Top News

Germany returned relics from 'Olmec civilization' to Mexico
2018-03-21 18:37:38 UTC
After nearly a decade of litigation, Mexico recovered two Mesoamerican busts that had been missing since the 1980s. German authorities had found the wooden pieces in 2008, when they seized them from an artifacts dealer. In a ceremony in Munich on Tuesday, German authorities returned two wooden busts from the ancient Olmec civilization to Mexico. The two rare artifacts date back to approximately 1,200 BCE and had been stolen from their excavation site, eventually making their way to Bavarian State Archaeological Collection, where they were held until today. The Pre-Classical Mesoamerican relics originated from the El Manati archaeolo...
U.S. Supreme Court rejects Arizona's plea to stop issuing driver's licenses to young immigrants
2018-03-19 16:40:29 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday required Arizona to continue to provide driver’s licenses to the so-called Dreamers immigrants and refused to hear the state’s challenge to an Obama-era program. The case centered on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created in 2012 under Democratic former President Barack Obama that Republican President Donald Trump already has sought to rescind. Those who signed up for the program are shielded from deportation and given work permits. The high court refused to hear Republican-governed Arizona’s appeal of a lower court ruling that barred the state from de...
Stephen Hawking Biography
2018-03-14 09:29:46 UTC
Stephen William Hawking was born on 8th January 1942 (exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo) in Oxford, England. His parents' house was in north London but during the second world war Oxford was considered a safer place to have babies. When he was eight his family moved to St. Albans, a town about 20 miles north of London. At the age of eleven, Stephen went to St. Albans School and then on to University College, Oxford (1952); his father's old college. Stephen wanted to study mathematics although his father would have preferred medicine. <blockquote><img alt="Stephen_hawking_biography" src="/system/images/15503/original/Stephe...
A Loss for All Humanity: Physicist Stephen Hawking Died
2018-03-14 08:27:15 UTC
British physicist Stephen Hawking has died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 76, according to a family spokesperson. Known around the globe, he worked to make complicated scientific fields accessible to the public. Stephen Hawking, a renowned mathematician and physicist has died at the age of 76. "We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humor inspired people across the world," his three children said in a statement. <blockquote> Hawking died in his sle...
Porn star to Trump: I'll give you back the money!
2018-03-13 03:13:35 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The adult-film actress who claims she had an affair with Donald Trump before he became U.S. president offered on Monday to return $130,000 that Trump’s personal lawyer paid her in what she said was hush money to remain silent about the alleged relationship. Actress Stephanie Clifford, who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels, has said the affair with Trump began in 2006 and lasted several months. Trump has denied he had an affair with Clifford. Clifford proposed on Monday that she be allowed to discuss her alleged affair with the president freely after repaying the money. “This is an extremely fair offer,” her...
Picture of Joe Biden speaking with a homeless man goes viral
2018-03-12 07:41:33 UTC
An image of former US Vice President Joe Biden speaking with a homeless man in Washington DC has gone viral, being shared more than 115,000 times on Facebook. The image was taken outside of an AMC cinema in Georgetown, with Mr Biden said to have been heading to see a film with his granddaughter, who was in the city visiting friends. The photograph was taken by Caleb Baca on Thursday night, according to local television station , but was posted into Facebook businessman Paul Equale, with that post being shared 115,000 times since it was posted on Friday - with more than 148,000 people reacting to it. Mr Equale said in the post that...
Listeriosis outbreak kills 180 people in South Africa
2018-03-05 20:37:17 UTC
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Officials have said the outbreak was linked to contaminated sausage and warned South Africans not to consume "ready to eat" processed meat. The UN said the listeria outbreak is believed to be the largest-ever worldwide. South Africa's Health Ministry said on Sunday that a listeriosis outbreak has killed 180 people in the country since the beginning of 2017. Officials also announced that the outbreak was tied to a sausage-type meat that is made by South Africa's largest consumer foods group. The meat, known as "Polony," is produced by Tiger Brands, a unit of Enterprise Food, and by RCL Foods, Health Minis...
US Couples Take Weapons to Church
2018-03-01 08:05:25 UTC
Many Americans believe US school shootings do not justify stricter gun laws in a country where firearms are linked to more than 30,000 deaths annually. Worshippers clutched rifles and donned crowns made of rounds of bullets, as they exchanged or renewed wedding vows at a church in the US state of Pennsylvania on Wednesday. Brides wearing white and grooms in dark suits brought dozens of unloaded AR-15s for the commitment ceremony at the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary building in the town of Newfoundland, about 190 kilometers (120 miles) north of Philadelphia. <blockquote><img alt="Us_couples_take_weapons_to_church-" src="/sy...
US armed teacher arrested after firing gunshot in classroom
2018-02-28 20:29:39 UTC
(Reuters) - An armed high school teacher in Georgia barricaded himself alone inside his classroom, then fired a gunshot when the principal tried to force open the door, but no one was seriously injured, police said after the instructor was arrested. The shooting, which unfolded as schools around the country remained on edge from gun violence earlier this month that claimed 17 lives in the neighboring state of Florida, unfolded around lunchtime at Dalton High School, about 90 miles (145 km) north of Atlanta, the Georgia capital. After responding to reports of gunfire at the school, the Dalton Police Department said the teacher in ques...
Federal judge dismisses lawsuit against Coca-Cola's Diet Coke "weight loss" ads
2018-02-28 18:12:26 UTC
(Reuters) - A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit claiming that Coca-Cola Co’s advertising for Diet Coke misleads people into thinking that consuming the soft drink assists in weight loss, and that it actually causes weight gain. The plaintiff, Shana Becerra, claimed that she and others would not have bought Diet Coke, which was launched in 1982, but for the word “diet” and ads such as one showing the soft drink being poured by a bare-chested man with a well-muscled torso. In a decision on Tuesday, however, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco said 13 studies cited by Becerra were “equivocal” as to whether diet soda...
U.N. Urges Iran to Stop 'Surge' of Juvenile Executions
2018-02-17 01:27:21 UTC
The UN human rights office has said Iran is the worst in the world when it comes to sentencing minors to death — a crime under international law. Three minors were executed in January, and 80 more remain on death row. Mahboubeh Mofidi was 13 years old when she married her husband. Three years later, at the age of 16, she allegedly killed him with the help of her brother-in-law. The alleged murder landed her on Iran's death row — but she is no longer there. Mofidi was executed on January 30, one of three Iranian individuals subjected to the death penalty for alleged crimes committed when they were under 18 years of age. Iran is a s...
Appeals court: Trump latest travel ban is unconstitutional
2018-02-15 17:34:09 UTC
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban on travelers from six largely Muslim countries is unconstitutional because it discriminates against Muslims because of their religion, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday In a 9-4 vote, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond said it examined statements made by Trump and other administration officials, as well as the ban itself, and concluded that it is “unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam.” The court upheld a ruling by a federal judge in Maryland who issued an injunction barring enforcement of the ban against people from Chad, Iran, Libya, S...
Alarming research finds global warming accelerating sea level rise
2018-02-13 03:25:52 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are speeding up the already fast pace of sea level rise, new satellite research shows. At the current rate, the world’s oceans on average will be at least 2 feet (61 centimeters) higher by the end of the century compared to today, according to researchers who published in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. Sea level rise is caused by warming of the ocean and melting from glaciers and ice sheets. The research, based on 25 years of satellite data, shows that pace has quickened, mainly from the melting of massive ice sheets. It confirms scientists’...
German workers win right to 28-hour week and 4.3% pay rise
2018-02-12 10:19:03 UTC
Berlin — German workers have won the right to a 28-hour week in a victory towards their fight for a better work-life balance. Industrial union IG Metall, Europe’s largest trade union, has won its workers the right to work the equivalent of under six hours each day in a deal that could eventually impact almost 4 million people in the country. The collective deal covers around 900,000 metal and engineering workers in the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg, but it is expected to prompt changes across the country and in other industries. It means from next year, workers at many of Germany’s most important engineering firms can o...
California will block transportation of oil from Trump offshore drilling plan
2018-02-08 07:11:56 UTC
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California will block the transportation through its state of petroleum from new offshore oil rigs, officials told Reuters on Wednesday, a move meant to hobble the Trump administration’s effort to vastly expand drilling in U.S. federal waters. California’s plan to deny pipeline permits for transporting oil from new leases off the Pacific Coast is the most forceful step yet by coastal states trying to halt the biggest proposed expansion in decades of federal oil and gas leasing. <blockquote>Officials in Florida, North and South Carolina, Delaware and Washington, have also warned drilling could despoil be...
Homo sapiens trekked out of Africa far earlier than previously known
2018-01-25 21:32:55 UTC
Homo sapiens were wandering out of Africa at least 177,000 years ago — some 60,000 years earlier than previously thought. The new migration date comes after ancient stone tools and part of a fossilised Homo sapiens jaw bone with teeth were discovered in a cave in northern Israel. Until now, the oldest evidence for modern humans outside Africa were only 90,000 to 120,000 years old. Homo sapiens first appeared in Africa, with the earliest-known fossils roughly 300,000 years old. A key milestone was when our species first ventured out of Africa en route to populating the far corners of the globe. <blockquote><img alt="Homo_sapiens...
Trumpian Era Brings Unprecedented Trust Crisis in U.S.
2018-01-22 07:34:32 UTC
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Trust in U.S. institutions, particularly the government, has plunged in President Donald Trump’s first year in office, according to a leading survey released on the eve of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The annual Edelman Trust Barometer showed overall trust in the four institutions it measures - the government, media, business and non-governmental organizations - falling more steeply in the United States than in any of the 28 countries surveyed. <blockquote><hr><img alt="The_united_states_is_enduring_an_unprecedented_crisis_of_trust" src="/system/images/21863/original/The_United_States_is_enduring_an...
A year of Trump: Hate binds and blinds US
2018-01-21 07:50:21 UTC
The US president has been in office for a year. His critics make it far too easy for him when they unite in blind hate against all things Donald Trump, writes Germany's public international broadcaster-DW Editor-in-Chief Ines Pohl. Figures of hate have a great advantage: people can rally behind them. Hate binds us and blinds us. In the shadow of shared hatred, differences and contrasts and contradictions fade away. And hating gives us the feeling that we're imagining a better life, when hatred actually lacks genuine ideas and visions. If you look at the US these days, it's no longer the dream of a better life holding it together,...
Pope Francis on Immigration: There is no Christian joy when doors are closed
2018-01-18 18:27:58 UTC
IQUIQUE, Chile (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Thursday that it is not Christian to shut out immigrants, urging nations to welcome people whose lives had been “watered down” by poverty, injustice and exploitation. Francis, whose defense of migrants and refugees has been a key theme of his nearly 5-year-old pontificate, spoke on his last day in Chile before he was due to leave for Peru to start the second and last leg of his Latin American tour. “There is no Christian joy when doors are closed; there is no Christian joy when others are made to feel unwanted, when there is no room for them in our midst,” he said in the homily of Mass ...
Ahed Tamimi, Palestinian Teen Activist Remain in Custody
2018-01-18 01:59:52 UTC
An Israeli court has ruled to keep a prominent Palestinian teen activist and her mother in custody until the end of their trial. Ahed Tamimi, 16, was detained last month during an overnight raid on her home in the occupied West Bank village of Nabi Saleh after a video of the teen slapping and hitting Israeli soldiers went viral. Shortly before, her 15-year-old cousin was severely wounded after Israeli forces shot him point-blank in the face with a rubber bullet. <blockquote><img alt="Ahed_tamimi__palestinian_teen_activist_remain_in_custody" src="/system/images/14731/original/Ahed_Tamimi__Palestinian_Teen_Activist_Remain_in_Custody....
Cranberries Singer Dolores O'Riordan Dies Suddenly at 46
2018-01-15 21:36:39 UTC
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Dolores O‘Riordan, the lead singer of rock group The Cranberries, died suddenly on Monday at the age of 46 during a trip to London for a recording session, her publicist said. The Irish group, which combined indie guitar with O‘Riordan’s distinctive Irish lilt and yoddle, shot to fame with hits like “Linger” and “Zombie” to become one of the most successful bands of the 1990s, selling over 40 million records.<blockquote><a href="http://www.global-gathering.com/opinions/321"><img alt="Cranberries_singer_dolores_o'riordan_dies_suddenly_at_46." src="/system/images/12588/original/Cranberries_Singer_Dolores_O'Ri...
Immigrants from Africa Boast Higher Education Levels Than Overall U.S. Population
2018-01-13 10:19:57 UTC
NEW YORK - Today, New American Economy (NAE) released a report on the contributions of immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa to the U.S. economy. Between 2010 and 2015, the number of African immigrants in America more than doubled - rising from roughly 723,000 people to more than 1.7 million. Power of the Purse: How Sub-Saharan Africans Contribute to the U.S. Economy suggests that African immigrants punch well above their weight in many respects. These immigrants naturalize at high rates, they attain higher levels of education than the overall U.S. population as a whole, and are more likely to have earned their degree in a Science, Tec...
Supermassive black hole burped out material twice after colliding with nearby galaxy
2018-01-12 20:07:51 UTC
Using two telescopes, astronomers have found a black hole at the centre of a galaxy 800 million light years away that has spewed material into space not once, but twice. Most galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their centres, which consumes anything that gets too close. And while we tend to think of nothing escaping a black hole's fierce grasp, when they devour material, some of it is ejected into space in the form of high-energy particles. In order to see the two events, astronomers used data from ground-based telescopes as well as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Optical data from Hubble and t...
'The president of the United States is racist'
2018-01-12 06:45:09 UTC
Don Lemon says Donald Trump’s reported comments about “sh—hole countries” didn’t leave him outraged because he “already knew” the president was “racist.” Opening Thursday’s CNN Tonight, Lemon declared, “The president of the United States is racist. A lot of us already knew that.” According to The Washington Post, during a meeting with lawmakers to discuss protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and several African countries, Trump remarked, “Why are we having all these people from sh–hole countries come here?” “I have to admit, I was not shocked that Donald Trump reportedly called the majority of<a href="http://www.global-...
Robert De Niro on Trump: This F-cking Idiot Is the President
2018-01-10 20:06:33 UTC
Robert De Niro attended the National Board of Review Awards in New York Tuesday night to present Meryl Streep with the Best Actress prize for The Post. In the film helmed by Steven Spielberg, Streep plays legendary Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, who tries to decide whether or not to post the Pentagon Papers in 1971. De Niro started his speech poking fun at Streep's co-star and fellow acting award winner Tom Hanks. "[Streep] helps brings out the character of everyone else on the screen. Can a volleyball do that? Not even if the volley ball was a stable genius," he said, mocking President Trump's But then one of th...