Since the beginning of the Israeli blockade in the Gaza Strip, there have been two main shortages for the Gazans: food and money. Israel has allowed minimal food shipments in, but up until yesterday no cash had been let into the Strip. Heeding United Nations warnings that a blockade of cash flow to Gaza would cause a liquidity crisis, Israel allowed US$25 million into the Strip, where 1.5 million people are struggling to survive since the blockade imposed by Israel blocked all UN aid in early November.
The money will go to pay civil servants
The riots in Greece that started on December 6 have entered their fourth night. These are the worst riots the Hellenic Republic has witnessed in decades.
The riots were triggered when Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15-year-old student, was shot and killed by police. The police claim that Grigoropoulos was throwing a bomb at them when they fired.
Cities throughout Greece have been hit by the unrest, not just Athens. Hundreds of shops and businesses have been destroyed.
"No one has the right to use this tragic incident as an excuse for acts of vi
Three-time soccer world player of the year Ronaldo has agreed to return home to Brazil and join Corinthians in São Paulo.
Ronaldo (born Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima), 32, is coming back from a major knee injury after rupturing a tendon in his left knee nine months ago - the third such injury in his career. In June, Italian powerhouse A.C. Milan let Ronaldo go instead of resigning him as he had reached the end of his contract. Many people thought this injury could be the end of Ronaldo's career - including Ronaldo himself.
"I don't know if I w
All five of the alleged 9-11 conspirators, including the self-professed ringleader and mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, have withdrawn their offer of guilty pleas after questions were raised on whether by pleading guilty they can receive the death penalty.
During a pretrial hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Mohammed was heard asking: "Are you saying if we plead guilty we will not be able to be sentenced to death?" Mohammed has stated his desire to die as a martyr, but Army Colonel Stephen R. Henley, the military judge at the head of the trial, stat
According to East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme Kenyan chapter head, Andrew Mwangura, the Greek freighter MV Captain Stephanos and all its 19 crew, consisting of 17 Filipinos, one Chinese and a Ukrainian, had been released late Monday, after 78 days in captivity. It was unclear, however, if any ransom was paid. The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said that "there are [still] 91 Filipino seafarers on board six ships still with Somali pirates."
Somali pirates seized the Bahamas-flagged vessel on September 21 near the Horn of A
Voters in the small Channel Island of Sark, a Crown dependency of the British Crown, have voted in their first democratic election, bringing an end to almost 4½ centuries of feudal rule.
Voting in the election opened at 10:00 local time (UTC) today, and closed at 18:00. The result is expected to be announced at 22:00.
57 candidates were competing for the votes of the 474 residents eligible to participate in the election, to win 28 seats.
Roger Olsen, the first person to vote in the election, commented on the transition to democracy. "Sark h
Formula One looks set to enter an era of standardised engines. The FIA is meeting with teams in Monte Carlo and is expected to approve the use by some teams of a standardised power unit provided by Cosworth, an automotive engineering company, from 2010 onwards. The move to a standard engine, which is common in lower tiers of open wheeled racing such as GP2, was pushed for by FIA President Max Mosley earlier this year as he aims to reduce team costs. This would not see the exclusion of manufacturer made engines, as at this time participation in
Ghana's electoral commission announced on Wednesday that a run-off election must be held for the Ghanaian presidency. The commission said that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo won 49.13% of the vote, slightly more than the other main candidate, John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who obtained 47.92%. However, neither candidate reached the 50% mark needed to declare an outright winner.
Six other candidates were also present on the ballot, stealing enough votes to prevent either candidate
Four people were killed on Saturday when two small planes collided in midair over the Florida Everglades.
Broward County Sheriff's Office is reporting that the dead include Bryan Sax, 37, of Aspen, Colorado, Andrew Marc Rossignol, 21, of Stuart, Florida, Stuart Brown, 25, of Pembroke Pines, Florida, and Edson Jefferson, 30, of Miramar, Florida.
The accident happened Saturday afternoon 2.7 miles southwest of Everglades Holiday Park, according to Broward Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright.
Both planes took off from their respect
In proceedings by the Guantanamo military commission at the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base on Monday, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators stated that they will confess and plead guilty to the charges they face in the planning and execution of the September 11 attacks in 2001.
The four that stand accused with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind, are Mustafa al-Hawsawi, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ammar al-Baluchi (aka Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali), and Walid bin 'Attash. They have all been at the Guantanamo Bay detention ca
In the Quebec general election held in the Canadian province of Quebec on December 8, 2008, premier Jean Charest was elected for his third mandate, and formed a majority government of Quebec.
This is the first time since the 1950's, Maurice Duplessis and the Union Nationale that a party and/or leader has been elected to a third consecutive mandate, and the first for the Liberals since the 1920's and Premier Taschereau. The ruling Liberals have won a slim majority, taking 66 of the provincial legislature's 125 seats, while the separatist Parti
The United States Supreme Court on Monday denied "without opinion" an emergency appeal or certiorari case filed by applicant retired attorney Leo Donofrio, an East Brunswick, New Jersey voter who raised the legal issue on whether president-elect Barack Obama was a "natural born" American at the time of the election. He alleged that Obama had dual nationality at birth, because of his Kansas-born mother and his Kenyan-born father, who was a British subject at the time. Obama's birth certificate states he was born in Hawaii in August 1961, two ye
