Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. Venezuela has severed its relations with the US after Washington imposed sanctions against Venezuela’s state-owned oil company for supplying gasoline to Iran. According to examiner.com, Venezuela officially “froze” relations with the United States on Sunday, a top diplomat from President Hugo Chavez’s government said. Venezuelan Foreign Minister... 

Greek protesters hold a demonstration in front of the old university in Athens, Greece, on May 31, 2011. The protest was organized by Greek academics against austerity measures and was joined by thousands of Greek citizens. Greek prime minister outlines programme of state sell-offs and further belt-tightening. With protests dividing his own party and tens of thousands taking to the streets, Greece’s... 

Iranian nuclear experts at the research centre of the uranium conversion plant in the Isfahan. The country is only a matter of months from creating a nuclear weapon. Iran is only a matter of months from being able to create a nuclear weapon, according to experts. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 54, has long been pushing his country’s nuclear capabilities, and at the current rate of uranium enrichment... 

German Health Minister Daniel Bahr puts on gloves and a mask during his visit at the University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf in Hamburg, northern Germany, on Sunday, June 5, 2011. German-grown bean sprouts could be the source of the deadly E.coli outbreak that has killed 22 people in Europe and infected at least four in US. The news came from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC),... 

Belgium will soon become the second country in Europe to ban the burqa in public places, after the parliament approved legislation forbidding full veils, the bill’s author said today. The legislation quietly cleared the Senate last week after it was overwhelmingly approved by the lower chamber of deputies last month, when only one Green lawmaker voted against it and two abstained. The new law... 

Pro-Palestinians protesters take cover from Israeli forces shooting near the village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Sunday, June 5, 2011. Israeli troops fired at Palestinian demonstrators in Syria who rushed to the frontier fence in what Israel called a challenge to its sovereignty. Syrian state-run media said 23 were killed. “Anyone who tries to cross the border will be... 

An extensive check has shown that earthquake-hit Christchurch escaped any serious damage from a 5.5-magnitude aftershock on Monday. The jolt occurred at 9.09am and was centred 20km southwest of Christchurch at a depth of 15km. Two more aftershocks have been recorded: a 3.8-magnitude tremor at 11.41am and one measuring 4.7 at 5.04pm on Monday. Both were 20km west of Christchurch at a depth of 10km. The... 

Beset by Christian guilt, the Continent won’t defend Christians persecuted by Islamists. This year the leaders of France and Britain declared that their countries’ policies of multiculturalism had failed. As when Germany’s Angela Merkel made similar statements last year, Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron sparked a political firestorm. Europe’s debate over multiculturalism,... 

Editor’s note: After the report below was filed, the Park Police in DC sent in a SWAT team. “As the monument was cleared of participants and press alike, several people remained, dancing gleefully in front of SWAT team members who had arrived,” reports The Daily Caller. In addition to the SWAT team, the cops erected a fence around the monument. A report from the Tenth Amendment Center: “At... 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli and Palestinian activists are to stage a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to welcome the establishment of a Palestinian state. The rally is expected to be held in Tel Aviv on Saturday under the slogan “Netanyahu said no and we say yes to the Palestinian state,” and “Netanyahu is leading us to disaster,”... 

China has dropped 97 percent of its holdings in U.S. Treasury bills, decreasing its ownership of the short-term U.S. government securities from a peak of $210.4 billion in May 2009 to $5.69 billion in March 2011, the most recent month reported by the U.S. Treasury. Treasury bills are securities that mature in one year or less that are sold by the U.S. Treasury Department to fund the nation’s debt. Mainland... 

Zimbabwean farmers attend a meeting of white commercial farmers in capital Harare. Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court heard a case on behalf of three farmers who claimed the constitution excluded confiscation of their land because they bought their properties after the colonial era ended with independence in 1980. The Supreme Court did not agree and quickly dismissed their application. One of the farmers,... 

St Moritz: Preparing to host Bilderberg. As the Bilderberg conference heads towards Switzerland there’s still time to book your seat on a minibus to St Moritz. As Europe groans, and austerity bites, as defaulting looms, and once proud nations fall to their knees in debt, there’s only one annual conference of bankers and industrialists that can step in and save us all… Bilderberg! Next... 

Libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) made headlines last week for single-handedly obstructing the renewal of the Patriot Act, calling the law an unconstitutional infringement on civil liberties. His demand to insert a series of amendments to weaken the law nearly allowed it to lapse and put the country at “risk,” but Paul said it was worth it to prevent the government from continuing to “blatantly... 

China's President Hu Jintao and South Africa's President Jacob Zuma (r.) inspect honor guards during a welcome ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Aug. 24. Zuma called for greater investment in his country from China, as South Africa seeks to narrow its trade deficit with Beijing and bring growth to its sluggish economy. By some counts, at least half the foreigners living...