Shutdown: Bologna airport was shut on Tuesday after a cargo plane was held on the runway and searched for a parcel, believed to be a mail bomb, addressed to Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi Greek authorities have halted international postal deliveries for 48 hours in the wake of a militant bombing campaign. At least 11 mail bombs were sent to embassies in Athens yesterday, while devices were also... 

At least 5,000 Russian nationalists rallied for curbs on immigration in Moscow on Thursday in one of the largest far-right demonstrations in years in the capital. Activists shouted “Russia for the Russians,” and carried banners calling for “White Power” and “Orthodox Faith or Death” in a march held with official permission in a suburb in the south of the capital... 

A Philippine village watchman mistook an actor for a real masked gunman, jumped onto his moving motorcycle and fatally shot him in what witnesses thought was part of the filming, police and another actor said Monday. As the director shouted ‘Action!’, actor Kirk Abella began to speed away on a motorcycle with a masked driver and the watchman feared he was going to escape, said community... 

It sounds like something a wild-eyed basement-dweller would come up with, after adjusting the fit of his tinfoil hat. But military bureaucrats really are asking scientists to help them “degrade enemy performance” by attacking the brain’s “chemical pathway[s].” Late last month, the Air Force Research Laboratory’s 711th Human Performance Wing revamped a call for research... 

Virus (purple) circulating in the bloodstream recognised by antibodies (yellow) of the immune system. In a dramatic breakthrough that could affect millions of lives, scientists have been able to show for the first time that the body’s immune defences can destroy the common cold virus after it has actually invaded the inner sanctum of a human cell, a feat that was believed until now to be impossible. The... 

Arizona Voters Reject Health care Mandates November 2nd was set to be an important day for Arizona voters, and they spoke loud and clear when they rejected healthcare mandates by passing Proposition 106. This amends the Arizona Constitution to protect the “right of Arizonans not to participate in any health care system or plan.” It will also protect Arizonan’s “right to spend their own money... 

Note to national Republicans: beware the Tea Party in 2012. That’s the message from the Tea Party Patriots, one of the movement’s largest groups, as it celebrates early wins during Tuesday’s midterm elections. Members and supporters of the group watched election returns from a Capitol Hill hotel. “It’s primarily important that we hold Republicans accountable,” Patriots... 

The Mövenpick Hotel Ramallah has state-of-the-art security and pricey international cuisine. With plush suites and an Italian chef, Ramallah’s first luxury hotel opened yesterday, bolstered by a Palestinian economy prospering despite a seemingly intractable conflict with Israel that threatens to undermine it. The five-star, US$42.6 million (Dh155.89m) Mövenpick Hotel Ramallah towers over this... 

The pro-expulsion campaign involves posters featuring a black sheep being kicked out of the country by several white sheep. Switzerland is poised to vote on a controversial law that will allow for all immigrants – EU citizens included – to be automatically expelled from the country if they commit a crime. Even benefit fraudsters and burglars are targeted by the proposed new law, which polls show... 

Pia Kjaersgaard The leader of Denmark’s populist Danish People’s Party, on which the government relies for support, said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday that pan-Arab television channels Al-Jazeera and Al Arabiya should be stopped from broadcasting to the country. Pia Kjaersgaard, leader of parliament’s third-biggest party, accused the channels of sowing hatred against... 

Dilma Rousseff was once one of most Brazil's most wanted fugitives, branded by some as a "subversive Joan of Arc." Dilma Rousseff, who was elected as Brazil’s first female president on Sunday, once told reporters that as a typical Brazilian girl in the 1950s she dreamed of becoming a ballerina. But as the 1960s saw the emergence of a brutal military regime in her country, she had... 

Scathing: John Glen's complaints prompted accusations of sour grapes. A new Tory MP has made a scathing attack on David Cameron for pro­moting women and people from the ethnic minorities over ‘white, Christian, married’ men. John Glen, the party’s former head of research, said his background effectively ruled him out for a min­isterial job under Mr Cameron. He said: ‘I don’t anticipate... 

President Barack Obama is a bigger threat to the United States than Al Qaeda or terrorism, Colorado gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo has claimed. The former Congressman made the comments while campaigning in Canon City Tuesday. Tancredo said that Obama posed a threat to the Constitution, saying: ‘It’s not Al Qaeda, it’s the guy sitting in the White House.’ Gubernatorial... 

Russia will limit the powers of police to their own jurisdictions to stem abuses, the Kremlin said Saturday. Under current law, policemen can exercise their authority anywhere in the country, but President Dmitry Medvedev has submitted a law to the State Duma ending that policy, RIA Novosti reported. “This amendment will, on the one hand, reduce police abuse and, on the other hand, concentrate... 

Spirit, the poor Mars Rover that’s been stuck in Martian sand since last year, has actually contributed to a pretty fantastic discovery in its sedentary months: the evidence of subsurface water on Mars. To recap: Spirit, one of two plucky Mars Rovers that had finished their initial missions in 2004 and had embarked upon, as NASA calls them, “bonus missions” ever since, slipped through...