World News
Huffington Post | Israel approved the construction of 1,600 new homes for Jews in disputed east Jerusalem on Tuesday - a move that immediately clouded a visit by Vice President Joe Biden aimed at repairing strained ties and kickstarting Mideast peace talks.
Daily Mail | Euthanasia has been available for the terminally ill in Holland since 2002 in cases of 'hopeless and unbearable suffering' certified by two doctors, but this would be a far bigger step. Supporters say it would offer a dignified way to die for those over 70 who just want to giv...
BBC | The Office of the US Trade Representative said it was "disappointed" by Brazil's decision and called for a negotiated settlement. Critics say the US has given its cotton growers an unfair advantage by paying them billions of dollars each year.
BBC | "Everything has been knocked down - there is not a stone in place," Yadin Apaydin, the administrator for Yukari Kanatli, told CNN Turk.
BBC | An adviser to the Christian-dominated Plateau state government, Dan Manjang, told AFP: "We have been able to make 95 arrests but at the same time over 500 people have been killed in this heinous act."
Lat/AM Daily | Violent toys and video games are now illegal in Venezuela. The law – called the Law for the Prohibition of Violent Video Games and Toys (Ley para la Prohibición de Videojuegos Bélicos y Juguetes Bélicos) – was passed in November and went into effect on Wednesday.
Video | European Poker Tour Berlin has just been robbed by six gunmen with machine guns. It is alleged that they have made off with less than a million Euros from the poker tournament. One of the guards was injured trying to capture one of the robbers.
Telegraph | The serpent was depicted being clasped in the Tudor monarch's fingers in the original version of the work - but it was painted over at the last minute and replaced with a more decorative bunch of roses.
BBC | Six years after the intense fighting began in the Iraqi town of Fallujah between US forces and Sunni insurgents, there is a disturbingly large number of cases of birth defects in the town.
Singularity Hub | The world’s first major theme park based on robots is coming to Incheon, South Korea. Robot Land has already raised more than 784.5 billion Won (~$680 million USD) to create the 100+ acre facility which will include theme attractions, a water park, residential/commercial space,...
MSNBC | Dubai's police chief plans to seek the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of Israel's spy agency over the killing of a Hamas leader in the emirate, Al-Jazeera television reported Tuesday.
Times Online | A Jewish settler throws wine at a Palestinian woman in Hebron in the West Bank. Holy to both Jews and Muslims, the city is often the scene of violence. Castelnuovo captured the attack while photographing a celebration of the Jewish festival of Purim
The Register | LOPPSI - otherwise known as Loi d'Orientation et de Programmation pour la SÈcuritÈ IntÈrieure (pdf) - is a ragbag of measures designed to make France a safer place. Like similar UK legislation - most notably the various Criminal Justice acts brought in over the last decade - LOP...
Russia Today | The convicted men ranged from US diplomats to members of the military and included the former CIA station chief in Milan, Robert Seldon Lady, who received the longest sentence of eight years.
Atlantic Sentinel | In 1982 the Buenos Aires Government under General Galtieri invaded the Falkland Islands off the south coast of Argentina with a force of several thousand soldiers, overwhelming the garrison of Royal Marines stationed on the island.
Daily Mail | Kate Harding, 23, was prosecuted under the Treasure Act after she ignored orders to report the rare find to a coroner.
Times Online | Would you be prepared to cross-dress? And kill a guest in an adjacent hotel room? If the answer to these questions is a resounding “yes”, and you can also act, enjoy luxury international travel with a twist and can carry off a convincing Irish or Australian accent, then the job...
Huffington Post | In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama pledged to "go through the budget line by line to eliminate programs that we can't afford and don't work." One week later, he sent his FY2011 budget request to Congress, which included a record-breaking $3 billion in mi...
BBC | "I am shocked, it's identity theft - simply unbelievable," he told Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, adding that although he had travelled all over the world, he had never visited Dubai or any of the other emirates in the UAE.
Haaretz | Various features of the people in the photographs, such as eye color or the line of a lip, were changed - slightly enough so as not arouse suspicion at passport control, but still enough that the real agent could not be recognized.
Times Online | The son of one of Hamas’s founding members was a spy in the service of Israel for more than a decade, helping to prevent dozens of Islamist suicide bombers from finding their targets, it emerged yesterday.
Google | In late 2006, students at a school in Turin, Italy filmed and then uploaded a video to Google Video that showed them bullying an autistic schoolmate. The video was totally reprehensible and we took it down within hours of being notified by the Italian police.
Haaretz | The son of a leading Hamas figure, who famously converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Shin Bet security service's most valuable source in the militant organization's leadership, Haaretz has learned.
B'Tselem | Rather than going to Germany, Ahmad received a referral from St. Joseph’s Hospital, in Gaza, to St. Joseph’s French Hospital, in Jerusalem. He was given an appointment for 23 November 2009.
AJC | Prosecutors on Tuesday interrogated 51 Turkish military commanders, including former Air Force and Navy chiefs, over alleged plans to destabilize the country by blowing up mosques to trigger a coup andtopple the Islamic-rooted government.
BBC | At a regional summit in Cancun, Mexico, a document has reportedly been drafted giving Argentina unanimous support. It comes a day after a British oil rig began drilling for oil off the islands, a move Argentina formally objected to.
Newsweek | They call it potbelly hill, after the soft, round contour of this final lookout in southeastern Turkey. To the north are forested mountains. East of the hill lies the biblical plain of Harran, and to the south is the Syrian border, visible 20 miles away, pointing toward the ancient la...
BBC | "In accordance with the new law, women will be able to complete their preliminary procedures with notaries by just presenting their IDs," said Ministry of Justice official Osama al-Mirdas, according to Arab News.
Reuters | New evidence incriminating Israel's spy agency in the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai includes credit card payments and phone calls made by suspects, an Arabic-language daily reported on Saturday.
Al Jazeera | Imagine being a 5 year-old, like Sulaiman Jamal. In order for Jamal to get to school in the morning, hell – snow – or sunshine, he must walk around 4 kilometres to get to school because his school bus can't get anywhere close to his house
New York Times | Their testimony echoed that of parents in the mountain town of Callabas, outside of Port-au-Prince, who told the AP on Feb. 3 that desperation and blind faith led them to hand over 20 children to the religious Americans who promised them a better life.
New York Times | Political tensions have been high in the central African uranium exporting country in recent months over President Mamadou Tandja's extension of his rule, which drew widespread criticism and international sanctions.
The Local | “My clients are not happy with an apology, and instead expect compensation from the orders,” Groll told the paper. “An agreement out of court would be the right signal to the victims.” Prosecutors have said that the alleged abuse probably happened too long ago for criminal cha...
New York Times | That is the startling implication of discoveries made the last two summers on the Greek island of Crete. Stone tools found there, archaeologists say, are at least 130,000 years old, which is considered strong evidence for the earliest known seafaring in the Mediterranean and cau...
Mimundo | “The so-called 80’s were characterized by a wave of violence in several countries in Latin America. Our country, Honduras, was not an exception. Even though the phenomenon of ‘disappearances’ occurred mostly during the military dictatorships, many people also vanished during democrati...
Telegraph | The council of EU finance ministers said Athens must comply with austerity demands by March 16 or lose control over its own tax and spend policies altogether. It if fails to do so, the EU will itself impose cuts under the draconian Article 126.9 of the Lisbon Treaty in what w...
Video | The title says it all
Times Online | They are also suspected of recent killings in Dubai, Damascus and Beirut. While Israel’s Mossad spy agency has been suspected of staging assassinations across the world since the 1970s, it does not officially acknowledge or admit its activities.
New York Times | Wall Street tactics akin to the ones that fostered subprime mortgages in America have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermining the euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts.
Worker's World | As the people of Haiti continue heroic efforts to recover from the Jan. 12 devastating earthquake that has claimed at least 200,000 lives, they are facing a new challenge — an occupation of 13,000 U.S. troops and advanced weaponry.
60 Minutes | Could crucial parts of the equipment Iran is using in its uranium enrichment facility have come from the U.S.? American law enforcement authorities say sensitive devices and electronics are being smuggled into Iran.
Reuters | The damage done to Israel's image by allegations of Gaza war crimes in a United Nations report has ignited a battle between right and left-wing advocacy groups over freedom of expression in the Jewish state.
World Net Daily | "The people of the Arabian Peninsula for centuries have scratched a life from the hostile desert and followed a simple rule when choosing a marriage partner: Keep it in the family," Ashbury explains. "Many marry their first cousins in arranged marriages to this day."
Times Online | He was charming and single, she was bored and stuck in a sterile marriage, and their encounter in the aisles of a local supermarket seemed like a chance for them to change their lives for the better.
Haaretz | Ten agents, including three women, participated in the assassination of senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January, according to Intelligence Online, a Paris-based journal dedicated to tracking intelligence activity worldwide.
New Zealand Herald | New Zealand followed Australia's lead by introducing the wholesale guarantee alongside a retail deposit guarantee during the depths of the global financial crisis in 2008. The schemes were intended to ensure local banks could continue to access wholesale funding on ove...
MSNBC | A New Zealand teenager faced legal action for stealing his own injured puppy from a clinic to save it from euthanasia when the family couldn't afford expensive surgery after it was hit by a car.
AFP | "The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel.
Spiegel | The guidelines, issued in the year of our Lord 1962, address a sensitive subject: sex in the confessional. The Vatican doesn't put it quite that directly, preferring to use more guarded terminology to describe what happens when a priest leads a member of his flock astray before, during ...
Haaretz | Hecklers interrupted Oren's lecture at University of California, Irvine, over 10 times, shouting "killers" and "how many Palestinians did you kill?" Oren took a 20 minute break after the fourth protest, only to be interrupted again by young men yelling at him every few minutes, ...