Greece’s Eurozone creditors agreed on Saturday to unblock suspended debt-relief measures after Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras assured them that a Christmas gift he offered pensioners would be a “one-off.” Last week Greece raised concerns with its creditors when it paid out a pre-Christmas bonus to its low-income pensioners and lowered VAT on some of its [...]
A scientific study released in the journal Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences found that cheetah populations throughout Africa, the Middle East and Asia are declining as habitats are encroached by various human actors. The cheetah is now listed as ‘vulnerable’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List , however [...]
21 young women from Chibok, Nigeria returned home on Sunday after being released from Boko Haram control in October. In 2014 the Bring Back Our Girls activists began daily sit-ins at the Unity Fountain in the capital city Abuja to press their demands for the release of the 219 school girls that were abducted by [...]
The UN Security Council on Friday elected to extend the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to March 2018. The mandate of UNMIL was also broadened to “comprise protection of civilians, reform of justice and security institutions, protection and promotion of human rights, public information activities, and protection of UN personnel and installations.” The Council noted [...]
Bolivia President Evo Morales pardoned 1,800 prisoners on Saturday in a continued attempt to cut down on prison overcrowding . Those that Morales pardoned include inmates with sentences of less than five years, one-time offenders, prisoners under the age of 28, single mothers with incarcerated children, prisoners with terminal illnesses as well as people with [...]
Tunisian authorities have arrested three individuals suspected of being involved in the December 19th terror attack at a Berlin Christmas Market where a loaded truck ran into the crowded market. One of the men is the nephew of Anis Amri, who was suspected to be the driver of the truck. The nephew, whose name has [...]
A legislative committee in the Taiwan Parliament on Monday approved a bill that would amend the Taiwan Civil Code to allow same-sex marriage. The Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee approved a change in the Code from “male and female parties” in to “two parties,” which would allow homosexual couples to be legally wed. [...]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday summoned the ambassadors of the fourteen UN Security Council members who supported a resolution condemning Israel’s settlement in Palestine to rebuke them for the vote. Following the passage of this resolution, Netanyahu also ordered the country’s foreign ministers to reevaluate Israel’s ties to the UN within the month. [...]
US President Barack Obama on Sunday approved legislation which would provide for a single chief executive to oversee non-military, international media. The law , which some claim may harm journalistic independence, will restructure the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) . Specifically, the president will now appoint an advisory board which will be without decision-making powers, [...]
On Thursday, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil suit against Barclays Bank and two former executives for the fraudulent sales of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) from 2005 to 2007. The suit states that Barclays sold billions of dollars worth of RMBS which contained mortgages that violated underwriting guidelines or had borrowers who [...]
