Israel is the only country that has guaranteed freedom of all faiths in Jerusalem, which must remain undivided, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Congress Tuesday.

Interrupted by repeated by standing ovations, he also thanked the United States for helping Israel reach its defense capabilities despite the “tough” economy.

There is no need for the United States to send troops to Israel because “we defend ourselves,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu noted in his opening remarks that the "ground is still shifting” in the Middle East and that the uprisings in the Muslim countries represent people’s demands for liberty. He said that of 300 million Arabs, the only ones who are "truly free" are citizens of Israel.

He continued, "Israel is not what is wrong about the Middle East. Israel is what is right about the Middle East."

US President Barack Obama's heavily armoured Cadillac, nicknamed "The Beast", became stuck on a ramp at the US embassy in Dublin, RTE state radio reported Monday.

The first cars in the presidential motorcade emerged up the ramp from the car park beneath the complex in Ballsbridge and passed through the gates without incident, but The Beast quickly ran into trouble and got beached.

"The Beast was coming along and suddenly there was a loud kind of bang, metal-on-metal, grinding, crunching noise and the car was stuck," an RTE reporter said.

A stash of pornography was found in the hideout of Osama bin Laden by the U.S. commandos who killed him, current and former U.S. officials said on Friday.

The pornography recovered in bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, consists of modern, electronically recorded video and is fairly extensive, according to the officials, who discussed the discovery with Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The officials said they were not yet sure precisely where in the compound the pornography was discovered or who had been viewing it. Specifically, the officials said they did not know if bin Laden himself had acquired or viewed the materials.

Reports from Abbottabad have said that bin Laden's compound was cut off from the Internet or other hard-wired communications networks. It is unclear how compound residents would have acquired the pornography.

Lynn Rigg was addicted to drugs, tried to kill herself in front of her children and regularly left them home alone Social services missed SEVEN opportunities to help her daughter

Girl had been on the 'at risk' register since before she was born

A drug addict mother whose 12-year-old daughter was murdered in a savage sex killing by her uncle is planning to sue social workers at taxpayers' expense - for failing to protect the youngster from her.

Lynn Rigg, 34, has a long history of crack cocaine and heroin addiction, served two jail terms and regularly left her children home alone.

Yet the mother-of-seven - whose children were born to four different fathers - says social workers were to blame over the lack of care for daughter Tia Rigg and she has hired personal injury lawyers to help her win damages.

Tia had been on the Child Protection Register before she was even born.

Suicide bombers attacked a Pakistani paramilitary academy today killing 80 people in revenge for the death of Osama Bin Laden.

The attack comes as Pakistani anger over the U.S. raid to get the Al Qaeda leader showed no sign of abating.

U.S. special forces flew in from Afghanistan to find and kill Bin Laden at his hideout in a northern Pakistani town - about three hours' away from the scene of the bombing - on May 2.

Pakistan officials welcomed the killing of Bin Laden as a major step against militancy but was outraged by the secret U.S. raid that got him, saying it was a violation of its sovereignty.

Like one of the comments on the video said, "It is sad and tragic that these people have to 'live' like this. I don't care where you are from, or who's side you are on."

The White House is reportedly locked in a debate on whether or not to release the Osama bin Laden death photos ... photos in which you can reportedly see the scumbag's brain.

According to ABC News, the photos are pretty damn gruesome -- with one report stating, "\[Osama] has a massive head wound above his left eye where he took bullet, with brains and blood visible."

One U.S. official who has seen the photos tells ABC, "There's no doubt it's him."

Fresh-faced English beauty Philippa Charlotte "Pippa" Middleton has an opportunity to take a break from her life of mingling with the monarchy to film a sex scene in a studio somewhere in the San Fernando Valley.

The Duchess of Cambridge’s little sister received an offer of $5,000,000 from Vivid Entertainment’s Steven Hirsch to do just one X-rated scene, TMZ reported.

“As far as I’m concerned, you were the star of the recent Royal Wedding,” Hirsch wrote to the 27-year old. “As I watched a broadcast of the event, I couldn’t help but think that with your beauty and attitude, you could be an enormously successful adult star.”

Read More: http://publicnewsnow.com/news/news/latest/item/109020-pippa-middletons-porn-proposal-latest-in-list-of-requests-for-worlds-new-it-girl-$5000000-for-one-x-rated-scene

First of all, as Michael Barone said today, "Let's cheerfully and ungrudgingly give credit to Barack  Obama for approving the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama  bin Laden."

Why is it so difficult for the Obama White House to get the story straight on what actually went down in Pakistan? Reports have said that he and his team watched the events live, so there shouldn't be such wildly different stories coming from his White House. The timeline below shows what I am referring to.

Read More: http://publicnewsnow.com/politics/item/106226-obama-white-house-and-the-ever-changing-account-of-mission-to-kill-osama-bin-laden-the-world-wants-the-truth

What do you think?

Energy saving bulbs emit cancer causing chemicals it was claimed last night as new fears were raised about their safety.

Scientists said they should not be left on for long periods of time or placed close to a person's head because they release poisonous materials.

The EU has unveiled plans to phase out 'normal' incandescent bulbs by the end of next year as they try to cut carbon emissions.

They should not be used by adults to read or kept near a child's head all night, the experts said.

To advertise its latest Android phone, the Touch Wood CH-08C, which has a wooden back, Japanese telco NTT DoCoMo built a giant xylophone in a forest to play a tune.

Watch, it's pretty amazing:

Sri Lankan Muslims beat and stamp on an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama during a protest rally against the allied forces' air strike in Libya, in…

Having spent the winter holed up in mountain ranges, these wild, male horses release their pent-up energy to fight each other for the first mating rights of the spring.

The stallions rear up on their hind legs and land blows on one another with their powerful hooves in a stunning battle to win the dominance of their wild herd.

Each scrap often ends up with blood being drawn from the feral horses that roam the open ranges of the Cincar mountains in Bosnia.

Radiation found in Tokyo tap water as fight for nuclear plant continues
Reykjavik is first European city to detect particles from Japan
Official death toll tops 9,400 with 13,000 people still missing
U.S. halts food imports from affected areas of Japan
Now 'costliest natural disaster' in history with estimates at £190billion

Tokyo's tap water has been deemed 'unfit for babies' after radiation from the stricken Japanese nuclear power plant contaminated the Japanese water supply, officials have warned.

The warning comes after it emerged last night that radioactive particles have reached Europe and are heading towards Britain in the wake of the catastrophe that officials say could cost up to £190billion - making it the costliest natural disaster in history.

And fresh safety concerns arose today as black smoke was spotted emerging from Unit 3 of the plant, prompting a temporary evacuation of all workers from the complex, operators Tokyo Electric Power company said.

Washington has given Petrobras America Inc. permission to start oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, a regulator said.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement gave Petrobras approval to use a floating production storage offloading facility at its Cascade-Chinook project in the Gulf of Mexico.

Nuclear workers accept their fate 'like a death sentence'
Fears for their health as one expert says it is 'perhaps a suicide mission'
Power will be connected to knocked-out coolant pumping system 'within hours'
Radioactive steam still billows from reactors and fuel storage pools after helicopter missions
Police water canons move in to spray overheating fuel rods
Radioactive plume to hit US west coast tomorrow
17,000 British nationals could be evacuated as last ditch efforts are made to stop nuclear catastrophe
Foreign Office provides free-of-charge rescue flights from Tokyo
Rich scramble to book private jets out the country as fleeing passengers pack Tokyo airport

Japan was today rallying behind the anonymous nuclear emergency workers at the stricken Fukushima power plant - as heartbreaking details of their plight emerged.

The 180 workers face soaring radiation levels as they make ever more desperate attempts to stop over-heating reactors and spent fuel rods leaking more radiation into the atmosphere.

Some experts have speculated that they may be engaged in a suicide mission - or at least could suffer serious health problems for the rest of their lives - as helicopters and police riot control trucks are used to dump water on the reactors and exposed nuclear fuel storage pools.

National television has interviewed relatives of the workers, who the plant operators insist on keeping anonymous, with one woman saying her father had accepted his fate 'like a death sentence'.

This is the shocking moment a bullied, overweight teenager turned the tables on his tormentor with a stunning wrestling move.

The footage, apparently shot on a mobile phone by another child, shows one boy picking on another at a school in New South Wales, Australia.
The bully then punches his victim - identified only as Casey - in the face and stomach while a group of pupils laugh and egg him on.

Investigation centred on 'boylover' online forum
Website which had 70,000 members now shut down
670 paedophile suspects identified across the world
Officers say the operation could see hundreds more arrested

SCOUT leaders, football coaches and a police officer are among more than 100 suspected paedophiles arrested in the UK after the world's biggest internet child sex ring was smashed by British police.

Others from every walk of life were arrested worldwide after undercover officers posing as paedophiles infiltrated a website with more than 70,000 members that served as a global meeting place for perverts.

Holding her newborn son Tom for the first time, Tracy Godwin marvelled at his eyelashes, and counted every precious finger and toe.

After the drama of his arrival at just 22 weeks, she knew she had a little fighter in her arms.

But at a mere one pound, and battling to breathe, he would need all the help he could get. That help never came.

A newborn girl, wrapped in blanket and placed in a plastic bag, has been found abandoned on the doorstep of a village home.

The baby, believed to be between one and five days old, was discovered in Stotfold, Bedfordshire, by a homeowner at around 9pm last night.

Police were called and house to house inquiries were then carried out in the area to try and find the child's mother.

Hungry people forage in the snow for scraps of food and firewood
450,000 desperate people squat in makeshift refugee shelters
850,000 people struggling to survive without food and water
20,000 missing in two towns with another 5,000 confirmed dead

Terrible sorrow: Yoshie Murakami holds the hand of her dead mother in the rubble of her home in Rikuzentakata. Her daughter is still missing
Homeless, desperate people clambered over snow-covered debris where their villages had once stood, gathering armloads of firewood as Japan's humanitarian crisis escalated yesterday.

In scenes more befitting a poverty-stricken Third World country than the world's third-richest nation, hungry people wrapped themselves in odd scraps of clothing in a futile attempt to keep out the cold in temperatures only just above freezing.

Individuals are doing it, banks are doing it — faced with the horrific news and pictures from Japan, everybody wants to do something, and the obvious thing to do is to donate money to some relief fund or other.

Please don't.

'Baby Joseph' denied throat operation by Canadian doctors
Pro-life charity campaigned for move to the U.S.
Joseph already denied treatment by Michigan hospital
A Canadian baby who was just hours away from having his life support machine turned off, has been flown over the U.S. border against the wishes of doctors in a last ditch effort to prolong his life.
Baby Joseph, who has been at the centre of an international right to life debate, has been moved by a charity and taken from Ontario, Canada to a children's hospital in Missouri.
Pro-life group The Priests For Life said the move gave the stricken 13-month-old baby a chance at life that was being denied to him in Canada.

France is the first country to formally recognise the legitimacy of Libya's rebel National Transitional Council and will open an embassy in Benghazi, the government announced after meeting with NTC representatives in Paris Thursday. By FRANCE 24 (video)

AP - Libya's opposition battled for military and diplomatic advantage against Moammar Gadhafi's embattled regime on Thursday, winning official recognition from France and hitting government forces with heavy weapons on the road to the capital.

France became the first country to formally recognize the rebels' newly created Interim Governing Council, saying it planned to exchange ambassadors after President Nicolas Sarkozy met with two representatives of the group based in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

Read More

A WIFE told yesterday how she became the world's youngest gran - at just 23.
Mum-of-two Rifca Stanescu was 12 when she had her first child Maria.

She urged the girl not to follow her example - but Maria gave birth to son Ion while only 11.

Rifca had married jewellery seller Ionel Stanescu when she was 11 and he was 13.

They eloped because Rifca feared her father wanted her to marry another village lad in Investi, Romania. She was forgiven when she had her daughter - making her mum, also Maria, a great-gran at 40.

Citizens of oil producing nations must see more benefit from their country's national resources, billionaire investor George Soros has told the BBC.

Revolts in Libya were partly the result of "revulsion against a corruption" fed by the misuse of oil money, he added.

More "transparency and accountability" was needed from other producers such as Russia and Saudi Arabia he said.

"Bring Bush! Make a no fly zone, bomb the planes,"

I'm sorry to all the Libyan people, but damn this is too funny!

Libyan rebels are of course referring to a 1991 no-fly zone Pres. Bush imposed on Iraq.

A Canadian hospital has given in to demands to send a terminally ill baby home so he can die surrounded by family.

But the hospital is still refusing to give thirteen-month-old Joseph Maraachli treatment that his parents believe will prolong - but not save - his life.

The London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario has now beefed up security after the threats in the growing dispute over the rights of Baby Joseph, as he has been dubbed.

Joseph has a fatal neuro-degenerative disease and can only survive with the aid of a ventilator.

Even though she was swathed in bandages, Lisa Hanson couldn't stop smiling as she regained consciousness.

Naturally, after two hours on the operating table having a tummy tuck as well as liposuction on her thighs and hips, the 40-year-old accountant was in some pain. And her bank balance was £2,500 lighter, too.

But so desperate was Lisa to reinvent herself after her husband's adulterous affair and her subsequent divorce, she didn't even need to see the results to know that the surgery was worth every penny.

'Under the bandages, I knew there was a new me waiting to emerge,' says Lisa, who lives in Altrincham, Cheshire.

A teenage girl walking her dog was left with horrific cuts after being set upon with a gang of thugs wielding a scalpel.

Rebecca Wills, 16, said she had her face cut 41 times in by three hoodie-wearing thugs.

The group blocked her path as she walked down a lane and one of them told her 'If you scream, I'll stab the dog.'

Rebecca said she closed her eyes as she cowered while the gang cut her face.

A nurse who allegedly self-injected a powerful pain killer meant for an operating table patient told him to 'man up' before gruelling kidney stone surgery.

After using the powerful sedative on her self, nurse Sarah Casareto, 33, reportedly told the patient to 'go to his happy place' as he screamed in agony during the operation at a Minneapolis hospital.

The kidney-stone patient, known only as L.V.K., reported his ordeal to police on 4 December, prompting an investigation.

It doesn't really speak of trust so the garter that texts if a woman is unfaithful is unlikely to be at the forefront of Valentine's Day gift lists.

But for those of a suspicious mindset, say the footballer who is said to have already bought one for his WAG, it would be just perfect.

The 'Chastity Garter' comes equipped with a hidden microchip which can spot a rapidly rising pulse rate as well as surface moisture levels on the skin.

As soon as these apparent signals of sexual stimulation occur a text message is sent to alert the woman's husband or boyfriend.
However, some WAGs might well argue that it should be the footballers that need to wear some form of chastity device.

For 12 years, a cruel father treated his daughter as a slave while lavishing love and gifts on her three half sisters, a jury heard yesterday.

Joanne Foley told how she was beaten, humiliated and degraded by her father John, a former nurse.

'I was used as a dogsbody,' she said. 'I was there to do what he said when he said it and how he said it.'

One of her half sisters, Sarah, said that Foley would swing Joanne around the room by her hair and stand on her hands. She did not even dare cry out in pain for fear of further ill-treatment.

The story of a 'modern-day Cinderella' unfolded at Exeter Crown Court, where 73-year-old Foley denies 13 counts of child cruelty.

Sex beast Jose Agostinho Pereira was convicted of repeatedly assaulting the girl, now 28, and sentenced to 63 years in jail for imprisoning her in a remote hut which could only be reached by CANOE.

The 55-year-old pervert was killed during a riot in a police station, where he was waiting to be transferred to jail.

Runner Samantha Sadler, 17, had been a back-seat passenger in a Nissan Micra when her attacker struck.

The 14-year-old yob threw a brick through the car's window and into her face, leaving her with a fractured skull, broken nose and fractured eye socket.

Samantha, who ran for Cheshire but had also been a model for top fashion names, still has double vision eight months on and is now facing further surgery.

Donald Rumsfeld has revealed that Saddam Hussein took out a $60million hit on his daughters in revenge for the slaying of his two sons.
The ex-U.S. Secretary of Defense said that the former Iraqi dictator offered the bounty to anybody who brought him both girls' heads.

He was given the warning in a October 2003 meeting by which time U.S. forces had killed Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay and his 14-year-old grandson Mustapha.

A similar threat was made to George W Bush's two daughters Jenna and Barbara, but the President had Secret Service protection which made him feel safer.

It may be a tale as old as time but, in a modern version of 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned', a teenage boy's ex-girlfriend has wreaked her revenge by spamming Google with his image.

Using a picture of hapless Jack Weppler, his former partner has pasted his image all over the search engine under such unloving messages such as 'I can't read', claiming unfashionable rocker Kenny Loggins 'is my saviour' and he's working in the gym 'on my two pack'.

He comes in for further ridicule with an assessment of his fashion sense: 'V-necks. Mom jeans' and the camp avowal 'This diva needs his stage', alongside dozens of others which are not fit to print.

The parents of a U.S. Marine killed in Afghanistan are adopting the bomb-sniffing dog who the military says loyally rushed to their son's side when he was fatally shot.

Darrell and Kathy Rusk were expected to take home Eli on Thursday. The black Labrador is being retired from military service following the death of Pfc. Colton Rusk. The military says the 20-year-old Texan died in December during a gun battle with Taliban fighters.

This winter is on track to become the coldest for the nation as a whole since the 1980s or possibly even the late 1970s. According to AccuWeather.com Chief Long Range Forecaster Joe Bastardi, three or four out of the next five winters could be just as cold, if not colder.
He is worried that next winter, for example, will be colder than this one.

I ran across this post from Al Gore, or a staffer of his:

Last week on his show Bill O’Reilly asked, “Why has southern New York turned into the tundra?” and then said he had a call into me. I appreciate the question.

As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some time now and they say that increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming:

“In fact, scientists have been warning for at least two decades that global warming could make snowstorms more severe. Snow has two simple ingredients: cold and moisture. Warmer air collects moisture like a sponge until it hits a patch of cold air. When temperatures dip below freezing, a lot of moisture creates a lot of snow.”

“A rise in global temperature can create all sorts of havoc, ranging from hotter dry spells to colder winters, along with increasingly violent storms, flooding, forest fires and loss of endangered species.”

As I thought back to previous years, I remembered Democrats blaming the LACK of snow on global warming.

So.....Which is it?

A man found dead in a car buried beneath several feet of snow shot himself a week earlier after a blazing row with his family, police have revealed.

The corpse of the man, who authorities said had alcohol, drug and mental health problems was discovered early yesterday in Queens, New York by his brother. He had threatened to kill himself in the past.

Kevin Ronan, 36, was uncovered in the early hours near 162 Street and Laburnham Avenue in Flushing.

Fiona Adams, 23, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Niamh, five, and two-year-old Cayden, who died in last April's late-night blaze.

She escaped from the house by jumping from an upstairs window with her eight-month-old son, Kiernan.

International evidence and comparisons have long been offered
as proof of the mantra that more guns mean more deaths and that
fewer guns, therefore, mean fewer deaths.1 Unfortunately, such
discussions are all too often been afflicted by misconceptions and
factual error and focus on comparisons that are unrepresentative.
It may be useful to begin with a few examples. There is a compound
assertion that (a) guns are uniquely available in the United
States compared with other modern developed nations, which is
why (b) the United States has by far the highest murder rate.
Though these assertions have been endlessly repeated, statement
(b) is, in fact, false and statement (a) is substantially so.

The latest outrage against human life, which made news around the world, was summed up by the headline: "Couple aborts twin boys for girl". As one newspaper explained the story that originated in the Australian state of Vicoria: "A couple so desperate for a baby girl that they terminated twin boys are fighting to choose the sex of their next child. The couple, who have three sons and still grieve for a daughter they lost soon after birth, are going to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to win the right to select sex by IVF treatment."

A married couple aborted their twin boys conceived after IVF operation because the wife was expecting a girl result from the treatment. They now head to court to seek justice that their cry should be attended to as they are being refused another trial.

The husband and wife already have three sons and said they now want to have a girl after their baby daughter died soon after birth.

They are both aged in their 30s and have taken their case to a legal tribunal after an independent medical body known as the Patient Review Panel rejected their bid to choose the gender of their next child using IVF.

An Australian couple aborted their twin boys they conceived via IVF simply because they were boys not girls.

In Australia sex selection is banned unless it's necessary to avoid genetic abnormalities or disease. An Australian couple took their case to the Patient Review Panel, however, their bid for sex selection was rejected. They continued with the IVF anyways and conceived twin boys. Unfortunately (for the boys), the parents didn't want boys, they wanted girls so they aborted the boys.

The State of Victoria's Civil and Administrative Tribunal is set to hear the case in March. This panel has the power to reverse the decision of the Patient Review Panel and allow this couple to select the sex of their next child.

It is also important to note that this couple did have a baby girl that died soon after birth.

Here's a link to a couple articles that have a bit more information.

http://247.newsvine.com/_news/2011/01/12/5823892-girl-seeking-couple-aborts-twin-boys-as-ivf-fails-to-give-girls-they-have-three-sons-already

http://247.newsvine.com/_news/2011/01/12/5823902-abortion-of-twins-exposes-twisted-logic

I love this time of year. It's a time of giving, sharing and unexpected surprises — like the one that just popped into my inbox.

See SampleIt comes from reader James Veitch, a London-based theater writer and director, who sent me the transcripts of a back-and-forth he had with "a not terribly clever e-mail scammer." It's a long shot, he said, but he thought "it might be good for publication." He's not kidding. I LOL'ed, I ROFL'ed, I LMAO'ed.

Yesterday, Barack Obama once again reached out to the Taliban terrorist organization.
The White House reported:

Over the past year, we've dramatically increased our civilian presence, with more diplomats and development experts working alongside our troops, risking their lives and partnering with Afghans. Going forward, there must be a continued focus on the delivery of basic services, as well as transparency and accountability. We will also fully support an Afghan political process that includes reconciliation with those Taliban who break ties with al Qaeda, renounce violence and accept the Afghan constitution.

On the heels of World AIDS Day comes a stunning medical breakthrough: Doctors believe an HIV-positive man who underwent a stem cell transplant has been cured as a result of the procedure.

Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the "Berlin Patient," received the transplant in 2007 as part of a lengthy treatment course for leukemia. His doctors recently published a report in the journal Blood affirming that the results of extensive testing "strongly suggest that cure of HIV infection has been achieved."

Every time a Muslim terrorist is caught trying to kill Americans in the name of Islam, the media and the politicians immediately go on full alert over the threat of an "Islamophobic backlash" against Muslims. Right away city mayors, district attorneys, law enforcement officials, sensitivity trainers, school board members, television executives and editorial writers go sliding down the TolerancePole(TM) on an urgent mission to head off the inevitable orgy of violence by ordinary Americans who are always presumed to be 5 minutes away from shouldering a battering ram and heading off to the nearest mosque-- by teaching tolerance toward Islam. That means embedding Islam even deeper into the school curriculum, adding a "positive depiction" of a Muslim to every TV show on the air, and arresting anyone who even looks funny at a Koran.

The Stuxnet virus, which has attacked Iran's nuclear facilities and which Israel is suspected of creating, has set back the Islamic Republic's nuclear program by two years, a top German computer consultant who was one of the first experts to analyze the program's code told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

"It will take two years for Iran to get back on track," Langer said in a telephone interview from his office in Hamburg, Germany. "This was nearly as effective as a military strike, but even better since there are no fatalities and no full-blown war. From a military perspective, this was a huge success."

The DNI has a new declassified report on recidivism rates among Guantanamo Bay detainees

A soldier who lost both legs in a bomb blast in Afghanistan as well as suffering horrific facial injuries spoke today of his joy at being able to walk to receive a gallantry award from the Queen.

Corporal Ricky Furgusson, of 4th Battalion The Rifles, said he felt honoured to be awarded the Military Cross for going to the aid of wounded comrades on four separate occasions.

Speaking after the Buckingham Palace investiture ceremony, he said: 'It's been a shock coming here, to be honest.

Two women in Oklahoma were stopped as they tried to smuggle $2,600 of clothing and accessories inside rolls of body fat.

Ailene Brown, 28, and Shmeco Thomas, 37, were busted by a TJ Maxx employee as they tucked away FOUR pairs of boots, THREE pairs of jeans, a wallet and some gloves in the creases under their breasts and across their bellies.

Some of the goods were also found in their handbags.

Interpol issues arrest warrant for Julian Assange (via @mpoppel and The Guardian). Bear in mind that it's the sex charges, not anything to do with the leaks. But still. No doubt there's a major bank out there that's praying he's silenced up before he can spill dirt on them.

Cuba's state-run media and bloggers are not amused at "Call of Duty: Black Ops," a new videogame in which the player can join a secret operation in the 1960s to assassinate former leader Fidel Castro.
"What the United States government did not manage to do in 50 years, now it attempts to accomplish by virtual means," said comments Wednesday on the website Cubadebate, where Castro regularly publishes opinion pieces.

The site was referring to the numerous plots to kill the Cuban president, which the government said numbers 638.

The latest installment of the hit "Call of Duty" franchise went on sale in North America and Europe on Tuesday, ditching World War II and modern-day environments for a Cold War theme.

The game's first mission is to assassinate Fidel Castro before the 1962 missile crisis, the moment when the Cold War came closest to tipping into a full-blown nuclear conflict.

Did you know that the iPhone is made in China for a mere $6.50? It's false but true:

[T]wo academic researchers estimate that Apple Inc.'s iPhone—one of the best-selling U.S. technology products—actually added $1.9 billion to the U.S. trade deficit with China last year.

How is this possible? The researchers say traditional ways of measuring global trade produce the number but fail to reflect the complexities of global commerce where the design, manufacturing and assembly of products often involve several countries.

U.S. Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, the commander of the NATO training mission in Afghanistan, indicated Tuesday that U.S. forces will still be fighting in Afghanistan in 2014. He said current plans aim to have "Afghan security forces in the lead" and U.S. forces in supporting roles by Dec. 31, 2014--more than four years from now.

Nearly 10,000 tons of rubbish has piled up in the streets of Marseilles as French strikes and blockades continued.
All of the country's 12 oil refineries remained closed today after nearly two weeks of industrial action which is costing the country up to £350 million a day.

During the disruption French President Nicolas Sarkozy's opinion poll ratings have collapsed and he is now the least popular leader in the history of the Fifth Republic.

France's massive strikes are costing the national economy up to euro400 million ($557 million) each day, the French finance minister said Monday as workers continued to block oil refineries and trash incinerators to protest a plan to raise the retirement age to 62.

Rotting piles of garbage — now at nearly 9,000 tons — are becoming a health hazard in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, which has been hit hard on land and at sea. Striking dockers at France's largest port are intermittently blocking ships trying to unload fuel there.

France's 12 striking refineries have been shut down for nearly two weeks, and the government has forced some of them to make stocked fuel available, but at least one in four gas stations in France has run dry.

Violeta Aylward, an agency nurse working for the NHS, was caught on camera turning off the ventilator keeping quadriplegic Jamie Merrett alive.

The 37-year-old, left paralysed from the neck down following a car accident in 2002, had a bedside camera set up at his home after becoming concerned about the standard of care he was receiving.

Footage recorded only a few days after it was installed shows Miss Aylward fiddling with the ventilator before a high-pitched warning tone sounds, indicating it is switched off.

Mr Merrett is then left fighting for life as the nurse panics about what to do next, unable to restart the ventilator or properly operate resuscitation equipment.

It was not until 21 minutes later that paramedics who rushed to the scene managed to turn the life support machine back on.

But by that time, Mr Merrett had suffered serious brain damage, which has left him with the mental capacity of a young child.

Holy fighter jets!

The top secret location of the Batcave can be revealed -- and it's not under Wayne Manor.

A larger-than-life Batman symbol was discovered on the roof of a U.S. Air Force base in Japan -- thanks to Google Maps, Stars and Stripes reported Wednesday.

The military newspaper said a white Batman symbol, like the one used in the popular TV series and movie franchise, marks the home of the U.S. Air Force's 44th Fighter Squadron's Kadena Air Base in Okinawa.

Holocaust survivors and their relatives can now search an online database cataloguing more than 20,000 art objects stolen in German-occupied France and Belgium during World War Two.

The Nazis stripped hundreds of thousands of artworks from Jews in one of the biggest cultural raids in history, including paintings by Claude Monet and Marc Chagall.

The database (see below for link) is a joint project by the New York-based Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.

It is unusual because it has been built around Nazi-era records from 1940 to 1944 that have been digitised.

The records include what was seized and from whom, along with data on restitution or repatriation and photographs of the objects that were taken.

President Barack Obama's polygamist half brother in Kenya has married a woman who is more than 30 years younger than him.

The 19-year-old's mother told The Associated Press on Friday she is furious that her daughter quit high school and married the 52-year-old.

Mary Aoko Ouma says her daughter tried to marry Malik Obama two years ago, but the mother says she wouldn't give permission.

Malik Obama, who is Muslim, has two other wives. Polygamy is legal in Kenya if it falls under religious or cultural traditions.

These incredible pictures show Alpine Ibex goats wandering across the face of the near-vertical dam in Northern Italy without a care in the world.
The gravity-defying goats typically live in very steep and rocky terrain at altitudes of up to to 4,600m and have no fear of falling whether climbing up or down the 160ft dam wall.
And they aren't doing it just to show off.
It is thought the goats are actually grazing, licking the stones for their salts.

This is the moment a herd of cows turns on a black bear after it attempted to make a meal of a grazing calf.

The bear had spotted the calf separated from the group of cows on a 2,200 acre ranch in British Columbia, Canada.

But it got more than it bargained for as the mother of the calf and two other cows charged the creature in a bloody battle lasting five minutes.

The enraged bovines took turns to stomp the bear with their heavy front feet, kick out with their back feet and crush it to the ground with their heads.

The hungry bear bit one cow on the leg and left another with cuts and grazes on its face.

But it was forced to give up under the assault and limped away with a bloodied face.

Photographer Wayne Ray captured the fight on his ranch near Fort Fraser.

The area has had little rain in the last five months, leaving the bear with a scarcity of food.

A man who stole money from victims of crime has been ordered to stand on a busy city street with a sign saying he is a thief - every weekend for the next six years.

Daniel Mireles has been walking back and forth on Westheimer in Houston - in front of the Galleria shopping centre with a sign saying he is a thief.

In large capital letters, his sign reads: 'I am a thief. I stole $250,000 from the Harris County crime victim's fund. Daniel Mireles.'