December 30, 2014
Cargo Ship Sends Distress Signal Off Corfu Island
A cargo ship believed to be carrying hundreds of migrants near the Greek island of Corfu sent out a distress signal saying armed people were on board on Tuesday, Greek television reported. Two Greek officials confirmed that a distress signal had…
December 29, 2014
Air Asia Flight Believed to be ‘at the Bottom of the Sea’
The chief of the search effort for missing Indonesia AirAsia flight 8501, which vanished a day earlier, stated Monday that "the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea." Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency…
December 29, 2014
IS Executed Nearly 2,000 in Syria in 6 Months
The Islamic State militant group has killed 1,878 people in Syria during the past six months, the majority of them civilians, a British-based Syrian monitoring organization said on Sunday. Islamic State militants also killed 120 of its own members,…
December 23, 2014
Ukraine’s Parliament Drops Non-aligned Status
Ukraine took a further step toward seeking NATO membership Tuesday, when the country's parliament passed a law abolishing Kyiv's neutral, non-aligned status. Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly scrap the non-aligned status, which was adopted in 2010…
December 17, 2014
EU court takes Hamas off terrorist organisations list
A top court of the European Union has annulled the bloc's decision to keep the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on a list of terrorist groups. The decision had been based not on an examination of Hamas' actions, but on "factual imputations…
December 16, 2014
N. Korea Calls on UN to Focus on US Rights Abuses
North Korea has requested the U.N. Security Council not probe alleged human rights violations by Pyongyang, but instead investigate what it called "brutal" and "medieval" abuses by the U.S. In a letter late Monday, North Korean U.N. Ambassador Ja…
December 16, 2014
141 Dead in Taliban Attack on Pakistan School
The siege of a school in Pakistan by Taliban militants has ended, leaving at least 141 people dead, most of them students. Islamist militants wearing military uniforms and strapped with explosives attacked the military-run facility in the…
December 15, 2014
Sydney Police Storm Cafe, End Standoff
A daylong standoff in Sydney, Australia, ended after heavily armed police stormed the cafe where a man, who was known to authorities, reportedly held at least a dozen people hostage for about 16 hours. Heavy gunfire and loud bangs from stun grenades…
December 15, 2014
Denmark challenges Russia and Canada over North Pole
Denmark has presented a claim to the UN, arguing that the area surrounding the North Pole is connected to the continental shelf of Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory. Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard said it was a "historic and important…
December 10, 2014
Palestinian minister dies at West Bank protest
A Palestinian minister has died after a confrontation with Israeli troops at a protest in the West Bank. Palestinian medics told the BBC Ziad Abu Ein had died from complications related to tear gas exposure. But several witnesses said the minister…