An astonishing array of wildlife has been unexpectedly found in one of the world’s most hostile environments – the pitch-black, freezing extreme depths of the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.
More than 700 creatures new to science, ranging from crustaceans and molluscs to carnivorous sponges and free-swimming worms, have been discovered on a series of expeditions exploring the deep waters of the Weddell Sea.
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The number of people in the United States from ethnic or racial minorities has risen to more than 100 million, or around one third of the population, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report on Thursday.
The minorities figure stood at 100.7 million, up from 98.3 million a year earlier. Within that, the Hispanic population was the fastest growing at a rate of 3.4 percent between July 2005 and July 2006.
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Public prosecutors will not bring charges of racism against twelve members of the Danish People’s Party before the district court
District prosecutors have decided not to bring racism charges against high-ranking members of the nationalist Danish People’s Party, including leader Pia Kjærsgaard, reported Politiken newspaper.
Besides Kjærsgaard, the most quoted members of the Danish People’s Party were MEP Mogens Camre, MP Søren Krarup and former party MPs Louise Frevert and Morten Messerschmidt. Among the comments included in the charges were that Muslims were invading Western countries with an eye to kill and that the men were out to rape Danish women.
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Iraq faces the distinct possibility of collapse and fragmentation, UK foreign policy think tank Chatham House says.
Its report says the Iraqi government is now largely powerless and irrelevant in many parts of the country.
It warns there is not one war but many local civil wars, and urges a major change in US and British strategy, such as consulting Iraq’s neighbours more.
The report comes as Iran said Iranian and US diplomats would hold talks on 28 May on the security situation in Iraq.
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Christians in north-west Pakistan are demanding government protection following threats of bomb attacks if they do not become Muslims.
An unsigned letter received 10 days ago said they had to convert by Thursday.
Militants have been carrying out a sustained campaign to prevent “anti-Islamic” activities in North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
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An Indian billionaire has bought the Scottish whisky distiller Whyte & Mackay in a £595m ($1.2bn) deal.
The spirits giant United Breweries, which is headed by Vijay Mallya, announced the all-cash acquisition to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
In a statement, the firms said the deal would help expand the market for Whyte & Mackay’s brands in emerging economies such as India.
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A Finnish newspaper reports that Rwanda plans to ask Finland to extradite a man living in Finland who is suspected of involvement in the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
“We want those who were guilty of brutal crimes to answer for them before the eyes of the Rwandans as well”, said Jean Bosco Mutanga in an interview with the late-edition tabloid Ilta-Sanomat.
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The International Committee of the Red Cross, in a confidential report about East Jerusalem and its surrounding areas, accuses Israel of a “general disregard” for “its obligations under international humanitarian law — and the law of occupation in particular.”
The committee, which does not accept Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, says Israel is using its rights as an occupying power under international law “in order to further its own interests or those of its own population to the detriment of the population of the occupied territory.”
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ROME (Reuters) – Who invented the mafia? Italy’s left-leaning government asked on Wednesday, reminding the opposition that not only foreigners commit crimes and seeking to quell growing pressure to get tough on immigration.
With a bus hijacked by three Albanians on Tuesday, a woman killed on the Rome metro by a Romanian woman using an umbrella, and headlines like “foreigners kidnap and rape housewife”, the focus has become very much the criminals’ nationality.
But the conservative opposition said on Wednesday it was time to get tough on immigration.
