The Wayback Machine - http://web.archive.org./web/20121222134045/http://wn.com/
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Linguistics professor Noam Chomsky has been America’s premier political dissident since the Vietnam War. As a vocal critic of US foreign policy, the self-described “libertarian...
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Julian Assange, the founder of whistleblower website WikiLeaks, has said he will release over a million more documents in the coming year that will affect "every country in the...
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Tucked away in thick forest, an exquisite site of Mayan ruins began hosting winter solstice ceremonies on Thursday as the region’s indigenous people marked the end of an era. Or...

British Prime Minister David Cameron with troops during a visit to Forward Operating Base Price in Helmand Province, Afghanistan Thursday Dec. 20, 2012.
LONDON:Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday paid a pre-Christmas visit to British troops serving in Afghanistan, insisting that the "high price" paid by servicemen had been worthwhile, his office said....
photo: AP / Stefan Wermuth
A Peruvian shaman perform a ritual against the alleged 2012 apocalyptic Mayan prediction in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012.
This could be one of the last things you ever read if the ancient Mayan prediction that the world will come to an abrupt end turns out to be true. But rather than getting down in the dumps about Doomsday, revellers are being offered the chance to...
photo: AP / Martin Mejia
Ismail Haniya, the head of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, addresses the public during an open air morning prayer to celebrate Eid al-Fitr in Gaza City on August 19, 2012. Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan, the Muslim calendar's ninth and holiest month during which followers are required to abstain from food, drink and sex from dawn to dusk.Photo by Ahmed Deeb / WN
Despite all the predictions of Mayan apocalypse, the world will probably not end by Saturday morning. How will the believers cope when life carries on? The clock strikes midnight, the hallowed date arrives and, once again, the apocalypse fails to...
photo: WN / Ahmed Deeb
French luxury goods group LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault, right, and LVMH managing director Antonio Belloni talk during the presentation of the group's 2009 earns, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010 in Paris.
Belgian politicians have denied reports Bernard Arnault, France's richest man, has had his attempt to obtain Belgian nationality derailed on the grounds he has not lived there for three years. Bernard Arnault - France's richest man Photo: Getty...
photo: AP / Jacques Brinon
Intercontinental Exchange Inc. Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher, left, and NYSE CEO Duncan Niederauer prepare for an interview on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012.
WASHINGTON, December 20 (RIA Novosti) - The symbol of American capitalism for more than two centuries, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is being sold to the rival IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) for $8.2 billion, ICE announced Thursday. "Our...
photo: AP / Richard Drew
Miss USA, Olivia Culpo, left, adjusts her tiara after being crowned the new Miss Universe as Miss Universe 2011, Leila Lopes, of Angola, right, looks on, during the Miss Universe competition, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012, in Las Vegas.
So excited was Olivia Culpo, Miss USA, to be crowned Miss Universe 2012 on Wednesday night, she almost took off on her victory walk without that beautiful crown on her head. Fortunately, a reassuring touch from Miss Universe 2011, Leila Lopes, was...
photo: AP / Julie Jacobson
In his end-of-year press conference, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reflects on a “tumultuous” 2012, which saw tensions from Syria to the Sahel and from Eastern Congo to the Korean peninsula.
United Nations: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced deep concern at the "increased militarisation of the conflict and the potential for sectarian atrocities" in Syria, Xinhua reported. "Syria began the year in conflict, and ends the year in...
photo: UN / Rick Bajornas
updated 17 Dec 2012; published 16 Dec 2012
14:15
Divided Egypt votes in referendum on constitution - NewsX
Khaleej Times 22 Dec 2012, An Egyptian constitution drafted by Islamists is expected to be approved in a referendum on Saturday after the charter, which opponents say will create deeper turmoil, won approval in a first wave of voting a week ago. The opposition have already cried foul, saying a litany of abuses means last Saturday’s ballot, involving about half the...

updated 21 Dec 2012; published 21 Dec 2012
1:04
UN Security Council approves Mali intervention force
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 21 Dec 2012, UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. Security Council on Thursday authorized military action to wrest northern Mali from the control of al-Qaida-linked extremists, but it demanded progress first on political reconciliation, elections and training African troops and police. A resolution adopted unanimously by the United Nations' most powerful body...

updated 21 Dec 2012; published 20 Dec 2012
1:16
US fiscal cliff
Khaleej Times 21 Dec 2012, Republicans in the House of Representatives, confronted with a revolt among the party’s rank and file, abandoned a vote Thursday night on politically-charged but symbolic legislation aimed at averting a fast-approaching 'fiscal cliff,' after failing to gather enough support for a measure meant to strengthen the party’s position ahead of final...

updated 21 Dec 2012; published 21 Dec 2012
1:04
UN Security Council approves Mali intervention force
Jakarta Globe 21 Dec 2012, The UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously approved sending an African-led intervention force to help Mali’s army reconquer much of the country from Islamist militants. The 15-member council gave the force an initial one year mandate to use “all necessary measures” to help the Mali...

updated 22 Dec 2012; published 25 Mar 2012
3:58
You Know You're Yemeni When . . .
Al Jazeera 20 Dec 2012, Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has announced the restructuring of the army and defence ministry, in a bid to remove allies of former head of state Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country's state television reported. Hadi took a series of drastic decisions on Wednesday, including one scrapping the elite Republican Guard which was under the command...

updated 22 Dec 2012; published 19 Dec 2012
36:25
President Obama Delivers Gun Control Statement
Sowetan Live 20 Dec 2012, Obama held a White House news conference on Wednesday to announce that Vice President Joe Biden will lead an interagency effort to craft new gun policies. The group is expected to offer its proposals in January. “We know this is a complex issue that stirs deeply held passions and political divides,” Obama said. “But the fact that this problem is...

updated 21 Dec 2012; published 20 Dec 2012
1:31
Diplomatic handshakes as new political era starts in South Korea
The Wichita Eagle 20 Dec 2012, SEOUL, South KoreaPark Geun-hye's election as South Korea's first female president could mean a new drive to start talks with bitter rival North Korea, though it's unclear how much further she will go than the hard-line incumbent, a member of her own conservative party. After five years of high tension under unpopular President Lee...

updated 20 Dec 2012; published 19 Dec 2012
1:10
Mullen: Benghazi Security 'Grossly Inadequate'
Reuters 20 Dec 2012, WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three senior U.S. State Department officials were asked to resign after an official inquiry harshly criticized their offices for failing to provide adequate security at the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, before it came under attack in September, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. The official, who spoke on condition of...

updated 21 Dec 2012; published 14 Dec 2012
6:09
Connecticut Shooting in Newtown at Sandy Hook Elementary: Parent Interview
Detroit news 19 Dec 2012, By David Klepper and Katie Zezima Associated Press Comments Newtown, Conn. — For a third straight day Wednesday, funeral professions rolled through a grieving Connecticut town trying to make sense of the massacre of 20 first-graders and six adults in an elementary school less than two weeks before Christmas. Dr. Joseph Young, an optometrist,...

updated 20 Dec 2012; published 19 Dec 2012
1:02
UN asks for $1.5bn Syria aid in first half of 2013
The Star 19 Dec 2012, GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations appealed on Wednesday for $1.5 billion (920.1 million pounds) to provide life-saving aid to Syrians suffering from a "dramatically deteriorating" humanitarian situation. The twin...

updated 20 Dec 2012; published 19 Dec 2012
1:53
UBS fined $1.5b for Libor rigging
BBC News 19 Dec 2012, Even by the standards of recent revelations of wrongdoing at the world's biggest banks, the disclosures of how UBS tried to systematically manipulate the important Libor interest rate benchmarks will be seen as pretty hair-raising. UBS has been punished by regulators in the US, UK and its home country of Switzerland. The Financial Services...

updated 21 Dec 2012; published 19 Dec 2012
2:04
Benghazi attack report slams US State Department
Al Jazeera 19 Dec 2012, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she accepts the findings of an independent panel that faulted the State Department over the deadly September attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya. An inquiry into the attack on the US mission, which saw the US ambassador and three other US citizens killed, found that the State...

updated 21 Dec 2012; published 19 Dec 2012
2:02
Obama backs assault weapons ban
The Star 19 Dec 2012, WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama backs a new bill to revive an assault weapons ban and other new gun laws, the White House said Tuesday, fleshing out his nascent response to a shocking school massacre. Obama also called an ardently pro-gun senator who has shifted his position on firearms laws since Friday's carnage in Connecticut and has begun...

updated 21 Dec 2012; published 14 Dec 2012
6:09
Connecticut Shooting in Newtown at Sandy Hook Elementary: Parent Interview
WorldNews.com 18 Dec 2012, Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. "Most people reason dramatically, not quantitatively." -Oliver Wendell Holmes On the same day that a 20-year-old, described as brilliant but remote, walked into an elementary school in Connecticut and massacred 26 children and adults, the school where I teach went on "lock-down." Four students with a...