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The Spanish national broadcaster, RTVE, is in danger of indirectly disqualifying its own Eurovision entrant, former Operación Triunfo finalist Soraya Arnelas, 26, who is already in Moscow, Russia awaiting the final round on Saturday. A last-minute reprieve from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) allowed Spain to vote in the second semi-final instead of the first, due to a televised political debate. RTVE ran a professional tennis match, the Madrid Open matchup between Fernando Verdasco and Juan Mónaco, an hour past schedule Thursday evenin

In a videotape recorded prior to his murder on Sunday, Guatemalan lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg accused President of Guatemala Álvaro Colom and his wife Sandra Torres of complicity in his violent death. "If you are watching this message," Rosenberg told the camera, "it is because I was assassinated by President Álvaro Colom with help from [private secretary to the president] Gustavo Alejos." In the video, distributed at his funeral, Rosenberg attributed the motive of the incipient murder to his representation of businessman Khalil Musa. Musa and h

The Elman Human Rights Organization reported on Tuesday that heavy fighting in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, has left 113 people dead over three days and forced a further 27,000 to evacuate. 345 people have been injured in the fighting. The fighting is between al-Shabab, an insurgent organisation wanting to oust Somalia's current government and install an Islamic state, and pro-government fighters. "They [the rebels] are anarchists. We will continue the fighting until we eliminate these elements," National Security Minister Omar Hashi Ad

A British man, Ronald West, has been convicted of animal neglect after authorities received complaints about his five-year-old dog being severely overweight. Authorities discovered the case of neglect in December 2008 after a neighbor complained that West's Border Collie Taz appeared to be too fat. When authorities arrived at West's residence, they found Taz's feces scattered around the house and in every room. Authorities made several more visits to West's home until March 2009, at which point they determined that there had been no improvemen

On Sunday, Brawn-Mercedes driver Jenson Button won the FIA Formula One 2009 Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló, Spain. This marks his fourth win this season. His teammate Rubens Barrichello finished second, who used a more efficient three-stop fuel strategy than Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull, who finished fourth. Australian Mark Webber also benefited from an earlier pit-stop to overtake his teammate Vettel. Sebastien Vettel too chased down the Ferrari car of Felipe Massa, who unsuccessfully defended his position using his o

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky has convicted former soldier Pfc. Steven D. Green of raping 14-year-old local girl Abeer Oassim al-Janabi in Iraq, before murdering her and her family. He is the fifth person convicted of the crimes. Green, who was described in court as the ringleader, took it in turns with at least three other soldiers to hold the girl down and rape her in 2006. The group then murdered Abeer as well as her younger sister and both parents. The gang then burnt down the family house in Mahmudiya to try

Floods affecting five states in northeastern Brazil have left hundreds of thousands homeless and have taken 44 lives. Heavy rainfall which began in early April has caused overland flooding that has destroyed homes in the region and landslides that have blocked roads, including 6 major highways, and a railway. The Associated Press reports that over 300,000 are homeless in north eastern Brazil, and CNN states 270 communities have been affected by overland water from flooded rivers. This flood has been the worst to strike the area since the 1950s

On Monday, Iran released Roxana Saberi, an American journalist with Iranian and Japanese parentage, from prison. Saberi was arrested in April and accused of spying. "[Saberi will be] released today," said one of Saberi's defense attorneys, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi. He added that after being released, Saberi "is entitled to leave Iran immediately." She is, however, forbidden from practicing journalism for at least five years in Iran. Her freedom comes after an Iranian court met in a private session for five hours then ruled that her eight year

At 2:01:56 p.m EDT Monday, Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off above Florida on its two day journey to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to make repairs. During the 11 day repair mission to the HST, astronauts will perform five spacewalks, installing two new instruments and repairing two others. The two new instruments are the US$126 million Wide Field Camera 3 and the $81 million Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. The instruments to be repaired are the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which failed on August 3

On May 9, Moscow heralded its celebrations of Victory Day with one of the largest military parades seen since the fall of the Soviet Union through the Red Square and the streets of Moscow. Signifying the defeat over Nazi Germany in 1945 in World War 2, Victory Day continues to be one of the most poignant and emotional celebrations and national holidays in Russia. Estimates of more than 27 million lost lives during the war continues to leave a vein of sadness in Russia. Victory day began early in Moscow with inner city streets being closed from

Several Lancaster County, Pennsylvania high schools held their junior-senior proms this past weekend, and per tradition, they received gifts from the prom committee. Instead of traditional prom favors, however, Warwick High School in Lititz ordered more than 450 shot glasses and distributed them to students, in a move the administration now says it regrets. In 2008, the Prom Committee gave out picture frames to the girls and money clips to the boys. However, the junior class did not have as much money this year, and so the school made a decisi

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission is investigating claims that the United States used white phosphorus bombs in an attack against Taliban militants on May 4. The attack is reported to have killed over 100 civilians. The claim that the US used phosphorus bombs come from a doctor at a burn hospital in Herat that treated victims of the attack. Dr. Mohammad Aref Jalali says that many of the injured people from the Bala Baluk village in Farah Province, had "unusual" burns on their bodies. "We cannot be 100% sure what type of chem