Abbas risks Palestinian fury over direct talks with Israel Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, is expected to bow to intense U.S. pressure by agreeing to hold direct peace talks with Israel within weeks, according to western officials. Despite publicly insisting that he has no interest in face-to-face talks, Mr Abbas is preparing for what could be the gamble of his career, they said. 7/29/2010 3:35:09 PM

Congo boat sinking 'kills 140' Up to 140 people are feared dead after a boat carrying passengers and goods capsized on a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials say. The accident happened on the Kasai river - a tributary of the Congo River - in the western province of Bandundu. 7/29/2010 1:49:32 PM

Russia grants more powers to KGB successor agency Russians may now face jail time for crimes they have not yet committed under a new security law signed Thursday by President Dmitry Medvedev. The law restores Soviet-era powers to the Federal Security Service, a move that rights advocates fear could intimidate the Kremlin's political opponents. 7/29/2010 1:01:29 PM

Obama defends his record on The View U.S. President Barack Obama mounted a spirited defence of his first 20 months in office Thursday on the popular daytime talk show The View. He effortlessly charmed the show's five female hosts, saying he came on the program because he was "trying to find a show that [his wife] Michelle actually watched." 7/29/2010 12:24:23 PM

'Suckers!' 100 million Facebook users' details published on 'Net The personal details of 100 million Facebook users have been collected and published online in a downloadable file, meaning they will now be unable to make their publicly available information private. However, Facebook downplayed the issue, saying that no private data had been compromised. 7/29/2010 6:17:20 AM

Former B.C. resident one of nine killed in Philippines robbery spree Police in the Philippines have arrested a man accused of murdering nine people, including a Canadian man with ties to Vancouver Island. Filipino Mark Dizon, a 28-year-old computer technician, is alleged to have gone on a killing spree in the last two weeks during robberies in three gated communities. 7/29/2010 6:07:10 AM

Global warming 'undeniable,' report says Scientists from around the world are providing even more evidence of global warming. "A comprehensive review of key climate indicators confirms the world is warming and the past decade was the warmest on record," the annual State of the Climate report declares. (Ed: Expect another barrage from the Oil Company PR machines.) 7/29/2010 5:47:06 AM

President Obama: I Wasn't Invited to Chelsea Clinton's Wedding Here's one less thing the Secret Service will need to worry about when Chelsea Clinton gets married this weekend. "I was not invited to the wedding," President Barack Obama said on ABC's The View, airing Thursday, "because I think Hillary and Bill, properly, want to keep this thing for Chelsea and her soon-to-be husband." 7/28/2010 6:05:48 PM

Dutch Sailor, 14, Gets OK for Solo World Trip A 14-year-old Dutch sailor will be allowed to launch a risky attempt to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world, a court said Tuesday, clearing her for an adventure that could begin within two weeks. Laura Dekker said she was thrilled to hear of the decision to lift a guardianship order. 7/27/2010 4:00:57 PM

French police find eight dead newborn babies French police have arrested a couple after finding the bodies of eight newborn babies in a village. Police were continuing to search with sniffer dogs in Villers-au-Tertre, near Lille in northern France, the officials said. The two in custody are said to be the parents of the children. 7/28/2010 5:32:42 PM

Bear attacks leave one dead, two injured at Montana campgrounds Ron Aasheim, a spokesman for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, told CNN that authorities are still trying to determine what type of bear attacked the campers at the remote Soda Butte campgrounds outside Yellowstone National Park, and whether multiple bears were involved. 7/28/2010 5:30:42 PM

Details of 100 Million Facebook users collected and published Personal details of 100 Million Facebook users have been collected and published on the net by a security consultant. Ron Bowles used a piece of code to scan Facebook profiles, collecting data not hidden by the user's privacy settings. The file has spread rapidly across the net. 7/28/2010 5:28:10 PM

Key base of ocean food web dropping dramatically Despite their tiny size, plant plankton found in the world's oceans are crucial to much of life on Earth. They are the foundation of the bountiful marine food web, produce half the world's oxygen and suck up harmful carbon dioxide. They also are declining sharply. 7/28/2010 3:21:27 PM

Australian Aboriginals livid at French stripper who danced on sacred rock A French stripper is in trouble with Australian Aboriginals after climbing the country's famed Uluru rock, one of its most sacred aboriginal sites, and dancing topless, cnews is reporting. Aboriginal leaders want Alizee Sery deported for disrespecting Uluru, once known by European settlers as Ayers Rock. 7/28/2010 6:54:55 AM

Michigan declares pipeline spill a disaster area Governor Jennifer Granholm declared a state of disaster on Tuesday for an area along the Kalamazoo River in south-central Michigan where an oil pipeline leaked 19,500 barrels of oil. The spill came in a 30-inch, 190,000 barrels per day line transporting crude oil from Griffith, Indiana, to Sarnia, Ontario. 7/28/2010 6:44:18 AM

FBI says mastermind of botnet nabbed International authorities have arrested a computer hacker believed responsible for creating the malicious computer code that infected as many as 12 million computers, invading major banks and corporations around the world, FBI officials told The Associated Press. 7/28/2010 6:33:25 AM

New flood surge hits China's Three Gorges Dam (Video) Vast amounts of water have been released from behind the Three Gorges Dam in recent days. China's Three Gorges Dam has faced a second test as floods pushed the water in its reservoir to near its capacity, state media said. Heavy rain on the Yangtze River created a surge that neared last week's record. 7/28/2010 6:30:17 AM

Spain: Catalonia bans bullfighting in landmark Spain vote The parliament of Catalonia has voted to ban bullfighting - the first region of mainland Spain to do so. The vote took place as the result of a petition brought to parliament, signed by 180,000 people who say the practice is barbaric and outdated. 7/28/2010 6:14:45 AM

All 152 Passengers killed in Pakistan jet crash (Video) A plane has crashed in hills north of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, killing all 152 people on board. Officials said the plane lost contact with the control tower minutes before landing. Pakistani TV showed images of smouldering wreckage on a foggy hillside, with helicopters overhead. 7/28/2010 5:57:34 AM

U.S. Feds Charge New Russian Bombshell Good-bye, Anna Chapman; hello, Anna Fermanova. Fermanova, 24, is the newest bombshell targeted by federal authorities. She is accused of attempting to smuggle high-tech night vision scopes from the United States to Russia. 7/27/2010 4:46:49 PM

Garage sale negatives verified as $200 Million Ansel Adams trove How’s this for art appreciation: A Fresno, Calif., man who spent $45 on two boxes of negatives at a garage sale 10 years ago has had them authenticated as lost works of the iconic American photographer Ansel Adams worth an estimated $200 million. 7/27/2010 4:37:47 PM

Japanese women have longest life expectancy Japanese women are expected to live almost 86 ½ years, topping the world longevity ratings for the 25th straight year. The statistics for 2009 showed both Japanese women and men extended their average life expectancy to new records — 86.44 years for women and 79.59 years for men. 7/27/2010 4:18:36 PM

Pentagon: Leaked Afghan reports are not top-secret American officials from the president down tried Tuesday to downplay the leak of tens of thousands of documents about the war in Afghanistan, a disclosure experts are calling the biggest leak since the Pentagon Papers about Vietnam. 7/27/2010 4:06:08 PM

China Landslide Adds to Flooding Death Toll A landslide caused by rains in southern China left 21 people missing Tuesday, adding to a growing death toll from China's worst flood season in a decade, which is expected to worsen with heavy rains forecast across the country. 7/27/2010 3:57:51 PM

Blix accuses Bush, Blair of 'poor judgment' Ex-UN weapons inspector Hans Blix questioned Tuesday the judgment of Britain and the United States in invading Iraq on the basis of evidence of weapons of mass destruction that was clearly "poor". Blix was executive chairman of the United Nations weapons inspection team in Iraq from March 2000 to June 2003. 7/27/2010 3:26:16 PM

Autistic man dies in hot van in US suburb An autistic young man who didn't speak was left in a scorching van at a residential treatment home, where his lifeless, overheated body was found more than five hours after his small group returned from an amusement park. 7/27/2010 3:22:36 PM

Audit: U.S. can't account for $8.7b in Iraqi funds The U.S. Defense Department is unable to properly account for over 95 per cent of $9.1-billion in Iraqi oil money tapped by the U.S. for rebuilding the war ravaged nation, according to an audit. People complain basic services like electricity and clean water are sharply lacking seven years after the U.S.-led invasion. 7/27/2010 10:15:09 AM

BP's Dudley: Spill a "Wake-Up Call" for Oil Industry The American who will take over as head of British oil giant BP says he's not underestimating the nature and complexity of what the company must do to restore its reputation and financial strength. Robert Dudley told reporters the spill has been a "wake-up call, not only for BP, but the oil and gas industry overall." 7/27/2010 9:59:19 AM

Polygamist Warren Jeffs' Convictions Overturned The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed the convictions of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and ordered a new trial. Jeffs, 54, was convicted by a southern Utah jury in 2007 of two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice for his role in the 2001 nuptials of Elissa Wall, then 14. 7/27/2010 9:51:34 AM

BP: Hayward to quit as CEO — with a payoff of $1.6 million BP's embattled Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward will be replaced by American Robert Dudley on Oct. 1, the company said Tuesday, as it reported a record quarterly loss and set aside $32.2 billion to cover the costs of the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill. 7/27/2010 5:52:13 AM

Public must know the awful truth, said analyst 'behind leak' The investigation into the biggest leak in American military history centres on a U.S. army intelligence analyst who allegedly boasted online that he was going to reveal "the truth" about the war in Afghanistan. Bradley Manning, 22, was arrested after a computer hacker turned him in. 7/26/2010 8:20:11 PM

South Korea, US stage anti-submarine drill in warning to North Korea US and South Korean warships staged anti-submarine drills Monday as part of a major naval exercise intended to send a warning to North Korea despite its threats of nuclear retaliation. The two allies, who accuse the North of sending a submarine to torpedo a South Korean warship, have assembled about 20 ships. 7/26/2010 8:02:39 PM

Pakistan rejects US intelligence reports of ISI links to Taliban Pakistan dismissed as "baseless" and "skewed" the leaked US intelligence reports that accused its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency of supporting Taliban fighters. Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told the media that leaked reports were "far-fetched and skewed" and inconsistent with ground realities. 7/26/2010 7:57:02 PM

50 Afghan civilians killed in rocket strike KABUL: A rocket attack on an Afghan village killed at least 45 civilians, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said on Monday, as leaked documents laid bare the civilian toll of the US-led war. Women and children were among the dead. An investigation is underway to determine who was responsibl 7/26/2010 7:10:50 PM

Boat made from plastic bottle completes Pacific voyage (Video) A boat made from thousands of plastic bottles has sailed into Sydney Harbour, completing a four-month voyage that began in San Francisco. The boat, called the Plastiki, was built using 12,500 plastic bottles. 7/26/2010 6:07:18 PM

BP boss Hayward to get immediate $930,000 pension BP chief executive Tony Hayward will get an immediate annual pension worth about $930,000 when he leaves in October, the BBC has learned. Mr Hayward is to stand down after sustained criticism of his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil leak. 7/26/2010 5:46:39 PM

Review of leaked docs finds no danger to security, troops An ongoing Pentagon review of the massive flood of secret documents made public by the WikiLeaks website has so far found no evidence that the disclosure harmed U.S. national security or endangered American troops in the field. (Ed: Strange that Canada's Foreign Minister is saying the opposite.) 7/26/2010 4:40:57 PM

Leak indicates Western Governments are lying to citizens about Afghanistan The United States asked Canada in 2007 to apply diplomatic pressure to Saudi Arabia and South Africa over alleged Taliban fundraising in the countries. And, secret material released over the weekend has triggered a fierce debate over how truthful Western governments are being in their public accounts of the conflict. 7/26/2010 3:56:54 PM

Khmer Rouge jailer faces 19 years for 16,000 dead A U.N.-backed tribunal sentenced the Khmer Rouge's chief jailer to 35 years for overseeing the deaths of up to 16,000 people - the first verdict involving a senior member of the "killing fields" regime that devastated a generation of Cambodians. 7/26/2010 9:40:23 AM

'Barefoot Bandit' not interested in movie deal Colton Harris-Moore, the infamous "Barefoot Bandit" who allegedly stole planes, yachts and more during a cross-country crime spree, doesn't like the attention he's getting and doesn't want his story told, his lawyer told ABC News on Sunday. 7/26/2010 9:22:12 AM

Google Translate tangles with computer learning Google Translate is a free Google service that translates between scores of languages almost as quickly as Google returns search results. Give it a Web page from a Spanish newspaper and in about a second the text is converted to English. 7/25/2010 6:04:29 AM

Bonnie fizzles, cleanup fleet heads back to well The fleet of cleanup vessels tending the blown-out BP well in the Gulf of Mexico was ordered back to the spill site Saturday morning after a tropical storm system fizzled. The weather system was barely mustering maximum winds of 35 mph and was not expected to generate a fierce storm surge. 7/24/2010 7:12:44 PM

U.S. Veterans Affairs easing medical marijuana rules The Department of Veterans Affairs will formally allow patients treated at its hospitals and clinics to use medical marijuana in states where it is legal, a policy clarification that veterans have sought for several years. Veterans can be denied pain medications if they are found to be using illegal drugs. 7/24/2010 1:18:49 PM

China’s top philanthropist gives it all away Yu Pengnian’s journey from poor street hawker to Hong Kong real-estate magnate was already a remarkable one. Then the 88-year-old did something even rarer that shocked many in increasingly materialistic China: He gave it all away. 7/24/2010 6:48:11 AM

Missouri: State took Blind Parents baby after birth (Video) A blind couple who had a baby two months ago say that the State of Missouri violated their constitutional rights by taking their newborn away. Erika Johnson and Blake Sinnett say they were not able to bond or care for their baby girl for 57 days because social workers were blinded by ignorance. 7/24/2010 5:53:25 AM

Oil Rig Alarm Was Not Fully Turned On, Worker Says The emergency alarm on the Deepwater Horizon was not fully activated on the day the oil rig caught fire and exploded, triggering the massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a rig worker on Friday told a government panel investigating the accident. 7/23/2010 1:21:31 PM

BP admits altering oil spill response centre image Oil firm BP has admitted posting an altered image of its Gulf of Mexico oil spill response centre on its website. BP spokesman Scott Dean said the photographer who took the photo was displaying his skills with Photoshop software and there was no ill intent. (Ed: Baloney!). 7/21/2010 5:25:41 PM

BP allowed to keep cap closed for 24 hours The U.S. government Monday allowed BP to keep the cap shut tight on its busted Gulf of Mexico oil well for another day after the company promised to watch closely for any signs of new leaks breaking through the sea floor. The decision settled for the moment a rift between BP and the government. 7/19/2010 6:53:17 AM

Comparative photos of Mount Everest 'confirm ice loss' "The photographs reveal a startling truth: the ice of the Himalaya is disappearing." "The melt waters of these high altitude glaciers supply crucial seasonal flows to the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Salween, Irrawaddy, Mekong, Yangtze and Yellow rivers, which hundreds of millions of people downstream depend on for their livelihoods." 7/18/2010 5:20:31 PM

U.S. Senate stalls on climate change The U.S. Senate spent this week searching for ways to water down the modest greenhouse gas emissions targets in the House-passed energy bill, which opponents claim will injure the economy. (Ed: It's become apparent during the BP Fiasco, the oil/coal companies have many, many U.S. politicians in their pockets.) 7/18/2010 4:42:50 PM