An Israeli navy vessel entering the southern Israeli port of Ashdod. Israeli naval forces have fired warning shots at a Malaysian ship carrying aid to Gaza as it approached the shore, forcing it to withdraw to Egyptian waters, according to organisers and the Israeli military. Israeli naval forces fired warning shots at a Malaysian aid ship as it approached the Gaza Strip on Monday, forcing the vessel... 

Heimdall by way of Detroit is not the main problem with Thor. It’s one thing to turn a heathen war god into a comic book. It’s another to turn him into a social democrat. Kenneth Branagh’s Thor was obviously meant to be a desecration, and it’s already passé to point this out. The casting is so deliberately clumsy that it becomes ironically racist. Idris Elba as the “whitest of the gods,”... 

The Archbishop of Naples has ruled out church funerals for Camorra bosses and members. A new pamphlet signed by Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, to be distributed to parishes in Naples, denies Camorra members the right to be godfathers at baptisms and confirmations or witnesses at church weddings. As he was inaugurating a building, the cardinal declared” “We are also giving a few blows to the... 

'Tortured': Adam Foster, 30, claims he was forced to confess in Dubai. An American who claims he was tortured by police in Dubai after they found police handcuffs in his suitcase could be jailed for seven years, it emerged today. Adam Foster, 30, was returning home from the United Arab Emirates in February when officers pulled him up at an airport. They found police handcuffs in his luggage... 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Rebranding Israel Campaign. The U.S. is not going to fully engage. Only bad things can come out of Netanyahu’s visit to America. And I mean bad things for all of us, everywhere. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, a master of Zionist double-speak and deception, is about to undertake the most important assignment of his life. Because of its continuing occupation... 

Fudai Junior High School students clean their tennis court after the tsunami- but compared to other towns, they escaped relatively unscathed thanks to the sea wall pictured in the background. Click on the image to enlarge it. The Japanese mayor who was laughed at for building a huge sea wall – until his village was left almost untouched by tsunami. The huge sea wall and floodgates took 12 years... 

“Josephine” is 12 years old and several months pregnant. She’s a member of the Samburu tribe, living in a small village in a remote part of Isiolo in Kenya’s Eastern Province. The pre-teen, whose identity is being protected, claims she had sex with a relative — a rape sanctioned by the Samburu, through a practice called “beading.” Intricate beaded necklaces... 

One man has gone to extraordinary lengths to save his family’s home from rising floodwaters…by building a giant levee and moat system. Russell Petty, 50, of DeValls Bluff, Arkansas spent several weeks excavating and piling sand bags, including with the help of 100 friends and neighbors, reports The New York Times. Mr Petty’s home is menaced by high water from the nearby White River,... 

Last year, MSNBC and other so-called “news” outlets mercilessly attacked Kentucky Senatorial candidate Rand Paul for giving an honest libertarian answer to Rachel Maddow concerning the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On Friday’s “Hardball,” Chris Matthews tried the same tactic on Paul’s father Ron, but the elder Texas Congressman was ready for the question and ended up... 

“John Demjanjuk Guilty of Nazi Death Camp Murders,” ran the headline on the BBC. The lede began: “A German court has found John Demjanjuk guilty of helping to murder more than 28,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp in Poland.” Not until paragraph 17 does one find this jolting fact: “No evidence was produced that he committed a specific crime.” That is correct. No evidence was produced, no witness... 

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was pulled off an Air France flight by the NYPD. The head of the IMF has been charged with a criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment, following allegations made by a hotel maid in New York. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was taken into custody at JFK airport after being pulled from the first-class cabin of a flight to Paris just minutes before take-off. The 62-year-old... 

Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes. In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer’s entry. “We... 

Trouble and strife: Bello Maasaba is attended to by followers at the home he shares with 89 wives and numerous children in Bida, Nigeria. For many, one wife is enough. But Islamic faith healer Bello Maasaba has only said: ‘I’m done’ after an incredible 107 marriages, producing 185 children. And the 87-year-old Nigerian, who now has an extended family of more than 5,000 people, says... 

Huge crowds across Yemen demanded on Friday that President Ali Abdullah Saleh leave after months of unrest which has put the Arab world’s poorest country on the brink of an economic meltdown. But in a defiant speech to thousands of flag-waving supporters in the Yemeni capital, Saleh declared: “We will confront a challenge with a challenge.” Three people were killed and 15 wounded... 

When liberal investor George Soros gave $1.8 million to National Public Radio , it became part of the firestorm of controversy that jeopardized NPR’s federal funding. But that gift only hints at the widespread influence the controversial billionaire has on the mainstream media. Soros, who spent $27 million trying to defeat President Bush in 2004, has ties to more than 30 mainstream news outlets...