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*SNIP* Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz, head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said it was a "bad joke" to have invited Raul Castro talk during funeral services for Mandela, along with Obama and other international figures... "We admire Mandela because it represented the opposite side Castrism", said Sanchez

Google mapping out 400,000 graves at Arlington Cemetery to create virtual walking tour.....

STOCKHOLM — Scientists working on a landmark U.N. report on climate change are struggling over how to address a wrinkle in the meteorological data that has given ammunition to global-warming skeptics: The heating of Earth's surface appears to have slowed in the past 15 years even though greenhouse gas emissions keep rising. For years, skeptics have touted what looks like a slowdown in surface warming since 1998 to cast doubt on the scientific consensus that humans are cooking the planet by burning coal, oil and natural gas.

As environmentalists and politicians fret about man-made Global Warming, they may be ignoring another culprit: earthworms. According to a new study by an international team of researchers, earthworms could be contributing to global warming. The study looked at results from 237 separate experiments from published stories to explore earthworms’ role in affecting global warming. “Our results suggest that although earthworms are largely beneficial to soil fertility, they increase net soil greenhouse-gas emissions,” according to the study’s abstract. Worms affect how much carbon dioxide is produced in the soil and how much escapes into the atmosphere...

*snip "[Share] one memory with our readers. "Aftab the monkey: My most vivid memory has to do with the time I had doubts about carrying out religious duties in space. Because, as it is written in the Koran and in the precepts of Islam, these tasks are for performing on earth, and a human was designated as the Messenger of Allah on earth; I, as a space monkey, do not belong, and am not obligated by this. This threw me into a spiritual crisis. Via chat, the brothers......"

A tidal power project is delivering electricity to the U.S. power grid for the first time, energy officials said Thursday. Ocean Renewable Power Co.'s first underwater turbine, off eastern Maine, was delivering to the grid the first commercially produced tidal power on Thursday afternoon, said Bangor Hydro Electric Co., which operates the grid where the tidal power connects. "This historic moment elevates the U.S. to the world stage," said Chris Sauer, president and CEO of Portland-based Ocean Renewable Power, which has invested $15 million in the project. The amount of power is modest for now. The first underwater turbine generator...

Al-Jazeera has become the second news agency in a little more than a month to be targeted by pro-Syrian government hackers. The Qatar-based satellite TV station revealed in a tweet this morning that its short messaging service had been compromised and used to send false news reports, including a report that Qatar's prime minister had been assassinated:

for dinner. Last week, researchers from Stanford University published the results of the most comprehensive study to date on organic and conventional foods. Their conclusion? Organic foods have no more vitamins and nutrients than traditionally grown produce. I can’t say I’m surprised. Chicken is chicken, with the same nutritional content, whether it is organic, free range or mass-produced. But now scientists have confirmed it, perhaps we can begin to have a proper conversation about the food we put on our table. The Stanford University team reviewed more than 200 studies which compared either the health of those who ate organic...

Defense Ministry is due to equip the country’s Armed Forces with a new long-range air-defense system by the next Iranian year (starting on March 21, 2013), a senior Iranian military official said on Saturday. Speaking to Fars News Agency, Deputy Defense Minister for Industrial and Research Mohammad Eslami said the new long-range air-defense system can cover a major part of the S-300 mission. Eslami said the new long-range air-defense system will provide a full air-defense cover for Iran by the time the Iranian version of S-300 becomes operational. *SNIPnder a contract signed in 2007, Russia is required to provide Iran...

In Aleppo’s Mashhad neighborhood, rebels man a series of sniping positions, eyeing the government forces and their tank just 50 meters (yards) up a sniper alley from behind a short wall of sandbags. There are other tanks nearby, and when they fire the boom reverberates through otherwise quiet streets almost empty of civilians. The fighters spot a young boy carrying belongings wrapped in a blanket as he approaches the sniper alley, and call out to him. “Hey you, boy, stop right there!” one fighter shouts. The boy freezes, standing by a shouldering pile of rubbish, then dashes across the alley...

In China a sad reality exists. Children are sometimes discarded as if they are not even humans. The babies are thrown into trash bins, rivers, and lakes to name a few. But, one amazing woman Lou Xiaoying, 88 has been a mother to many of these babies who were orphaned or discarded into trash bins. Lou has been responsible for saving over 30 abandoned babies from dumps, and trash bins, in her amazing life. As Lou lies on her death bed, China and the world are honoring her via social media, and regular media outlets for her great contribution to...

There are reports of multiple people shot outside the Empire State Building. FOX 5 News has learned that at least three people have been shot. The scene is chaotic as people make their way to work in the heavily trafficked area. One person is in police custody. FOX 5 News and SkyFoxHD are headed to the scene. MyFoxNY.com is updating this story

The Ministry of health and social development has submitted to the Government Bill, radically restricting smoking in public places, said on Sunday the site of the Ministry. The main restrictions-prohibition of smoking in public places, including workplaces, as well as to European prices. The document provides for the ban on smoking in all catering establishments, government buildings, workplaces (indoor), elevators, educational, medical, cultural and sports institutions, all means of public transport, train stations and ports. Therefore, smokers will leave only their own House and the street. The tobacco control activists stress that even the most modern ventilation and specially designated...

Talk about a "Beautiful Day." Once the smoke clears from Friday's (May 18) Facebook IPO
, U2 singer Bono could be the richest musician on the planet. According to England's NME, the already flush, tech-savvy
 Irish rock icon owns 2.3 percent of the shares of Facebook through his investment group, Elevation Partners. Well before Facebook filed papers to go public, Elevation paid $90 million for the shares in 2009 and after what is expected to be the second-biggest IPO in history, Bono's share could be worth more than $1.5 billion.

Note from Senior Management: Andrew Breitbart was never a "Birther," and Breitbart News is a site that has never advocated the narrative of "Birtherism." In fact, Andrew believed, as we do, that President Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961. Yet Andrew also believed that the complicit mainstream media had refused to examine President Obama's ideological past, or the carefully crafted persona he and his advisers had constructed for him. It is for that reason that we launched "The Vetting," an ongoing series in which we explore the ideological background of President Obama (and other presidential...

British citizens make up about 25 percent of foreign fighters of the al-Shabab group in Somalia, according to a report by the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). “Britons are thought to make up about 25 per cent of the 200 or so foreign fighters that the Al-Shabaab group in Somalia currently fields, and who are engaging in a deepening war on neighboring Kenya and its tourist trade. Most of these individuals appear to be only informally networked, making the most of personal links through Kenya or South Africa,” says the report. Earlier on February, the UK Prime Minister David...

THERE is an ongoing debate in this country about the rich: who they are, what their social role may be, whether they are good or bad. Well, consider the following. A recent study found that 10 percent of people who work on Wall Street are “clinical psychopaths,” exhibiting a lack of interest in and empathy for others and an “unparalleled capacity for lying, fabrication, and manipulation.” (The proportion at large is 1 percent.) Another study concluded that the rich are more likely to lie, cheat and break the law. The only thing that puzzles me about these claims is that...

ight now, the U.S. Federal Housing Authority is offering historically low interest rates on home loans as part of an effort to kick-start the housing market. Under a plan introduced by President Barack Obama, an FHA-qualifying U.S. homebuyer can apply for a 30-year mortgage with a fixed interest rate of 3.75 percent and a 15-year fixed mortgage at 3 percent. FHA loans require as little as 3.5 percent of the home’s value up front in the form of a down payment. SNIPAccording to Edward Pinto, a resident fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, FHA loans are allowing a repeat...

The heat is on a U.S. official responsible for leaking details of al Qaeda's disrupted bomb plot to the Associated Press. On the Sunday talk shows, high-ranking officials in both chambers of Congress across both parties called for investigations and the prosecution of the man or woman who leaked details about the infiltration of al Qaeda's Yemen branch. Unlike previous situations, where government crackdowns on leakers has been criticized, this is appears to be a fairly clear-cut case of improper leaking. The mission, which resulted in the recovery of a sophisticated underwear bomb, was leaked to the AP before it...

John T. Rogers, age 26, grew up in rural West Texas, raised by a single mother who often worked three jobs to make ends meet. He says his 59-year-old mother remains fiscally conservative, refusing to spend a dime on herself, though she now earns a respectable income. But when it comes to spending, Rogers is not following in her footsteps. "Not to knock J.C. Penney's, but I definitely wanted to step up my style," he said. Earning $46,000 a year as a communications manager for a private, non-profit university in Denver hasn't held him back. He bought a hybrid Lexus...