ITALY - Thousands of gay rights activists and LGBT families rallied in Rome to protest against the watering down of Italy’s civil unions bill, which no longer envisages adoption rights for homosexual couples. Protesters carried banners that read “We want equality” and sported the gay pride rainbow on their faces, with one man naked apart from a cardboard fig leaf with the words “civil unions” on it. Activists say the bill, which had to be cut back to the bare bones to pass in the senate and is now being examined in the lower house, is only a small step towards securing rights for homosexual families. “Today in Italy, in 2016, we still have to beg for charity, for crumbs, in terms of rights. We want equal weddings, adoptions and full rights. Full rights,” Alessia Avellino, a 21-year old sociology student, told AFP.
USA - Ever since inflammation was proven to contribute to the on-set and development of the majority of diseases, researchers have been investigating plants that are rich in antioxidants in order to ascertain their effectiveness in both curing and preventing of sickness.
EUROPE - Brussels chief Jean-Claude Juncker warned Britain could spark World War Three if it votes to leave the European Union (EU). The European Commission president bizarrely ordered Eurosceptics to visit WAR GRAVES to try and avoid a breakdown in peace between nations. The desperate leader warned voters not to repeat the "enormous stupidity" of two world wars in the astonishing attack.
EUROPE - In 1933 a German dissident named Konrad Adenauer was placed under house arrest by the Nazis. A devout Catholic, he took the opportunity to study the Church’s social teaching. In the great encyclicals of popes Leo XIII and Pius XI he found an immensely appealing vision – “an order willed by God which was perfectly practical in terms of modern society”.
RUSSIA - Western attempts to exclude Russia from shaping European and global affairs have led to countless historical tragedies over the centuries, according to Moscow's foreign minister, who added lasting stability can only be reached through cooperation. Rather than serving as architects of peace, NATO and its member states, Lavrov said, continued to engage in destructive policies that threaten international stability and have already led to the collapse of states, starting from the bombings of Yugoslavia, to the invasions of Iraq and Libya.
VATICAN - Europe is facing an ‘Arab invasion’, Pope Francis mused while addressing a French Christian group, adding that the trend is actually a positive one. “We can speak today of Arab invasion. It is a social fact,” the pontiff said, according to extracts from his address earlier this week which were published by the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano on Thursday.
MIDDLE EAST - Islamic State (IS) declared its re-establishment of the caliphate on June 29, 2014, almost exactly 100 years after the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated. Ferdinand’s death set off a series of events that would lead to the first world war and the fall of three great multinational world empires: Austro-Hungary (1867-1918), Russian (1721-1917) and the Ottoman Sultanate (1299-1922).
CANADA - One month ago, when looking at the latest Canadian official international reserves, we noticed something strange: Canada had sold nearly half of its gold reserves in one month. According to the February data, total Canadian gold reserves stood at 1.7 tonnes. That was just 0.1 per cent of the country’s total reserves, which also include foreign currency deposits and bonds.
USA - What to think of a candidate who courts Jewish Republicans but tells them, ‘I don’t want your money’; has a daughter who converted to Judaism but finds difficulty disavowing an ex-KKK leader? When Donald Trump addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Presidential Forum last December, he proved again why the runaway success of his divisive campaign has upturned the expectations of so many.
FRANCE - French parents are being warned to stop posting pictures of children on social networks in case their offspring later sue them for breaching their right to privacy or jeopardising their security. Under France’s stringent privacy laws, parents could face penalties as severe as a year in prison and a fine of €45,000 (£35,000) if convicted of publicising intimate details of the private lives of others — including their children – without their consent. Eric Delcroix, an expert on internet law and ethics, said: “In a few years, children could easily take their parents to court for publishing photos of them when they were younger.” Grown-ups who sue their parents for breaching their right to privacy as children could obtain substantial compensation awards, according to French legal experts.
USA - An investigation recently called for by New York governor Andrew Cuomo after the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant reported nuclear material leaking into the area's groundwater reveals a staggering 80% increase in contamination over previous samples.
USA - You might think that government watch lists are reserved for violent radical extremists. You might be wrong. Here is a short list of pretty non-terrifying and easy ways to land yourself on a government watch list.
ISRAEL - Posters glorifying the 9/11 hijackers and late terrorist leader Osama bin Laden were displayed in the city of Mukalla in Yemen this week in a three-day event dubbed “O Aqsa, We Are Coming,” organized by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The event’s title refers to the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. According to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the AQAP-affiliated Al-Athir media agency shared photos from the first evening of the event on Twitter, showing hundreds of people, many of them youths, in attendance. The MEMRI report said that the phrase “O Aqsa, we are coming,” has become almost an official sign-off for AQAP in any productions by its official media arm, al-Malahem.
USA - Mitt Romney’s speech did the trick. He convinced me to vote for Donald Trump. …You know they are growing desperate and fearful of losing power and control of this country. The Fed is fearful of him. The global titans of industry fear their outsourcing scheme is going to end. When Trump wraps up the delegates needed, they will either threaten him or outright try and assassinate him. The next 8 months are going to be a wild ride and the outcome will determine in which direction this Fourth Turning turns.
USA - The Republican party descended into full-scale civil war on Thursday, with its last presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, launching withering attacks against current front-runner Donald Trump, who responded with fury.