Global News

The North American “National Hockey League” (NHL) is adopting historic measures in support of gay athletes.  It’s the first time any men’s professional sports league has done so.

A fisherman in Belarus is dead after getting into a fight with a Beaver and losing, badly.  The victim bled to death before an ambulance could reach him and take him to hospital.

The United States Senate has begun debate a proposed law to expand criminal background checks on gun buyers.  Although the polls say most Americans want this, a handful of conservatives vow to stand in the way.

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agengy is reporting that the North has shifted the positions of two mobile launchers holding missiles in advance of what is widely expected to be at least one launch very soon.

A revolting case of bullying in South Africa:  A frail, 87 year old woman showing up at a government office for her $22 pension check was forced to sing for it.

Syrian Rebels trying to get international help for their cause of overthrowing the regime of Bashar al-Assad suffered a big setback when al Qaeda announced an alliance with one of the rebel factions.

Uruguay’s House of Representatives approved legislation legalizing Gay Marriage for citizens and for foreign couples who travel to the country to get hitched.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is warning that killing UN Peacekeepers is a war crime.  This comes after five peacekeepers and 7 civilians were killed in an ambush in a volatile area of South Sudan.

China is alarmed over Japan cutting a deal to allow Taiwanese fishing vessels to operate near a group of uninhabited but disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Austria’s FPO Party likes to portray itself as a conservative, populist party that sits in the political mainstream.  But for the third time this year, a party official was caught flaunting Nazi sympathies. 

Mali plans to send a replacement Camel to French President Francois Hollande, after the first beast presented to the visiting dignitary became stew.

The H7N9 Bird Flu has claimed its eighth and ninth victims, from two provinces in China that haven’t had a problem with the virus before.  And Beijing might be doing a collective face-palm after a senior military official called the Avian Flu an American Conspiracy.

Police and the Ministry of Education in Tonga are investigating a video that went vital on the Internet, showing a college prefect repeatedly beating a bunch of year 9 and 10 students over a missing cell phone.

Kenya’s new president has been sworn into office.  Despite the opposition having left the country rather than attend, Uhuru Kenyatta emphasized that a loyal opposition is necessary for a vibrant Democracy.

More than 30 people are dead after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck southwest Iran.  The epicenter is 90 kilometers south of the country’s only nuclear power plant, but the government claims it has not been affected.

A mass stabbing at a college campus, guns fall into the hands of little kids with unnecessarily tragic results, and a teen planning her future trusts the wrong authority figure.  This place freaks me out sometimes.

North Korea is warning tourists in the South to clear out, lest they be embroiled in “thermonuclear war”.  Meanwhile, the North hasn’t appeared to have done a thing to put its army on a war footing.

A 60-year old Serbian Military veteran with a handgun shot and killed 13 people in a rampage outside Belgrade.  Many of the victims appear to be members of the gunman’s extended family.

As North Korea’s joint venture with the South appears to be, for all intents and purposes, shut down, Japan is responding to weeks of threats and bluster.  The Japanese Self Defense Force (SDF) is deploying Patriot Missile batteries in key positions around Tokyo to defend the 30 Million people who live in the Megalopolis.

Cops are helpless to stop a gruesome crime in Papua New Guinea;  A court upholds the death sentence for a drug-smuggling British Granny;  Beware of polecats (sort of) posing as poodles;  And farewell to an actress who personified that era before the baby boomers lost their innocence.