Global News

The United States Senate is reportedly close to a deal to restart the US Government, and raise the US debt ceiling and avoid defaulting on America’s obligations.  Just in case, Central Banks around the globe are making contingency plans in case a small group of conservative extremists force the US off “the fiscal cliff”.

Despite economic sanctions on North Korea and despite Pyongyang being unable to feed its own citizenry, the regime of Kim Jong-Un has been on a spending spree for luxury imported goods, including furs, pets, and high-end cars. 

North America’s largest city might stun the hemisphere with how it will handle the war on drugs – A Malaysian court says Allah is only for Muslims – And apparently an enormous cash prize isn’t enough to make some leaders do the right thing.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald dropped two bombshells about the information smuggled out of the US by fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden:  First, he’s in daily contact with the former US spy agency contractor; and second, there are more and bigger stories yet to come.

After far-right extremists rioted in Moscow, lashing out over the killing of an ethnic Russian allegedly at the hands of an unnamed Muslim migrant from the North Caucuses, Moscow Police responded:  By going out the next day and rounding up hundreds of migrant workers.

Aid workers are kidnapped in Syria – Israel discovers a troubling tunnel – And a local election in France may signal a major change in that country’s political landscape.

World powers will meet with Iran’s representatives on Tuesday in Geneva.  It’s hoped that President Hassan Rouhani’s appearance of moderation will carry over to talks on resolving concerns over Iran’s nuclear program.

With chants of “Russia for the Russians” and “White Power”, hundreds rampaged through Moscow to protest the murder of a young ethnic Russian, blaming it on a migrant from the North Caucasus.  Moscow Police arrested as many as 400 people in the violence.

Pope Francis went ahead and beatified more than 500 Roman Catholic priests, nuns, and laypersons killed during the Spanish Civil War, over the objections of those who say the honor legitimized the fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

As authorities assess the damage from a Cyclone slamming into Eastern India, 91 people were crushed to death in a stampede at a Hindu religious festival in the central part of the nation.

A United Nations panel says Japanese authorities underestimated by 20 percent the amount of radiation workers were exposed to in the initial phase of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor cleanup.

A Gay Rights rally in Russia ends in Violence – Malala asks Obama to end drone strikes in Pakistan – Islands of the Mediterranean say Europe must help with asylum seekers before more lives are lost – And critics say Britain’s new health minister has her head up the wrong problem.

Thousands are on the move as a powerful Cyclone stalks India’s east coast – Another immigrant ship disaster kills dozens in the Mediterranean – And the Nobel Prize Committee its lumps for this year’s less than inspiring Peace Prize.

Ten people are dead and eight people are hurt after fire swept through a small orthopedic hospital in Fukuoka in western Japan.  The dead are believed to be eight patients and two staffers.

A local town council is western Japan has voted to give compensation to more than a dozen people who were attacked by a vicious male macaque during a rampage last month.

A former dictator is not getting out of Pakistan that easily – The Nobel committee breaks from the usual routine to award the Literature prize – Confidence in Kenya’s security sinks after the shocking police reaction to a heinous crime – And some families really like to plant their family trees deep.

There are new concerns over the destruction of Turkey’s secular society, after a television hostess was sacked for wearing an outfit that revealed too much cleavage; It happened on the orders of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Islamist party.

The Prime Minister of Libya returned to his office and went back to work, after being kidnapped and held for hours by militiamen linked to his government.  The episode lays bare the lawlessness and tribalism that has gripped Libya in the wake of former dictator Moammar Ghaddafi’s ouster and killing.

It’s not as if anyone expected Azerbaijan’s elections to be anything less than predetermined.  It’s your basic central Asian dictatorship that jails its critics.  So when Dictator Ilham Aliyev won this week’s elections with 72.75 percent of the vote, the only surprising thing was the timing of the announcement:  A full day before voting had even begun.

Staff at Canada’s Vancouver Aquarium are alarmed after Seastars went from “overpopulated” to “wiped out” in a   matter of weeks.  And they don’t know if the sea creatures will recover from whatever happened.