Robert Schimmel, a comedian who specialized in taboo-breaking humor of the sexual and scatological variety, died on Friday at a Phoenix hospital, where he was being treated for injuries suffered in an Aug. 26 car accident. He was 60, according to New York Times. Schimmel was riding in a car with two of his children [...]
A team of 86 global scientists have sequenced the genetic code of the Golden Delicious apple for the first time. The DNA breakthrough could result in new and improved apple varieties which are more resistant to disease. Scientists from 20 institutions took two years to unravel the code – the largest plant genome uncovered to [...]
VATICAN CITY, AP: The Vatican raised the possibility Sunday of using behind-the-scenes diplomacy to try to save the life of an Iranian widow sentenced to be stoned for adultery. In its first public statement on the case, which has attracted worldwide attention, the Vatican decried stoning as a particularly brutal form of capital punishment. Vatican [...]
The Basque separatist militant group ETA declared a cease-fire in a video statement issued on Sunday, suggesting it might turn to a political process in its quest for an independent homeland. The video, which appeared in Basque newspaper Gara’s website and was also made available to the British broadcaster BBC, showed three masked militants making [...]
At some point in the last two weeks, you may have been told by someone in the news that combat operations in Iraq were over, and that the last combat troop had left the country. Well, the Associated Press is not having any of it, and in a memo from their standards editor, Tom Kent, [...]
A hostage drama took place in the Discovery Channel headquarters in Silversprings, Maryland. This to me is a reminisce of the hostage taking incident that took place in Manila, Philippines more than a week ago wherein a busload of Chinese nationals from Hong Kong were taken hostage by a dismissed police officer. In both cases, [...]
London, Agencies: There is a string of revelations about high-profile figures in former British prime minister Tony Blair’s autobiography wherein he said he was a “sucker” for the late princess Diana but there was an emotional “wildness” to her which made him wary of her. (VOTE BELOW: Do you believe Tony Blair?) The former premier [...]
A man armed with possible explosives took at least one hostage Wednesday at the headquarters of the Discovery Channel in Silver Spring, Maryland, police said. A caller from One Discovery Place, the channel’s headquarters, called police about 1 p.m. to report a man with a gun and possible explosives, said Angela Cruz, a police spokeswoman. [...]
Cuba has released pictures of Fidel Castro with an American magazine correspondent and a Washington-based policy expert, while a Mexican newspaper published an interview in which the gray-bearded revolutionary expressed regret for past persecution of homosexuals. The images show Cuba’s 84-year-old former leader with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic and Julia E Sweig from the Council [...]
At least four Israelis were shot dead near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Kyriat Arba, just ahead of renewed peace talks, in what police called a “terrorist attack”. Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said a car in which they were travelling came under fire on a road between the settlement and the Palestinian village of Bani Naim, near the city [...]
India has decided to increase by five times its assistance to Pakistan for flood relief from five million US dollars announced earlier to 25 million US dollars. In a Suo Moto statement in Lok Sabha today, the External Affairs Minister Mr. S.M. Krishna said that 20 million US dollars out of the total assistance will [...]
The US President Barack Obama has reiterated that he is endorsing the core value enshrined in the American constitution on religious freedom and not the proposed mosque at ground zero. “What I said was I was not endorsing any particular project. I was endorsing our Constitution. And what is right,” Obama told the NBC news in an interview [...]
A volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra erupted for the first time in 400 years on Sunday, spewing a vast cloud of smoke and ash into the air and sending thousands of people fleeing from their homes. Indonesia issued a red alert after the Sinabung volcano erupted, blanketing the area in thick and acrid [...]
Russian Premier Vladimir Putin has received a glowing accolade by one of the USA’s most fashionable writers. Dubbed “Russia’s Superman” the article calls Vladimir Putin “The face of New Russia” and “man of the decade”, “Russia’s answer to John Wayne”. True it is. Vladimir Putin, without wishing to write any political diatribes, is the right [...]
Pakistan cricket fraternity reacted with shock and anger on Sunday to the latest ‘spot-fixing’ scandal that rocked the national team in the fourth Test against England at Lord’s. London Metropolitan police had arrested one Mazhar Majeed for allegedly paying bribes to some players to spot-fix the ongoing Test. Although no cricketer has been charged but [...]
Jamil Abu-Wardeh believes in the community-building power of a shared laugh — especially in Arabic. Jamil Abu-Wardeh jump-started the comedy scene in the Arab world by founding the Axis of Evil Middle East Comedy Tour, which brings standup comedians to laughing audiences all over the region. He’s found that, by respecting the “three B’s” (blue [...]
Internet security giant AVG Technologies has said that the Caucasus region, with web surfers in Turkey, Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan all being the most likely to face threats while online. However, at the other end of the scale, some of the world’s safest surfers can be found in Japan and Taiwan, while seven of the [...]
The body of premature baby Jamie Ogg, weighing just two pounds, was handed to his mother to hold with the words “He didn’t make it, sorry”. Yet Kate Ogg took Jamie from the blanket and held him next to her skin, talked to him, gave him some milk from her breast…and he held her finger. [...]
A monument to the most famous nun of all times – Mother Teresa – will appear in Russia. The name of this Catholic ascetic, who dedicated her life to helping other people, is recognized in the whole world and is closely associated with holiness and kindness. This year, the outstanding woman would celebrate her 100th [...]
A group of militants entered the high security area near the US consulate in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Saturday, triggering a gun battle with security forces. There was no official word on the incident, though TV news channels reported that the militants were holed up in the area near the US consulate, which is located within the Peshawarcantonment, and [...]
WARSAW, OHIO, AP: Strippers dressed in bikinis sunbathe in lawn chairs, their backs turned toward the gray clapboard church where men in ties and women in full-length skirts flock to Sunday morning services. The strippers, fueled by Cheetos and nicotine, are protesting a fundamentalist Christian church whose Bible-brandishing congregants have picketed the club where they [...]
