Brazil Calls in Troops to Protect Soccer Tournament

"Excuse the inconvenience, we're improving the country." That was one of the protest signs seen today outside Castelao stadium, and the timing of the protests sweeping across the country is inconvenient indeed. Brazil is hosting the Confederations Cup, with the next game, a Brazil vs. Mexico match, scheduled for today...

New Conspiracy Theorists: Snowden Truthers

Edward Snowden: hero or traitor ... or part of a government conspiracy? As with every major political event these days, there is a group of Americans who see something more sinister behind the NSA whistleblower, and Salon rounds up some theories: One of the most prominent is author, activist, and former...

Cops: Mom, Son Stole (Lots of) Gopher Feet

This isn't just a story about the theft of gopher feet in Minnesota—it's a story about the felony theft of gopher feet in Minnesota. As KAAL-TV reports, a mother and son have been charged with stealing hundreds of pairs from the garage of a trapper in Harmony. It's felony...

Admitted Pimps Acquitted of Sex Trafficking

A father and son who acknowledged they were pimps were acquitted today of sex trafficking charges after several prostitutes testified they were treated well. A Manhattan judge found George Vincent Sr. and his son, George Vincent Jr., guilty of less-serious charges of promoting prostitution and money laundering. The two hadn't...

Londoners in Danger From Exploding Sidewalks

A bizarre but serious danger in London: exploding sidewalks, which have injured at least five people since January 2012 and also have damaged cars and buildings. The problem could have to do with water or gas entering electric cables underneath the sidewalks, and the UK's Health and Safety Executive has...

Ikea's Latest: Refugee Shelters

It sounds like the set-up to a really bad joke—the world's refugees are going to start using shelters from Ikea. But the idea actually has the potential to do a world of good, reports the Christian Science Monitor . The shelters from the Ikea Foundation, the furniture maker's philanthropic arm,...

Fashion's Dolce, Gabbana Sentenced to Jail

Celebrities from Madonna to Kate Moss wear Dolce & Gabbana, so one would think Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are doing pretty well. Not today. A Milan court convicted the pair of tax evasion and sentenced them to one year and eight months in jail. The jail sentences are suspended,...

More Bad Fukushima News

The fallout from Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant disaster continues . The latest: Tests found that groundwater there contained 30 times the legal level of the radioactive substance Strontium-90, and eight times the legal amount of the radioactive isotope tritium, reports the BBC . A TEPCO official says the working theory is that...

Google Patents 'Street View' Walking Sticks

First, there were Google Street View cars. But cars can't go everywhere, so next came Google's Trekker, a big contraption worn like a backpack that snaps photos off the beaten path. What's next? Think smaller. GeekWire reports that the company just scored a new patent : "It’s a walking stick with...

Men's Wearhouse Boots Gravelly-Voiced Founder

"George Zimmer" may not be a household name, but his is a household voice. Zimmer is the guy who's been saying, "You're gonna like the way you look. I guarantee it" in Men's Wearhouse commercials for the past 28 years. In addition to being the company's gravelly-voiced spokesperson, he was...

John Oliver Takes on WWE's Immigration Heel

Immigration is a big issue for John Oliver—given that he is himself an immigrant—so when he heard that villainous WWE manager Zeb Colter had complained of "foreigners sneaking across our borders like rats in the streets," he got a little offended. But when he saw a clip in...

Why Democrats Should Become Republicans

Matt Miller floats an unorthodox idea in the Washington Post today for Democrats frustrated by the "rightward lurch" of the GOP to the conservative fringes: He thinks those Democrats should switch parties and become Republicans. The idea—and Miller gives full credit to his wife for the idea of the...

UN to Australia: You Have Year to Protect Barrier Reef

Australia's Great Barrier Reef may lose its world heritage status if the country doesn't clean up its act. UNESCO has postponed a decision to put the 133,000-square-mile coral reef system on its " World Heritage in Danger " list, giving the Australian and Queensland governments a year to curb mining and...

ObamaCare Blowing Deadlines

The dog appears to have eaten the Affordable Care Act's homework. It's looking increasingly unlikely that federal and state health officials will be able to set up the new health insurance exchanges—arguably the centerpieces of ObamaCare—in time for their scheduled October debut, the Wall Street Journal reports. Officials...

Baby Chicks Are Smarter Than Baby Humans

Baby chicks: both adorable and smarter than you may think. A new study (which, it should be noted, was commissioned by an egg company) from the University of Bristol has found baby chickens posses many skills baby humans don't, the Independent reports. For instance, 93% of chicks in one test—...

Charlie Sheen Gets Selma Blair Fired

Charlie Sheen may have moved on from Two and a Half Men , but he has apparently not moved on from TV-related drama. TMZ reported Monday that he had personally fired Selma Blair, his co-star in Anger Management , after he found out she complained to executives about how awful Sheen is...

GOP Senator No. 3 Endorses Gay Marriage

Lisa Murkowski today became the third Republican senator to endorse gay marriage, following the lead of Rob Portman and Mark Kirk . In a statement on her website , the Alaska senator recalls nominating a military family as "Angels in Adoption" for opening their doors to four siblings in need of a...

Obama in Berlin: We Only Need 1K Nuclear Warheads

Five years after he addressed a huge crowd in Berlin as a presidential candidate—and 50 years after John F. Kennedy proclaimed "Ich bin ein Berliner"—President Obama gave an address at the iconic Brandenburg Gate today, calling for a major reduction in nuclear warheads. "We may not live in...

Hoffa Search Ends, Mystery Continues

The FBI says it has found no sign of the remains of former Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa and is ending a dig in suburban Detroit . The announcement was made today by Robert Foley, head of the FBI in Detroit, just a few hours after digging resumed. The dig began...

We Cross Bridges Needing Repair 260M Times a Day

If this story didn't already cause you to develop a mild case of gephyrophobia , then this one may do the trick: Some 11% of America's bridges are structurally deficient and in need of repair, according to a new report from Transportation for America . It's a stat made more serious when...

Uproar Over Serena Williams' Rape Comment

This probably wasn't the focus Rolling Stone was going for when it ran a profile on Serena Williams headlined, "The Great One." Nonetheless, attention has centered on one controversial comment that comes toward the end of its lengthy article, made by Williams in reference to the Steubenville rape case as...

Suicide Bomber Hugs, Blows Up Sunni Leader

Sunni Muslim leader Younis al-Rammah died hugging a man at a family gathering in northern Iraq today. Turns out, the man wasn't a family member at all, but a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest. As he embraced al-Rammah, the bomber blew himself up, killing al-Rammah and four of his...

In Shipwreck Hunt, a Crucial Finding

A wooden beam embedded at the bottom of northern Lake Michigan appears to have been there for centuries, underwater archaeologists announced yesterday, a crucial finding as crews dig toward what they hope is the carcass of a French ship that disappeared in the 17th century. Expedition leaders still weren't ready...

Teen's Wrestling Moves Kill Sister, 5: Cops

Police say a 13-year-old Louisiana boy decided to try out wrestling moves he saw on TV on his half-sister, and ended up killing the 5-year-old girl Sunday. Devalon Armstrong, who was babysitting sister Viloude Louis at the time, told Jefferson Parish police he was imitating WWE moves, and continued for...

There Was a New Refugee Every 4.1 Seconds in 2012

About 7.6 million people became refugees in 2012—that's one every 4.1 seconds—bringing the total number of displaced people in the world to 45.2 million, the highest figure since 1994, reports al-Jazeera . A new report from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says...

Hot Twitter Account Is ... in Latin

Latin may be a dead language, but it's very much alive on Twitter, thanks to an unexpectedly social-media-savvy old man: the pope. Pope Francis' Latin language Twitter account began under the auspices of Pope Benedict in January (it is the official language of the Holy See, after all), and under...

Reporter Who Brought Down Gen. McChrystal Dead at 33

Rolling Stone and Buzzfeed are mourning journalist and war correspondent Michael Hastings, who has been killed in a car crash in Los Angeles. The 33-year-old—described by Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith as a "great, fearless journalist with an incredible instinct for the story"—was best known for his 2010 profile...

TWA Flight 800 Crash Not as Reported: Documentary

Conspiracy theorists have long suspected TWA Flight 800 was brought down not by the NTSB's officially determined cause (a gas tank explosion), but by something less accidental, and a new documentary debuting next month will give them quite a bit of fuel. The film includes testimony from six high-level "whistleblowers,...

FBI Shooting Probes Always End Well for FBI

If you're an FBI agent and you wind up shooting someone, good news: You were probably justified, as far as the FBI is concerned. With the bureau's promise of a full internal investigation into the shooting of unarmed Boston Bomber pal Ibragim Todashev in the news, the New York Times...

N. Korea: We'll Kill 'Scum' Behind Hitler Claim

North Korea says Kim Jong Un didn't instruct his top officials to study Hitler's Mein Kampf ... and those who say otherwise will be killed. The country's Ministry of the People's Security released quite the statement on the subject, referring to the original report by New Focus International as a "thrice-cursed...