If the Sarah Mclachlan ASPCA ad for abused animals makes your heart sink, the idea of caged bears kept under inhumane conditions to have their gall bladders milked daily for use as a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) might bring you to tears. Even more heart wrenching is a recent report of a mother bear killing her cub and herself to stop a life of continued torture and pain. A bile farm worker in... 

On a warm July night, 40 young people swarmed an Ottawa convenience store in one of Canada’s first “flash robs.” Close to midnight on a hot summer’s night in July, the Quickie convenience store in Ottawa’s west end was virtually empty. The next minute, 40 or so youth descended en masse. As they marched in they grabbed everything in sight. The next minute, like a well-oiled many-tentacled... 

Belief it can cure cancer has led to a huge rise in poaching of endangered animals. Britain is to ask China, Vietnam and other Asian countries to tell their citizens that rhino horn has no medicinal value, in an attempt to halt a wave of rhino poaching that may drive the endangered animals to extinction. Although long known as a powdered ingredient in traditional Asian medicine, a recent belief in... 

Australia is almost certain to vote against a Palestinian state next month, despite an apparent push by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd for Canberra to abstain from any such vote. Leaders of the Jewish community reacted angrily yesterday to a report that Mr Rudd had written to Julia Gillard recommending that Australia abstain from the vote at the UN. The diplomatic row came as Victorian Labor leader Daniel... 

Russian senator blames failure of multiculturalism for UK riots. The death of multicultural society and the economic crisis are to blame for the riots that have convulsed London and other British cities this week, head of the Russian upper house’s international affairs committee Mikhail Margelov said on Wednesday. “I think the events occurring in the English cities have at least two reasons.... 

Congressman Ron Paul won 4,671 votes in today’s Iowa Republican Straw Poll, topping Governor Mitt Romney’s vote total from 2007 and drawing a near statistical tie with today’s winner at 27.6 percent of the vote versus 28.5 percent. Dr. Paul’s finish earned him a strong second place and it was the fourth highest vote total ever received by a candidate at the important test of candidate strength. Said... 

A senior Federal Security Service (FSB) official speaking off the record to reporters this morning in the Kremlin labeled the US social media website Facebook as the world’s most dangerous “Information Warfare Weapon” and stated that unless its powers were curbed the freedoms of everyone on Earth would be stripped away entirely. Important to note is that this top FSB official had previously... 

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Rome has approved a new emergency 45.5-billion-euro austerity plan in response to demands by the European Central Bank (ECB) to balance Italy’s budget by 2013. The Italian government approved the emergency package in line with the ECB request on Friday, despite strong disagreement and resistance from local government officials who maintain that new austerity... 

The world’s most expensive city from the point of view of real estate prices is Hong Kong. The Asian city holds the leadership on this index since 2005. Prices on real estate in Hong Kong are 107% higher than the average prices in ten other largest cities of the world. Real estate prices in other major cities of the world are lowest in India’s Mumbai. They are 43% lower than average prices... 

Millions of people took to the streets of cities and towns in Yemen on Friday to show their support for the popular revolution. Millions of people have taken to the streets of cities and towns in Yemen for “Friday of the Victory by God’s Will” demonstrations, which were organized by the Youth Revolutionist group. Protesters held demonstrations in Sana’a, Taizz, Ibb, Ataq, Mar’ib,... 

They descended by the hundreds – black-shirted, bat-wielding youths chasing down darkskinned immigrants through the streets of Athens and beating them senseless in an unprecedented show of force by Greece’s far-right extremists. In Greece, alarm is rising that the twin crises of financial meltdown and soaring illegal immigration are creating the conditions for a rightwing rise – and the July... 

Research Reveals Genetic Link to Human Intelligence A recent study mainly conducted in the University of Manchester has revealed the first direct biological evidence for a genetic contribution to people’s thinking skills. University of Manchester scientists in collaboration with colleagues in Edinburgh and Australia, by testing people’s DNA for genetic variations, found out the existence... 

United Nations health officials have warned of serious cholera outbreaks in various regions of the already famine-stricken Somalia. The World Health Organization (WHO) says some 4,272 cases of acute watery diarrhea have been recorded in the capital Mogadishu so far this year. The agency says more than 180 people have already fallen victim to the disease in Mogadishu and surrounding areas and that... 

Social networking sites have fallen victim to the British Prime Minister’s irk after the worst unrest in a generation, as defined by UK authorities, rocked the country. Prime Minister David Cameron made a statement to the parliament on Thursday warning to unleash a clampdown on social media including social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Research in Motion (Rim), the maker of... 

Police departments in several cities around the country are investigating what appear to be incidents of “flash mob”-generated violence, in which packs of dozens or even hundreds of youths appear seemingly out of nowhere to commit assaults, robberies and other crimes against innocent bystanders. The motive and circumstances surrounding the attacks that have resulted in numerous arrests...