Regulators with the FDA have released a preliminary report that suggests they will soon give the go-ahead to a team of scientists who’ve created a sci-fi “frankenfish.” On Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration released an environmental assessment report regarding a salmon-hybrid developed in the laboratories of AquaBounty. The FDA must wait two months before they make final their decision... 

Patriot missile launchers in northern Germany Nearly 2,000 foreign troops are expected to be deployed along Turkey’s border with Syria to operate the surface-to-air Patriot missile batteries, a report says. The Turkish daily Today’s Zaman on Tuesday reported that the troops will be from the United States, Germany and the Netherlands. The three NATO members have agreed to send the missiles to the... 

Sailors prepare to board Argentinean frigate Libertad in Tema, Ghana on December 19, 2012, after an international tribunal ordered its release. An Argentinean warship has left Ghana after a UN court ordered its release following an injunction by a US hedge fund to detain it in Accra. Port spokesman Lawrence Atumbine said the Libertad set sail from the port of Tema after Ghana’s Supreme Court “nullified”... 

The 2012 Mayan Prophecy has been readily distorted and misunderstood. The End of the Mayan Calendar on December 21, 2012 has nothing to do with the “End of the World”. In fact, the Mayan calendar does not end on December 21st, 2012. Rather December 21 marks the beginning of a new “Long Cycle” in the Mayan calendar system. (See Washington’s Blog, End of the World: Hear the 2012 Prophecy …... 

Thousands of Argentinean workers have streamed into the streets of Buenos Aires to demand higher pays and lower income taxes, Press TV reports. In the third anti-government rally in Argentina since August, top trade unions demonstrated against President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner government’s economic policies and the country’s spiraling inflation on Thursday. Protesters, backed by the trade... 

South Korea has elected its first female president in a clear victory for conservative Park Geun-Hye, the daughter of the country’s former dictator. ­With more than 70 percent of votes counted so far, the 60-year old Park took almost 52 percent, over 48 percent for her left-wing rival, human rights lawyer Moon Jae-in. Though an official announcement has not been made yet, incumbent president... 

“The fear is what’s given us the reason to do this,” insisted Todd Stovall, the head functionary of the paramilitary occupation force afflicting Paragould, Arkansas, as he announced that the city would be placed under martial law for the supposed purpose of deterring crime. “Once I have stats and people are saying they’re scared, we can do this. It allows us to do what we’re fixing to... 

Flavoured cigarettes, including menthol, strawberry, or vanilla, are set to be banned in the European Union. The EU health commissioner also wants to make pictorial warnings occupy 75 per cent of the pack. ­The draft legislation on measures to curb smoking were unveiled on Wednesday. However, they still need to be approved by EU governments and the European parliament, which could take up to three... 

Recent research shows that snail saliva may have antioxidant and regenerative effects on human skin. According to a study by scientists at the Autonomous University of Madrid, snail saliva could be used in therapies to regenerate damaged skin tissues. Recent research shows that snail saliva may have antioxidant and regenerative effects on human skin. According to a study by scientists at the Autonomous... 

Demonstrators hold “No” signs while surrounding the Spanish parliament to protest against spending cuts in Madrid. The Spanish parliament has adopted a 39-billion-euro (52-billion-US dollar) austerity package as the debt-ridden eurozone country battles to reduce its budget deficit. On Thursday, the lawmakers voted for the cuts in the 2013 budget, which slashes spending for health care and education,... 

Artist’s impression: five planets orbit the star Tau Ceti, which is just 11.9 light-years from Earth. Astronomers have discovered that the closest Sun-like star, Tau Ceti, is orbited by five planets, one of which is in the “habitable range”. If its existence is confirmed, the planet could be the closest potentially life-harboring world to our own. Tau Ceti, twelve light years away, belongs... 

The image shows the final flight path for NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) mission spacecraft, which impacted the Moon on Dec. 17, 2012. NASA’s twin Grail probes have smashed themselves into a lunar mountain, ending their year-long mission of mapping lunar gravity and providing data on its composition. The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, known as Grail,... 

Russia is enduring its harshest winter in over 70 years, with temperatures plunging as low as -50 degrees Celsius. Dozens of people have already died, and almost 150 have been hospitalized. ­The country has not witnessed such a long cold spell since 1938, meteorologists said, with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees lower than the seasonal norm all over Russia. Across the country, 45 people have died due... 

A homeless woman drinks free tea in a tent set by the Ukrainian Emergency Ministry during a winter day in the industrial city of Donetsk, December 18, 2012. Ukraine’s freezing winter has taken the lives of 24 more people pushing the overall death toll to 61 in December after temperatures fall below minus 23 degrees Celsius. The cold snap, which included almost half a meter of snow, killed 43 people... 

Lawmakers in Washington have stripped an amendment from next year’s National Defense Authorization Act that could have kept the government from indefinitely detaining US citizens without charge or trial. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Michigan) told reporters on Tuesday that an amendment to the 2013 defense spending bill approved only two weeks earlier had been removed. That...