On the weekend, George Chen, Weihan Wang, Katherine Breann Cooper, Cheng Yuan Hong, Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez and Veronika Elizabeth Weiss were murdered near the University of California at Santa Barbara. Rodger, a privileged loner, misogynist and failed “pick-up artist,” decided it was time to exact revenge on a world that had denied him everything he felt entitled to: women, power, respect.
Europe's Energy Commissioner said talks on the Russian South Stream gas pipeline planned by Gazprom are faltering, partly due to the Ukraine crisis, but will continue when Russia sticks to international law, a German newspaper said. Progress is stalled because Russia is not accepting European regulations in the energy sector and because "the crisis in Ukraine overlies everything", Guenther Oettinger said in an advance extract of an article due to be published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung on Sunday. "We'll continue discussions if the Russian partners comply with international law again and are prepared to cooperate constructively on the basis of our energy law," he said. He said controversial points of the South Stream pipeline, which Russia wants to build across the Black Sea to bypass gas transit nation Ukraine, were being discussed at the working level.
By Ali Sawafta RAMALLAH West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday he expects a joint government of his Fatah party and Hamas Islamists will be announced in two days, on June 2, setting a solid date for completing a unity deal the sides agreed to pursue last month. Meeting with French peace activists in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where his limited self-rule government is based, Abbas said: "We will announce the government the day after tomorrow, it will be formed of technocrats and independents. ...
British Prime Minister David Cameron has warned he would no longer be able to guarantee that Britain would remain a member of the European Union if European leaders elect Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission chief, Germany's Spiegel said. The European Commission president is selected by EU leaders but must be approved by the assembly, where Eurosceptics from the right made gains in last week's election. The European People's Party, which won the most seats in the vote, had chosen Luxembourg's ex-premier Juncker as their candidate. In a pre-publication copy of an article, Spiegel said Cameron had explained, on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels on Tuesday, that if Juncker became Commission president, he would no longer be able to ensure Britain's continued EU membership.
A team of physicists at Scotland's Dundee University has turned science fiction into science fact by creating the first functioning acoustic tractor beam. Until now tractor beams - devices with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance - have only featured in science fiction films, plausible only in the other worlds, planets and galaxies featured in the likes of Star Trek and Star Wars. Working with colleagues at Southampton University and Illinois Wesleyan University, researchers from Dundee University have used energy from an ultrasound array to exert force behind an object and pull it towards the energy source. Dr Christine Demore, from the Institute for Medical Science and Technology at Dundee, said: "This is the first time anyone has demonstrated a working acoustic tractor beam and the first time such a beam has been used to move anything bigger than microscopic targets.
A team of physicists at Scotland's Dundee University has turned science fiction into science fact by creating the first functioning acoustic tractor beam. Until now tractor beams - devices with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance - have only featured in science fiction films, plausible only in the other worlds, planets and galaxies featured in the likes of Star Trek and Star Wars. Working with colleagues at Southampton University and Illinois Wesleyan University, researchers from Dundee University have used energy from an ultrasound array to exert force behind an object and pull it towards the energy source. Dr Christine Demore, from the Institute for Medical Science and Technology at Dundee, said: "This is the first time anyone has demonstrated a working acoustic tractor beam and the first time such a beam has been used to move anything bigger than microscopic targets.
A team of physicists at Scotland's Dundee University has turned science fiction into science fact by creating the first functioning acoustic tractor beam. Until now tractor beams - devices with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance - have only featured in science fiction films, plausible only in the other worlds, planets and galaxies featured in the likes of Star Trek and Star Wars. Working with colleagues at Southampton University and Illinois Wesleyan University, researchers from Dundee University have used energy from an ultrasound array to exert force behind an object and pull it towards the energy source. Dr Christine Demore, from the Institute for Medical Science and Technology at Dundee, said: "This is the first time anyone has demonstrated a working acoustic tractor beam and the first time such a beam has been used to move anything bigger than microscopic targets.
Nasa's solar observation satellite has filmed a coronal mass ejection, or CME, surging off the side of the sun. The newest solar observatory captured the phenomenon in great detail. This was the first CME observed by Iris (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph), which launched in June 2013 on a mission to examine the lowest levels of the sun's atmosphere in higher resolution than ever before. The video released by Nasa shows how a curtain of solar material erupts outward at speeds of 1.5 million miles per hour.
Nasa's solar observation satellite has filmed a coronal mass ejection, or CME, surging off the side of the sun. The newest solar observatory captured the phenomenon in great detail. This was the first CME observed by Iris (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph), which launched in June 2013 on a mission to examine the lowest levels of the sun's atmosphere in higher resolution than ever before. The video released by Nasa shows how a curtain of solar material erupts outward at speeds of 1.5 million miles per hour.
By By, Thomas, Grove, and and Gabriela DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukrainian separatist leader Denis Pushilin said on Saturday six rebels had been killed while trying to collect the bodies of comrades who had died under Ukrainian army fire earlier this week close to Donetsk airport. Ukrainian forces regained control of the airport in the east of the country on Monday, killing at least 50 separatists, after a Sunday presidential election which gave billionaire Petro Poroshenko an overwhelming victory. "They died trying to take back the Ukrainian airport, and our boys were trying to get their bodies out," Pushilin said over the telephone, without giving further details of the violence. Though fighting has died down for now in Donetsk, the stand-off over the city airport remained unresolved on Saturday with amateur video footage showing a cargo plane taking off and releasing decoy flares as it was fired at from the ground.
If the stats alone told the whole story, the program would be an undeniable success. Nearly three years after the Canada Border Services Agency launched an FBI-style “Most Wanted” list—publicizing the names and mug shots of suspected war criminals, gangsters and other dangerous immigrants who vanished before the government could deport them—tips from the public have led to 56 arrests.
U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, held for nearly five years by the Taliban after being captured in Afghanistan, has been released and is now in U.S. custody, President Barack Obama said on Saturday. As part of Bergdahl's release, the United States is turning over five Taliban detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the custody of Qatar, U.S. officials said. U.S. special operations forces took custody of Bergdahl in a non-violent exchange in eastern Afghanistan, the officials said, adding that he was believed to be in good condition. He was now undergoing a medical examination in Afghanistan.
By David Brunnstrom and Lee Chyen Yee SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The United States and China squared off at an Asian security forum on Saturday, with the U.S. defense secretary accusing Beijing of destabilizing the region and a top Chinese general retorting that his comments were "threat and intimidation". Using unusually strong language, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel took aim at Beijing's handling of territorial disputes with its Asian neighbors. "In recent months, China has undertaken destabilizing, unilateral actions asserting its claims in the South China Sea," Hagel said. He warned Beijing that the United States was committed to its geopolitical rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region and "will not look the other way when fundamental principles of the international order are being challenged".
Arctic sea ice has sopped up and stored large quantities of microplastic pollution from populated areas in the south, a new study has found.
For the first time in a decade, an experimental drug has extended the lives of patients with advanced lung cancer who relapsed after standard chemotherapy. But the drug used in the study gave patients just six extra weeks of life on average, and costs $6,000 per infusion as currently sold to treat a different form of cancer. —The drug Imbruvica, sold by Pharmacyclics Inc. and Janssen Biotech, substantially improved survival and could set a new standard of care for relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, the most common leukemia in adults. Doctors say the pill more precisely targets cancer and is a good option for older people who can't tolerate standard chemotherapy infusions.
Italian navy patrol ships rescued more than 3,500 migrants including hundreds of women and children from boats coming from North Africa, authorities said on Saturday, while Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called for help from the European Union. A total of 3,612 migrants from Syria and North Africa were picked up from 11 boats and taken to ports in Sicily and the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, a coastguard spokesman told Reuters. Some 43,000 people have crossed from North Africa to Italy so far this year, the same amount as in the whole of 2013, the coastguard said. The near daily arrivals of migrant boats, mostly leaving from ports in Libya, was an issue in Italy in the European parliamentary elections on Sunday.
By Thomas Grove and Gabriela Baczynska DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukrainian separatist leader Denis Pushilin said on Saturday six rebels had been killed while trying to collect the bodies of comrades who had died under Ukrainian army fire earlier this week close to Donetsk airport. Ukrainian forces regained control of the airport in the east of the country on Monday, killing at least 50 separatists, after a Sunday presidential election which gave billionaire Petro Poroshenko an overwhelming victory. "They died trying to take back the Ukrainian airport, and our boys were trying to get their bodies out," Pushilin said over the telephone, without giving further details of the violence. Though fighting has died down for now in Donetsk, the stand-off over the city airport remained unresolved on Saturday with amateur video footage showing a cargo plane taking off and releasing decoy flares as it was fired at from the ground.
ISTANBUL - Hundreds of activists mobilized Saturday for demonstrations in Istanbul and other cities, defying a heavy police presence on the anniversary of nationwide anti-government protests that erupted last year. Police blocked access to Istanbul's main square, Taksim, and news reports said some 25,000 police officers and up to 50 anti-riot water cannon vehicles would be deployed around the city. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned activists to keep away from the square, saying authorities were under strict orders to prevent protests. The protests were sparked by opposition to government plans to uproot trees at Taksim Square's Gezi Park and build a shopping centre.
Golfer Phil Mickelson says he's co-operating in an insider trading investigation involving him, investor Carl Icahn and Las Vegas gambler Billy Walters but maintains he did nothing wrong. Mickelson's manager confirmed Saturday that the investigation was the same outlined in reports in several newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal. The newspapers report that federal investigators are looking into the trading patterns of Mickelson and Walters involving two stocks. The newspapers cited unidentified law enforcement sources confirming the investigation.
By Mubasher Bukhari LAHORE Pakistan (Reuters) - The family of a pregnant Pakistani woman who was bludgeoned to death in broad daylight this week accused her husband of killing her, in stark contrast to his version of a story that has shocked people around the world. Police and witnesses said Farzana Iqbal, 25, was murdered by assailants including her own father outside a court building on Tuesday because she had married a man of her own choosing, Muhammed Iqbal, instead of a cousin they had selected for her. But on Saturday, Farzana's elder sister said it was Iqbal who had killed her. "Muhammed Iqbal and his accomplices killed Farzana, and her father and the rest of her family were wrongly accused of murder," Khalida Bibi told reporters in the city of Lahore.
By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL Fla. (Reuters) - Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, on Thursday unveiled an upgraded passenger version of the Dragon cargo ship NASA buys for resupply runs to the International Space Station. Rather than parachuting down into the ocean, the new capsule is outfitted with beefed up motors and landing legs to make precision touchdowns on land, said SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk, a billionaire technology entrepreneur who also runs the Tesla Motors Inc electric car company. "You'll be able to land anywhere on Earth with the accuracy of a helicopter ... That is how a 21st century spaceship should land," Musk said before a jam-packed audience at SpaceX's Hawthorne, Calif., headquarters. More than 32,500 people also watched the Dragon unveiling on a live SpaceX webcast.
Romania's center-right candidate on Saturday withdrew his bid to run in a presidential election in November as the opposition struggles to forge an alliance after a clear win of the ruling leftists in European elections. Crin Antonescu resigned as Liberal party leader on Monday, after the party's poor showing in the European ballot He had been seen as a politician who could have mounted a credible challenge to leftist Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who may run for the presidency himself, or to Ponta's chosen candidate. Ponta's Social Democrat government easily defeated a no-confidence vote by the Liberals on Monday, hours after taking about 38 percent of votes in Sunday's European election. Overall, the opposition parties garnered a meager 33 percent in the vote, leaving them struggling to find a joint presidential candidate.
A month-long research mission on the ocean floor, led by Fabien Cousteau, the grandson of famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, is slated to begin this weekend. Fabien Cousteau and a team of "aquanauts" will spend a record 31 days living and working underwater as part of the expedition, dubbed Mission 31.
A month-long research mission on the ocean floor, led by Fabien Cousteau, the grandson of famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, is slated to begin this weekend. Fabien Cousteau and a team of "aquanauts" will spend a record 31 days living and working underwater as part of the expedition, dubbed Mission 31.
OXON HILL, Md. - Two spellers were declared co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee — the first time in 52 years. Indian-Americans Sriram Hathwar of New York and Ansun Sujoe of Texas shared the title Thursday after a riveting final-round duel in which they nearly exhausted the 25 designated championship words. The past eight winners and 13 of the past 17 have been of Indian descent, a run that began in 1999 after Nupur Lala's victory, which was later featured in the documentary "Spellbound." Sriram, 14, opened the door to an upset by 13-year-old Ansun after he misspelled "corpsbruder," a close comrade.
By Mubasher Bukhari LAHORE Pakistan (Reuters) - The family of a pregnant Pakistani woman who was bludgeoned to death in broad daylight this week accused her husband of killing her, in stark contrast to his version of a story that has shocked people around the world. Police and witnesses said Farzana Iqbal, 25, was murdered by assailants including her own father outside a court building on Tuesday because she had married a man of her own choosing, Muhammed Iqbal, instead of a cousin they had selected for her. But on Saturday, Farzana's elder sister said it was Iqbal who had killed her. "Muhammed Iqbal and his accomplices killed Farzana, and her father and the rest of her family were wrongly accused of murder," Khalida Bibi told reporters in the city of Lahore.
The UN has called the rape and murder of two teenage girls in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh a "horrendous crime", and sought effective measures to protect women in the state. "The rape and death of the two girls, who were hanged from a tree, is a horrendous crime. It was clearly a horrendous incident," said Stephane Dujjaric, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson.
PHILADELPHIA - A medical company sales representative was charged with stealing more than $350,000 worth of human skin over a period of several years. Gary Dudek, 54, of Wallingford, was arrested Monday and charged with theft, receiving stolen property and tampering with records. Authorities say he worked until September as a sales representative for a regenerative medicine firm, managing accounts for the bioscience department of Mercy Philadelphia Hospital. In that role, Dudek was allowed to order the skin grafts for the hospital whenever he wanted.
MOSCOW - Russia's Foreign Ministry criticized a suggestion by an official that an international monitoring body could withdraw its observer mission from Ukraine because of safety concerns, as shooting between government troops and pro-Russian rebels continued in the region on Saturday. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe says it lost contact on Thursday with a group of five monitors in separatist eastern Ukraine. Wolfgang Ischinger, the OSCE's negotiator on national dialogue in Ukraine, told German broadcaster ZDF this week that the monitor mission might have to withdraw if the organization fears for its employees' lives. Confrontations continued Saturday between government troops and the rebels, who have seized administrative and police buildings across the east and want to join the region to Russia.
By Randall Palmer OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada will refrain from funding abortions abroad as it promotes maternal and children's health in poor countries because the issue is too divisive and could undermine a broader push to save lives, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Friday. The Conservative leader has resolutely resisted any attempt to restrict abortions in Canada, where the procedure is legal, but he has acquiesced to demands from within his caucus not to promote abortion in other countries. Speaking at the end of a summit he organized in Toronto on the health of mothers and children, Harper said the world community was mobilized to make rapid progress in reducing mortality rates of mothers and their babies and he did not want to get sidetracked by abortion. "We all know very well how divisive that issue is, not just in Canada - I can assure you it's equally divisive around the world ... We're obviously not going to embark on something that's going to cause widespread division," Harper told reporters.
Virgin Galactic, the private space venture bankrolled by billionaire Sir Richard Branson, has signed an agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that spells out how the company will use U.S. airspace during its planned suborbital flights. Virgin Galactic officials have said they hope to begin commercial flights aboard SpaceShipTwo out of New Mexico's Spaceport America by the end of 2014. The deal, which was announced Thursday (May 29), outlines how Virgin Galactic will work with the FAA's air traffic control center Albuquerque and the New Mexico Spaceport Authority to safely provide clear airspace for SpaceShipTwo space plane. The company's CEO George Whitesides said the new agreement brings Virgin Galactic "another step closer" to its goal of starting routine and affordable space launches from Spaceport America.
Virgin Galactic, the private space venture bankrolled by billionaire Sir Richard Branson, has signed an agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that spells out how the company will use U.S. airspace during its planned suborbital flights. Virgin Galactic officials have said they hope to begin commercial flights aboard SpaceShipTwo out of New Mexico's Spaceport America by the end of 2014. The deal, which was announced Thursday (May 29), outlines how Virgin Galactic will work with the FAA's air traffic control center Albuquerque and the New Mexico Spaceport Authority to safely provide clear airspace for SpaceShipTwo space plane. The company's CEO George Whitesides said the new agreement brings Virgin Galactic "another step closer" to its goal of starting routine and affordable space launches from Spaceport America.
In the United States the abortion issue is one of our political “third rails” — set to incinerate a hapless candidate who stumbles into the thicket of life versus choice without a guide. And now Canada appears primed to enter comparable debate.
The NBA said on Friday it plans to go ahead with a vote on terminating Donald Sterling's ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers, although it signaled that an agreement struck by Sterling's wife to sell the franchise was its preferred course. The National Basketball Association said in a statement that Shelly Sterling notified the NBA that she had reached an agreement to sell the club to former Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. The NBA said it was still awaiting the necessary documentation from Shelly Sterling on the record $2 billion agreement with Ballmer and that it would proceed with the June 3 meeting of its Board of Governors on whether to strip Sterling of ownership for racist remarks.
Bill Gates has donated $1.4 billion (£836 million) to a Welsh inventor who has designed a new fridge that can keep vaccines cool without electricity. The technology is designed for use in the developing world and can keep vaccines cool for 35 days. Ian Tansley of The Sure Chill Company, based in Snowdonia, north Wales, developed the unique technology which uses water to keep supplies of vaccines and blood cool in remote medical centres, where electricity may be in short supply. "The devices will allow vaccines to be stored safely in challenging environments with no power and ambient temperatures as high as 43°C," he told the Daily Mail.
Bill Gates has donated $1.4 billion (£836 million) to a Welsh inventor who has designed a new fridge that can keep vaccines cool without electricity. The technology is designed for use in the developing world and can keep vaccines cool for 35 days. Ian Tansley of The Sure Chill Company, based in Snowdonia, north Wales, developed the unique technology which uses water to keep supplies of vaccines and blood cool in remote medical centres, where electricity may be in short supply. "The devices will allow vaccines to be stored safely in challenging environments with no power and ambient temperatures as high as 43°C," he told the Daily Mail.
Construction is underway on the south side of the Thames River in London's Battersea neighborhood on a shiny crystalline cube that will house the new U.S. Embassy. Archaeologists monitoring the building's construction over the last year uncovered traces of London's distant past — Stone Age tools, the charred remains of campfires, animal bones and a possible fish trap. "Prehistoric sites in London are extremely rare and to have such a vast horizon preserved is quite significant," said Kasia Olchowska, a senior archaeologist at the Museum of London Archaeology, referring to the large surface area preserved. Olchowska patrolled the construction site from last July through April to examine and excavate any archaeological finds.
Construction is underway on the south side of the Thames River in London's Battersea neighborhood on a shiny crystalline cube that will house the new U.S. Embassy. Archaeologists monitoring the building's construction over the last year uncovered traces of London's distant past — Stone Age tools, the charred remains of campfires, animal bones and a possible fish trap. "Prehistoric sites in London are extremely rare and to have such a vast horizon preserved is quite significant," said Kasia Olchowska, a senior archaeologist at the Museum of London Archaeology, referring to the large surface area preserved. Olchowska patrolled the construction site from last July through April to examine and excavate any archaeological finds.
India is reeling after it was revealed that two teenage girls, sisters from a low caste, were gang raped and hung from a mango tree in the state of Uttar Pradesh. "In India, men rape because it's a manly thing to subjugate the weaker sex," she told the Washington Post.
By David Alexander and Mark Felsenthal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned on Friday following a meeting with President Barack Obama that came amid a firestorm of outrage over delays in medical care for U.S. veterans. Shortly after the private White House session, Obama announced to reporters that "with considerable regret, I accepted" Shinseki's resignation. The move came after a growing number of Democrats and Republicans in Congress, as well as some veterans' groups, had called for his removal. Obama said he accepted the resignation of the soft-spoken, 71-year-old retired Army general after being briefed on the initial findings of the investigation into abuses that were initially found in Phoenix but later identified at other facilities across the country.
By Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. experts warn that plans by Somalia's breakaway enclave Somaliland to deploy special forces to protect foreign oil companies could worsen conflicts in the long unstable Horn of Africa. A confidential May 27 letter to the U.N. Security Council sanctions committee on Somalia and Eritrea, obtained by Reuters on Friday, recommends the panel consider whether the planned armed unit could be viable or not. "The deployment of an Oil Protection Unit could play into internal and regional conflicts that appear to be brewing within Somaliland and between Somaliland and other regional authorities, if its deployment is not handled carefully or accompanied by mitigating measures," the coordinator of the expert monitoring group, Jarat Chopra, wrote.
By Ayla Jean Yackley ISTANBUL (Reuters) - It has served as the exalted seat of two faiths since its vast dome and lustrous gold mosaics first levitated above Istanbul in the 6th Century: Christendom's greatest cathedral for 900 years and one of Islam's greatest mosques for another 500. Today, the Hagia Sophia, or Ayasofya in Turkish, is officially a museum: Turkey's most-visited monument, whose formally neutral status symbolises the secular nature of the modern Turkish state. But tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers gathering there on Saturday hope it will again be a mosque, a dream they believe Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan can fulfil. "This is a serious push to break Ayasofya's chains," said Salih Turan, head of the Anatolia Youth Association, which has collected 15 million signatures to petition for it to be turned back into a mosque.
Monaco's ruler Prince Albert and his wife Princess Charlene are expecting their first child, they announced on Friday. "T.S.H the Prince and the Princess of Monaco are delighted to announce the pregnancy of H.S.H. Princess Charlene," a royal announcement said. Prince Albert is the son of the late Prince Rainier III and actress Grace Kelly. Kelly set aside a career in Hollywood to become Princess Grace but died after a car crash in 1982.
A tiny fossil of a marine creature thought to have been extinct has been found alive in New Zealand waters. The sea animal, which forms a network of colonies inside sea worms, was discovered by scientists at New Zealand's government marine agency NIWA, London's Natural History Museum the University of Oslo. "Finding tiny polyps with tentacles protruding from the network of holes confirmed what paleontologists had suspected, that Protulophila is a colonial hydroid related to corals and sea anemones. Protulophila, which is related to corals and sea anemones, appeared in the fossil record about 170 million years ago in Europe and the Middle East.
A diver searching for bodies in a sunken ferry died on Friday after an accident, the coast guard said, as a car believed to be used by a fugitive businessman linked to the ship was reported found. The diver was pulled from the water where he was involved in the cutting open of the hull in the hope of reaching some of 16 people missing 45 days after the vessel sank, a coast guard official said.
By Alistair Smout EDINBURGH (Reuters) - The formal campaign for a Scottish independence vote that could break-up the United Kingdom began on Friday, although polls currently show Scots are unlikely to choose to end the 307-year-old union with England. Scottish nationalists hope the desire for independence, historical rivalry and what they say has been centuries of mismanagement by far-off leaders in London will drive Scots to vote for secession in the Sept. 18 referendum. Britain's main politicians have united against a breakaway, issuing pleas for unity and warnings about the economic costs of independence to the 4 million Scottish resident voters over the age of 16 who can participate. "It's been narrowing recently, but it's still nowhere near enough if independence is going to win." He added: "we're still a few months away, and if it's similar to general elections, many people do make up their minds in the last month or few weeks.
A tiny fossil of a marine creature thought to have been extinct has been found alive in New Zealand waters. The sea animal, which forms a network of colonies inside sea worms, was discovered by scientists at New Zealand's government marine agency NIWA, London's Natural History Museum the University of Oslo. "Finding tiny polyps with tentacles protruding from the network of holes confirmed what paleontologists had suspected, that Protulophila is a colonial hydroid related to corals and sea anemones. Protulophila, which is related to corals and sea anemones, appeared in the fossil record about 170 million years ago in Europe and the Middle East.
Police say three people have been arrested in connection with the gang-rape of two teens found hanging from a tree.
U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki apologized on Friday for scheduling abuses at veterans' healthcare facilities to cover up long wait times, saying the problems were more severe than he initially thought. Shinseki, speaking at a conference on homeless veterans in Washington, has faced growing calls for his resignation but he did not offer to step down. While he was speaking, the White House announced that President Barack Obama would meet with Shinseki at 10:15 a.m. EDT. Obama, in an interview Friday on ABC, said he plans to "have a serious conversation with him about whether he thinks he's prepared and has the capacity to take on the job of fixing it, because I don't want any veteran to not be getting the kind of services they deserve." At the conference, Shinseki took responsibility for the leadership and integrity problems that were first found at a facility in Phoenix but are now part of a larger probe involving others across the country.
ATLANTA - A U.S. toddler was seriously hurt by a flash grenade when a SWAT team carried out a drug raid at their home, the boy's family said. Alecia Phonesavanh told local media outlets that her 19-month-old son was sleeping in his playpen when the raid began Wednesday morning. She says the flash grenade, which makes a loud noise and bright flash to distract people during raids, landed in the boy's playpen and went off near his face. Phonesavanh said the boy's face was severely burned, and he was in a medically induced coma in a hospital.
BANGKOK - McDonald's is not loving it in Thailand. The burger chain's famous golden arches have become part of the iconography of anti-coup protests and it is warning activists to "cease and refrain" from using its trademark. One of the McDonald's stores in Bangkok has become a gathering place for protests following the May 22 military takeover because of its central location. Some protesters have used the McDonald's logo in their anti-coup signs, replacing the "m'' in democracy with the yellow arches.
DUBLIN - A firebomb detonated Friday in a hotel lobby in the Northern Ireland city of Londonderry, but police said a swift midnight evacuation ensured that nobody was injured. The incendiary device detonated inside the Everglades Hotel in Northern Ireland's second-largest city. Witnesses said a masked man tossed a bag beside the hotel's reception desk, said he was from the Irish Republican Army, and warned that a bomb inside the bag would explode in 30 minutes. "Someone set off the fire alarm and I called the police," said Gary Rutherford, who had just dropped off relatives at the hotel.
An Ohio monument unveiled this week to Americans who fought and died in the Korean War has drawn calls for it to be replaced because of glaring omissions and historical inaccuracies including images from the Vietnam War and Desert Storm. The black granite slab at Ross County Veterans Memorial Park in Chillicothe, Ohio, has sparked criticism from some families of those killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War because names of locals who died in the fighting were left off a plaque honoring area war dead. Herman Strausbaugh, 81, a Korean War veteran who helped get the memorial built, said he wants to memorial to stay despite the complaints of "nit pickers." "It represents the people that went over there and fought.
By Mehreen Zahra-Malik MOZA SIAL Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani man whose pregnant wife was bludgeoned to death by angry family members who did not approve of the marriage fondly recalled a brief life together with the woman he fell in love with at first sight. Farzana Iqbal, 25, was murdered by a group of assailants including her father on Tuesday, witnesses and police said, because she fell in love with and married Muhammed Iqbal in January instead of a cousin they had selected for her. And she was the best wife anyone could ask for," Iqbal, 45, told Reuters in his mud-brick home in the village of Moza Sial in central Pakistan, 240 km (150 miles) west of Lahore. It was my duty to save her and I let her down." The dark tale of love, betrayal and murder has stunned people around the world, with the United Nations condemning Farzana's killing and a major international newspaper running a Reuters photograph of the grisly aftermath of the attack on its front page.
By Stephen Brown BERLIN (Reuters) - Angela Merkel's lukewarm support for Jean-Claude Juncker as the next president of the European Commission has put the normally popular chancellor at the center of a furious debate in Germany, where she is accused of ignoring the will of EU voters. But she once again cautioned that it was "not automatic".
TORONTO - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is calling on world leaders to follow Canada's $3.5 billion commitment to maternal and child health. He is telling delegates to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's international conference on the topic that his older sister and brother died soon after birth.
Late-spring warmth brings a stunning new color to the dazzling white palette that dominates Greenland in the wintertime. The warmth means Greenland's melt season has started, and sapphire-blue pools will soon dot the ice sheet as its upper layer of snow and ice transforms into water. Nearly the entire surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet melted, even in the cold, dry regions where Greenland's elevation soars above 10,000 feet (3,048 meters). "We're not expecting anything exceptional for the next two weeks, but it's very difficult to look beyond that point," said Marco Tedesco, a Greenland melting expert at the City University of New York and a polar programs director for the National Science Foundation.
The rate of extinction of species on Earth is around 1,000 times faster it was before humans existed, new reseach has shown. It also revealed plant and animal species are disappearing from Earth around ten times faster than previously believed. Stuart Pimm, a biologist from Duke University and the leader of the study, said our planet could be on the verge of a sixth great extinction. Concentrating on the rate, not the number, of species disappearing from Earth, Pimms' team calculated a "death rate" of how many species become extinct each year out of one million species.
