Global News

One of the remaining mysteries of World War II could be solved later this year when Japan’s Imperial Household Agency completes a 24-year project to compile the record of the late Emperor Hirohito’s role in Japan’s government before and during the war.

A French comic says he’s abandoning his act which courts have ruled is anti-Semitic – Israel prepares for the state funeral of its warrior PM – And some idiot in Texas pays really big money to kill an endangered animal and hang its head in his parlor.

The private life of French President Francois Hollande has become public and rather messy.  His partner and de facto “First Lady” Valerie Trierweiler has checked into hospital after reports of Hollande’s alleged affair with another woman, adding scandal to a busy schedule.

Under the watchful eyes of marble Angels and the Cherubs in Michelangelo's biblical frescoes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Pope Francis took two major steps in changing the stuffy, Eurocentric history of the Roman Catholic Church, and in creating an atmosphere that’s welcoming to families.

With less than two weeks to go until the United Nations-sponsored peace talks aimed at ending the Syrian Civil War, the alliance of Gulf States and Western Power opposed to President bash al-Assad are urging rebel groups to take a place at the negotiating table.

The interim deal to freeze Iran’s nuclear program begins one week from today, 20 January.  The deal between Tehran and six major world powers will have Iran freezing and rolling back its nuclear program in exchange for the others loosening economic restrictions that have choked Iran’s economic growth.

The Prime Minister who epitomized Israel’s warrior past is dead – 100,000 protesters defy a ban on a rally in Spain – Bangkok braces for more trouble.

Moscow seems to be undoing the power of economic sanctions against Iran – A comedian accused of promoting anti-Semitism loses again – Gruesome video might have shocked Brazil out of its blindness to its horribly violence prisons – A significant resignation might put an African trouble-spot back on the road to peace.

Foresters on Elephants in India are on the hunt for a killer Tiger, believed responsible for killing four people in twelve days.  Even though the species is endangered, the rangers have their orders to shoot and kill it on sight to protect human lives.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie “kind of” apologized for the intentional closure of traffic lanes to the busiest bridge in the world as political payback to his rivals.  “Kind of”, in that the presumed republican presidential hopeful, as expected, hung the whole thing on two aides while claiming he was misled.

The US appeared to free an Indian diplomatic worker accused of gross labor violations – widespread forest fires leave Chile under a shroud of choking smoke – Venezuela makes arrests in the murder of a beauty queen.

French riot police surrounded the theater where a controversial comic was supposed to put on a show in the city of Nantes.  This, after the country’s highest court decided that local officials were correct to ban the performance of Dieudonne M’bala M’bala because of alleged anti-Semitism.

Cuba’s former President Fidel Castro made a rare public appearance in downtown Havana.  It was the first time many had seen the man who ran Cuba for nearly five decades until ceding power to his brother Raul in 2006 since last April.

A Pakistani teen who dreamed of becoming a doctor got his chance to save lives this week, although in a tragic way that was probably not what he envisioned.  Aitzaz Hassan was killed when he stopped a suicide bomber from entering the grounds of his school.

Qantas gets more bad news – British cops are cleared of the controversial killing of an unarmed man – A strange find in the animal kingdom – And Dennis Rodman is an idiot.

China has brought its complaint with Japan over a controversial military shrine to the United Nations.  Beijing’s UN envoy used the New York-based world body as a platform to question Japan’s motives and tell its neighbor to correct its “erroneous outlook” on history.

There is confusion over whether the Central African Republic’s President Michel Djotodia is preparing to step down after weeks of escalating violence that has claimed more than a thousand lives.  Djotodia is the Muslim rebel who deposed former president Francois Bozize in a coup last March.

Is this getting petty?  India is ordering a new series of reprisals against American diplomats in New Dehli, in revenge for charging an Indian Diplomat in New York City with lying on immigration forms and violating US Labor laws.  This latest escalation reveals deepening faultlines between the two nations.

An expected American presidential candidate may have just had his political potential significantly reduced.  New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been forced to admit his staff ordered the creation of a major traffic jam as political payback to a mayor who didn’t do him a favor. 

Prosecutors in Germany have charged an 88-year old man with involvement in the murders of 642 people in Central France in 1944, one of the most infamous examples of nazi barbarism in World War II.