World News

PV2 Dakota Blankenship from Knoxville, Tenn., of the 2nd Platoon Bravo Company 2-327 Infantry takes cover behind bunker during a sudden attack by Taliban at Combat Out Post Badel in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border on Friday, Dec. 24, 2010.

photo: AP / Rafiq Maqbool

11 soldiers, 24 militants killed in NW Pakistan: Official
read more The Times of India

PESHAWAR: The number of soldiers killed Friday when about 150 militants attacked five paramilitary checkpoints in...

The body of a man who died of cholera lies in a bed outside a hospital before being transported home in the town of Droin, Haiti, Friday Oct. 22, 2010. An outbreak of cholera in rural central Haiti has killed at least 142 people and sickened hundreds more.

photo: AP / Ramon Espinosa

Officials: 45 people lynched in Haiti amid cholera fears
read more CNN

Port Au Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- At least 45 people, most of them voodoo priests, have been lynched in Haiti since the beginning of the cholera epidemic by angry mobs blaming them for the spread of the disease, officials said. "People...

Soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, in a communication trench near Beaumont Hamel, possibly on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

photo: Imperial War Museum

The WWI Christmas Truce and Situated Identities
read more WorldNews.com

Article by WN.Com Correspondent Dallas Darling. In The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, Philip Zambardo writes, "Our sense of identity is in large measure conferred on us by others in the ways they treat or mistreat us, recognize or ignore us, praise us or punish us. Some people make us timid and shy; other elicit our sex...

Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, and Brazil's President-elect Dilma Rousseff applaud during a meeting with catadores in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Thursday Dec. 23, 2010. Catadores or cart pushers make their living recycling metal scraps, cardboard and plastic bottles.

photo: AP / Andre Penner

Brazil's Lula bids farewell at end of presidential term
read more BBC News

Continue reading the main story Related stories Has Brazil voted for continuity? Brazil's Lula bids farewell to Africa Lula's legacy Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has hailed his eight-year record as leader of South America's biggest country, days before he steps down. In a traditional Christmas address,...

UN forces patrol outside the UN headquarters in Ivory Coast, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010. The U.N. Security Council extended its peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast on Monday, hours after the United Nations' top envoy in the West African country said armed men had been threatening staff in their homes. Incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to concede defeat in last month's election and his demand that peacekeepers leave have raised fears that U.N. personnel and other foreigners could be targeted in violence.

photo: AP / Sunday Alamba

UN backs Cote d'Ivoire's Ouattara
read more Al Jazeera

The United Nations General Assembly has formally recognised Alassane Ouattara as the winner of Cote d'Ivoire's presidential election. The 192-nation body unanimously voted on Thursday for a resolution recognising Ouattara's selection of ambassador to the UN, Youssouf Bamba, as the sole representative for Cote d'Ivoire. World...

Debris strewn along the beach side left after a passing storm slammed Southern California in Long Beach, on Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010. The rain washed trash, pesticides and bacteria into waterways and prompted health warnings. Four beaches were closed in Northern California's San Mateo County, and another 12 miles of beach from Laguna Beach to San Clemente in Southern California's Orange County were off-limits because of sewer overflows.

photo: AP / Noaki Schwartz

Californian residents warned of polluted water after flooding
read more Irish Times

California residents who endured flooding, mudslides and evacuations during a week-long onslaught of rain now have another problem: contaminated water and fouled beaches. The rain washed waste, pesticides and bacteria into waterways, prompting health warnings. Four beaches were closed in Northern California's San Mateo County, and...

Police officers stand guard outside the Chilean embassy in Rome, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010. A pair of package bombs exploded at the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome on Thursday, injuring the two people who opened them, officials said. Police ordered checks at all embassies after a false alarm was also reported at the Ukrainian embassy.

photo: AP / Andrew Medichini

Anarchists claim Rome embassy blasts
read more Independent online (SA)

Rome - An Italian anarchist group claimed responsibility for parcel bombs on Thursday that wounded two people at the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome, a reminder of home-grown threats at a time of political instability in Europe. A Swiss man was seriously wounded and was rushed to hospital. The employee at the Chilean embassy was less seriously...

South Korean marines walk past at houses destroyed by North Korean shelling during a rally on the Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010. South Korean fighter jets dropped bombs and tanks fired artillery Thursday as the military staged its largest air and ground firing drills of the year in a show of force a month after North Korea's deadly shelling of a front-line island.

photo: AP / Lee Sang-hak, Yonhap

US slams North Korea's 'heated rhetoric'
read more The Daily Telegraph Australia

THE US State Department has chided North Korea for its "belligerent tricks," saying it wanted "constructive actions" and not "heated rhetoric". "Unfortunately, North Korea is back to its old belligerent tricks. We need constructive actions, not heated rhetoric," spokesman...

Demonstrators, one falling down, are sprayed by a water cannon during clashes outside the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Dec. 23. 2010. Police and soldiers fired water cannons and plastic bullets as thousands of students protested against a law passed by Venezuela's congress that increases government powers over the country's universities.

photo: AP / Fernando Llano

Venezuela security forces break up student protest
read more Yahoo Daily News

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan security forces fired a water cannon and rubber bullets on Thursday to disperse hundreds of students protesting against a new law tightening the government's control over universities. The measure, passed in the early hours, is the latest in a package of laws rushed through by the National Assembly to...

photo: AP / Koji SaSahara

Toyota to Pay $10 Million to Runaway Lexus Victims
read more Wall Street Journal

Associated Press LOS ANGELES—Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to pay $10 million to the family of four people killed in a runaway Lexus crash that led to recalls of millions of the auto maker's vehicles, an attorney said Thursday. The amount was released Thursday by Orange County, Calif., lawyer Larry Willis, who represents the dealership that lent...