The Gruesome Details of London's Horrifying Machete Attack

Reuters

An attack in broad daylight in London on Wednesday is drawing a swift response — and a possible terror link — from the highest authorities. Reports suggest two men chased down another man with their car before getting out, attacking him with a machete, and dragging him through the city streets. 

By Alexander Abad-Santos

May 9, 2013

Did a Female North Korean Traffic Cop Save Kim Jong-un from Assassination?

This week, an emotional young traffic officer named Ri-Kyong Sim was honored at a military ceremony with the North Korean equivalent of the Medal of Valor — for what, nobody on the outside is exactly sure, but the best guess is that she may have inadvertently saved Kim Jong-un's life.

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By Dashiell Bennett

May 9, 2013

Bangladesh Garment Industry Hit with Another Deadly Accident

As workers continue to pull bodies out of the wreckage of the collapsed Bangladeshi factory, another factory in the capital of Dhaka caught on fire, killing eight more than people.

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By Adam Clark Estes

May 8, 2013

Kids Are the Only Ones Who Like Bolivia's New Cheesy Coca Puffs

As the world's third largest supplier of the plant, Bolivia's trying to shake itself free from coca's drug-addled past and turn the crop into nutritious food. There's only one problem: It tastes terrible.

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By Adam Clark Estes

May 8, 2013

Benetton Finally Admits Its Role in the Bangladeshi Garment Factory Collapse

Over a week after multiple parties found condemning evidence, the Italian clothing company Benetton admits that it bought clothes from the garment factory in Bangladesh that recently collapsed and killed over 800 people.

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By Connor Simpson

May 8, 2013

Silvio Berlusconi Always Has a Get-Out-of-Jail Free Card

This we know for sure: Silvio Berlusconi is still guilty of tax fraud. But the former three-time Italian prime minister and long-time media baron may never see the inside of a jail cell, on account of being a wealthy political fat cat, and also because he's really old.

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By Connor Simpson

May 8, 2013

How on Earth Did an Italian Watchtower Not See This Giant Boat Coming?

A container ship lost control and took out the massive concrete and glass control tower overlooking Genoa, Italy's busiest port, on Tuesday evening, killing three people while another four were taken to the hospital for treatment and a few more are still missing.

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By Dashiell Bennett

May 8, 2013

Belgium Diamond Thieves Rounded Up Just Three Months After Heist

Police in Europe rounded up 31 people in three countries on Wednesday and recovered most of the $50 million in diamonds stolen from the Brussels Airport earlier this year, proving once again that most daring and outlandish crimes are the hardest to get away with.

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By Adam Clark Estes

May 7, 2013

Even Stephen Hawking's Joining the Fight for Palestinian Freedom

Stephen Hawking is known for a lot of things — theoretical physics, quantum mechanics, general relativity — but being an an activist for peace in the Middle East is hardly one of them. Not any more!

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By Rebecca Greenfield

May 7, 2013

Syria Made Its Internet Disappear Again

Did the Assad regime just shut down Syrian online access again? For several hours on Thursday — beginning around 3 p.m. Eastern time, or 10 p.m. in Damascus — Internet traffic in the warring country ground to an almost complete halt, just like it did in November when the government blacked out web usage to stymy opposition maneuvers.

Comments | 607 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

May 7, 2013

North Korea's U.S. Prisoner Was a Secret Missionary & That Won't Help an Escape

In meetings with the South Korean president Tuesday, President Obama surely asked about Kenneth Bae, the 44-year-old American sentenced to 15 years in a North Korean gulag. Here's a question worth asking: Now that it appears Bae was using his China-based tour agency as an undercover pipeline to sneak Christian followers into atheist North Korea, is it going to be even harder to get him out? Because Dennis Rodman's basketball diplomacy really isn't helping.

Comments | 2,830 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

May 7, 2013

The New Truth About the Cop Shot in Watertown: Friendly-Fire in a Getaway

The way the nation met 33-year-old MBTA Transit Police officer Richard Donohue was violent, fast, and scary: He was exchanging fire with the Tsarnaev brothers, the story went, and he took a gun shot to his right thigh from the Boston bombing suspects, which almost killed him. Now comes a more complete picture.

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By Alexander Abad-Santos

May 7, 2013

Tamerlan Tsarnaev's Body May Have to Get Buried in Massachusetts After All

Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been dead for two and a half weeks, but his family is still having problems figuring out what to do with his body, and not just because this is Boston and Boston is strong: A complex web of potential protests, social media-fueled burial outsourcing, and legal technicalities are making sure the late marathon bombing suspect begins his final rest in anything but peace.

Comments | 1,817 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

May 7, 2013

The Pentagon Has Tied Cyberattacks Directly to the Chinese Government

A new report by the Department of Defense claims for the first time that the Chinese government is directly connected to attacks on U.S. computer systems, including those owned by the government. What's with the change in tone?

Comments | 606 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

May 6, 2013

Ecuador Faces a Diplomatic Crisis After Its Envoy to Peru Brawled with Two Women at a Supermarket

The situation has turned from bad to worse to absurd in Peru, where the Ecuadorian ambassador is being forbidden from reentering the country due to an altercation at a supermarket in Lima two weeks ago.

Comments | 1,814 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

May 6, 2013

Big Bad North Korea Is Retreating

Just over a month after moving its ballistic missiles to a launch site in the direction of the United States, the North Korean is pulling back and removing two Musudan missiles from launch ready status.

Comments | 2,012 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

May 6, 2013

Inside Assad's Near-Perfect Plan to Turn Syria into 'The Sinkhole'

After more than two years of civil war, tens of thousands of deaths, a refugee crisis, ethnic cleansing, religious strife, terrorism, chemical warfare, and an international conflict that has engulfed all of its neighbors, Syria is still in the hands of Bashar al-Assad. Just the way he planned it. Here's how we got to the current state of play after the Israel attacks, and what's next.

Comments | 3,017 Views

By Connor Simpson

May 6, 2013

Everything You Need to Know About the German 'Nazi Bride' Trial

The last remaining member of a neo-Nazi group — who's being called "the Nazi bride" by the German press, and probably soon the American tabloids — is now on trial for murder in a case that's remarkable as much for the horrible crimes as the retrograde justice for human-rights violations that were ignored for years.

Comments | 4,825 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

May 6, 2013

Why North Korea Has the Upper Hand in the American Prisoner Negotiations

North Korean state-run media now insists the country has no plans to use Kenneth Bae, the American citizen sentenced to 15 years in a labor camp, "as a political bargaining chip" — and that the foreign ministry "has no plan to invite anyone of the U.S.," even though that kind of a deal might be in Pyongyang's best interests. Here's why the DPRK might actually be worth believing this time around.

Comments | 2,614 Views

By Connor Simpson

May 6, 2013

Venezuelan Government, Mid-'Argo' Plot, Calls Obama 'Chief of the Devils'

Accusations that an American documentary filmmaker was posing as a U.S. spy in Venezuela are "ridiculous," if you believe President Obama, who according to Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro is the "chief of the devils." Did you catch all of that? Here's the whole story. 

Comments | 2,612 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

May 6, 2013

Bangladesh Death Toll Won't Stop Rising

The death toll from Bangladesh's horrific factory collapse has topped 650 people, and rescuers believe there could be dozens, if not hundreds, more bodies still trapped inside.

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By Adam Clark Estes

May 5, 2013

Turns Out British Spies Were Giving Bags of Cash to Karzai, Too

A week after we learned that the CIA delivered bags full of cash to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in exchange for his cooperation, the United Kingdom's MI6 admitted to doing the same thing this weekend.

Comments | 2,208 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

May 5, 2013

UN Sources Say Syrian Rebels — Not Assad — Used Sarin Gas

A member of the United Nations commission of inquiry announced on a Swiss-Italian television show that they believe the Syrian rebels have used chemical weapons on Assad's troops.

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By Connor Simpson

May 5, 2013

Israel's Second Attack in Syria Was a Big One

For the second time in as many days, Israel mounted a late night air raid on Syrian military facilities that were allegedly holding weapons destined for Hezbollah. This attack produced some of the biggest explosions seen in Damascus since the two year old conflict began. 

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By Connor Simpson

May 4, 2013

Hamid Karzai Would Prefer If That Sweet CIA Money Kept Coming, Thanks

Afghan president Hamid Karzai isn't ready to give up his financially beneficial relationship with the CIA just yet. No, he wants those backpacks full from cash to keep coming.

Comments | 2,203 Views

By Connor Simpson

May 4, 2013

What It's Like Being Eaten by a Hippo

Paul Templer survived a trip few can claim they've returned from. Namely, he was inside a hippo's stomach and lived to tell the tale. 

Comments | 5,608 Views

By Connor Simpson

May 4, 2013

Israel Bombed Syria Because of Alleged Weapons Shipment to Hezbollah

Reports came out late Saturday night that Israel made the curious decision to attack Syria, potentially entering the armed conflict, but as more information came out it was clear Israel was trying to protect its own interests. 

Comments | 1,202 Views

By Philip Bump

May 3, 2013

Chart of the Day

2012 Was a Cold Year in a Spectacularly Hot Decade

For twenty-seven years, the world's average temperature has been hotter than the average during the second half of the 20th century. Last year, it was the ninth-warmest in recorded history — but still cold for the past ten.

Comments | 998 Views

By Philip Bump

May 3, 2013

The White House Convenes Scientists to Discuss the World's New Ocean

Despite its straight-from-science-fiction premise, it's real: A group of scientists meeting at the White House to discuss a brand-new ocean. Impending Arctic ice melt makes this just another day in the geopolitics of climate change.

Comments | 2,982 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

May 3, 2013

China Is Censoring Jokes About Its Propaganda Machine's Penis-Shaped HQ

The new People's Daily building is massive, imposing, and, uh, currently shaped like a colossal penis. So the country's censors are working overtime to stop Chinese people on social media from laughing at the expense of the very state-run newspaper in charge of controlling the country's message.

Comments | 37,207 Views

By Abby Ohlheiser

May 3, 2013

China May Be Following Thomas Friedman's Advice

It looks like the new leader of China may have borrowed a propaganda slogan from mustachioed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

Comments | 1,590 Views

By Abby Ohlheiser

May 3, 2013

Pakistan's High-Profile Prosecutor Was Assassinated for His High-Profile Cases

Chaudhry Zulfikar Ali, the state attorney in a number of cases surrounding power and the reputation of the government in Pakistan, was shot 13 times Friday on his way to the bail hearing for former president Pervez Musharraf, and his death aises questions about just who can challenge the status quo by law in the country.

Comments | 994 Views

By Abby Ohlheiser

May 3, 2013

Factories Are Now Getting Away with the Murder of Over 500 in Bangladesh

The mounting death toll is becoming harder and harder to ignore, but that's exactly what the country's garment industry might do in the long term, thanks in part to its extensive ties to figures in political power in Bangladesh, one of whom is now saying this sort of thing "happens everywhere."

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By Dashiell Bennett

May 3, 2013

Second U.S. Cargo Plane Crashes in Central Asia

For the second time this week an American cargo plane has crashed overseas, this time a military jet that has gone missing in Kyrgyzstan.

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By Alexander Abad-Santos

May 2, 2013

How Ken Bae Went from North Korean Tour Operator to North Korean Prisoner

Kenneth Bae, a 44-year-old American citizen, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in a North Korean gulag this week for "hostile acts" against the country and Kim Jong-Un's regime. Considering the DPRK's penchant for hyperbole and habit of punishing Americans, the truth about Bae's situation remains murky. Here's what we know so far.

Comments | 2,981 Views

By Philip Bump

May 2, 2013

Saif Qaddafi, Stuck in International Legal Limbo, Heads to Court in Libya

Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of the former Libyan dictator, appeared in a court today. One of the last remaining symbols of his father's regime, Qaddafi is caught in a weird legal nexus between the country's new government and the international criminal court.

Comments | 593 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

May 2, 2013

Iraq Just Had Its Deadliest Month in 5 Years

American troops may have finally left Iraq, but for that nation's citizens the war is only getting worse.

Comments | 790 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

May 2, 2013

What We Don't Know About the Deadly New SARS-like Virus

The latest in a slow trickle of information from Saudi Arabia brings the mortality rate to 16 deaths among 24 known infections — and not unlike China with its bird flu outbreak, the Saudi government isn't exactly being straightforward about how many people are sick with SARS cousin NCoV. If humans are dying, why don't we know more about how and why?

Comments | 2,964 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

May 2, 2013

American Citizen Sentenced to 15 Years in a North Korean Labor Camp

Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American who lives in Washington state, was condemned to 15 years of hard labor by a North Korean court this week, prompting rumors of a possible diplomatic rescue mission to Pyongyang.

Comments | 6,459 Views

By J.K. Trotter

May 1, 2013

Five Best Green Stories

The Fukushima Cleanup Continues to Falter

Time on the Fukushima power plant cleanup, The Atlantic Cities on pedestrian energy, USA Today on climate change and precipitation, Politico on Obama's Keystone deliberations, and New Statesman on the climate effects of the recession.

Comments | 988 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

May 1, 2013

Dagestan Hit by New Terror Attacks

While violence in the Russian republic of Dagestan is nothing new, the region's connection to the Boston Marathon bombings has shined a new global spotlight on the long-running conflict.

Comments | 986 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Apr 30, 2013

The Bloody Brawl Between Lawmakers Is a Bad Sign for Venezuela

The Venezuelan National Assembly is a little shaken up after a brutally violent brawl broke out between politicians on Tuesday night as the pro-government lawmakers sparred with the opposition — literally.

Comments | 1,380 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Apr 30, 2013

Hezbollah's Thinking About Joining the Syrian Civil War

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, is running his mouth about Syria again, only this time the Assad ally sounds like he's actually getting ready to make a move.

Comments | 1,774 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Apr 30, 2013

Obama Is Maybe Kind of Thinking About Deciding to Arm the Syrian Rebels

The Obama administration is getting ready to send arms to Syrian rebels, The Washington Post's Karen DeYoung reports, by way of very convoluted descriptions from anonymous senior administration officials attempting to describe the Obama administration's thinking. Got that? Didn't think so. Here's a guide to where we're at — almost.

Comments | 591 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Apr 30, 2013

George Zimmerman Still Thinks He Can Convince a Jury He's Not Guilty

Zimmerman and his attorneys appeared in court to waive his right to seek an immunity hearing under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law — and keep the rest of their strategy close to the vest. His fate in the killing of Trayvon Martin will now be put in the hands of a jury beginning June 10, when one of the most emotional trials in recent American history will begin.

Comments | 1,577 Views

By Philip Bump

Apr 30, 2013

Fukushima Leaks and Sandy Sewage Raise Questions About Shore Pollution

Two recent disasters — the tsunami at Fukushima and Hurricane Sandy — show that shoreline infrastructure can easily result in extensive ocean pollution. With sea levels rising rapidly, this problem could quickly become significantly greater.

Comments | 788 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

Apr 30, 2013

President Obama Actually Talked to Reporters Today

With Congress out of town, the president Obama held a rare Q&Awith reporters at the White House today, swatting away the idea of an intelligence failure in the Boston bombings, and a Fox News report about intimidation of witnesses in the Benghazi investigation. He also promised to continue to push for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Comments | 4,700 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

Apr 30, 2013

Tsarnaev Is Linked to More Dead Russian Jihadists

Boston bombing investigators continue to probe the idea that Tamerlan Tsarnaev knew or was influenced by someone in the Islamic militant community in Russia. Unfortunately, all the potential suspects who could talk about it happen to be dead. 

Comments | 3,150 Views

By J.K. Trotter

Apr 29, 2013

Afghanistan's Dangerous Bagram Airfield Just Had Its Deadliest Crash

A Boeing 747 jet enroute to Dubai crashed and caught fire moments after lifting off on Monday morning from Bagram Airfield in northeast Afghanistan. Seven crew members were killed.

Comments | 39,917 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Apr 29, 2013

Men's Rights Advocate Earl Silverman Leaves a Legacy of Feminist-Bashing

In the days since his apparent suicide, the myths (that men are abused as often as men) and realities (that men are abuse victims) have returned around the so-called Men's Rights Movement, leaving advocates on both sides as conflicted as Silverman himself. We've attempted to sort them out.

Comments | 3,933 Views

By Philip Bump

Apr 29, 2013

Chart of the Day

So Much for 350: The Atmosphere's Carbon Dioxide Tops 400

For the first time, measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide taken at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii exceeded 400 parts-per-million on an hourly basis. It's a symbolic benchmark, but an important one, suggesting that efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions have not yet shown any significant effect.

Comments | 197 Views

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