North Korean leaders' lavish sprees
Kim Jong-il and predecessor Kim Il-sung put special agents in Europe just to buy fancy items.
Kim Jong-il and predecessor Kim Il-sung put special agents in Europe just to buy fancy items.
A new device from Cisco can stream every movie ever made in less than four minutes.
JetBlue and Delta want exemptions from a new tarmac rule that limits the time passengers can be held.
The Cold War-era agreements violated principles Tokyo established after World War II.
Lifelock settles charges that its famous ads oversold its identity-theft protection.
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At least three Swedish newspapers on Wednesday published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog after an alleged plot to murder the artist who created it was uncovered in Ireland.
Authorities said the case shows how terror groups are looking to recruit Americans to carry out their goals.
A federal indictment charges that Colleen R. LaRose, who called herself JihadJane and Fatima LaRose online, agreed to kill the Swede on orders from the unnamed terrorists and traveled to Europe to carry out the killing. It doesn't say whether the Swede was killed, but LaRose was not charged with murder.
A U.S. Department of Justice spokesman wouldn't confirm the case is related to a group of people arrested in Ireland earlier Tuesday on suspicion of plotting against Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who depicted the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.
Although, it is unknown what the protrusion is on Mrs Zhang's head, it resembles a cutaneous horn.
This is a funnel-shaped growth and although most are only a few millimetres in length, some can extend a number of inches from the skin.
Cutaneous horns are made up of compacted keratin, which is the same protein we have in our hair and nails, and forms horns, wool and feathers in animals.
They usually develop in fair-skinned elderly adults who have a history of significant sun exposure but it is extremely unusual to see it form protrusions of this size.
The growths are most common in elderly people, aged between 60 and the mid-70s. They can sometimes be cancerous but more than half of cases are benign.
A Pittsburgh-area woman is suing Bank of America, claiming it wrongfully repossessed her home and saying that a bank contractor trashed the house and took her parrot.
Forty-six-year-old Angela Iannelli sued Bank of America in Allegheny County on Monday. She claims her mortgage payments were on time when the contractor damaged furniture, took her pet parrot and padlocked the door to her Allison Park home in October.
Concepción wasn't the only city shifted by the massive 8.8 magnitude temblor.
Deforestation has revealed what could be a giant impact crater in Central Africa, according to Italian scientists. | The eggshells of long-dead and extinct species are a particularly good source to find preserved DNA, researchers say. |
I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica.My first thought, like most, is: okay, go.
It's been more than 65 years since this small country of 4.6 million people introduced a public health care system. Spending $6,000 less per capita than the United States on health today, Costa Rica boasts a longer life expectancy and an infant mortality rate nearly equal to that of the U.S.It is a big accomplishment. The United States should be so fortunate. Lush could extend his life expectancy by living in Costa Rica. And, health care, while excellent, is cheaper.
With a reputation for high quality and low prices, the country has even fashioned an industry out of health care, attracting hundreds of visitors each year who take advantage of medical tourism.
“What we don't understand is how we are able to work with this,” said Rosa Climent, medical director of the Costa Rican Social Security System, pointing to a chart that shows employers pay 9.25 percent and workers pay 5.50 percent of their salaries into the system, which covers “all our health needs. And how the U.S. pays so much more and doesn't cover its citizens.”
Not only do Costa Ricans have an 86.8 percent coverage rate, but the public health system serves residents who live miles from cities.
“How does a small country with a medium investment like ours achieve full cover age for all of its citizens?” asked Climent. “It's a big accomplishment.”
Ultraviolet light reveals "astonishing" details of Italian paintings that influenced Michelangelo.
A little-noticed law allows the U.S. to withhold payments to collect old debts.
A shortage of key elements threatens to hobble the tech sector, but there's a huge supply under the U.S.
When a grenade landed near British soldier James McKie, he thought, "I've really only got one chance."
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photo: Kartikeya Kaul via flickr.
India the world's last major emitter to formally back the Copenhagen Accord has done so. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said the decision reflected India's contributions in shaping the Accord. Ramesh went on to list the three conditions under which India will participate:
It's a common belief that putting a magnet to the back of your credit card makes it unusable.
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Several fields offer a sizable paycheck without having to wait years to move up.
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You can improve your mood just by making simple adjustments to the way you think.
Some of the ships are believed to be nearly 1,000 years old yet have their hulls completely intact.
Scientists estimate half of all living material is beneath the ocean or buried in the ground.
Solutions in politics should be derived from answering the fundamental question:
What should the purpose of government be?
I asked about 50 people (mostly college graduates and all repugicans) that question,
and not a single one could answer. Try it, it’s amazing. You can just smell the ozone as their two wits short out.
Now, if they’re actually Libertarians, they’ll eventually say something like,“Government ought to just provide defense and infrastructure”, which really means “Leave business alone to loot, pollute, and steal”.
What the Constitution (supposedly sacred to the Right) says is: "We the people of the United States, (1) in Order to form a more perfect Union, (2) establish Justice, (3) insure domestic Tranquility, (4) provide for the common Defense, (5) promote the general Welfare, and (6) secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..." (Numeration my addition)
Detroit officials consider a "politically explosive" plan to bulldoze a quarter of the city.
A program that saves thousands of families from foreclosure each year gets the nation's attention.
These metro areas are surviving the economic downturn better than most others.
Image credit: tibchris/Flickr
Two tiger cubs were found dead in the Ranthambhore national park in India this weekend. Though an investigation is still under way, officials reported that early evidence suggests the cubs were poisoned.
Americans of all races toss and turn in bed each night, and sleeplessness is affecting their jobs, social lives and even their sexual habits, the latest poll on U.S. sleep habits finds.
Even Captain Bligh might have blushed. The first woman captain of a US navy guided-missile destroyer was relieved of her command for using language so foul that it amounted to “cruelty and maltreatment”, it emerged yesterday.
Captain Holly Graf, commander of 400 sailors aboard USS Cowpens, was dubbed “Horrible Holly” by those who felt the lash of her tongue. Officers complained to navy investigators that she humiliated them in front of the crew by showering them with obscenities and calling them “idiots” and “stupid”.
Graf’s behavior, detailed in a navy report, came to light last week when it emerged she had engaged the Cowpens in a maritime “drag race” with a smaller destroyer, the USS John McCain, near Okinawa, Japan, last year.
The report dismissed allegations that the racing ships had nearly collided but investigators upheld charges that Graf had abused her position for personal gain by forcing sailors to walk her dogs and by ordering a piano-playing junior officer to perform at a Christmas party at her home.
As one of the navy’s most successful sea-going women officers Graf was in line for promotion to rear admiral, but became the target of an internet campaign by former crew members and male former officers contemptuous of what they see as preferential treatment of women at the Pentagon.
Hundreds of posts to internet sites likened Graf to Bligh, the villainous captain ousted by his crew in Mutiny on the Bounty. Graf has not made a public comment, but defended her behavior to navy investigators.
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Governor Ted Strickland on Monday postponed the execution of a convicted killer who managed to take an overdose of pills in his death row cell and was found unconscious just hours before he was to be driven to his execution.
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin told an audience of Canadians this weekend that she used to "hustle" over the border to get her some of that cheap socialized medicine she now decries.
Palin, who called "nationalized" health care "evil" and suggested that, instead of reforms to lower costs, the government ought to just cut taxes, admitted that her family used to avail themselves of the cheap, high-quality health care Canada offers its citizens.
According to Dave Weigel at the Washington Independent, she said:
We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada. And I think now, isn't that ironic.
Weigel notes that the closest Canadian city to Wasilla, Alaska — where Palin grew up after infancy — is more than 15 hours away, whereas Anchorage is less than an hour.
A new effort to fix the housing crisis helps owners sell their homes at a loss.