Brits Tried to Recruit Slaying Suspect, Says Friend

Britain's spy agency was not only aware of one of the suspects in this week's savage London murder , it tried to recruit him just six months ago, a friend tells the BBC . In an interview, Abu Nusaybah said the MI5 questioned Michael Adebolajo about a trip he made to Kenya...

Vatican Beatifies Mob-Fighting Priest

An Italian priest who stirred consciences with his anti-mafia preaching and was gunned down by mobsters has been honored by the Vatican as a martyr. The Rev. Giuseppe `'Pino" Puglisi was beatified in a ceremony today in Palermo, the Sicilian capital where he worked in a mobster-infested, poor neighborhood. He...

Oregon Man, 90, Recounts His WWII Tale of Survival

Oregon's David Stoliar rarely talks about his ordeal in World War II, and the 90-year-old native of Romania says his recent interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegel is the last time he will discuss it, period. It's tough to blame him. Stoliar was the lone survivor when a Jewish...

20% of South Korean Women Have Plastic Surgery

Just how popular is cosmetic surgery in South Korea? So popular that one in five women there have had it, compared to one in 20 in America, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. The statistic comes courtesy of the Atlantic , which mentions it in a broader look...

Toronto Mayor: I Don't Smoke Crack

It can't be a banner day for any politician when he has to call a press conference to declare that he's not a crack addict, but that's precisely what Toronto Mayor Rob Ford did today. After a week of silence, Ford addressed the controversy that began when three journalists—two...

5 Climbers Feared Dead on World's 3rd-Highest Peak

Five climbers are missing on the world's third-highest mountain and feared dead, a mountaineering official said today. The five—two Hungarians, a South Korean, and two Nepalese guides—disappeared Monday on Mount Kanchenjunga, and bad weather was preventing a rescue helicopter from reaching their base camp. They were descending from...

Coming to Google Street View: Galapagos Islands

If you've ever wished you could visit the Galapagos Islands, you'll soon get the chance to see the remote volcanic islands from the comfort of your own home. Google sent hikers to the area complete with Street View gear to capture panoramic views of even the most inaccessible places—like...

Japanese PM Definitely Not Afraid of Ghosts

Here's a press release you don't have to issue every day. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe still hasn't moved into his official residence in Tokyo, and his Cabinet today released a formal statement assuring the public that it wasn't because the place is haunted, the AFP reports. The 11-room brick...

2 Men Arrested Over Flight 'Endangerment'

British police say two men have been arrested on suspicion of endangerment of an aircraft after an incident on a civilian plane flying from Pakistan to England. A jet was launched to divert the Pakistan International Airlines plane carrying nearly 300 passengers to Britain's Stansted Airport today. It was originally...

Suicide Jumper Lands On, Kills Girl, 5

A tragedy turned horrific in South Korea on Wednesday, when a man's suicide attempt ended up killing a young girl, too. The man, described as age 38 or 39, jumped from the 11th floor of his apartment building in Busan, and landed on the five-year-old, reports CNN . He died on...

Brewers: Don't Frack Up German Beer

Germany prides itself on the (legally mandated) purity of its beers, and brewers refuse to mess that up for a little thing like cheap energy. The Association of German Breweries is coming out in force against fracking, arguing that it should be banned until the government can be completely sure...

Country We View Most Positively Is...

When it comes to the country we view most positively, Germany gets the most thumbs up, at least according to the BBC's annual Country Ratings Poll . Some 26,000 people were asked whether they view a country's world influence as "mainly positive" or mainly negative" (they were asked about the...

Police Nab 'Conspirators' in UK Terror Killing

The plot to kill a soldier in the streets of London may have gone deeper than the two men who hacked Lee Rigby to death . Police yesterday arrested two more people, a man and a woman, both 29, as suspected conspirators in the attack, the Wall Street Journal reports. They...

Richard III Had Unpleasant Burial

If you thought being found buried under a parking lot was about as unroyal as it could get for King Richard III, think again. In a paper published today in Antiquity , researchers describe his body as being buried in haste, crammed into a too-small grave that was roughly dug (at...

Quakes Shake Russia's Far East, Northern California

A powerful earthquake has hit Russia's Far East with slight tremors spreading westwards as far as Moscow. Marina Kolomiyets, spokeswoman for Obninsk's seismic station of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said today the epicenter was in the Sea of Okhotsk, east of the Russian coast and north of Japan. She...

The Philippines Would Like a Word With Dan Brown

Manila officials were probably excited to learn that one of the characters in Dan Brown's latest sure-to-be blockbuster visits the city. That is, until they read the descriptions of the child-sex trade, pollution, and poverty, all of which prompted the character in Inferno to declare, "I've run through the gates...

Experts: Decriminalize Drugs—All of Them

A coalition of Canadian drug policy experts is calling on the country to decriminalize the use of drugs—not just, say, marijuana or other "soft drugs," but all drugs. Thanks to a "stunning display of unimaginative thinking," Canada has been cracking down on drug users, which has done nothing to...

Venezuela's Shopping List: 39M Rolls of TP

It always sucks running out of toilet paper, especially when you're a country of almost 30 million people. Thanks to various international sanctions, Venezuela sometimes runs low on basic necessities, and right now, that very much includes toilet paper , which has a habit of disappearing from shelves the second it...

Rob Ford May Smoke Crack, but He's a Good Mayor

Philip Preville's Slate piece on Toronto mayor and possible crack-smoker Rob Ford is not exactly kind—he calls Ford "a crass, offensive, and ill-tempered buffoon" with a "capacity for breathtakingly stupid behavior," among other things—but, Preville says, you have to admit Ford has been a pretty good mayor. He's...

The Good News: Pope Francis Is Cool With Atheists

Pope Francis had a refreshing message when asked about atheists yesterday on Vatican radio, assuring his flock that yes, the godless could be good people, too. "'But father, he is not Catholic! He cannot do good,'" Francis imagined a follower protesting. "Yes, he can. He must. Not can: must...

Britain Bugged Its Own King in 1936

Today's best bit of historical trivia comes compliments of the BBC , which reports on newly released secret documents that show Britain bugged the phone of its own king in 1936. That king was Edward VIII, most famously known for abdicating so that he could marry divorcee Wallis Simpson. But before...

London Victim: Lee Rigby, 25

The victim in yesterday's London attack has been identified as 25-year-old Lee Rigby, reports the BBC . Rigby was indeed in the British army, having served as both a machine gunner and a drummer in a unit called the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. He has a 2-year-old...

Tree Falls, 35% of Vietnam Loses Power

One mistake by a clumsy crane operator caused a 10-hour blackout over about a third of Vietnam, exposing the fragility of the nation's power grid. State electricity company EVN said in a statement today that the blackout occurred yesterday after the crane operator knocked a tree down onto the main...

MI5 Investigated London Suspects Before Killing

UK intelligence had previously investigated the men accused of hacking a soldier to death in the streets of London yesterday, and determined that they weren't a threat requiring "immediate intervention," Sky News reports. BBC sources, however, said that while the men were known to security services, reports that they'd been...

Syria's War Triggered by ... Water?

Tucked into a piece on the drastically dropping water levels in the Middle East's Tigris-Euphrates Basin comes this theory: The drop helped spur the Syrian civil war. As Joshua Hammer explains for Smithsonian , a pair of satellites tasked with measuring groundwater found that the basin lost the equivalent of all...

Archaeologists Stumped by Sea of Galilee Mystery

What Israeli archaeologists know: A bigger-than-Stonehenge structure submerged in the Sea of Galilee is man-made, made of stones that originated nearby, and weighs about 60,000 tons. What they don't know: Pretty much everything else. The AP revisits the mystery of the cone-shaped structure, which was revealed in an article...

In Major Shift, Obama Will Clamp Down on Drone Strikes

President Obama will today outline a new course against terror, including two big goals: cutting down on drone strikes and attempting, once again, to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. The speech comes after the administration yesterday admitted killing four US citizens with drones. Under new drone rules, strikes on foreign...

Japan Climber Becomes Oldest to Scale Everest

An 80-year-old Japanese mountaineer became the oldest person to reach the top of Mount Everest today—though his record may last only a few days. An 81-year-old Nepalese man, who held the previous record, plans his own ascent next week. Yuichiro Miura, who also conquered the 29,035-foot peak when...

Protesters, Cops Tangle as London Seethes Over Attack

Yesterday's brutal killing of a soldier in southeast London prompted a local backlash, with some 100 men hurling bottles at police as they railed against Muslims. The protesters, carrying English flags, were supporters of an organization known as the English Defense League, the Guardian reports. "Our next generation are being...

Toss Bangladesh Factory Owner in Jail for Life: Gov't

The owner of the Bangladesh factory whose collapse killed some 1,100 people deserves life in prison if found guilty of code violations, a government committee says. Sohel Rana "used extremely poor quality iron rods and cement," says the head of the committee, whose report details the reasons behind the...