Inmates sit for dinner at the California State Prison in Lancaster. A federal overseer of the state’s prison system has suggested freeing the sickest inmates as a way to cut costs. The 5-4 decision represents one of the largest prison release orders in U.S. history. The court majority says overcrowding has caused ‘suffering and death.’ In a sharp dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia warns... 

The Hubble Space Telescope has recently managed to photograph a dwarf galaxy NGC 4214, located in the constellation Canes Venatici at a relatively short distance from the Earth – approximately 13 million light-years. Astrophysicists believe that a number of different characteristics of this object make it ideally suited for studying the evolution of stars. The Constellation Canes Venatici is... 

A neighborhood struck by the tornado in Joplin, Missouri. A tornado steamrolled over Joplin, Mo., on Sunday night, knocking out a hospital and killing dozens of people across the city, according to various reports. Joplin, which was in the direct path of the tornado, was left isolated and in the dark after the destruction, with telephone connections largely cut off and many homes without electricity... 

U.S. Readjusts interventionist policy in the Middle East. In a speech in the early afternoon Thursday (19th), the U.S. president, Barack Obama, announced the general policy of reprogramming that American diplomacy must employ in the Middle East. The adjustment takes place after the administration evaluated the previous policy as a failure, after the uprisings by the Arab peoples against oppressive... 

Jiang Yu China has officially put the United States on notice that Washington’s planned attack on Pakistan will be interpreted as an act of aggression against Beijing. This blunt warning represents the first known strategic ultimatum received by the United States in half a century, going back to Soviet warnings during the Berlin crisis of 1958-1961, and indicates the grave danger of general war growing... 

Iceland has closed its main international airport and cancelled domestic flights after its most active volcano, Grimsvotn, began erupting. A plume of smoke has risen 20km (12 miles) into the sky from the volcano. But Iceland’s Meteorological Office says the eruption should not cause widespread disruption to air traffic. Last year, ash clouds from another Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokul, led... 

The former world finance chief accused of rape believed he was the target of a plot organised by Russian PM Vladimir Putin, it was claimed yesterday. A colleague said Dominique Strauss-Kahn told him the Russians wanted him fired as boss of the International Monetary Fund. And the 62-year-old Frenchman, facing charges of trying to rape a hotel maid in New York, accused France and Russia of hatching... 

A screenshot of the website for the Centers for Disease Control, which were swamped by a massive wave of traffic following the tongue-in-cheek warning of an impending “zombie apocalypse.” Are you prepared for the impending zombie invasion? That’s the question posed by the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention in a Monday blog posting gruesomely titled, “Preparedness 101:... 

While we are still more than half a year away from the moment that Ivy Bridge will make its official appearance, Intel has already revealed a series of details about its 2013 processor architecture, which goes by the name of Haswell. Haswell will follow Intel’s tick-tock development cycle and the first chips to make their appearance in 2013 will be fabricated using the 22nm Tri-Gate technology. This... 

Two defectors from Iran’s intelligence service have testified that Iranian officials knew in advance about the attacks of September 11, 2001, says a US court filing that seeks damages for Iran’s ”direct support for, and sponsorship of, the most deadly act of terrorism in American history”. One of the defectors also claimed that Iran was involved in designing the attacks, the... 

China has long preferred to keep out of international affairs, rejecting the interventionist instincts of the United States and NATO that have been on display in Libya in recent months, and concentrating on affairs at home. China’s leaders espouse a doctrine of “non-interference” in other nations’ affairs and take every opportunity to reassure the watching world of its “peaceful... 

Benjamin Netanyahu Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected U.S. President Barack Obama’s call for Israel’s 1967 borders to be taken as the starting point for talks on a future Palestinian state. In a landmark speech to the State Department on Thursday, Obama said the peace negotiations should result in “a viable Palestine, and a secure Israel.” “The borders... 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has this week sparked a wave of outrage across Europe by calling on Portugal, Spain and Greece to raise their retirement ages and reduce their leave. She warned that German aid to these countries could be cast into doubt should southern European countries fail to adopt the work ethic of her countrymen. “It’s not just about getting any further into debt in... 

The influx of migrants from former Soviet republics has long been out of control. It is understandable because the illegals receive “assistance” from employees of the involved agencies and ordinary citizens. The latter marry illegals without love, but with profit and no liability under the law. MPs have decided to shut down the marriage business. Each year the quota for migrant workers... 

Investigators suspect that the killings may have been carried out by the Sinaloa, Los Zetas and Beltran Leyva drug cartels, Mexican media reported. Investigators and army troops found another 17 bodies in Durango city, the capital of the like-named northern Mexican state, over the weekend, bringing to 218 the number of bodies found at several sites since early April, officials said. Federal Police...