North Korea threatens to attack US bases in Okinawa, Guam
North Korea has threatened to target US airbases in Okinawa and Guam as it issued an air raid alert on Thursday and ordered its military to stand ready, the country’s state media reported. “The United States is advised not to forget that our precision target tools have within their range the Anderson Air Force base [...]
US B-52s imitate nuclear bombing of North Korea
In a bid to intimidate North Korea and draw attention to the US military’s capabilities, American B-52 bombers – which are capable of carrying out nuclear strikes – are practicing over South Korea. The move is in response to rising tensions after North Korea conducted its third successful nuclear test last month. This month’s first [...]
Cypriot parliament votes against deposit levy
The Cypriot parliament has voted against a revised bank deposit levy. The tax was meant to shave 9.9% off any deposits over €100,000 and has since caused uproar in the country. Thirty six deputies voted against the proposal to tax bank deposits in the 56-member chamber, while 19 abstained. One deputy was not present for [...]
Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio named as new Pope, to be called Pope Francis I
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, of Argentina has been elected as Pope. He is the first Pope from Latin America in the history of the Catholic Church. The new Pope was announced by French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran from a balcony over the main doors of St. Peter’s Basilica as thousands of onlookers cheered from the [...]
Pentagon creates 13 offensive cyber teams for worldwide attacks
The head of the United States Cyber Command says the US is developing 40 new teams of cyber-agents that will both protect America’s critical infrastructure from hackers and as well as launch attacks against the country’s adversaries. Gen. Keith Alexander, who leads both the Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, told the US Senate [...]
High cost of cheap energy: Fukushima tragedy 2 years on
Two years after the Fukushima disaster, much of the clean-up effort is still ‘theoretical’, survivors go to court for compensation and thousands march against nuclear power, while the government gives up on the phase-out promise. Experts estimate closing the damaged Fukushima reactors down will cost around US$15 billion and will take about 30 to 40 [...]
North Korea cuts hotline with South following threats
Pyongyang has cut a key communication hotline with South Korea, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Monday. The tensions between the neighbors have once again flared after the UN adopted a fresh round of tough sanctions against North Korea. According to the Unification Ministry, attempts to contact the North by telephone at 9am failed. The hotline is [...]
Asteroid ‘size of city block’ to skim past Earth on Saturday
The 460-foot-long Asteroid 2013 ET is set to whizz past Earth on Saturday – the latest in our planet’s galactic ‘pinball contest’. Earlier in the day, the 2013 EC20 passed even closer, and both within a month of the Chelyabinsk meteor’s Earth strike. The enormous piece of space debris is expected to pass just 2.5 [...]
HISTORY: Researchers find more Nazi camps than assumed
There were some 42,500 camps set up during the Nazi era – seven times more than had been thought, according to a recent study. Such numbers, researchers say, make it absurd to claim that ‘nobody knew what was going on.’ “I find it quite astonishing that, 70 years after the end of the war, one [...]
WOMEN: Hopes and challenges for world’s women
Women make up more than half of the world’s population, so what was the point in creating International Women’s Day? The initiative came from Clara Zetkin, a German Socialist, who argued that a special day was necessary to unite the efforts of women around the world to enjoy the same rights as men. The first [...]