From 1 January shops will have to stop supplying shoppers with plastic bags A ban on plastic bags is coming into effect in Italy, which has one of the highest rates of consumption of the bags in Europe. The ban begins in shops across Italy on 1 January, with only biodegradable, cloth or paper bags to be offered. Italians use 20 billion plastic bags a year – more than 300 per person. Supporters... 

Silsbee Highschool cheerleader kicked off squad for refusing to cheer for player who raped her. A Texas high school cheerleader who was kicked off the squad for refusing to chant the name of an athlete she said had raped her will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate her free-speech suit against the school district, her lawyer says. The cheerleader and her parents are also challenging federal court... 

China is preparing for conflict ‘in every direction’, the defence minister said on Wednesday in remarks that threaten to overshadow a visit to Beijing by his US counterpart next month. “In the coming five years, our military will push forward preparations for military conflict in every strategic direction,” said Liang Guanglie in an interview published by several state-backed... 

Israel destroyed a Syrian nuclear reactor in an air raid just weeks before it went online in 2007, said a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks and published on Friday in an Israeli daily. “On September 6, 2007, Israel destroyed the nuclear reactor built by Syria secretly, apparently with North Korea’s help,” then US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice wrote in the cable published... 

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, left, and his co-defendant Platon Lebedev, right, talk behind a glass enclosure at a court room in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 30, 2010. Khodorkovsky, 47, is in the final year of an eight-year sentence after being convicted of tax evasion, and the new conviction on charges of embezzlement and money laundering could keep him behind bars for several more years. A judge read the... 

Anti-Arab demonstration in Bat Yam, December 20, 2010 Rabbi Gilad Kariv condemns letter by 30 rabbis’ wives calling on Jewish girls to stay away from Arab men. The head of Israel’s Reform Judaism movement on Tuesday harshly criticized a letter by 30 rabbis’ wives calling on Jewish girls not to date Arabs, work with them or perform national service in the same places where they work. “Israeli... 

A new report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared for President Medvedev by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that the United States, in 2010, continued its headlong descent into becoming one of the most feared police states our modern World has ever seen. The term police state as used in this report describes a government that exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic... 

Estonia will become the third ex-Communist country to embrace the euro Estonia is just hours away from becoming the 17th member of the eurozone – the first ex-Soviet state to adopt the EU’s single currency. The changeover from the kroon to the euro starts at midnight (2200 GMT) in the small Baltic nation of 1.3m people. Despite market pressure on the eurozone and the bail-outs of Greece... 

The phrase “enemy within” brings to mind the image of a shadowy spy stealing military secrets. That was the case for Israeli master spy Jonathan Pollard jailed for 1980s espionage that compromised U.S. Cold War strategy. That phrase also describes those involved in a form of psy-ops that is not easily detected because it operates so brazenly. For instance, the well-timed release of diplomatic... 

Before I disclose the solution of how to fix America, I must give you some background history to validate the solution. America’s economic problems started on February 3, 1913 with the ratification of the 16th amendment (the income tax amendment) signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson then compounded by the Federal Reserve Act, signed into law on December 23, 1913. The first income tax imposed... 

Artist Denis Peterson leaves onlookers impressed with his real life scenes showing cities around the world – but gobsmacked when they realise every inch of these pictures are painted. At first glance some of his works look like a simple billboard over a busy urban setting. But on closer inspection the hidden secret is revealed – even the tiny people and obscure reflections on background... 

According to the deputy head of presidential administration, Viktor Yanukovych, “does not choose his faith according to what it can give him later”. In days of celebrating the Jewish Hanukkah, Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych has refused to attend a synagogue religious ceremony and light the Hanukkah candles. As the deputy head of Presidential Administration of Ukraine, Anna Herman,... 

The United States-dominated defense sales in the Persian Gulf in 2005-09 and delivered 54 percent of the Middle East’s military hardware, including advanced systems that had been denied Arab states because of Israeli objections, analysts say. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which monitors global arms sales, said in a recent study that the United Arab Emirates was the largest... 

Abu Yahya selling clothes at the New Covent Garden Market in Vauxhall earlier this month A notorious Muslim fanatic has been accused of fiddling the benefits system by working while claiming jobseekers’ allowance. Abdul Rehman Saleem, known as Abu Yahya, is working on a market stall at the same time as collecting the £60 a week benefit, a friend of his estranged wife claimed. The 35-year-old was... 

Guilty: Moshe Katsav, who was president of Israel from 2000 to 2007, has been convicted of rape in a Tel Aviv court ‘Riddled with lies’: Former Israel president Moshe Katsav facing four years behind bars after being found guilty of rape. The former president of Israel has been found guilty of two charges of rape this morning. Moshe Katsav, who was in charge of Israel for seven years from...