘s restive Sinai Peninsula killed two and wounded 46 early Tuesday, security officials said. In a city south of Cairo, two suspected militants died when a

 

This image made from amateur video released by the Ugarit News and accessed Monday, July 30, 2012, purports to show Free Syrian Army soldiers in Anadan 16 kilometers (10 miles), from Aleppo, Syria.

Screenshot/ BEIRUT (Reuters) – Around 95 captives have escaped an Islamic State-run prison in northern Syria, a group monitoring the war said on Tuesday, saying the escapees included about 30 Kurdish fighters. The jailbreak happened in the town of

 

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, speaks about the health care reform bill, Tuesday, March 23, 2010, at the Interior Department in Washington

US President Barack Obama has claimed that Venezuela is a threat to the America’s national security – issuing sanctions to seven individuals and expressing concern about the treatment of political opponents Withoutspecifying how Caracas represented

 

Ukrainian presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko during his press conference in Kiev

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has said that pro-Russian rebels had withdrawn a significant amount of weaponry from the front-lines in eastern Ukraine in accordance with a three-week-old

 

The Max Chambers Library at the University of Central Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma shut down the Sigma Alpha Epsilonchapter Sunday night and the school said it is looking into the possibility of expelling students who participated in the racist-chant video. Good Morning America

 

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during the lecture meeting at Asahi Shimbun headquarters in Tokyo, Monday, March 9, 2015. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, Pool)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, referring to her nation’s own experience, reminded Japan yesterday of the need to squarely confront its wartime past, but also signalled that neighbouring countries must do their part to achieve reconciliation. The

 

Sailors assigned to the guided-missile destroyer USS Mahan (DDG 72) man the rails and wave to guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60) during a Sail Pass in the Baltic Sea.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – About 750 U.S. Army tanks, fighting vehicles and other pieces of military equipment arrived in Latvia on Monday as a part of a training mission to reassure NATO allies worried about potential Russianaggression due to the

Solar-powered plane takes off in first round-the-world attempt

Full ArticleDawn

09 Mar 2015

ABU DHABI: The first attempt to fly around the world in a plane using only solar power was launched on Monday in a landmark journey aimed at promoting green energy. The Solar Impulse 2, piloted by Andre Borschberg of Switzerland, took off at 7:12 am (0412 GMT) from Al-Bateen airport and headed to Muscat, the capital ofOman, where it is expected to

 

File - Solar Impulse's Chief Executive Officer and pilot Andre Borschberg flies in the solar-powered HB-SIA prototype airplane after its first night flight attempt near Payerne airport, Switzerland, as the sun rises, Thursday, July 8, 2010.

 

Canadian soldiers

IRBIL: Canadian and Kurdish officials on Sunday offered conflicting accounts of the death of a Canadian soldier in a friendly fighting incident in Iraq, with the Kurds saying he was on the front lines directing airstrikes and Canada’s defense

 

Israelis wait for transportation under election campaign billboards of Israeli Prime Minister and Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Israel's Labor party candidate Shelly Yachimovichin, in the central Israeli city of Ramat gan, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013.

Tens of thousands gather in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square in event led by former Mossad chief calling for prime minister to be replaced in forthcoming elections

 

Nach verschiedenen Arbeitsbesuchen während der vergangenen Jahre war dieser Besuch die erste offizielle Reise der Bundeskanzlerin ins Großherzogtum. Wie sie betonte auch Juncker die trotz gelegentlicher Meinungsverschiedenheiten in europäischen Fragen "ausgezeichneten

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has said a common European army would be a timely deterrent against further Russianaggression on the continent. Mr Juncker insisted there will “never” be a Greek exit from the euro zone but demanded

 

International Women's Day: 9 charts that prove women are still treated like second-class citizens

Many will look at society today – when women are more prosperous, more empowered, and more driven than ever to make change – and say ‘look how far we’ve come’. But the equality movement’s accelerating success should not obscure the fact that there is

 

Canadian soldiers of the Royal 22e Régiment in Iraq

Kurdish forces mistook a group of Canadian soldiers for militants and fire upon them, killing one and wounding three. At least 203 people were also killed, and another 76 were wounded across the country. A second ancient Iraqi city may have been

 

White House workers walk on the roof of the White House after lowering the flag to half staff for the death of U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012 in Washington.

WASHINGTON, March 7 (Xinhua) — The White House was put under a security lockdown on Saturday morning after a nearby vendor cart caught fire just prior to President Barack Obama‘s departure for Selma, Alabama, media reports said. The

 

President Barack Obama gestures as he gives his inauguration address during a ceremonial swearing-in ceremony during the 57th Presidential Inauguration, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013 on the West Front of the Capitol in Washington.

SELMA, United States, March 7 (Xinhua) — Half a century after the violent civil rights movement — known as the “Bloody Sunday” – – shocked the United States into awareness and provoked changes in equal rights for African-Americans, U.S. President

ISIS and Black Swan Events

Full ArticleWorldNews.com

08 Mar 2015

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling Black swans, meaning certain events that-like the invention of the printing press or steam engine, the American Revolution or storming of the Bastille, and the attacks on the World Trade Centeror Arab Spring-happen rarely but carry great importance when they do.(1) Yet it would be a grave mistake to

This undated file 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.




Canadian soldiers of the Royal 22e Régiment in Iraq

Kurdish forces mistook a group of Canadian soldiers for militants and fire upon them, killing one and wounding three. At least 203 people were also killed, and another 76 were wounded across the country. A second ancient Iraqi city may have been

 

White House workers walk on the roof of the White House after lowering the flag to half staff for the death of U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012 in Washington.

WASHINGTON, March 7 (Xinhua) — The White House was put under a security lockdown on Saturday morning after a nearby vendor cart caught fire just prior to President Barack Obama‘s departure for Selma, Alabama, media reports said. The

 

President Barack Obama gestures as he gives his inauguration address during a ceremonial swearing-in ceremony during the 57th Presidential Inauguration, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013 on the West Front of the Capitol in Washington.

SELMA, United States, March 7 (Xinhua) — Half a century after the violent civil rights movement — known as the “Bloody Sunday” – – shocked the United States into awareness and provoked changes in equal rights for African-Americans, U.S. President

 

Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777

LOS ANGELES – In an event of a test model plane crash, an emergency recorder and tracking system is separated from the tail section of the plane. The test, which is shown in a video clip, is part of a series of tests completed since October by the US

 

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos delivers a speech during a televised address to the nation at the presidential palace in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 27, 2012.

Colombia‘s government and the leftist rebel movement have announced an agreement to remove landmines from the battlefield in a sign of progress in their two-year-old peace talks being held in Cuba. The announcement on Saturday came at the end of the

 

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

Militants with the Islamic State group have begun demolishing the ancient archaeological site of Hatra in northern Iraq in a push to rid its territory of symbols it says promote idolatry. An official with the ministry of tourism and antiquities’
photo: AP / Photo

 

Good Education Helps Girls Grow Into Strong Women

Across the globe, about 58 million children of primary school age are not in school. Of those, about 31 million are girls. Over the last decade, there has been a substantial improvement in getting more children in school, and many nations have

 

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.

Pamela Dockins LONDONU.S. Secretary of State John Kerryand the foreign ministers of Germany, Britain and France will meet in Paris on Saturday to discuss the status of talks with Iran, ahead of the March 31 deadline for a framework agreement. The

 

Pakistani journalists and civil society members hold a candle light vigil for the victims of a Taliban attack on a school, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014

By Jibran Ahmad PESHAWAR, Pakistan, March 6 (Reuters) – Pakistan is renaming dozens of government-run schools after the the students killed by Taliban militants in a massacre at an army-run academy in the northwestern city of Peshawar in December, an

 

Tanzanian Albino, Muadhani Ramadhani, weaves an Africa tradition carpet (Mat) at Mnazi Mmoja grounds in Dares Salaam Friday May 4, 2007, as part of celebrations to mark World Albino Day. They appealed to the government and public at large that they disserve equal opportunity like others.

Reuters DAR ES SALAAM— Police in Tanzania said on Friday they had arrested 32 witch doctors this week as part of a campaign against ritual killings of albinos. Activists say attackers have killed at least 75 albinos in the East African country since

 

Twitter main page - social networking site - Internet

VOA News Islamic State supporters used at least 46,000 Twitter accounts in late 2014, according to a report by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based research organization. The Brookings analysis found that typical backers of the militants

 

Ebola Survivors Emerge as New Focus for Care

Anne Look, Prince Collins MONROVIA, LIBERIA— As the Ebolaepidemic fades in intensity, medical concerns are shifting to the ongoing treatment of survivors. Many report persistent problems, from impaired vision to depression and fatigue to

 

This image provided by Human Rights Watch shows NSA leaker, Edward Snowden looking down during a press conference at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, Friday, July 12, 2013.

By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA, March 6 (Reuters) – EdwardSnowden has made a public appeal for Switzerland to grant him asylum, saying he would like to return to live in Geneva, where he once worked undercover for theCentral Intelligence Agency. The

Mars once had sea larger than the Earth’s Arctic Ocean: NasaArticleThe Times of India

06 Mar 2015

WASHINGTON: Ancient Mars was likely to have possessed a primitive ocean that held more water than the Earth‘s Arctic Ocean, the US space agency Nasa said. “Perhaps about 4.3 billion years ago, Mars would have had enough water to cover the entire surface in a liquid layer about 450 feet (137…  

NASA scientists have determined that a primitive ocean on Mars held more water than Earth's Arctic Ocean and that the Red Planet has lost 87 percent of that water to space.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, walks with Saud bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia

Pamela Dockins RIYADH— U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, meeting with Gulf state officials in Saudi Arabia Thursday, sought to ease their concerns about an Iran nuclear deal, saying the America would not “take our eye off Iran’s

 

FILE - This Jan. 9, 2013 file photo shows Jodi Arias appearing for her trial in Maricopa County Superior court in Phoenix. Live television coverage of Arias' penalty phase retrial will be banned and the case will remain in Phoenix despite defense arguments that intense publicity will make it difficult to find impartial jurors, a judge ruled this week.

Jodi Arias, the bespectacled murderess who tried to turn her elaborate sex life into a defense for the brutal killing of her ex-boyfriend, TravisAlexander, will not pay for her crime with her life. The jury of eight women and four men, which

 

Thomas Sankara

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Burkina Faso’s interim government has authorized the exhumation of the supposed grave of assassinated revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara. The family long has doubted that

 

A man sits under a banner with the photo of Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi as he drinks his tea at the " Al Mosheer Cafe" or "Marshal Cafe" in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2014.

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi reshuffled his Cabinet on Thursday, replacing the powerful minister in charge of the nation’s police along with six other ministers, state television reported.Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim,

 

File - In this March 20, 2013 photo, a North Korean flag hangs inside the interior of Pyongyang’s Supreme Court. Detained American Kenneth Bae has been condemned to 15 years of hard labour for 'hostile acts' against the state.

A pastor from a Canadian church has been detained by North Korea, his family and church have said. Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim went missing at the end of January. The Canadian foreign ministry have informed his family about his detention. A Canadian

 

Ebola Sierra Leone

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberia released its last Ebola patient, a 58-year old teacher, from a treatment center on Thursday, beginning its countdown to being declared Ebola free. “I am one of the happiest human beings today on earth because it was

 

FILE - This file photo provided Friday, April 19, 2013 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Jury selection for Tsarnaev's trial is scheduled to begin on Monday, Jan. 5, 2015, in federal court in Boston.

BOSTON (Reuters) – A lawyer for the accused Boston Marathonbomber said at the start of his trial that their client bore responsibility for the attacks that killed three people and injured 264 with a blunt admission: “It was him.” But Dzhokhar

The Unthinkable Was Not Mentioned in Netanyahu’s Speech

Full ArticleWorldNews.com

04 Mar 2015

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling Albert Einstein once said, “With the unleashed power of the atom everything has changed, save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe.” Having assisted in the development of the first atomic weapons, and then witnessing their appalling devastation against civilians,

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures as he speaks before a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 3, 2015.




FILE - This file photo provided Friday, April 19, 2013 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Jury selection for Tsarnaev's trial is scheduled to begin on Monday, Jan. 5, 2015, in federal court in Boston.

BOSTON (Reuters) – A lawyer for the accused Boston Marathonbomber said at the start of his trial that their client bore responsibility for the attacks that killed three people and injured 264 with a blunt admission: “It was him.” But Dzhokhar

 

Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he speaks at the Justice Department in Washington, Wednesday, March 4, 2015

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Xinhua) — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday said a widespread discrimination against the black communities existed among law enforcement officials in Ferguson, warning that the Department of Justice (DOJ) reserves

 

Chadian President Idriss Deby

VOA News The president of Chad says his forces know the location of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Nigerian insurgent group Boko Haram, and is calling on him to surrender or be killed. President Idriss Deby spoke Wednesday in

 

City Morning Sunrise,New York.

NEW YORK — A Pakistani man was found guilty Wednesday in a failed al-Qaida bomb plot after a New York trial that featured spies in disguise, evidence from the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound and the defendant’s questioning of an admitted

 

Michael Brown Dead on Street

The Justice Department won’t prosecute a former Ferguson, Missouri, police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed black 18-year-old, but in a scathing report released Wednesday faulted the city and its law enforcement for racial bias and

 

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., talks on a phone in Statuary Hall on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 in Washington.

US Secretary of State John Kerry says the United States and other countries involved in nuclear negotiations with Iran will not “be distracted by external factors or politics”. Kerry made the remarks on Wednesday inSwitzerland hours after

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a Security Council meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 28, 2014

(Bloomberg) — Russia’s Security Council accused the U.S. of plotting to oust President Vladimir Putin by financing the opposition and encouraging mass demonstrations, less than a week after a protest leader was murdered near the Kremlin. The U.S. is
photo: AP / RIA-Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service

Indonesia moves Australians ahead of expected executions

Full ArticleThe Times of India

04 Mar 2015

JAKARTA, Indonesia: Two convicted Australian drug smugglers arrived on Wednesday at an Indonesian island prison where they will be executed by firing squad along with seven other foreigners amid a diplomatic squabble with some of their governments. An Indonesian is also scheduled to be executed. The preparations at the execution site at

File - Australian Andrew Chan, right, and, and Myuran Sukumaran, left, stand inside a holding cell after their trial at a court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Japanese sloop-of-war Musashi at Kobe.

MANILA // Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen claims to have found one of Japan’s biggest and most famous battleships on a Philippine seabed, some 70 years after American forces sank it during the Second World War. On Wedensday, Mr Allen posted

 

Medical workers aid injured people at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion in Boston

Boston (CNN)Almost 23 months after a pair of ghastly explosions at the Boston Marathon, opening statements will begin Wednesday in the trial of accused bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev. Their remarks will bring back vivid memories of the carnage caused by two

 

India Women Supporters during the rally to Protest against the rape and sexual harrasment  at RR Avenue in Kolkata in Eastern India City

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A documentary film about the fatal gang rape of a woman in New Delhi in 2012 has been banned in India over concerns that derogatory comments made by one of the rapists could create an atmosphere of fear and tension, a police

 

Gay rights advocate Booker Garrett, of Manhattan, chants slogans during a rally for same sex marriage outside the LGBT gala fundraiser where President Barack Obama spoke, Thursday, June 23, 2011 in New York.

The Alabama Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the state’s probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, saying a previous federal ruling that gay-marriage bans violate the U.S. Constitution does not preclude them from following

 

Make Koala

Close to 700 koalas have been killed off by authorities in southeastern Australia because overpopulation led to the animals starving, a state minister has confirmed. Victorian Environment Minister Lisa Neville said on Wednesday that the koalas were

 

Lava fountain within Villarrica's crater The eruptions of lava are sometimes attended by peculiarities which impart to them much additional grandeur. Instances have occurred in which the molten stream has plunged over a sheer precipice of immense height,

One of South America’s most active volcanoes has erupted in southern Chile, spewing heavy smoke into the air as lava surged down its slopes, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands of people. The Villarrica volcano erupted around 3 am Tuesday

 

A Cambodian monk reads a booklet on the U.N,-backed genocide tribunal at a Battambang university in Battambang province, some 290 kilometers (180 miles) northwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, May 6, 2011, as the court officers distribute recent verdict books of Khmer Rouge leader Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch.

Kong Sothanarith PHNOM PENHCambodia‘s U.N.-backedKhmer Rouge tribunal has formally charged two more suspects with crimes against humanity, a development that comes days after Prime Minister Hun Senwarned against such a move. The international

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bright spotlight on Dawn mission to Ceres

Full ArticleBBC News

02 Mar 2015

Scientists say they are hugely excited to learn the origin of two bright spots on the surface of Ceres. The US space agency’s Dawn probe is bearing down on the dwarf planet and on Friday will be captured by its gravity. That will allow the satellite to spiral down in altitude in the coming months, to take ever sharper images of the spots,

This image was taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft of dwarf planet Ceres on Feb. 19, 2015, from a distance of nearly 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers). It shows that the brightest spot on Ceres has a dimmer companion, which apparently lies in the same basin

File - During a search and destroy mission in the Zhawar Kili area, U.S. Navy SEALs (SEa, Air, Land) found valuable intelligence information, including this Osama Bin Laden propaganda poster located in an al Qaida classroom. In addition to detaining several sus

Aimen Dean is a founder member of al-Qaeda, who changed tack in 1998 and became a spy for Britain’s security and intelligence services, MI5and MI6. Interviewed by Peter Marshall, he describes his years working inAfghanistan and London as one

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks at a press conference with Jordan’s Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh in Amman, Jordan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. Kerry warned Thursday of a return to violence if faltering peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians ultimately fail. He also rejected suggestions that he scale back his ambition to salvage the talks and forge a final settlement and interim agreement.

They have spent long hours alone together. They exchange private emails. Their walk along the Rhone river in Geneva in January so unnerved hardline lawmakers in Tehran that they signed a petition fretting about the duo’s unseemly “intimacy”. On

 

Cappuccino in India. Cafe Coffee Day in India uses the expression "A lot can happen over a cup of coffee.

People who drink three to five coffees a day are less likely to develop clogged arteries that could lead to heart attacks, a

 

President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands as they participate in a joint news conference, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, at the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem.

WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top U.S. officials were set to face off Monday in dueling speeches on the high-stakes Iran nuclear negotiations, a signature foreign policy objective of President Barack Obama. The backdrop

 

In this Thursday, Dec. 27, 2007 photo, an Israeli Air Force fighter plane lands during an acrobatics display at a graduation ceremony at the Hatzerim Air Force Base near the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. Israel appears increasingly confident that it would be able to deal a sharp setback to Iran's nuclear program, if not destroy it, through a military stri

Several Middle Eastern news outlets on Sunday, reported thatPresident Obama threatened to attack Israeli jets if they attempted to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities. Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reports that the alleged threat from the White House

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves the White House after a meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington, Monday, Nov. 9, 2009

(Bloomberg) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows what’s in a potential nuclear agreement with Iran and will ask the U.S. Congress to pose questions that may delay a deal, according to an official traveling with him. The official, who

 

Solar Impulse's Chief Executive Officer and pilot Andre Borschberg flies in the solar-powered HB-SIA prototype airplane during its first successful night flight attempt at Payerne airport, Thursday, July 8, 2010.

March 02: A solar-powered aircraft today successfully completed its third test flight in the UAE ahead of its planned round-the-world voyage, including India to promote alternative energy. An hour-long test of the The Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) was held

Deadly LAPD shooting of homeless man is caught on video

Full ArticleThe Los Angeles Times

02 Mar 2015

By Gale Holland and Jack Dolan contact the reporters Crime Shootings Los Angeles Police Department Video on Facebook shows LAPD officers fatally shooting homeless man on skid row on Sunday In a dramatic confrontation caught on video, Los Angeles police shot and killed a homeless man in the heart of downtown’s bustling skid row Sunday. A

Los Angeles police fatally shot a man on skid row during a struggle over an officer's weapons on 3 March 2015.

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.

(Bloomberg) — North Korea fired two short-range missiles into its eastern waters as the U.S. and South Korea began joint military drills that Kim Jong Un’s regime claims are preparations for an invasion of the isolated state. Both missiles were

 

The U.S. Navy assists in the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

CANBERRA – The search for missing Malaysia Airlines FlightMH370 cannot go on forever, Australia’s deputy prime minister said, and discussions are already under way between Australia, China and Malaysia as to whether to call off the hunt within

 

In this file photo taken Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013, a Nigerian soldier patrols in an armored car, during Eid al-Fitr celebrations, in Maiduguri, Nigeria. Graphic new video footage from northeastern Nigeria shows the country's military carrying out abuses against civilians as part of their fight against the Islamic extremists of Boko Haram, Amnesty International said Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014.

BAUCHI, Nigeria (AP) — A crowd beat to death a teenage girl accused of planning to be a suicide bomber and then set her body ablaze Sunday, according to police and witnesses at a northeastern Nigerian market. A second suspect, also a teenage girl,

 

Uruguay's president Tabare Vazquez. Attempts to reform the 1830 constitution in 1966 led to the adoption of an entirely new document in 1967. A constitution proposed under a military revolution in 1980 was rejected by a vote of the entire electorate.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — One leftist leader replaced another in Ecuador on Sunday, a change seemingly marked more by style than differences in policy as the elegant Tabare Vazquez took over from the famously casual Jose Mujica, who formally left

 

Yemenis attend a pro-election rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Feb. 20, 2012. Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, is to become president after a vote Tuesday in which he is the only candidate. The campaign poster, background shows Mansour Hadi.

Reuters ADEN— President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi accused his predecessor on Sunday of conspiring with Iran to scuttle a 2011 deal backed byGulf states to transfer power to him in cooperation with the Shi’ite Muslim Houthi group. Hadi assumed

 

File - In this Wednesday, April 11, 2012 photo, a Tuareg separatist rebel from the NMLA (National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad) stands guard at a checkpoint near the airport in Timbuktu, Mali.

VOA News Mali‘s government signed a preliminary peace deal with some of the country’s northern separatists groups, but the main Tuareg rebel alliance has asked for

 

Iraq Sunni Protests

VOA News More than 600 civilians were killed in acts of terrorism and violence in Iraq last month, bringing the death toll to nearly 11,000in the past year, according to the latest estimates from the United Nations. While February was the least

With IS rising, West ponders if Syria’s Assad is ‘lesser evil’

Full ArticleDawn

01 Mar 2015

PARIS: Faced with a seemingly unending bloody conflict in Syria and the rise of the self-styled Islamic State group, is President Bashar al-Assad the lesser of the country’s evils and should the West re-engage with him? While world powers such as the United States, France and Britain refuse to have anything to do with a leader the French prime

In this image posted on a militant social media account by the Al-Baraka division of the Islamic State group on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015, Islamic State militants ride in a Kurdish popular protection unit (YPG) vehicle captured during fighting in Tal Tamr, Hassakeh province, Syria.




Boko Haram: Thousands march in Cameroon to protest against the Islamist terror movement

Full ArticleThe Independent

01 Mar 2015

Thousands of people marched in Cameroon’s capital yesterday to protest againstBoko Haram, the Islamist terrorist movement based in northeast Nigeria, but also active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon. The marchers in Yaounde also showed their support for the army, which is fighting alongside regional neighbours to defeat the Islamist group. The

Cameroonian people gather to protest against Islamic extremists attacks in Yaounde, Cameroon, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015.




Pastients wear masks to keep away from the threat of Swine Flu outside the hospital in Srinagar Saturday on 21, February 2015.

PTI The swine flu epidemic has claimed the lives of 36 more people, taking the total death toll in the country to 1,041. The number of people affected by the virus also stands at 19,000

 

Saint Basil's Cathedral and Spasskaya Tower of Moscow Kremlin at Red Square in Moscow

Russian officials investigating the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov have claimed Islamist extremists may have been behind his death. Other possible motives listed by the Investigative Committee, which hasVladimir Putin as its

 

A Sri Lankan navy sailor keeps watch as he patrols in a naval craft off Kalpitiya, north of the capital Colombo, Sri Lanka on in this Sunday, July 2, 2006 file photo. Sri Lankan naval gunships battled Tamil rebel boats off the island's northwest coast Friday, April 6, 2007, the military and rebels said, both sides claiming to have destroyed enemy craft.

In a move apparently aimed at allaying India‘s concerns, the new Sri Lankan government today said it will not allow Chinese submarines to dock in its ports while acknowledging that such a docking did take place coinciding with the Japanese Prime

 

Hamas supporters attend a rally to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Islamist movement, in Gaza City on December 8, 2012. to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Islamist movement. More than 400,000 Palestinians gathered in Gaza for the rally to mark the occasion during which Meshaal delivered a speech.Photo by Ahmed Deeb / WN

An Egyptian court has listed the Palestinian group Hamas as a terrorist organisation, accusing it of supporting an insurgency in northern Sinai. The ruling comes a month after a different court labelled the armed wing of Hamas as a terrorist group.

 

 A masked Kurdish demonstrator holds posters of imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and PKK banners during a rally in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Sept. 3, 2006. Thousands of Kurdish demonstrators, chanting slogans in support of Abdullah Ocalan a

Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the pro-independence Kurdish fighters in Turkey, has called on his followers to lay down their arms. A Kurdish lawmaker of the Turkish parliament on Saturday read a message from Ocalan, in

 

Citizens inspect the site of a car bomb attack while security forces prepare to tow away a destroyed car in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 30, 2013.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Car bombs targeting a crowded market andShiite militia checkpoints north of Iraq‘s capital killed 27 people Saturday, authorities said, as the country’s prime minister vowed to punish Islamic Statemilitants who smashed ancient

US President Barack Obama, left, and French President Francois Hollande look out over Omaha beach

LONDON (Reuters) – The murder of Boris Nemtsov drew condemnation on Saturday from leaders and politicians around the world, who paid tribute to the outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin and Russia‘s role in the Ukraine crisis. The Russian

Chinese diplomat tells West to consider Russia’s security concerns over Ukraine

Full ArticleReuters

27 Feb 2015

BEIJING (Reuters) – Western powers should take into consideration Russia‘s legitimate security concerns over Ukraine, a top Chinese diplomat has said in an unusually frank and open display of support for Moscow‘s position in the crisis. QuXing, China’s ambassador to Belgium, was quoted by state news agency Xinhualate on Thursday as blaming

 

 

File - Pro-Russian rebels ride atop a car to their positions not far from the Donetsk Sergey Prokofiev International Airport in the city of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014.






‘Jihadi John’: Haines widow wants militant caught alive

Full ArticleBBC News

27 Feb 2015

The widow of a man killed by a masked Islamic State militant known as “JihadiJohn” says she wants him caught alive. Dragana Haines says the “last thing” she wants for the man who killed her husband, British aid worker David Haines, is an “honourable death”. The militant, pictured in the videos of the beheadings of

'Jihadi John': Haines widow wants militant caught alive




Former British rocker Gary Glitter smiles at journalists prior to his verdict and sentencing at Ba Ria-Vung, Vung Tau province People's Court in Vietnam on March 3, 2006. Glitter, convicted of molesting two Vietnamese girls, may be released early from his three-year prison sentence, a prison official said Wednesday, Jan. 10,

LONDON (AP) – Former pop star Gary Glitter has received a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted of sexually abusing three young girls in the 1970s. The 70-year-old singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, showed no response as he was sentenced

 

 Apple macintosh-apple logo (sl1)

Wireless equipment maker Ericsson is suing Apple for alleged patent infringement. [TICON-A POLL] The Swedish company said it has filed two complaints with the International Trade Commission and seven complaints with a federal court in the Eastern

 

Scene from the ambulance depot near the Western Area Emergency Response Center in Freetown, Sierra Leone, 15 December, 2014. Ambulances have to be disinfected with chlorine after each trip carrying suspected Ebola cases.

Reuters A new research has revealed that a compound found in an Asian herb may help in treating Ebola. Dr. Robert Davey, scientist and EwingHalsell Scholar in the Department of Immunology and

 

Isis fighters destroy ancient artefacts at Mosul museum.

Footage shows Islamic State militants in Iraq smashing statues with sledgehammers in bid to crush what they call non-Islamic ideas

 

This image made from video posted on the Internet by Islamic State militants and provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. terrorism watchdog, on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014, purports to show British aid worker David Haines before he was beheaded.

LONDON (AP) — The world knows him as “Jihadi John,” the masked, knife-wielding militant in videos showing Western hostages being beheaded by the Islamic State group. A growing body of evidence suggests he is a London-raised university graduate,

 

President Cristina Kirchner unveils a bust of President Alfonsín at the Casa Rosada. Alfonsín is seated in the middle.

(Bloomberg) — An Argentine judge dismissed charges filed against President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, a week after more than a quarter of a million took to the streets in memory of the deceased prosecutor who had made the accusations. Judge

 

Sir Jimmy Savile Leading the pipe band through Fort William to the Lochaber Highland Games in his capacity as Honorary Chieftain of the games.

LONDON (AP) — Two new reports into widespread sex abuse by the late BBC entertainer Jimmy Savile have found that victims’ complaints about his activities were ignored. The reports released Thursday showed an extensive pattern of abuse by Savile at

 

 

 

 

 

Ex-Marine convicted in ‘Sniper’ trial faces life in prison

Full ArticleBoston Herald

25 Feb 2015

STEPHENVILLE, Texas — A Texas jury has rejected the insanity defense of a formerMarine in the deaths of famed “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle and another man. After a two-week trial in which jurors heard testimony about defendant Eddie Ray Routh’s erratic behavior, including statements about anarchy, the apocalypse and pig-human hybrids, they

Former Marine Cpl. Eddie Ray Routh stands during his capital murder trial at the Erath County, Donald R. Jones Justice Center in Stephenville Texas, on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015.

Afghan villagers look on in a village close to an avalanche site in Panjshir province north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015.

By Mirwais Harooni KABUL, Feb 26 (Reuters) – More than 180people have been killed in north Afghanistan in some of the worst avalanches there for 30 years, officials said on Thursday, with heavy snow set to last for two more days after an unusually

 

Turkish and Afghan security personal inspect a damaged vehicle at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015.

KABUL: A Taliban suicide attack targeting a Turkish diplomatic vehicle belonging to the Nato mission killed two people in Kabul Thursday, highlighting the fragile security situation as the Afghan government presses for talks with the militants. The

 

In this Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012 file photo, Syrians walk past damaged homes during heavy fighting between Free Syrian Army fighters and government forces in Aleppo, Syria.

BEIRUT: Islamic State group militants have moved a large group of Christian hostages to a city they control in northeastern Syria, while they continue to battle Kurdish and Christian militiamen for control of a chain of villages along the Khabur

 

Armed vehicles are seen driving as the sun rises over a desert road leading south out of Misrata, Libya, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011.

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – The president of Libya’s elected parliament has proposed appointing army general Khalifa Haftar as top army commander, parliament’s spokesman said on Wednesday. The decision shows the increasing influence of

 

Syrian citizens pass by a poster of Syrian President Bashar Assad, in the southern city of Daraa, Syria, on Monday March 21, 2011.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met on Wednesday with French parliamentarians, the first such meeting since Franceclosed its embassy in 2012 and announced that Syria‘s leader had lost all legitimacy. The trip was not

 

File - This vista from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows "Wdowiak Ridge," from left foreground to center, as part of a northward look with the rover's tracks visible at right. Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) recorded the component images for this mosaic on Sept. 17, 2014.

The latest self-portrait shows a sweeping view of the ‘PahrumpHills‘ outcrop on Mars where Nasa’s Curiosity rover has been working for five months. Image Courtesy : Nasa/ Twitter Washington – Nasa’s Curiosity rover

 

Relatives of Salafist prisoners being held by Hamas hold an Al-Qaeda-affiliated flag during a demonstration calling for their release in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 6, 2013. The Islamist movement Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, has regularly cracked down on hardline Salafists in the territory, notably in 2009.P Photo by Photo by Ahmed Deeb / WN

By Kieran Guilbert LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Governments are failing to protect millions of civilians from violence by states and armed groups, Amnesty International said on Wednesday, describing the global response to widespread conflict

Obama vetoes Keystone XL pipeline, leaving it in limbo

Full ArticleReuters

25 Feb 2015

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Tuesday, as promised, swiftly vetoed a Republican bill approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline, leaving the long-debated project in limbo for another indefinite period. The U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, after receiving Obama‘s veto message, immediately countered by announcing the

Obama vetoes Keystone XL pipeline

File - This vista from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows "Wdowiak Ridge," from left foreground to center, as part of a northward look with the rover's tracks visible at right. Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) recorded the component images for this mosaic on Sept. 17, 2014.

The latest self-portrait shows a sweeping view of the ‘PahrumpHills‘ outcrop on Mars where Nasa’s Curiosity rover has been working for five months. Image Courtesy : Nasa/ Twitter Washington – Nasa’s Curiosity rover

 

File - People gather at the scene of a car bomb explosion, at the central market, in Maiduguri, Nigeria, Tuesday, July 1, 2014.

POTISKUM, NigeriaTeenage suicide bombers, suspected to be Boko Haram extremists, killed at least 24 people in separate blasts Tuesday at crowded bus stations in two northern Nigerian cities 200 miles apart. In an apparently unrelated development,

 

Czech OKV-P police armoured car in Prague during the visit of US president George W. Bush, June 2007.

According to the Guardian, Patrik Kun?ar, mayor of Uherský Brod, confirmed that the gunman, “a local man aged about 60, was among the dead.” A report made by the Independent reveals that the shooting seems to have taken place at lunchtime

 

Civilians inspect the scene of a car bomb attack in the Kamaliyah neighborhood, a predominantly Shiite area of eastern Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, May 20, 2013.

A series of bombings in Baghdad and near the Iraqi capital killed at least 23 people on Tuesday, officials said. The deadliest of the day’s attacks came shortly before sunset, when a bomb exploded in a street in Baghdad’s southeastern suburb of Jisr

 

Gunmen patrol after clashes with Iraqi security forces in Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014.

Islamic State fighters have reportedly abducted at least 70 people from Assyrian Christians villages in northeastern Syria, reigniting concerns about the plight of religious minorities in regions under threat of IS attacks. The British-based Syrian

 

A bus drives by a convoy transporting artillery pieces, outside the city of Donetsk, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015. Howitzers were seen moving east Tuesday from the largest rebel-held city in eastern Ukraine further into separatist-controlled territory, but the Ukrainian government disputed the rebels' claim that a heavy weapons pullback had begun.

Howitzers were seen moving east from the largest rebel-held city in eastern Ukraine further into separatist-controlled territory, but the Ukrainian government disputed the Russian-backed rebels’ claim that a weapons pullback had begun. A peace plan

 

Egyptian riot police officers secure a square to prevent any anti-government activists to gather, in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011.

Ex-premier Ahmed Nazif and former interior minister Habib Al Adly were sentenced to jail after Mubarak’s 2011 overthrow for a deal to import licence plates from German company Utsch at an exorbitant price. Cairo — AnEgyptian court acquitted a

UN says ISIL abuses in Iraq may amount to genocide

Full ArticleAl Jazeera

24 Feb 2015
A new UN report has documented widespread human rights violations committed in Iraq between September and December last year. The , produced jointly by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was released… 
Nickolay Mladenov, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), speaks to journalists following a Security Council meeting on the situation in Iraq, 17 February, 2015.

Maldives President Mohammed Waheed Hassan addresses the public after the commission of national inquiry released its report in Male, Maldives, Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012. A domestic inquiry commission in the Maldives Thursday concluded that former president Mohamed Nasheed's resignation earlier this year was legal, and that he was not forced to step down at gunpoint as he claims. Nasheed has rejected the report and his supporters have resumed street protests in the Indian Ocean nation. Nasheed resigned in February after public protests and losing support from military and police. The commission was set up to investigate allegations that mutinying police and soldiers forced him to resign.

NEW DELHI: India on Monday reacted cautiously to the developments in Maldives and expressed concern over the arrest of former president Mohamed Nasheed again. Nasheed was arrested on terrorism charges on Sunday even though the offence cited relates

 

Simone Gbagbo, wife of Laurent Gbagbo, reacts during a pro-Gbagbo rally at the Palace of Culture in the Treichville neighborhood of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011. As the political standoff continues, Gbagbo backers are holding regular rallies to bolster support for the incumbent strongman who refuses to concede defeat to his rival, recognized internationally as the winner of the November poll.

ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Simone Gbagbo, Ivory Coast‘s former first lady, on Monday rejected charges of rebellion and xenophobia, in her first public statements at a trial over her role in a conflict that erupted after a contested 2010 election. Gbagbo is

Bangladeshis watch a rescue operation after a ferry capsized, on the banks of the Meghna River at Munshiganj, 32 kilometers (20 miles) south of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013.

Bangladeshi rescue workers attempt to lift the wreckage of a ferry that capsized after colliding with a cargo vessel in the Padma River inManikganj district, about 40 kilometres northwest of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo:A.M. Ahad Dhaka: The death toll

 

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat is seen during an interview with The Associated Press at his office in Jerusalem, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013. Barkat said any partition of the city as part of a future peace agreement will not work, insisting only a united city could function and thrive.

REUTERS/Baz RatnerJerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat (C) walks after praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City October 23, 2013. Barkat won re-election on Wednesday in a hotly contested race that dealt a political blow to his challenger’s main

 

Alaa Abdel Fattah

By Shadi Bushra and Ali Abdelaty CAIRO, Feb 23 (Reuters) – AnEgyptian court sentenced a prominent activist to five years in jail on Monday for violating limits on demonstrations, part of one of the toughest crackdowns on dissent in Egypt‘s history.

 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, center, and President of the World Jewish Congress Ronald S. Lauder, right, arrive at the opening dinner of the World Jewish Congress in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, May 05, 2013.

Reuters BUDAPEST— Hungary‘s ruling right-wing alliance lost its two-thirds majority in parliament after the opposition won a by-election on Sunday, hampering Prime Minister Viktor Orban‘s chances of changing the constitution and passing major

 

Mamie Morris lost her husband in November as he died from the Ebola virus. She lives in King Robert Farm, a suburb or Monrovia, Liberia together with her 3 children and has to support the whole family on her own . The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has produced increasing circles of victims beyond the infected and the dead. Survivors, families, children, and health workers are dealing with the stress and trauma left behind by the disease. Psychosocial support is an approach that helps victims of Ebola to cope with stress and fosters resilience in communities and individuals affected.   A team of 4 psychosocial workers and a supervisor from Action Contre la Faim (ACF) visit twice a week residents in some areas on Montserado in King Robert Farm to meet the only survivor in this village and affected families. UNMEER has provided ACF 9 cars to help it with logistics in reaching communities for contact tracing work and psycho social work. UN/Martine Perret. 2 February 2015

James Butty A Liberian health ministry official said the country will continue to observe all Ebola preventive protocols and regulations until it achieves “zero infections.” This came as President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Sunday ordered the

Somalia extremists urge attacks on United States shopping malls

Full ArticleThe Malta Independent

23 Feb 2015

A video purported to be by Somalia‘s al-Qaida-linked rebel group al-Shabab urged Muslims to attack shopping malls in the U.S., Canada, Britain and other Western countries. U.S. authorities said there was “no credible” evidence suggesting a U.S. mall attack was in the works. The threat by the al-Qaida affiliate came in the final minutes of a

File - Inside Mall of America, at Bloomington, Minnesota, United States.

 

 

 

 

 

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan walks before a ceremony outside his office in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011.

New position of the Suleyman Shah mausoleum is pictured from Turkish side of the border as Turkish army vehicles move inside Syria. Photo:AFP Ankara: Almost 600 Turkish troops pushed deep into Syria early on Sunday in an unprecedented incursion,

 

Demonstrators gather during a rally in downtown Kiev, Ukraine, on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013.

Ukraine officials say they fear unrest could spread beyond territory held by pro-Russian separatists, after an explosion killed two people at a memorial rally in an eastern city far from the front line. Kiev said it arrested four people who had been

 

In this undated but recent photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co., the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant reactors stand in line intact in Okumamachi in Fukushima Prefecture (state), northeastern Japan. Reactors encased in square boxes, from left, are: Unit 4, Unit 3, Unit 2, Unit 1, Unit 5 and Unit 6.

Emergency inspections of tanks storing nuclear waste water did not find any additional abnormalities. Tokyo: Sensors at the Fukushima nuclear plant have detected a fresh leak of highly radioactive water to the sea, the plant’soperator announced
photo: AP / Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Cincinnati exhibit on Auschwitz shows how hope can thrive amid despair

CINCINNATI — Visitors can explore the very depths of human cruelty — but also the heights of human hope and perseverance — at a new exhibit on the Holocaust running through May 26. “Unlocking the Gates of AuschwitzSeventy Years Later” opened in late

 

Sisi's new, old war in Libya

Story highlights Egypt has had a dismal record in hostage situations, with failures in negotiating the safe release of hostages starting from the 1970s. The air strikes were popular among regime supporters. The Sisiregime’s strategy can have

 

View of central London from Primrose Hill, London.

The family of a Scottish woman suspected of encouraging threeLondon schoolgirls to join militants in Syria says security services “failed”. Aqsa Mahmood, 20, who went to Syria to be a “jihadi bride” in 2013, reportedly had online
photo: WN / Periasamy

Mortar shells kill 2, injure 20 in Syria’s Aleppo

Foreign-backed militants’ rocket attacks have killed at least two people and wounded 20 others in Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo. The deadly incident occurred in Aleppo’s strategic district of al-Midan and Bustan Kell-app area

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Astronauts and cable guys

22 Feb 2015

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.Spacewalking astronauts routed more than 300 feet of cable outside the International Space Station on Saturday, tricky and tiring advance work for the arrival of new American-made crew capsules. It was the first of three spacewalks planned for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Terry Virtsover the coming week. Altogether,

Spacewalkers Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts worked to set up 340 feet of cable on Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 readying it for an International Docking Adapter to accommodate future commercial crew vehicles for the International Space Station, 21 February, 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

Cincinnati exhibit on Auschwitz shows how hope can thrive amid despair

CINCINNATI — Visitors can explore the very depths of human cruelty — but also the heights of human hope and perseverance — at a new exhibit on the Holocaust running through May 26. “Unlocking the Gates of AuschwitzSeventy Years Later” opened in late

 

Sisi's new, old war in Libya

Story highlights Egypt has had a dismal record in hostage situations, with failures in negotiating the safe release of hostages starting from the 1970s. The air strikes were popular among regime supporters. The Sisiregime’s strategy can have

 

Mortar shells kill 2, injure 20 in Syria’s Aleppo

Foreign-backed militants’ rocket attacks have killed at least two people and wounded 20 others in Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo. The deadly incident occurred in Aleppo’s strategic district of al-Midan and Bustan Kell-app area

 

89 children abducted by militia in South Sudan

JUBA: An unidentified South Sudan armed group has abducted at least 89 boys, some as young as 13, from their homes in the north of the country, Unicef said on Saturday. “Eighty-nine children were abducted ,” a statement said, adding that “the

 

U.S. National Guard protected Mexican drug shipments and traffickers

In a joint Department of Justice (DOJ) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) far-reaching investigation, members of the Arizona National Guard, including military recruiters were discovered working as “muscle” and “traffickers” for Mexican

 

Training Afghan army officers

The next generation of Afghan army officers is being forged in a rigorous training camp near Kabul, which aims to produce men and women of the highest calibre to lead their country in the fight against the insurgency. This story focuses on profile of

A family of Tibetan nomads — they're real, not actors — poses before an Asian backdrop in a new fictional short film.

Tibetan Villagers Pose Before Backdrops, Earn Oscar Nomination

They’re photographed in front of Asian scenes, a beach, Disneyland. It’s a fictional film called Butter Lamp. And it has a real message.

 

 

 

 

 

Greece wins eurozone extension deal with strict conditions

21 Feb 2015
BRUSSELS: Europe on Friday granted Greece a crucial four-month extension to its massive debt bailout, offering
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis speaks during a media conference after a meeting of eurogroup finance ministers in Brussels on Friday, Feb. 20, 2015.

Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, attends the 12th African Union Summit Feb. 2, 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In the twilight of his political career, Zimbabwean presidentRobert Mugabe has outmanoeuvred many of the detractors who have tried to undermine his rule over the past decades. His ruthless purge in December of Zanu-PF’s influential vice-president,

 

Alexis Tsipras, head of the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) exits the Presidential Palace after his meeting with Greek President Karolos Papoulias, to formally take the mandate to form a coalition government in Athens, Tuesday, May 8, 2012.

Eurozone finance ministers agreed Friday to extend Greece‘s bailout loan program for four months, overcoming a Greece-Germany stand-off.Greek officials are expected to present a list of comprehensive reforms on Monday for the country’s debt

 

Earthquake Rattles New York  on Tuesday Afternoon 23 Aug '2011.

FRANKFURT – US and British spies hacked into the world’s biggest maker of phone SIM cards, allowing them to potentially monitor the calls, texts and emails of billions of mobile users around the world, an investigative news website reported. The

 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Ukrainian president-elect Petro Poroshenko

VOA News France and Germany have pressed again for respect for the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine and withdrawal of heavy weaponry, threatening new costs if warring sides there don’t comply with last week’s truce deal. Speaking Friday to

In this undated photo released by the Korean Central News Agency and distributed in Tokyo by the Korea News Service Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second from left, and his wife Ri Sol Ju clap hands as they watch a performance of the Moranbong Band to celebrate the 59th anniversary of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, in an undisclosed location of North Korea.

North Korea‘s Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un, has unveiled a daring new haircut — a longer, more voluminous version of his previous style. While the reason for the change remains a mystery, the inspiration seems apparent, according to Twitter. Here’s a

 

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, top, seen during a judo training at a sports school in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, Dec. 18, 2009

NBC News reports Putin was quoted from an address he plans to give on the Defenders’ of the Fatherland Day holiday. “No one should have the illusion that they can gain military superiority over Russia, put any kind of pressure on it. We

 

Over 40,000 displaced in Darfur in 2015

United Nations, February 20: Over 40,000 people have been displaced by conflict in Sudan‘s north and central Darfur region since the beginning of 2015, a UN spokesman said. “The UN Office for the Coordination ofHumanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that

Ukraine: UK and EU ‘badly misread’ Russia

Full ArticleBBC News

20 Feb 2015

Britain and the European Union have been accused of a “catastrophic misreading” of the mood in the Kremlin in the run up to the crisis in Ukraine. The House of Lords EU committee claimed Europe “sleepwalked” into the crisis. The EU had not realised the depth of Russian hostility to its plans for closer relations with Ukraine, it

 

Ukrainian army soldiers move to a position near the village of Dovgenke, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine Tuesday, June 24, 2014.




Tough Talks On Greek Debt As D-Day Looms

Full ArticleOrange News

20 Feb 2015
20 February 2015, 1:54 Tough Talks On Greek Debt As D-Day Looms Tweet These could well prove the most important few days in the euro’s existence. In the corridors and meeting rooms of the Justus Lipsus building in Brussels, Greece and its euro counterparts have been charged with discussing how to keep the struggling nation in the single currency.
A protesting truck driver hold a Greek flag as he protests in front of Riot police outside the Greek parliament in central Athens, on Friday, July 30, 2010.




Over 40,000 displaced in Darfur in 2015

United Nations, February 20: Over 40,000 people have been displaced by conflict in Sudan‘s north and central Darfur region since the beginning of 2015, a UN spokesman said. “The UN Office for the Coordination ofHumanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that

 

 Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani speaks to law enforcement officials Friday, Sept. 14, 2007, at the Louisiana Sheriff´s Association Building in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Tim Mueller)   (js1)

Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York and 2008 presidential candidate, raised some eyebrows when he spoke at a private function attended byRepublican businessmen and conservative pundits. He informed them thatPresident Barack Obama does love

Alexey Navalny

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia‘s leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in custody for handing out leaflets in the subway. A district court in Moscow ruled Thursday that Navalny, an anti-corruption crusader who spearheaded

 

Track map of Severe Tropical Cyclone Marcia of the 2014-15 Australian region cyclone season. The points show the location of the storm at 6-hour intervals. The colour represents the storm's maximum sustained wind speeds as classified in the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale

A “very destructive” storm has hit the coast of Queensland, forcing evacuations from coastal communities, Australian officials say. Forecasters warn Category Five tropical cyclone Marcia – with wind gusts up to 285km/h (177mph) – is

 

In this Monday, Dec. 17, 2012 photo, Syrian rebels listen to their trainer on how to use a rocket propelled grenade in Maaret Ikhwan, near Idlib, Syria.

VOA News The United States and Turkey signed an agreement to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels fighting the Islamic State terrorist group. The agreement was signed Thursday by the

German Chancellor Angela Merkel looks to the top during the 'Petersburg Dialogue' in the Munich residence Thursday, July 16, 2009

Germany on Thursday rejected debt-ridden Greece‘s bid for a six-month extension of its bailout, but Athens later said that the country’s premier had a “constructive” phone call with Germany’s leader about the financial crisis.Premier Alexis Tsipras

 

In this photo taken Saturday, April 14, 2012, Tuareg fighters from the NMLA (National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad) sit in their vehicle, in a market in Timbuktu, Mali.

The Malian government has signed a ceasefire deal with rebels in a bid to end long-running unrest in the country’s north. As part of a UN-sponsored peace

Celebrations mark Lunar New Year around the world

Full ArticleBBC News

19 Feb 2015

19 February 2015 Last updated at 02:41 GMT People across Asia and throughout the world have been celebrating the start of the Lunar New Year – the year of the sheep. The leader of Hong Kong said citizens should be more like sheep in the coming year – mild, gentle and peaceful. He was referring to the pro-democracy protests of the past year. Ben

A boy touches a lion dancer while performing at the opening of Ditan Temple Fair on the Lunar New Year's Eve in Beijing, China Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015. According to the Lunar calendar, Chinese will celebrate the Lunar New Year on Feb. 19 this year which marks the Year of the Sheep.

A coral branch lies uprooted on the ocean floor in Andaman and Nicobar islands, Friday, Jan. 14, 2005. Coral reefs in India's remote Andaman and Nicobar island  chain have been badly badly damaged by the tsunami waves and are in danger of being smothered by sand deposits, a team of marine researchers say.

Worldwide bleaching of coral would be only third such event in recent history, driven by high ocean temperatures caused by global warming,RTCC reports

 

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra smiles during her meeting with Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying in Hong Kong Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013.

Thailand‘s attorney general has pressed criminal charges against former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra for negligence related to her government’s money-losing rice subsidy scheme. The prosecutors’ office submitted 20 boxes of the case’s documents

 

President Barack Obama speaks at the at the Urban and Metropolitan Policy Roundtable at the Eisenhower Old Executive Office Building in Washington, Monday, July 13, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C.President Barack Obama has chosenJoseph Clancy as the new head of the U.S. Secret Service, the White House said on Wednesday, after a series of high profile security lapses led to a shake-up in the troubled agency’s leadership.

 

 In this photograph of a drawing by AP sketch artist Janet Hamlin, reviewed by U.S. Military officials, detainee David Hicks, left, sits with his defense council in the U.S. military courtroom in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Monday, March 26, 2007. Held at Gu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. military appeals court on Wednesday threw out the conviction of Australian David Hicks on a terrorism-related charge, saying the activity for which he was convicted did not become a crime until years after he was

Greece's lawmakers attend the second round of voting to elect a new Greek president at the Parliament in Athens on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014

ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s parliament elected a conservative law professor and veteran politician Wednesday as the country’s new president, after he received support from the new left-wing government and main center-right opposition party.

 

For much of South, no relief from winter storm, cold spell

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) ? For the South, the storm that dumped a foot of snow in some places was only the beginning. Low temperatures gripped the region Wednesday, freezing and refreezing the snow and ice and making the roads as hazardous as they were

 

One college fights South Sudan's civil war in the classroom

At the chiming of small hand bells, 100 teachers-in-training at the Yei Teacher Training College (YTTC) shuttle between lectures on education philosophy, mathematics, and English. There are no holidays here – seats are filled year round – and classes
photo: US Army

HSBC tax leaks: Bank’s Geneva office raided by Swiss police over money laundering

18 Feb 2015

Swiss prosecutors and police have raided the Geneva offices of HSBC Private Bankas they launched a criminal investigation

HSBC tax leaks: Bank's Geneva office raided by Swiss police over money laundering




Ukraine troops withdrawing from embattled Debaltseve

Full ArticleStars and Stripes

18 Feb 2015

ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine — Ukraine has pulled most of its troops out of Debaltseve, the epicenter of recent fighting in war-torn eastern Ukraine, the president confirmed Wednesday. The Russia-backed separatists reported taking hundreds of soldiers captive as they continued their onslaught on the strategic railroad junction.Associated Press reporters saw

Ukrainian government soldiers sit on top of their armored vehicle driving on a road stretching away from the town of Artemivsk, Ukraine, towards Debaltseve, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015.




In this image made on Monday, Feb. 16, 2015 from an interactive graphic from Baidu, the Chinese Internet portal, lines tracing the trips of individual travelers provide a "heat map" of the massive migration home from the big cities ahead of China's Lunar New Year.

(CNN)Although Lunar New Year in China doesn’t officially start until February 19, the epic homecoming party began earlier this month. Chunyun, or spring migration, is the world’s largest annual human migration. It’s triggered in part by millions of

 

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden waves as he arrives in Georgia's capital Tbilisi, Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Share World News Videos | US News Videos Copy Vice President Joe Biden kicked off a three-day White House summit on combating violent extremism with a call for “answers that go beyond force.” “We need answers that go beyond a military answer,” Biden

 

President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally for New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, N.J., Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009.

The White House will suspend plans to begin giving more than 4 million immigrants here illegally work permits as it pursues an appeal of a Texasfederal judge’s ruling that temporarily blocks President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration.

 

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

By Tim Cocks LAGOS (Reuters) – Explosions hit an opposition political rally in southern Nigeria on Tuesday and Islamist insurgents struck in the north, with unrest spreading after a presidential election was postponed. A police officer was killed and

 

Canada Body Parts

Luka Magnotta, 32, was found guilty in December of killing and dismembering Jun Lin, whose body parts were found in the trash in Montreal

 

Argentina's Foreign Minister Hector Timerman sits in the United Nations Security Council president's seat, Tuesday Aug. 6, 2013.

Reuters BUENOS AIRESArgentina wants the United States to help it get to the bottom of a deadly 1994 bombing at the heart of a current political scandal by including the crime in the U.S. nuclear talks with Iran, its foreign minister said on

 

In this image shot with an extreme telephoto lens and through haze from the outskirts of Suruc at the Turkey-Syria border, militants with the Islamic State group are seen after placing their group's flag on a hilltop at the eastern side of the town of Kobani, Syria, where fighting had been intensified between Syrian Kurds and the militants of Islamic State group, Monday, Oct. 6, 2014. Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab and its surrounding areas have been under attack since mid-September, with militants capturing dozens of nearby Kurdish villages.

Precisely who the people were and why they were killed in this brutal fashion is not yet clear, although Col Qasim al-Obeidi said he believed some were members of the Iraqi security forces, therefore technically, not “innocent civilians.”

Another  SPY PROGRAM EXPOSED: NSA has hidden software in hard drives around the world

tehran iran skylineShutterstockThe most infections were seen in Iran.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world’s computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives.

That long-sought and closely guarded ability was part of a cluster of spying programs discovered by Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based security software maker that has exposed a series of Western cyberespionage operations.

Kaspersky said it found personal computers in 30 countries infected with one or more of the spying programs, with the most infections seen in Iran, followed by Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen, and Algeria. The targets included government and military institutions, telecommunication companies, banks, energy companies, nuclear researchers, media, and Islamic activists, Kaspersky said. 




Ukraine truce fades as sides refuse to withdraw big guns

Full ArticleReuters

17 Feb 2015

DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters) – Government forces and pro-Russian separatists said they would not carry out an agreement to pull back heavy guns in east Ukraine on Tuesday, pushing a shaky peace deal closer to collapse. Fighting has eased in many areas since a ceasefire came into force on Sunday, but the rebels have refused to halt attacks on a town

A pro-Russian gunman prepares his weapon as his comrades are about to storm a regional police station building in Luhansk, Ukraine, one of the largest cities in Ukraine's troubled east, Tuesday, April 29, 2014, as demonstrators demand greater autonomy for Ukraine's regions.

China assumes leading role in Afghan reconciliation

China is set to make history by helping prevent neighbouringAfghanistan from sliding into complete chaos after Western forces ended their combat mission in the mountainous nation. A year after economic and security interests prompted China to assume
photo: US DoD

Winter storm slams into the South

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Snow swirled sideways in Kentucky and the typically bustling state capital of Frankfort came to a frozen halt Monday as a storm walloped parts of the South, which unlike the Northeast had been mostly spared this winter. That all

 

A radiation detection device sits as new evacuees arrive for screening at an evacuee center for leaked radiation from the damaged Fukushima nuclear facilities, Monday, March 21, 2011, in Fukushima, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Despite living in such proximity to the Fukushima nuclear facility, evacuees at the shelter had never had an emergency drill to prepare them for a nuclear disaster.

Nuclear reactors in the region as have been off-line since the2011 earthquake and tsunami. Photo: AP Tokyo: A minor tsunami has hit the coast of northern Japan after an advisory was issued following a 6.8-magnitude earthquake in northern

 

The school growing a digital forest in Rwanda

How did pupils at a state school in Somerset end up in discussions with the Rwandan government to build a digital forest? And what role did technology play in making this happen? Simon Pugh-Jones is a science teacher at Writhlington secondary school

 

Hezbollah supporters raise their hands to great Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon‘s Hezbollahmovement, has called on the countries of the Middle East to join the battle in Syriaand Iraq against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group. “We call on the people and governments

 

People walk amongst the debris, at the crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Grabovo, Ukraine, Thursday, July 17, 2014

(Bloomberg) — The conflict in Ukraine escalated with the first deaths since a cease-fire went into effect after midnight on Feb. 15 as government troops battled pro-Russian militants. Five government soldiers were killed and 25 wounded in fighting

 

A French Navy Rafale M multi-role combat fighter from the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle performs a touch-and-go landing aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69).

CAIRO Egypt signed agreements to purchase 24 advanced fighter jets from France on Monday, hours after Egyptian aircraft bombed Islamic State targets in Libya and implored foreign governments for help fighting extremists in the region. The deal for 24

NASA Warns That This Century Could See Crippling Megadroughts

Full ArticleThe Times of India

16 Feb 2015

This week, NASA published its most robust study looking at drought prediction-and the news isn’t good. Within the next century, the American southwest could experience a landscape-altering megadrought due to rising carbon emissions and global warming. Unlike other scenarios when “mega” is a prefix indicating something awesome, like a Mega Bowl or

 
Drought - Barren farmland, Maharashtra, India

This image made from a video released Sunday Feb. 15, 2015 by militants in Libya claiming loyalty to the Islamic State group purportedly shows Egyptian Coptic Christians

15 February 2015, 23:19 Video Shows IS Militants Beheading Christians Tweet A video has been released which purports to show 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians being beheaded by Islamic State militants in Libya. The footageshows handcuffed hostages

 

The United Nations Security Council holds a meeting on the situation in Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012 at United Nations headquarters.

Resolution does not allow for military enforcement of demands, despite calls from Arab countries for use of force against Houthis

 

Queen and princess of the "Rua do Mercado" band carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The show went on Sunday at the world’s most-celebrated Carnival parades, despite a tropical deluge that soaked thousands of feather-clad dancers, wildly costumed musicians and masses of spectators at Rio de Janeiro‘s

 

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi speaks to The Associated Press

CAIRO, Feb 15 (Reuters) – Islamic State released a video on Sunday that appeared to show the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libyaand President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned that his country would respond to the deaths as it saw fit. Speaking

 

Pro-Russian gunmen take positions near the airport, outside Donetsk, Ukraine, on Monday, May 26, 2014

VOA News The new cease-fire in eastern Ukraine mostly held Sunday, but fighting continued in embattled Debaltseve between Kyiv‘s forces and the pro-Russian separatists who virtually surrounded them in the rail hub. x The rebels blocked monitors

 

Kachin refugees wait for rations by Kachin Independence Army at Je Yang IDP camp, the biggest and closest camp to Laiza, northern Myanmar, Friday, Jan. 4, 2013.

Around a dozen ethnic rebels have been killed in a firefight withMyanmar troops and a further eight captured after renewed clashes in northern Myanmar near the Chinese border, state media said yesterday. Myanmar’s military has for several days

 

Dansh Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt pays respects Sunday Feb. 15, 2015, at the Copenhagen Synagogue for the victims for the Saturday night’s shootings in Copenhagen. Danish police shot and killed a man early Sunday suspected of carrying out shooting attacks at a free speech event and then at a Copenhagen synagogue, killing two men, including a member of Denmark's Jewish community. Five police officers were also wounded in the attacks.

Police in Denmark yesterday shot and killed a man suspected of carrying out shooting attacks at a free-speech event and then at a Copenhagensynagogue, killing a Danish filmmaker and a member of the Scandinavian country’s Jewish community. Five

Thrilled By Chills? Take A Look At The World’s Coldest City

In a remote region in Russia, six time zones away from Moscow, lies the coldest city on earth. Rich with natural resources, Yakutsk is home to 270,000 residents brave enough to face the frigidness.






Too Much Asia to Be Civilized by the West

Full ArticleWorldNews.com

14 Feb 2015

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling The historic treaty that was just signed between China and Thailand, which will boost political and military ties while serving as a counterbalance to the United States, is one more indication that: “Asia is not going to be civilized after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia and she is too

File - Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014.



Army soldiers and civil protection workers on the scene of an accident where a passenger bus and a freight train collided

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — A passenger bus and a freight train collided at a grade crossing in northern Mexico on Friday, killing at least 16 people and injuring 22, an official in Nuevo Leon state said. The official said the

 

5**Andre Senecal is silhouetted behind a Canadian flag at the University of Vermont Canadian Studies building, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004, in Burlington, Vt.. For a quarter of a century, Senecal has been trying to get Americans to understand that Canada is more than polar bears, red-coated constables, hockey and long winters. Senecal introduces students to Quebec literature and leads delegations to Ottawa where they visit the Gothic revival Parliament building and learn some of the intricacies of the European style of governm

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian police said on Friday they foiled a plot in which at least two people allegedly planned to commit a mass shooting in the East Coast province of Nova Scotia on Valentine‘s Day. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)

 

Pro-Russian gunmen take positions near the airport, outside Donetsk, Ukraine, on Monday, May 26, 2014

Russian-backed separatists mounted a vicious assault Friday in eastern Ukraine ahead of a weekend cease-fire deadline, pummeling a strategic railway hub with wave upon wave of shelling in a last-minute grab for territory. At least 26 people were

 

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, incumbent President of Argentina. Eduardo Duhalde was appointed president by the Legislative Assembly, and derogated the fixed exchange rate established by Menem.

BUENOS AIRES: Argentine prosecutors formally accusedPresident Cristina Kirchner on Friday of shielding Iranian officials from prosecution over a 1994 Jewish center bombing, renewing the firestorm around the embattled leader. The accusation advances

 

President Barack Obama, center rear, gathered with G7 world leaders

Berlin, February 13: The G7 group of countries have urged all parties to refrain from complicating the situation in Ukraine and threatened to punish those violating the ceasefire agreement reached Feb 12 in Minsk. The joint statement Friday said that

 

President Barack Obama is pictured on stage at a departure ceremony at the airport in Accra, Ghana, Saturday, July 11, 2009.

Arash Arabasadi CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA— U.S. President Barack Obama has called the shooting deaths of three Muslims near a college campus in North Carolina “brutal and outrageous murders.” “No one in theUnited States of America

 

Former Chad dictator Hissene Habre, left, seen as he leaves the court in Dakar, Senegal

DAKAR (Reuters) – There is enough evidence to put Chad‘s deposed strongman Hissene Habre on trial for crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture, judges in Senegal ruled on Friday, according to a statement from the special tribunal set up to




US ‘at risk of mega-drought future’

Full ArticleBBC News

13 Feb 2015

The American Southwest and Central Plains could be on course for super-droughts the like of which they have not witnessed in over a 1,000 years. Places likeCalifornia are already facing very dry conditions, but these are quite gentle compared with some periods in the 12th and 13th Centuries. Scientists have now compared these earlier droughts with

In this Feb. 4 2014 file photo, a warning buoy sits on the dry, cracked bed of Lake Mendocino near Ukiah, California.

A Korean Air Lines Boeing 777-200ER landing at Vancouver International Airport, Canada. (2008)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An onboard tantrum dubbed “nut rage” culminated Thursday in a one-year prison sentence for Korean Air heiress Cho Hyun-ah, a humiliating rebuke that only partially quelled public outrage at the excesses of South Korea’s

 

Ukrainian presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko receives his ballots at a polling station during presidential and mayoral elections in Kiev, Ukraine

MINSK, BelarusRussian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday emerged from marathon Ukraine peace talks by announcing a new cease-fire deal, but questions remained whether Ukraine and the pro-Russian rebels have agreed on its terms. Putin told

 

A French Rafale from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier French Navy Ship Charles de Gaulle (R 91) performs a touch-and-go.

Reuters PARISFrance and Egypt have agreed on a deal worth more than 5 billion euros ($5.7 billion) for the sale of Dassault Aviation-built Rafalefighter jets, a naval frigate and missiles, a French source close to the matter said on Thursday. The

 

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.

Tweet Print This Scott Dalton/Bloomberg News CongressionalRepublicans achieved an elusive legislative goal Feb. 11, sending a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline to President Obama. Yet after three years of effort, the victory is

 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg walks at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013.

Facebook is launching a social network for cyber security professionals to share information about threats that could lead to cyber attacks.The world’s

 

The cruise ship Costa Concordia leans on its side, after it ran aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012.

GROSSETO, Italy – The captain of the capsized Costa Concordiacruise ship was convicted and sentenced Wednesday to 16 years and one month in prison for manslaughter, causing the 2012 shipwreck that claimed 32 lives and abandoning the luxury liner

 

Vladimir Putin , Angela Merkel and Petro Poroshenko at celebrating the 70th anniversary of D-Day

MINSK, Belarus (AP) ? The leaders of France, Germany, Russiaand Ukraine negotiated into the early hours Thursday to try to find a way to halt the fighting in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 5,300 people. The talks on ending the conflict

Obama opens door to U.S. ground troops in fight against Islamic State

Full ArticlePhiladelphia Daily News

12 Feb 2015

WASHINGTON – President Obama is asking Congress for authorization to fightIslamic State extremists in Iraq, Syria, and beyond without ruling out ground troops, opening a debate on Capitol Hill over the extent of U.S. militaryinvolvement in fighting the group that Obama says poses a “grave threat” to U.S. national security. “With

File - President Barack Obama salutes an Air Force member as he disembarks Air Force One to greet Texas Gov. Rick Perry upon arrival at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, 9 July, 2014.

 

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.

Tweet Print This Scott Dalton/Bloomberg News CongressionalRepublicans achieved an elusive legislative goal Feb. 11, sending a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline to President Obama. Yet after three years of effort, the victory is

 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg walks at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013.

Facebook is launching a social network for cyber security professionals to share information about threats that could lead to cyber attacks.The world’s

 

The cruise ship Costa Concordia leans on its side, after it ran aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012.

GROSSETO, Italy – The captain of the capsized Costa Concordiacruise ship was convicted and sentenced Wednesday to 16 years and one month in prison for manslaughter, causing the 2012 shipwreck that claimed 32 lives and abandoning the luxury liner

 

Vladimir Putin , Angela Merkel and Petro Poroshenko at celebrating the 70th anniversary of D-Day

MINSK, Belarus (AP) ? The leaders of France, Germany, Russiaand Ukraine negotiated into the early hours Thursday to try to find a way to halt the fighting in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 5,300 people. The talks on ending the conflict

 

Zébus of Madagascar, the zebu, or humped cattle, occupies an important place in traditional Malagasy culture. The animal can take on sacred importance and constitutes the wealth of the owner, a tradition originating on the African mainland.

GENEVA (Reuters) – An outbreak of plague in Madagascar has slowed but 71 people among the 263 known to have caught the disease since last September have died, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. Madagascar has suffered

 

Brian Williams and Jane Williams Shankbone

NEW YORK (AP) — NBC announced Tuesday that it is suspendingBrian Williams as “Nightly News” anchor and managing editor for six months without pay for misleading the public about his experiences covering the Iraq War. NBC chief executive Steve Burke

 

Police Chokehold Death

The Washington Post reports that on November 20th last year,Peter Liang was patrolling the housing project with his gun drawn. When Akai Gurley’s girlfriend opened the door, the officer fired one shot into the man’s chest. Akai managed

A meeting of minds in Cairo

Full ArticleDawn

11 Feb 2015

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin arrived in Egypt on Monday for talks with hisEgyptian opposite number on new roubles-only trade deals, the sale of billions of dollars’ worth of guns and tanks, and quite probably a new “anti-terrorist” alliance of the kind Russia already boasts in Syria. President Abdel Fattah al Sisi personally escorted Mr Putin

In this image released by the Egyptian Presidency, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, right, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin upon his arrival at the Cairo International Airport in Egypt, Monday, Feb. 9, 2015.




Afghanistan could become haven for IS, warns ex-CIA officer

Full ArticleDawn

11 Feb 2015

WASHINGTON: Afghanistan is in danger of turning into a sanctuary once again for extremists as the West withdraws troops and shifts its attention elsewhere, a former senior Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official warned Tuesday. The country could even become a refuge for Islamic State jihadists now waging war inSyria and Iraq, said Robert

File - Alaskan National Guard Sgt. Brain Reid talks with a local Afghan child during a dismounted patrol to a Department of Public Works facility Aug. 8, 2012, in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

 

 

Brian Williams and Jane Williams Shankbone

NEW YORK (AP) — NBC announced Tuesday that it is suspendingBrian Williams as “Nightly News” anchor and managing editor for six months without pay for misleading the public about his experiences covering the Iraq War. NBC chief executive Steve Burke

 

Police Chokehold Death

The Washington Post reports that on November 20th last year,Peter Liang was patrolling the housing project with his gun drawn. When Akai Gurley’s girlfriend opened the door, the officer fired one shot into the man’s chest. Akai managed

 

File - This image made from video posted on a militant website Saturday, July 5, 2014, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, purports to show the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, delivering a sermon at a mosque in Iraq.

WASHINGTON Foreign fighters are streaming into Syria and Iraqin unprecedented numbers to join the Islamic State or other extremist groups, including at least 3,400 from Western nations among 20,000 from around the world, U.S. intelligence officials

Nikos Kotzias

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias repeated the new Greekgovernment’s claim for war reparations from Germany Tuesday during a joint news conference with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin. Speaking in fluent German,

First Lady Michelle waves across the aisle at the ceremonial swearing-in for President Barack Obama at the U.S. Capitol during the 57th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013.

On Tuesday morning (Feb.10), Newsweek’s Twitter account was hacked by a group claiming to be associated with the Islamic State (ISIS) who call themselves Cyber Caliphate. The group took over the account at 10:45 a.m. and changed the publication’s

 

South Sudanese men participate in the country's anniversary celebrations, at the John Garang mausoleum in Juba, South Sudan, Monday, July 9, 2012.

Charlton Doki JUBASouth Sudan‘s defense minister on Tuesday accused rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar of launching three attacks on government troops in the oil-producing states of Unity and Upper Nile. Defense Minister
photo: AP / Shannon Jensen

Libyan rebel fighter is silhouetted next to El Malti Mosque on the way to the city of Bani Walid, Libya, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011.

Lisa Schlein GENEVA— A new report by the U.N. Human RightsOffice and the U.N. Support Mission in Libya finds a nation beset by turmoil, lawlessness and armed conflict. The findings, which will be formally presented to the Human Rights Council in

Syria is being tipped off about US-led air strikes on Isis, says Assad

Full ArticleThe Guardian

10 Feb 2015

President confirms his government is being kept informed by third parties of campaign against Islamic State

 

File - An EA-18G Growler from the Cougars of Electronic Attack Squadron 139 launches from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in the Arabian Gulf supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, conducting maritime security operations and strike operations in Iraq and Syria as directed, 21 January, 2015.

The Houthi challenge

10 Feb 2015

Up until six months ago, few people outside the Gulf ever heard of the Houthi rebels, an insurgent group from northern Yemen that fought a series of on-again off-again conflicts with the government for most of the last decade. Part of theZaidi branch of Shia Islam – a small minority in a country and government dominated by Sunnis – the Houthis had

Houthi Shiite Yemenis wearing army uniforms, stand guard outside parliament, during a meeting in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Feb. 9, 2015.




2007/12/13 Europa Tide Movie - Click on the image for  Europa Tide Movie       In this movie Europa is seen in a cutaway view through two cycles of its  3.5 day orbit about the giant planet Jupiter. Like Earth, Europa is  thought to have an iron core, a r

Scientists say they have gained new insight into what lies at the very centre of the Earth. Research from China and the US suggests that the innermost core of our planet has another, distinct region at its centre. The team believes that the structure
photo: NASA/JPL

Egyptian fans rush into the field following Al-Ahly club soccer match against Al-Masry club at the soccer stadium in Port Said, Egypt Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012.

CAIRO (AP) — The killing of more than 20 soccer fans outside aCairo stadium in a melee with security forces has revived scrutiny of police tactics in Egypt less than a month after a woman was shot dead during the dispersal of a peaceful protest

 

Fishermen in the Mekong River in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Ron Corben BANGKOK— Laos is facing increasing pressure to delay construction of a 260 megawatt dam on the Lower Mekong River because of concerns about its environmental and social impacts. A gathering last week in Laos highlights the continuing

 

A Chinese police officer walks past the Great Hall of the People as the second plenary session of the National People's Congress is held in Beijing, China, Thursday, March 8, 2012.

Shannon Van Sant HONG KONG— A Chinese billionaire was executed Monday after a court found him guilty of multiple murders and leading a mafia-style gang. He is only the latest high profile businessman with links to former security chief Zhou Yongkang

 

A members of Indonesian Muslim the hard-line Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir shouts, "God is great," during a protest against Israeli military strikes over the Gaza Strip, in front of palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Jan 16, 2009.

Brian Padden JAKARTA— In the last decade, Indonesia’s strategy to combat terrorism through police action and criminal prosecution, not military means, has successfully curbed the local terrorist threat. However, there is growing concern that

 

 The economy of Singapore is a highly developed and successful free market economy. It has one of the world´s greatest commercial centers, with a large, modern port. Investment - business- trade- asia- tourism- transportation - economy (mj1) wnhires

The document contains information on over 100,000 clients, which was unearthed by whistleblower Herve Falciani who was also working forHSBC in Geneva in 2007. French authorities who analysed the data estimate that 99.8% of its citizens were engaged

 

President Barack Obama meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009.

VOA News German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due inWashington Monday for talks with President Barack Obama on the fighting inUkraine, amid intense diplomatic activity to end the crisis in the country. On Sunday, Merkel participated in four-way phone

Tsipras’ strategy gives Greeks a voice

09 Feb 2015

Vaso Vouvani, a quiet and determined middle-aged mother, had long wanted a leader who stood up for the interests of Greeks, “not bankers, Eurocrats or Germanpoliticians.” “We need fighters, not servants of the troika,” she said, referring to the international lenders who had given Greece billions in bailout loans in exchange for punishing

 

Greek Minister Alexis Tsipras, right and his Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis look on during the vote for the president of Greece's parliament in Athens, on Friday, Feb. 6, 2015.

 

 

 

 

People inspect the aftermath of a car bomb attack in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, Iraq, Monday, July 23, 2012.

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Ahead of Baghdad ending a decade-old nightly curfew, bombs exploded across the Iraqi capital Saturday, killing at least 37 people in a stark warning of the dangers still ahead in this country torn by theIslamic State group. The

 

KLdy1 - July08 - NBC - broadcast centre - national broadcasting company. (dy1)

One of the US’ most prominent TV anchors, Brian Williams, faced calls for his resignation on Friday for embellishing an Iraq war story from2003. Williams, 55, who reportedly earns US$10 million a year and is watched by an estimated 9 million US

 

File - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, accompanied by retired Marine Corps General John Allen, now Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, addresses reporters as they arrive at Lancaster House in London, U.K., on January 22, 2015, for a meeting of counter-ISIL coalition partners.

MUNICH: Secretary of State John Kerry stressed to his Iranian counterpart on Friday that the US aimed to meet a late March deadline for a deal reining in Iran’s nuclear programme. Kerry “reiterated our desire to move toward a political framework by

 

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

The Brazilian government has outdone itself on this one. Their new hire to helm sinking oil giant Petrobras is a banker with no oil and gas industry experience whatsoever. Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and her chief of staff Alozio Mercadante

 

Brazil Rio Violence

SAO PAULO (AP) — Police surprised a group of suspects trying to blow up an automatic teller machine in the eastern city of Salvador, sparking a shootout Friday that killed at least 13 of the would-be robbers, law enforcement officials said. The

 

President of France Francois Hollande, left, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, hug each others after Merkel's speech as part of a reception of the German federal parliament, Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013.

MOSCOW — In a top-level diplomatic dash, French PresidentFrancois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Moscow on Friday to seek a cease-fire and then a lasting peace for war-wracked easternUkraine. Their meeting with Russian

 

In this July 14, 2010 file photo, Chinese use computers at an Internet cafe in Beijing. The news agency of China's ruling Communist Party launched an Internet search site Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011, giving its own sanitized view of the Web following Google's closure of its China-based search engine last year over censorship.

William Ide BEIJING— China has announced plans to tighten its Internet controls even further beginning next month. The announcement and other tightening measures comes at a time when the reach of social media continues to expand. According to

 

 

 

 

 

ISIS’s Apocalyptic Vision is Adaptive, West and Arab Powers Static

Full ArticleWorldNews.com

08 Feb 2015
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling It is always better to be fore-warned and fore-armed than to be caught off guard. Keeping this in mind, it appears ISIS is doing just that with their futuristic and apocalyptic vision of a pure and religious caliphate state. Meanwhile, Western and Arab Powers continue to hesitate and falter, even
This undated image posted by the Raqqa Media Center, a Syrian opposition group, on Monday, June 30, 2014, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows fighters from the al-Qaida linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during a parade in Raqqa, Syria.

People inspect the aftermath of a car bomb attack in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, Iraq, Monday, July 23, 2012.

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Ahead of Baghdad ending a decade-old nightly curfew, bombs exploded across the Iraqi capital Saturday, killing at least 37 people in a stark warning of the dangers still ahead in this country torn by theIslamic State group. The

 

KLdy1 - July08 - NBC - broadcast centre - national broadcasting company. (dy1)

One of the US’ most prominent TV anchors, Brian Williams, faced calls for his resignation on Friday for embellishing an Iraq war story from2003. Williams, 55, who reportedly earns US$10 million a year and is watched by an estimated 9 million US

 

File - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, accompanied by retired Marine Corps General John Allen, now Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, addresses reporters as they arrive at Lancaster House in London, U.K., on January 22, 2015, for a meeting of counter-ISIL coalition partners.

MUNICH: Secretary of State John Kerry stressed to his Iranian counterpart on Friday that the US aimed to meet a late March deadline for a deal reining in Iran’s nuclear programme. Kerry “reiterated our desire to move toward a political framework by

 

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

The Brazilian government has outdone itself on this one. Their new hire to helm sinking oil giant Petrobras is a banker with no oil and gas industry experience whatsoever. Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and her chief of staff Alozio Mercadante

Yemen coup: What happens now?

Full ArticleAl Jazeera

07 Feb 2015

The Houthis issued their first military communiqué on Friday, putting another nail in the coffin of Yemen‘s democratic transition. The transitional period had lasted from February 2012 until September 21, 2014, when Houthi militias – with significant help from former President Ali Abdullah Saleh‘s loyalists in the military – entered the capital,

Houthi Shiite Yemenis chant slogans during a rally to show support for their comrades in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015.




Brazil Rio Violence

SAO PAULO (AP) — Police surprised a group of suspects trying to blow up an automatic teller machine in the eastern city of Salvador, sparking a shootout Friday that killed at least 13 of the would-be robbers, law enforcement officials said. The

 

President of France Francois Hollande, left, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, hug each others after Merkel's speech as part of a reception of the German federal parliament, Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013.

MOSCOW — In a top-level diplomatic dash, French PresidentFrancois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Moscow on Friday to seek a cease-fire and then a lasting peace for war-wracked easternUkraine. Their meeting with Russian

 

In this July 14, 2010 file photo, Chinese use computers at an Internet cafe in Beijing. The news agency of China's ruling Communist Party launched an Internet search site Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011, giving its own sanitized view of the Web following Google's closure of its China-based search engine last year over censorship.

William Ide BEIJING— China has announced plans to tighten its Internet controls even further beginning next month. The announcement and other tightening measures comes at a time when the reach of social media continues to expand. According to

 

FILE - In this Oct. 20, 2011 file photo, African Union peacekeepers are seen in the Deynile district of the capital Mogadishu, Somalia. Intensified fighting in Somalia has underscored that tiny Burundi, one of only two African nations contributing troops to a peacekeeping force in the anarchic nation, is bearing a heavy burden with dozens of its soldiers reportedly killed in recent clashes. (AP Photo/Ali Bashi, File)

Moki Edwin Kindzeka YAOUNDE, CAMEROON— Nigeria and its four neighbors have pledged troops to a 7,500-strong force to fight the Nigerianterrorist group Boko Haram, but failure to agree on funding could delay the force’s deployment. African

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stands with Foreign Minister Javad Zarif of Iran in Vienna, Austria, on November 23, 2014, before the two begin a one-on-one meeting amid broader negotiations about the future of Iran's nuclear program.

VOA News U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif will meet in Munich Friday to discuss the negotiations on Iran‘s nuclear program. The talks, to be held on the sidelines of a security conference, follow a pair

 

Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama (R) and Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah arrive at a function at the Tibetan school in downtown Srinagar on July 14, 2012. The Dalai Lama visited the Tibetan community living in the predominately Muslim area in Srinagar during his one week visit to the region.

VOA News China is opposed to foreign countries receiving theDalai Lama, a government spokesman said Friday, one day after the Tibetanspiritual leader attended the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman

 

India Buddhist Monk Walk  during the Buddha Jayanty Celebration Rally at Kolkata on Tuesday 13 May 2014

A mummified monk thought to be more than 200 years old is “not dead,” but actually in a state of “very deep meditation,” according toBuddhist monk and doctor to the Dalai Lama, Dr. Barry Kerzin. Kerzin claims
photo: WN / Bhaskar Mallick

 

Jordan military jets pound Islamic State as king comforts pilot’s family

Full ArticleYahoo Daily News

06 Feb 2015

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) – Jordanian fighter jets pounded Islamic State targets in Syria on Thursday, before roaring over the hometown of the pilot killed by the militants while King Abdullah consoled the victim’s family. A statement from the Jordanian armed forces said tens of jets were deployed in the attacks, which destroyed

Jordanian fighter jets pounded Islamic State targets in Syria on Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

GCHQ mass internet surveillance was unlawful, rules court

Full ArticleThe Guardian

06 Feb 2015

Access to intercepted information obtained by the NSA breached human rights laws, according to the Investigative Powers Tribunal

 

File - An aerial image of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

 

 

 

Lt. Col. Issac Yacouba Zida, looks down during a press briefing in the city of Ouagadougou

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) – Burkina Faso has said it will review the presidential guard’s role in a bid to defuse a row between Prime Minister IsaacZida and the elite corps frustrated by his efforts to cut its pay and curtail its influence. The

 

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian fire fighters extinguishing burning cars after a huge explosion shook the Sabaa Bahrat Square, one of the capital's biggest roundabouts, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 8, 2013.

Reuters DAMASCUS— Rocket attacks killed three people inDamascus and wounded at least 35 on Thursday, state news agency SANA said, in what appeared to be the second heavy bombardment by insurgent group IslamArmy in less than two weeks. Shells

 

Bhuddhist Monk Dalai Lama along with vice chancellor of Presidency University Anuradha Lohia entering the auditorium on  on Tuesday 13 January 2015

By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) – U.S. PresidentBarack Obama and the Dalai Lama exchanged greetings but did not meet directly at a religious event in Washington closely watched by Beijing, which has warned against any meetings with Tibet‘s

 

President Barack Obama walks with Jordanian King Abdullah II to participate in an official arrival ceremony as he arrives at Al-Hummar Palace, the residence of Jordanian King Abdullah II, Friday, March 22, 2013, in Amman, Jordan.

AMMAN, Jordan — – King Abdullah II of Jordan vowed Wednesday that his country would exact “relentless” retribution against Islamic State militants, as many in the Arab world united in revulsion after learning that a captive

 

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi smiles before casting his ballot in a polling station, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, March 28, 2010

* Berlusconi angered over election of head of state * Remains to be seen if he will carry out threat on reforms * Renzi may need more solid backing from own party By Gavin Jones ROME, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Italian Prime MinisterMatteo Renzi lost an

 

File - Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter holds a press conference with local media at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, on March 18, 2013.

Washington (CNN)Ashton Carter, President Barack Obama‘s nominee to be the next Defense secretary, said he’s pledged to give Obama “my most candid strategic advice” on Wednesday as a Senate panel kicked off his confirmation hearing. His comments came

 

Egyptian protesters throw stones at riot police, not seen, and use scrap metal to deflect stones being returned by security forces during clashes near Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013.

CAIRO: An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced 230 activists to life in prison for taking part in clashes with security forces during the 2011 revolt that forced longtime autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak to step down, in the heaviest sentence yet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Death toll hits 31 in Taiwan plane crash, with 12 missing

05 Feb 2015

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Rescuers were searching for 12 people Thursday morning after using a crane to hoist the fuselage of a wrecked TransAsia Airways plane from a shallow river in Taiwan’s capital following a crash that killed at least 31 others.Flight 235 with 58 people aboard — many of them travelers from China — banked sharply on its side Wednesday

The mangled fuselage of a TransAsia Airways commercial plane is dragged to the river bank after it crashed in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

Till we run ‘out of fuel and bullets’: Jordan’s king vows to crush ISIS

Full ArticleFox News

05 Feb 2015

Published February 05, 2015FoxNews.com Facebook0 Twitter0 livefyre Email PrintJordan‘s King Abdullah, himself a former general, angrily vowed to pursue ISISuntil his military runs “out of fuel and bullets,” in a closed door meeting with U.S.lawmakers that followed the release Wednesday of a grisly video showing a captured Jordanian airman being

Jordanians chant slogans to show their support for the government against terror as they were waiting for Jordan's King Abdullah II, returning from the U.S., at Queen Alia Airport in Amman, Jordan, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. UNESCO: Meet the world’s ultimate checklist traveler

05 Feb 2015

(CNN)With more than 1,000 UNESCO World Heritage Sites out there waiting to be explored, most travelers can claim to having seen at least a couple of them, whether it’s the Great Pyramids of Egypt, Venice, Italy, or the Grand Canyon inArizona. Few have seen as many as Gary Arndt. It’s been nearly eight years since the founder of travel blog

File - A forest of lava trees resulting from the eruption of a 1-km-line of vents east of Pu‘u Kahaualea, from of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

 

 

 

 

Kerry to visit Ukraine as US mulls arms supplies  

05 Feb 2015

More to this story US ponders sending weapons to Ukraine forces US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to hold talks in Kiev, as Washington considers sending weapons to Ukraine to fight Russian-back separatist rebels. Kerry’s visit on Thursday comes a day after rocket salvoes hit a previously safe section of Ukraine’s rebel stronghold of Donetsk,

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivers remarks to the Plenary Session of partner Ambassadors of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on February 3, 2015.

 

 

 

 

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi smiles before casting his ballot in a polling station, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, March 28, 2010

* Berlusconi angered over election of head of state * Remains to be seen if he will carry out threat on reforms * Renzi may need more solid backing from own party By Gavin Jones ROME, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Italian Prime MinisterMatteo Renzi lost an

 

File - Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter holds a press conference with local media at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, on March 18, 2013.

Washington (CNN)Ashton Carter, President Barack Obama‘s nominee to be the next Defense secretary, said he’s pledged to give Obama “my most candid strategic advice” on Wednesday as a Senate panel kicked off his confirmation hearing. His comments came

 

Egyptian protesters throw stones at riot police, not seen, and use scrap metal to deflect stones being returned by security forces during clashes near Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013.

CAIRO: An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced 230 activists to life in prison for taking part in clashes with security forces during the 2011 revolt that forced longtime autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak to step down, in the heaviest sentence yet

 

The FV4034 British Challenger 2 tank sits ready for a late afternoon inspection by visiting Lieutenant General PA Wall from Multi-National Division, southeast Basra, Iraq, Sept. 3, 2008.

Chilcot, who said last month he will not complete his inquiry until after the general election, to give evidence to MPs on Wednesday

 

A man with a shovel walks past an American flag displayed in the widow of Bova's Bakery in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Monday, Dec. 27, 2010.

Buffalo (New York), February 03: A Detroit man James Robertson walks 21 miles every day to get to his factory job. 56-year-oldRobertson, started walking to his workplace, Schain Mold and Engineering, his1988 Honda Accord

 

John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, addresses the general debate of the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly.

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, who helped Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper nudge a liberal-leaning country further to the right, unexpectedly resigned Tuesday with plans to work in the private sector. Baird, 45, shares

 

 

 

 

 

Anger boils in Jordan over ISIS killing of pilot: What comes next?

Full ArticleCNN

04 Feb 2015

(CNN)An ISIS video showing the horrific killing of a Jordanian air force pilot has stoked anger in the Arab kingdom and left analysts wondering what impact it will have on the U.S.-led coalition fighting the militant group. Jordan already carried out one act of retaliation, executing two terrorist prisoners with ties to al Qaeda inIraq. One of

 

Safi al-Kaseasbeh, center, father of slain Jordanian pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh addresses mourners following funeral at the Kaseasbeh tribe's gathering divan at their home village of Ai, near Karak, Jordan, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015.

The FV4034 British Challenger 2 tank sits ready for a late afternoon inspection by visiting Lieutenant General PA Wall from Multi-National Division, southeast Basra, Iraq, Sept. 3, 2008.

Chilcot, who said last month he will not complete his inquiry until after the general election, to give evidence to MPs on Wednesday

 

John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, addresses the general debate of the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly.

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, who helped Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper nudge a liberal-leaning country further to the right, unexpectedly resigned Tuesday with plans to work in the private sector. Baird, 45, shares

People march to the Metropolitan Cathedral in San Salvador, El Salvador, Saturday, March 25, 2006 during a commemorative event for the 26th anniversary of the assassination of Roman Catholic archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero.

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis decreed Tuesday that slain Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero was killed out of hatred for the faith, approving a martyrdom declaration that sets the stage for his beatification. Francis, the first Latin American

 

A man reads a copy of the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, Granma, displaying a photo of Fidel Castro in its front page, as an elderly woman walks by, in old Havana, Tuesday Feb. 3, 2015.

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba has published the first photos of Fidel Castro in more than five months, showing the 88-year-old former leader engaged in what appears to be a lively conversation with a university student. Nearly two dozen images were published

 

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves his home on his way to a police station to confront a writer who accuses him of attempted rape, in Paris, France, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2011.

Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn faced another humiliating day in a court Monday when he appeared on charges accusing him of procuring sex workers for an international prostitution ring operating out of luxury hotels in

 

Der Praesident von Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, traegt sich am Freitag (20.04.12) in Schloss Bellevue in Berlin in das Gaestebuch von Schloss Bellevue ein. Gauck traf sich mit Jonathan zu einem Gespraech

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — A female suicide bomber killed herself Monday when she exploded a vehicle packed with explosives near a stadium where Nigeria’s president had just held an election rally in the northeastern city of Gombe, police said. There were

 

Pro-Russian fighters walk passed the site of remnants of a downed Ukrainian army aircraft Il-76 at the airport near Luhansk

Separatists battling government troops in eastern Ukraine plan a general mobilization and aim to boost their fighting force to 100,000, one of their main leaders said yesterday. Leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) Alexander

Serbia and Croatia await genocide verdict at ICJ

Full ArticleBBC News

03 Feb 2015
The last time Serbia was involved in a dispute with a neighbour, it won and lost at the same time. That was back in October following the bizarre “drone brawl” which curtailed its international football match with Albania. In a rare display of Solomonesque wisdom, European football‘s governing body, Uefa, awarded the match to Serbia
File - Members of the Delegation of Serbia at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case brought to the Court by Croatia against Serbia: “Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Croatia v. Serbia) ». The hearings on the merits of the case are scheduled to take place from 3 March to 1 April 2014.

Der Praesident von Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, traegt sich am Freitag (20.04.12) in Schloss Bellevue in Berlin in das Gaestebuch von Schloss Bellevue ein. Gauck traf sich mit Jonathan zu einem Gespraech

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — A female suicide bomber killed herself Monday when she exploded a vehicle packed with explosives near a stadium where Nigeria’s president had just held an election rally in the northeastern city of Gombe, police said. There were

 

Pro-Russian fighters walk passed the site of remnants of a downed Ukrainian army aircraft Il-76 at the airport near Luhansk

Separatists battling government troops in eastern Ukraine plan a general mobilization and aim to boost their fighting force to 100,000, one of their main leaders said yesterday. Leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) Alexander

 

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady celebrates with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the NFL Super Bowl XLIX football game against the Seattle Seahawks Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The final 125 seconds included a perfect possession by Tom Brady for the go-ahead points, a juggling catch that could have been the play of the year, and a victory-clinching, end-zone interception on a pass — not run

 

Pro-government demonstrators, below, and anti-government demonstrators, above, clash in Tahrir Square, the center of anti-government demonstrations, in Cairo, Egypt Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011.

VOA News An Egyptian court sentenced to death 183 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood Monday on charges of killing at least 15 police officers in at attack after the 2013 ouster of former President MohammedMorsi. Thirty-four Brotherhood

 

This photo made available by Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, England shows Malala Yousufzai saying goodbye as she is discharged from the hospital to continue her rehabilitation at her family’s temporary home in the area, Friday, Jan. 4, 2013.

World’s youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai is the second most-admired-woman, the first being Hollywood leading lady and philanthropist Angelina Jolie according to the YouGov UK poll. The poll in which 25,000 people from 23 countries

 

File - Dominique Strauss-Kahn during a meeting in Toulouse on April, 13th 2007.

LILLE, France (Reuters) – Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the formerIMF chief tipped to become French president before a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault in 2011, went on trial in France on Monday in a separate case of alleged procuring of

 

Bhuddhist Monk  Dalai Lama  giving blessings to theaudience after a seminer organised by Presidency University on Tuesday 13 January 2015

US President Barack Obama and Dalai Lama File Photo Chinaon Monday warned the US against the planned public appearance by President Barack Obama with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, saying it opposed foreign leaders meeting the Dalai Lama

America’s U-turn on Afghan Taliban

Full ArticleDawn

02 Feb 2015

EVEN when the US does get it right, it tends to do so for mostly the wrong reasons.The Afghan Taliban, according to a White House spokesperson, are not a terrorist organisation but an armed insurgency. A belated, welcome realisation — and a correct one at that — on the part of the US government, but then there are the circumstances that triggered

File - U.S. Army Spc. Lawrence Lopez provides security during a patrol through Khushki Danda in Afghanistan's Khost province, July 29, 2012

File - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, United States President Harry S. Truman, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin meeting at the Potsdam Conference, August 1945.

As the Havengore carried Churchill’s body down the Thames, I was not at all enjoying his funeral. A cub reporter on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle, I was based in the frozen coal port of Blyth, where even the puddles of vomit outside the pubs

 

Australia's Mile Jedinak, center, and his team mates celebrate with their trophy as FIFA President Sepp Blatter, second from left, and AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa

Australia’s players celebrate with the Asian Cup trophy after winning the final against South Korea at Stadium Australia in Sydney.REUTERS/Edgar Su First Asia, now the world. Australia are not putting any limits on their ambitions after winning the

 

Thousands of demonstrators gather to protest at Puerta del Sol square in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, May 12, 2012

Hundreds of thousands of people marched through Madrid on Saturday in a show of strength by a fledgling radical leftist party, which hopes to emulate the success of Greece‘s Syriza party in the Spanish general election later this year. Podemos

 

Plenary Chamber of the Bundestag The official German reunification ceremony on 3 October 1990, was held at the Reichstag building, including Chancellor Helmut Kohl, President Richard von Weizsäcker, former Chancellor Willy Brandt and many others.

BERLIN — Former German President Richard von Weizsaecker, who declared Germany‘s World War II surrender a “day of liberation” for his country as he urged it to confront the Nazi past, and promoted reconciliation during a tenure

 

Italian lawmakers gather to vote on a new president whose first job will be to seek the formation of a new government after inconclusive elections, in Rome Thursday, April 18, 2013.

ROME (AP) — Italian lawmakers elected Sergio Mattarella, aConstitutional Court justice widely considered to be above the political fray, as the nation’s new president on the third day of voting Saturday. Mattarella’s election as head of state was

 

Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) und der franzoesische Praesident Francois Hollande (r.) unterhalten sich zu Beginn ihres Treffens am Donnerstag (23.08.12) auf der Dachterasse im Bundeskanzleramt in Berlin

9:03 AM ET Scott Neuman Twitter i German Chancellor Angela Merkel stands in front of a poster showing a new Two-Euro commemorative coin at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, on Thursday. Britta Pedersen/DPA/Landov hide caption itoggle caption Britta

 

Serena Williams of the U.S. holds the trophy after defeating Maria Sharapova of Russia

8:01 AM ET Scott Neuman Twitter i Serena Williams celebrates after defeating Maria Sharapova of Russia in their women’s singles final at theAustralian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday. Lee Jin-man/AP hide caption itoggle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greece puts privatisations on ice as anti-austerity wave arrives in Madrid

Full ArticleCanberra Times

01 Feb 2015

Supporters of the Spanish anti-austerity party Podemos gather at Puerta del Solsquare in Madrid on Saturday. Photo: Getty Images Athens: Greece‘s new anti-austerity government has sacked the heads of its privatisation agency in what its finance ministry officials called “a first step in the new privatisation policies” ofPrime Minister

People arrive in the main square of Madrid during a Podemos (We Can) party march in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015.

Australia's Mile Jedinak, center, and his team mates celebrate with their trophy as FIFA President Sepp Blatter, second from left, and AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa

Australia’s players celebrate with the Asian Cup trophy after winning the final against South Korea at Stadium Australia in Sydney.REUTERS/Edgar Su First Asia, now the world. Australia are not putting any limits on their ambitions after winning the

 

Thousands of demonstrators gather to protest at Puerta del Sol square in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, May 12, 2012

Hundreds of thousands of people marched through Madrid on Saturday in a show of strength by a fledgling radical leftist party, which hopes to emulate the success of Greece‘s Syriza party in the Spanish general election later this year. Podemos

 

Plenary Chamber of the Bundestag The official German reunification ceremony on 3 October 1990, was held at the Reichstag building, including Chancellor Helmut Kohl, President Richard von Weizsäcker, former Chancellor Willy Brandt and many others.

BERLIN — Former German President Richard von Weizsaecker, who declared Germany‘s World War II surrender a “day of liberation” for his country as he urged it to confront the Nazi past, and promoted reconciliation during a tenure

 

Italian lawmakers gather to vote on a new president whose first job will be to seek the formation of a new government after inconclusive elections, in Rome Thursday, April 18, 2013.

ROME (AP) — Italian lawmakers elected Sergio Mattarella, aConstitutional Court justice widely considered to be above the political fray, as the nation’s new president on the third day of voting Saturday. Mattarella’s election as head of state was

 

Serena Williams of the U.S. holds the trophy after defeating Maria Sharapova of Russia

8:01 AM ET Scott Neuman Twitter i Serena Williams celebrates after defeating Maria Sharapova of Russia in their women’s singles final at theAustralian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday. Lee Jin-man/AP hide caption itoggle

 

Pakistani police officers and local residents gather at the site of a bomb blast that targeted paramilitary soldiers in a commercial area in Quetta, Pakistan, killing at least 12 people and wounding more than 40 others, according to police, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013.

VOA News Thousands of Shi’ite Muslims took to the streets across Pakistan Saturday to protest a powerful bomb blast at a mosque in Sindh province during Friday prayers, killing at least 58
photo: AP / Arshad Butt

IS Chemical Weapons Expert Killed, Says US

Full ArticleOrange News

31 Jan 2015

31 January 2015, 1:39 IS Chemical Weapons Expert Killed, Says US Tweet A chemical weapons expert working with the Islamic State in Iraq has been killed in a coalition airstrike, the US military has said. Abu Malik was killed near Mosul during an air raid on 24 January, US Central Command announced on Friday. Malik had worked at a chemical weapons

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.

White house describes this week in the West Wing as 'Namaste Obama'

WASHINGTON: The White House has described this week in theWest Wing as “Namaste Obama” reflecting the successful visit of us President Barack Obama to India. “That’s January 23

 

Biden tells Democrats to be proud of their work

Vice President Biden, speaking in Philadelphia on Friday morning, urged fellow Democrats to be proud of the work they did to dig out of the financial crisis, saying they should use the burgeoning recovery as proof that their policies worked – and

 

Heavy snowfall expected for parts of Metro Detroit

Candice Williams, The Detroit News 7:44 p.m. EST January 30,2015 A winter storm watch is in effect for Wayne, Washtenaw, Monroe and Lenawee counties from late Saturday until after midnight Sunday night(Photo:David Coates / The Detroit News)

 

Pakistani medics and volunteers cover the lifeless bodies of a bomb blast victims, at a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013.

A Pakistani group that has affiliated itself to Islamic State (Isis) has killed more than 60 people in a bombing of a Shia mosque, one of the deadliest sectarian atrocities in years.

 

Winston Churchill statue in London, Parliament Square

LONDON (AP) — Fifty years after Winston Churchill‘s funeral,British politicians gathered Friday to pay tribute to the wartime leader — and try to energize their election campaigns with a little of the Churchill magic. Prime Minister David Cameron

 

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney waves to supporters during his victory celebration after winning the Florida primary election Tuesday Jan. 31, 2012, in Tampa, Fla.

For Mitt Romney, the third time will not be the charm when it comes to winning the White House. A few weeks after telling donors and friends he wanted to run again, the 2012 Republican nominee ultimately decided to step aside. “After putting

 

Coffins of 520 newly identified Srebrenica victims on display at the Potocari memorial complex near Srebrenica, some 160 kilometers east of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tuesday, July 10, 2012.

APPEALS judges at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal have upheld genocide convictions against two senior Bosnian Serbs for their roles in the1995 Srebrenica massacre, the first final judgment for genocide by the UN court.Vujadin Popovic and Ljubisa

Balloonists set new world distance record

Full ArticleBBC News

30 Jan 2015

Two pilots have set a new world distance record for a flight in a helium balloon after crossing the Pacific Ocean. American Troy Bradley and Russian Leonid Tiukhtyaev are also on course to set a new duration record. They left Japan in their “Two Eagles” balloon on Sunday and had aimed to land in Canada or the

In this Oct. 8, 2014 photo, Albuquerque pilot Troy Bradley announces plans to fly across the Pacific Ocean with fellow pilot Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Russia as part of an effort to break a pair of long-distance and duration records that have stood for more than three decades, during a news conference in Albuquerque, N.M. The announcement comes as hundreds of pilots and thousands of spectators gather in Albuquerque for the annual international balloon fiesta.

Two pilots, American Troy Bradley and Russia's Leonid Tiukhtyaev have surpassed the world distance record for a flight in a helium balloon after crossing the Pacific Ocean.

30 January 2015, 11:13 Gas Balloon Crew Rocket Past DistanceRecord Tweet Two pilots have passed the world distance record for human flight in a gas balloon, according to their team. American Troy Bradley and Russia‘s Leonid Tiukhtyaev have flown

 

President Barack Obama arrives at a rally for New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, Thursday, July 16, 2009, in Holmdel, N.J.

After weeks of debate and dozens of votes on amendments, theSenate on Thursday passed a bill approving the Keystone XL pipeline, the first major legislation to make it through the chamber under the new Republicanmajority. The vote passed 62-36,

 

Canary Wharf in London, United Kingdom.

(Bloomberg) — London’s Canary Wharf is set to be taken over by a Qatari-led group after a three-month stand-off in a deal that values its owner at about 2.6 billion pounds ($4 billion). Songbird Estates Plc, which controls the financial district in

 

Microsoft founder Bill Gates delivers a speech during the "Microsoft Research Asia 10th Anniversary Innovation Forum," Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008 in Hong Kong, China

Bill Gates has claimed artificial intelligence will start out as a help but will become “strong enough to be a concern”, in its latest question and answer session on Reddit. In response to a question about whether machine super intelligence will

 

Israeli soldiers stand atop of a tank during a military exercise in the Israeli controlled Golan Heights

Authorities say Corporal Francisco Javier Soria Toledo was killed by Israeli fire during clashes with Hezbollah fighters

 

Supreme Court of the Philippines

The Associated Press MANILA (AP) — The Philippine presidenthas warned that the collapse of a peace deal with the country’s largest Muslim rebel group would abet terrorism and fresh violence after criticism of the accord followed the killing of 44

 

UNICEF makes record appeal to help 60 million children in crisis

Published January 29, 2015Reuters Facebook0 Twitter0 EmailPrint United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Ivory Coast Representative AdeleKhudr teaches children how to wash their hands during an Ebola awareness drive in Gueupleu, Man, in western
photo: UN / Marco Dormino

Ebola outbreak: Virus mutating, scientists warn

Full ArticleBBC News

29 Jan 2015

Scientists tracking the Ebola outbreak in Guinea say the virus has mutated. Researchers at the Institut Pasteur in France, which first identified the outbreak last March, are investigating whether it could have become more contagious. More than 22,000 people have been infected with Ebola and 8,795 have died in Guinea,Sierra Leone and Liberia.

File - Scene from an Ebola treatment facility run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Guéckédou, Guinea, on the day of a visit from Anthony Banbury, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), 1 November, 2014.




Hagel Lauds US Service Members in Farewell Speech

VOA News Outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday thanked the men and women of the armed forces for what he said was their unequaled service

 

Sonia Sotomayor arrives to be sworn in as the Supreme Court's first Hispanic justice and only the third woman in the court's 220-year history, in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009. The Senate confirmed Sotomayor's nomination Thursday by a 68-31 vote

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to halt the scheduled executions of three death-row plaintiffs who are challengingOklahoma’s lethal injection protocol at the high court. The case, likely to be argued in April, will examine whether

 

Cuba's President Raul Castro arrives for a session of the National Assembly of Popular Power in Havana, Cuba, Sunday Aug. 1, 2010

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Cuban President Raul Castrodemanded on Wednesday that the United States return the U.S. base atGuantanamo Bay, lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba and compensate his country for damages before the two nations

 

Gold bullions and coins are seen on this zoomed photo in the German BW-Bank in Stuttgart, Germany, Tuesday, March 18, 2008. The prize for one ounce (31,1 grams) of gold raised up to more than 1,000 US doll

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A treasure hunter accused of cheating his investors out of their share of one of the richest hauls in U.S. history — $50 million in gold bars and coins from a 19th-century shipwreck — was captured at an upscale Florida hotel after

 

IDF Reservists train in the Golan Heights. Permanent service is designed for soldiers who choose to continue serving in the army after their regular service, for a short or long period, and in many cases making the military their career.

TRANS ASIA NEWS BEIRUT: At least four Israeli soldiers were killed and half a dozen others injured in a Hezbollah attack in the occupied Shebaa Farms, in south Lebanon Wednesday, reports said. Media reports quoting anIsraeli military source,

 

Himachal has succeeded in reducing poverty: World Bank

Over the years Himachal Pradesh has taken strides in reducing extreme poverty and has emerged as one of the states with the best human development outcomes in India, a new World Bank report said Wednesday. The report, ‘Scaling the Heights: Social

 

 

 

ISIS threatens to behead Obama and ‘transform America into Muslim province’

Full ArticleThe Times of India

29 Jan 2015

An ISIS fighter has threatened to behead Barack Obama “in the White House and transform America into a Muslim province” before murdering a Kurdish soldier in a gruesome propaganda video. The footage, entitled “Bombardment of PeacefulMuslims in the City of Mosul” showed damage from shelling allegedly carried out by Peshmerga forces in the Iraqi

 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.

Apple profit hits US$18bn world record

Full ArticleTaipei Times

28 Jan 2015

Apple Inc quarterly results smashed Wall Street expectations with record sales of big-screen iPhones in the holiday shopping season and a 70 percent rise in Chinasales, powering the company to the largest profit in corporate history. The company sold 74.5 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 27 last year, while many analysts had

In this Friday, Sept. 21, 2012, file photo, staff members of Apple Inc. welcome customers as the Apple store in Hong Kong started selling iPhone 5.
photo: AP / Kin Cheung




Feared snowstorm fizzles in New York but clobbers New England

Full ArticleThe Los Angeles Times

28 Jan 2015

It was to be “crippling” and “potentially historic.” It was to dump up to 3 feet of snow onto New York City, bringing Gotham to its knees and causing hardened locals to huddle inside as drifts inched up the sooty walls of buildings and encased humans, subway rats, feral cats and cockroaches in a thick layer of ice. It was to

Feared snowstorm fizzles in New York but clobbers New England

File - President Barack Obama talks on the phone with Alan Gross, who was en route to the United States from Cuba, in the Oval Office, Dec. 17, 2014.

Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama says he will not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March because his trip to Washington comes too close to Israel‘s upcoming elections. “I’m declining to meet with him simply because our

Ukraine’s Government Is Losing Its War. Here Is Why:

On January 27th, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense headlined “Militants Continue to Suffer Losses,” and reported that four helicopters, and other weapons of the “militants,” were destroyed in battle, but no evidence was

	Snow expected on west coast as high winds sweep the country

Wet, windy and even snowy weather is expected to sweep across the country on Wednesday, with Met Éireann issuing two status yellow weather warnings. The first is a snow and ice warning

 

Junko Ishido, mother of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto held by Islamic State group, speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015. Ishido appealed publicly Wednesday to Japan's leader to save her son after his captors issued what they said was a final death threat.

The mother of a Japanese hostage held by Islamic State (IS) extremists has made an emotional appeal to prime minister Shinzo Abe to save her son after his captors issued what they said was a final death threat. Junko Ishido, the mother of freelance

 

Oxfam: Rich countries must support Ebola recovery

Abidjan (Ivory Coast), January 27: Rich countries must act swiftly to repair battered health systems and get cash to millions of families in the three countries hit hardest by the world’s worst Ebola outbreak, the international development agency

 

See how Brooklyn looked the morning after the 'blizzard'

With Winter Storm Juno bearing down on New York on Monday afternoon, I was among the workers sent home early in hopes of avoiding the blizzard. By 3 pm, the streets were already partially deserted – and partially snow-covered – and the subways were

 

A Russian police officer walks along a wall, left, as a British security officer, right, guards the British Embassy building in Moscow on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2006. Andrei Lugovoi, a key witness in the radiation poisoning case of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, will meet with British investigators on Wednesday, a business associate said. Lugovoi traveled to London three times over the month before Litvinenko's death and met with Litvinenko four times, according to Russian media.

Ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died after drinking tea poisoned with a rare radioactive isotope, told British police beforehand thatRussian President Vladimir Putin was personally behind it, an inquiry into his killing heard. British

Kurds oust Islamic State militants from Kobani

Full ArticleDenver Post

27 Jan 2015

Development is a significant victory for coalition Jubilant Kurdish fighters oustedIslamic State militants from the key Syrian border town of Kobani on Monday after a four-month battle — a significant victory for

 

In this Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014 photo, a female Kurdish fighter takes aim in Kobani, Syria. Kurdish fighters backed by intense U.S.-led airstrikes pushed the Islamic State group almost entirely out of the Syrian town of Kobani on Monday, Jan. 26, 2015.

Scientists ask if Ebola immunises people too?

Representational Image File Photo A recent sharp drop in newEbola infections in West Africa is prompting scientists to wonder whether the virus may be silently immunising some people at the same time as brutally killing their

 

Cuba's President Raul Castro, left, speaks to Cuba's Vice Presidents Juan Almeida Bosque, center, and Jose Ramon Machado Ventura during a session of the National Assembly of Popular Power, Cuban Legislature, in Havana, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009

Reuters HAVANA— Retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Monday appeared to lend his support to talks with the United States in his first comments about his longtime adversary since both countries agreed last month to restore diplomatic ties. But Castro

 

Secret Service officers search the south grounds of the White House in Washington, Monday, Jan. 26, 2015.

A small drone crashed on the grounds of the White House in the early hours of Monday without endangering anyone and US officials said they had identified the operator. A person has come forward to take responsibility for

 

Trees endure the blizzard in Pocahontas, Illinois, USA during a winter storm as seen on this February 2, 2013 photo.

NEW YORK: Tens of millions of Americans from New Jersey to the Canadian border braced themselves on Monday for a ferocious blizzard thatNew York’s mayor warned could be one of the worst in history. Winter Storm Junois expected to dump up to three

 

Colorful New York City.

New York: The FBI has arrested what it calls a Russian spy inNew York City who is suspected of taking part in an intelligence-gathering ring and trying to recruit residents, the agency announced Monday. The arrest of Evgeny Buryakov in the Bronx

 

Alexis Tsipras, President of Parlamentary group of SYRIZA

Alexis Tsipras promised voters an end to austerity and a new beginning for Greece. Will he deliver on that pledge? Greece’s prime minister designate, Alexis Tsipras, has delighted his voters, scared the German government, and rattled the markets. The

 

St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, London, England. To the left is the Clock Tower of Big Ben, to the right is a corner of Westminster Abbey.

The Church of England will consecrate its first woman bishop on Monday, the culmination of years of efforts by Church modernisers to overcome resolute opposition from traditionalists. More than two decades after the Church allowed women to become

Tsipras moves to form anti-austerity government after crushing victory

Full ArticleKathimerini

26 Jan 2015

Greek leftwing leader Alexis Tsipras will move on Monday to build a stable government that can take on international lenders and reverse years of painful austerity following a crushing election victory by his Syriza party. Fresh from his defeat of conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the 40-year-old Tsipras will meet the head of the small

Alexis Tsipras, center, leader of Greece's Syriza left-wing main opposition waves to his supporters after voting at a polling station in Athens, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015.

U.S. President Barack Obama waves after speaking at Nordea Concert Hall in Tallinn, Estonia, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014. Obama is in Estonia for a one-day visit where he will meet with Baltic State leaders before heading to the NATO Summit in Wales.

President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared an era of “new trust” in the relationship between their nations as the US leader opened a three-day visit to New Delhi. Standing side by side at the stately Hyderabad House, Mr

 

File - Artist’s concept of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft as it passes Pluto, July 2015.

Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft, which has travelled three billion miles and nearly nine years in its journey to Pluto, is expected to start taking pictures of the dwarf planet from today. The New Horizons probe marks humanity’s first trip to the

 

File - President Barack Obama talks with Vice President Joe Biden before boarding Air Force One at Pittsburgh International Airport prior to departure from Pittsburgh, Pa., April 16, 2014.

NEW DELHI Jan 25 (Reuters) – In a fresh bid to make India an enduring strategic partner, U.S. President Barack Obama lands in New Delhi on Sunday for a highly symbolic parade and to nurture friendship with a prime minister who until last year was

 

A police officer stand guards during a demonstration calling on government to rescue kidnapped school girls of a government secondary school Chibok, during workers day celebration in Lagos, Nigeria, Thursday, May 1, 2014.

The terrorists attacked Kambari village which is less than five kilometres to Maiduguri and killed 15 people and set the entire hamlet ablaze.Boko Haram fighters have killed 15 villagers near Maiduguri, the city which is the epicentre of the

 

A National Police Corps of Spain EC225LP at Getafe Air Base.

Spanish police arrested four people on Saturday in its North African enclave of Ceuta suspected of belonging to a militant Islamist network, the interior ministry said. Spain has stepped up security as well as efforts to prevent

 

The 16-foot (5 m) diameter CIA seal in the lobby of the Original Headquarters Building.

The secretive head of the agency’s National Clandestine Serviceis retiring amid reports of infighting over a reorganization of the intelligence service. The director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, the storied home of the agency’s most

 

 

 

 

 

New Horizons probe eyes Pluto for historic encounter

25 Jan 2015

The American space agency’s (Nasa) mission to Pluto is about to get under way in earnest. Its New Horizons probe will take the first of a set of critical pictures on approach to the icy world on Sunday. At a separation still of 200 million km, Pluto will be hardly discernable in these images – just a speck of light against the stars. But the

 This artist´s concept shows the planet catalogued as 2003UB313 at the lonely outer fringes of our solar system. Our Sun can be seen in the distance. The new planet, which is yet to be formally named, is at least as big as Pluto and about three time




Bear hug with Modi gets Obama’s India trip off to warm start

Full ArticleThe Times of India

25 Jan 2015

NEW DELHI: Signalling his determination to take relations with the United States to a higher level, Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke with protocol to meet and bear-hug US President Barack Obama as he landed in New Delhi on Sunday.Obama‘s visit is a fresh bid to make India an enduring strategic partner and he will seek to nurture friendship with

 

The US President, Mr. Barack Obama & First Lady Michelle Obama being warmly welcomed by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, in New Delhi on January 25, 2015.




High-stakes election may put Greece on collision course with European Union

Full ArticleThe Observer

25 Jan 2015

Radical leftists Syriza, led by Alexis Tsipras, promise to renegotiate the international bailout that has imposed five years of austerity on Greece.Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images After five punishing years of austerity and recession, Greeks have begun casting their votes in a high-stakes election that could set their battered

This photo taken on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015 shows Alexis Tsipras, 40, head of Greece's Syriza left wing main opposition party arrives for a pre-election campaign speech, at the Nick Galis Hall, in the northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki.




File - Artist’s concept of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft as it passes Pluto, July 2015.

Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft, which has travelled three billion miles and nearly nine years in its journey to Pluto, is expected to start taking pictures of the dwarf planet from today. The New Horizons probe marks humanity’s first trip to the

File - President Barack Obama talks with Vice President Joe Biden before boarding Air Force One at Pittsburgh International Airport prior to departure from Pittsburgh, Pa., April 16, 2014.

NEW DELHI Jan 25 (Reuters) – In a fresh bid to make India an enduring strategic partner, U.S. President Barack Obama lands in New Delhi on Sunday for a highly symbolic parade and to nurture friendship with a prime minister who until last year was

 

A police officer stand guards during a demonstration calling on government to rescue kidnapped school girls of a government secondary school Chibok, during workers day celebration in Lagos, Nigeria, Thursday, May 1, 2014.

The terrorists attacked Kambari village which is less than five kilometres to Maiduguri and killed 15 people and set the entire hamlet ablaze.Boko Haram fighters have killed 15 villagers near Maiduguri, the city which is the epicentre of the

A National Police Corps of Spain EC225LP at Getafe Air Base.

Spanish police arrested four people on Saturday in its North African enclave of Ceuta suspected of belonging to a militant Islamist network, the interior ministry said. Spain has stepped up security as well as efforts to prevent

 

 

 

 

 

Haiti forms electoral panel for overdue polls

Full ArticleBBC News

24 Jan 2015

Haiti has installed a Provisional Electoral Council to organise long-delayed elections – after weeks of protests and political uncertainty. The nine-member panel represents different sectors of society. It was sworn in shortly before a UN Security Council delegation arrived on a three-day

A police officer kicks a tire off a burning barricade set up by protesters calling for the resignation of President Michel Martelly, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Jan. 23, 2015.



The 16-foot (5 m) diameter CIA seal in the lobby of the Original Headquarters Building.

The secretive head of the agency’s National Clandestine Serviceis retiring amid reports of infighting over a reorganization of the intelligence service. The director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, the storied home of the agency’s most

 

In this citizen journalism image provided by Shaam News Network SNN, taken on Wednesday, July 11, 2012, smoke leaps the air from purported forces shelling in Homs, Syria.

A Syrian government air strike has hit an opposition-held suburb of the capital shortly after Friday prayers, killing at least 35 people, scattering bodies and rubble in the streets and setting at least one building on fire, activists said. An

 

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio meets Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

11:21 AM ET Scott Neuman Twitter i i Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli MutualAssociation community center, talks to journalists in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2013. Nisman was found shot dead in

 

FIFA President Joseph Blatter announces Qatar to host the 2022 soccer World Cup in Zurich, Switzerland, Thursday, Dec.2, 2010.

World governing body FIFA confirmed today that three major sponsors have ended their relationships with the organisation, but said there was nothing unusual about the development. Oil manufacturers Castrol, tyre companyContinental and healthcare

 

Women, members of a Russian cult, who left a cave after waiting the end of the world, no names given, foreground, speak with their leader, self-declared prophet Pyotr Kuznetsov, center, background, as they take part in negotiations with other members of the doomsday cult through a hole of their underground hideout near the village of Nikolskoye, in Penza region about 400 miles (640 kilometers) southeast of Moscow, Saturday, March 29, 2008.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists just issued their first update to the symbolic Doomsday Clock since 2007, announcing that we have advanced by two minutes and are now at “three minutes to midnight”—with midnight referring to the end

 

Slums in Soweto, suburb of Johanesburg, South Africa.

23 January 2015, 13:24 Police Arrest 153 In South Africa LootingChaos Tweet Mobs have looted more than 80 foreign-owned shops amid major disorder in South Africa, prompting 153 arrests. President Jacob Zuma has called for order to be restored
Posted:
Yingluck Shinawatra, Former Thai Prime Minister, Impeached And Banned From Politics For 5 Years
YINGLUCK SHINAWATRA

Greek elections: Europe waits on voters’ verdict

Full ArticleBBC News

23 Jan 2015

When Greeks vote on Sunday they will not just be choosing a new government, they will be delivering a verdict on Europe and its leaders. If the polls are accurate,Greece is on the verge of electing the first anti-austerity party in the eurozone. If that happens, Greece’s future will once again be uncertain. But the election will be judgement

Alexis Tsipras, leader of Greece's Syriza left-wing main opposition party delivers a pre-election speech at Omonia Square in Athens on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015.




Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron talks during a joint news conference with Afghanistan's president Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Oct. 3, 2014. Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday pledged support for Afghanistan's newly sworn-in president and the country's new unity government, saying during a surprise visit to Kabul that Britain is committed to helping Afghans build a more secure and prosperous future.

David Cameron today paid tribute to Saudi Arabia‘s King Abdullah after his death at the age of 90. The Prime Minister praised the king’s “commitment to peace” after it was announced he would be succeeded by his 79-year-old half-brother,

 

Assistant Secretary of State of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta S. Jacobson gives a press briefing during the second day of talks with Cuban officials, in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015. The United States and Cuba are trying to eliminate obstacles to normalized ties as the highest-level U.S. delegation to the communist island in more than three decades holds a second day of talks with Cuban officials.

The United States and Cuba ended two days of historic talks inHavana with some progress toward restoring diplomatic ties after half a century of estrangement. But there remain sharp differences over the role of human rights in their new

 

Thailand's former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra answers a question at parliament in Bangkok, Thailand Friday, Jan. 9, 2015. Thailand's military-appointed legislature began impeachment hearings Friday against Yingluck, a move analysts say is aimed at ensuring the ousted leader stays out of politics for the foreseeable future.

Former Thailand prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra will be charged for her role in overseeing a rice subsidy programme that lost billions of pounds. Surasak Threerattrakul, the director general of the office of the attorney general’s department, said

 

Close-up detail of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The image was taken by Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera and downloaded today, 6 August, 2014.

9:16 PM ET Bill Chappell Twitter i i A narrow-angle camera image shows part of a large fracture running across Comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko‘s neck. ESA/Rosetta/MPS hide caption itoggle caption ESA/Rosetta/MPS A narrow-angle camera image shows part

 

FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan, 21. 2014, file photo provided by Yemen's Defense Ministry, Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi speaks during the closing session of the national dialogue conference in Sanaa, Yemen. Hadi submited his resignation Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015, over a standoff with Shiite rebels who control the capital.

Yemen‘s US-backed president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi quit under pressure from rebels holding him captive in his home. The move severely complicated American efforts to combat al Qaida’s powerful local franchise and raised fears that the Arab world‘s

 

Yemen's Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi gestures as he enters a polling center to cast his vote in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2011.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen’s president resigned on Thursday under pressure from Shiite rebels who seized the capital in September and have confined the embattled leader to his home for the past two days. Presidentialofficials said Abed Rabbo Mansour

 

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, left, greets U.S. European Command Commander, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Philip M. Breedlove in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014.

There are signs Russian forces are building up their presence in eastern Ukraine, where fighting in recent days between Ukrainian troops and separatists has intensified, NATO Supreme Allied Command Gen. Philip Breedlovesaid Thursday. “What we do see

Kofi Annan: Leaders in Davos must act now to confront global issues

Full ArticleCNN

21 Jan 2015

(CNN)The horrific events in Paris and northern Nigeria have underlined again how troubled and fragmented our world is. Religious extremism and sectarianism is fueling terrorism and widespread conflict which has forced millions in Syria, Iraqand elsewhere to flee. Aggressive nationalism and politics based on prejudice and a false view of identity

File - Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Nane Annan, arriving in Zagreb for their official visit to Croatia, 20 November, 2002.




‘We are the victims of our own corrupt government’ – life as an activist in Sudan

Full ArticleThe Guardian

22 Jan 2015

Dr Amin Mekki Medani, a 75 year-old human rights campaigner, has been detained in Sudan without charge since December as part of a wider crackdown on dissent. Here, his daughter Sara calls for an end to such abuses

A women pushes a water tank while her child carries two jerry cans to collect water provided by UNAMID in the camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in Khor Abeche, South Darfur, 1 July, 2014.

 

LRA rebel, set for war crimes trial, was a child soldier

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) – Lord’s Resistance Army commanderDominic Ongwen, who arrived Wednesday in The Hague to stand trial at theInternational Criminal Court, is remembered by his grandmother as a victim himself, having been kidnapped as a boy by the

 

	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

 

 

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