Riots Shake Stockholm For a Third Night

Groups of youths smashed shop windows, set cars ablaze and burned down a cultural center last night as the riots that started in one Stockholm suburb after a fatal police shooting spread to other low-income areas of the Swedish capital. A police spokeswoman says 30 vehicles were set ablaze in...

Vatican Denies Pope Performed Exorcism

Pope Francis was merely praying in a video that allegedly shows him performing an exorcism on a Mexican pilgrim, the Vatican says. In the video—broadcast on a TV station owned by the Italian Bishops' Conference—the man convulses and then goes limp after the stern-faced pontiff places his hands...

Nepal Furious About Phone Call Atop Everest

One more sign that climbing Everest just ain't what it used to be: When a British mountaineer got to the summit over the weekend, he pulled out his smartphone and gave the BBC a video billed as "the world's first live video call ... from the rooftop of the world." Now...

For $1.2K, Club Will Let You Peep Into Ladies' Bathroom

Be careful if you're a woman at Glasgow's Shimmy Club and find yourself having to use the restroom: It's installed with a two-way mirror, and clubgoers who want a look are charged as much as $1,200 to peep in. After complaints, Scotland's police force launched an investigation into the...

Notre Dame Evacuated After Suicide at Altar

Paris' legendary Notre Dame Cathedral was evacuated today, after a man shot himself in front of the altar, police tell France 24 . The incident occurred around 4pm local time, while the tourist attraction was open to the public. Some 1,500 visitors were cleared out after the man put a...

Double Amputee Conquers Everest— Without Prosthetics

Sudarshan Gautam is missing both his arms, but that didn't stop him from achieving his dream: to reach Mount Everest's summit, which he did yesterday, according to his website . The Calgary man, 31, is the first double amputee to climb the mountain with no prosthetic limbs, Sun News reports. Gautam,...

Gandhi Blood on Auction Block

A few drops of Mahatma Gandhi's blood are among the oddest items on sale at an auction of historical goods in London today, Reuters reports. The blood samples, taken when the Indian nationalist leader was recovering from an appendectomy in 1924, are expected to fetch around $20,000. Gandhi fans...

Ex-Dictator's Genocide Conviction Overturned

Guatemala's highest court has chucked out the historic genocide conviction of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt. The court overturned the conviction—which brought an 80-year sentence for the 86-year-old former military strongman—and ordered for his trial to be rewound to April 19, when there was a dispute between two...

World Growing Less Tolerant of Muslims, Jews: Report

Anti-Islamic and anti-Semitic sentiments are growing in many countries around the world, according to a new US State Department report. Venezuela, Egypt, and Iran in particular are singled out for anti-Semitism—the report says the Egyptian media engages in Holocaust denial and glorification, while the Iranian government regularly denounces Judaism,...

Man Kills 4 After Bank, ATM Deny Him Cash

A pretty horrific story out of southern Israel today, where a man apparently became enraged after visiting the bank with the intention of taking care of a $1,640 debt—which failed to happen, reports Ynet : His request denied, he "came back with a pistol and shot dead four people...

Rough Day for Russia: 2 Brushes With Terror

A powerful explosion killed three people and wounded 40 more today in Dagestan, the region that was once home to Boston Marathon bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, reports Reuters . Police had found a bomb in a car outside a law enforcement building in the region's capital city of Makhachkala,...

James Bond's Missing Watch Reappears... at Flea Market

James Bond's wristwatch played a starring role alongside Sean Connery in the 1965 film Thunderball , but after the movie, it went MIA. Now it has finally made a reappearance—after a buyer found it at a British equivalent of a flea market, Sky News reports. The anonymous buyer paid some...

Inside Russians' 6mph Road Trip to Canada

Talk about a road trip: Russian explorers spent the past two-and-a-half months driving from Russia to Canada via the North Pole. But instead of car bingo and the alphabet game, they passed their time clearing the route with a pickaxe, gazing upon the aurora borealis, and spotting the occasional polar...

Scientist's Quest: Unlock Secret of Ancient Coins

Ancient coins, a map with an "X," a secret cave: It sounds like something out of a kid's book. Instead, it's an Australian professor's archaeological quest. During World War II, a soldier stationed on the Wessel Islands off northern Australia found several mysterious coins in the sand. Years later, a...

Hezbollah, Assad Make Massive Push Into Key Town

Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon have taken their most prominent role yet in the Syrian civil war, fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad's forces as the military attempts to regain control of a strategic rebel-held city near the Lebanese order. Activists say at least 23 members of the Iran-backed militant group have been...

North Korea Still Firing Away

North Korea launched two more short-range missiles into the sea today, the third consecutive day of launches since three missiles were test-fired Saturday and a fourth yesterday . Pyongyang, not surprisingly, today blamed recent joint US-South Korea military exercises, Reuters reports. "Our military is conducting these exercises in order to cope...

Hot Air Balloons Collide in Mid-Air

Two hot air balloons collided in mid-air during a sightseeing tour of volcanic rock formations in Turkey and crashed to the ground today, killing two Brazilian tourists and injuring 23 other people on board. The accident occurred above central Turkey's Cappadocia region, when an ascending balloon struck another balloon's wicker...

Accused US Spy Leaves Russia

The US embassy employee accused of spying for the CIA in Moscow has left Russia, the BBC reports. Five days after the country accused him of "provocative actions in the spirit of the Cold War" after it allegedly caught him trying to recruit spies, diplomat Ryan Fogle has been shown...

Everest Has Become a Huge Mess

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the first American to scale Mount Everest. Back in 1963, it was a feat only a handful of skilled adventurers accomplished. Today, hundreds of often inexperienced, ill-prepared thrill-seekers attempt the ascent every year. Most now survive, but as a result, the mountain has...

Honeybees Trained to Find Land Mines

Honeybees are better known for producing delicious condiments than saving lives, but all that could change thanks to a team of Croatian researchers, who are training them to find unexploded land mines. Bees have an excellent sense of smell, which they use to find food, so the researchers are reprogramming...

France Goes Shopping for US Drones

France is looking to assemble a fleet of intelligence gathering drones to use in its military operations in Mali, and is in talks with both the US and Israel to get its hands on some. The Pentagon has already approved the sale of two Reaper drones (Congress still needs to...

N. Korea Launches 4th Missile

Just in case anybody missed the three short-range missiles North Korea fired off into the sea yesterday, Pyongyang launched a fourth missile in the same area today, reports CNN . That flies in the face of Western calls to cool it already, notes Reuters , after UN chief Ban Ki-moon voiced concern,...

Iran: We Hanged CIA, Mossad Spies

Iran is claiming that it has today hanged a pair of spies it convicted of slipping information to the CIA and Israel's Mossad, according to a state radio report. The report is sketchy on when the men were arrested or convicted, but says the dead are Mohammad Heidari, who was...

Women's Rights Bill Deemed Too Offensive in Afghanistan

Religious lawmakers in Afghanistan blocked legislation today aimed at strengthening provisions for women's freedoms, arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles and encourage disobedience. The law criminalizes, among other things, child marriage and forced marriage, and bans the traditional practice of exchanging girls and women to settle disputes. It...

Mayan Pyramid Crushed—for Gravel

Archeologists have been horrified to discover that one of the largest Mayan pyramids in Belize has been almost completely annihilated by road crews looking for an easy source of gravel. The 2,300-year-old temple at the heart of the Nohmul complex—at 60 feet, one of the country's tallest structures—...

No. 14: Gay Marriage Now Legal in France

French President Francois Hollande fulfilled a major campaign promise today by signing into law a measure legalizing gay marriage, reports Reuters . The first same-sex weddings can be held in 10 days, notes the BBC . Opponents in the heavily Catholic country aren't done protesting the move, however, and plan another demonstration...

North Korea Test-Fires Missiles Into Sea

North Korea apparently felt things were getting a little too calm of late and launched three short-range missiles into the sea off its eastern coast today, reports the BBC . Notably, those tests did not include the firing of the longer-range Musudan missile , which theoretically could hit the US. Generally, short-range...

Brazil's Ambitious Plan: Erect 10K-Mile Virtual Fence

Brazil's border is pretty mammoth (here's a visual reminder ), and a growing economy has made illegal activities (chief among them illegal immigration) an equally growing concern. But the country has a plan: a 10,000-mile fence ... except that this one is virtual. For reference, America's southern border is only...

Argentine Dictator Videla Dies in Prison

Former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, who took power over Argentina in a 1976 coup and led a military junta that killed thousands of his fellow citizens in a dirty war to eliminate so-called "subversives," died quietly in his sleep today while serving life in prison for crimes against humanity. He...

New Suspects Found in McCann Case

And the search for Madeleine McCann is on again: Police have produced a new list of suspects in the case of the toddler who went missing in Portugal in 2007, following a lengthy and expensive new review, the Telegraph reports. "There is more than a handful of people of interest...