UNHCR urges Europe to change course on refugee crisis – Syria conflict will displace another million people, says UN official

16 September 2015 (UNHCR) – UNHCR reiterates its deep conviction that only a united European emergency response can address the present refugee and migration crisis. Individual measures by individual countries will not solve the problem but will make an already chaotic situation worse, further the suffering of people and increase tension amongst states at a […]

Drought shrinks Poland’s Vistula river to lowest level in 226 years – Archaeologists uncover treasure trove of historic artifacts

By Stanislaw Waszak 4 September 2015 Warsaw (AFP) – Archaeologists are having a field day in Poland’s longest river, the Vistula, which because of a drought has hit a record low water level allowing them to uncover a treasure trove of historic artifacts. “There are pieces of marble and stoneware and fragments of fountains, window […]

30 years on, French agent apologizes for sinking Greenpeace flagship – ‘I have the blood of an innocent man on my conscience, and that weighs on me’

By Guy Jackson6 September 2015 (AFP) – The French secret service frogman who attached the mines which sank the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand 30 years ago apologized for his actions in an interview Sunday with investigative website Mediapart. Jean-Luc Kister, whose face was not covered in the hour-long video interview, said he […]

UNHCR chief issues key guidelines for dealing with Europe’s refugee crisis – ‘Europe is facing a moment of truth’

GENEVA, 4 September 2015 (UNHCR) – The head of the UN refugee agency António Guterres, emphasizing the European Union faced a “defining moment”, has laid out a set of key guidelines which he says should underpin all efforts to resolve the current refugee and migration crisis facing Europe. Guterres said the biggest influx of refugees […]

Photo gallery: Banksy’s new grotesque art theme park

By Allyssia Alleyne20 August 2015 Weston-Super-Mare, England (CNN) — The seaside town of Weston-Super-Mare in south-west England is chilled and gloomy when we arrive. Surrounding it: an upside down slide fashioned from a battered old truck, an old-school carousel, a ferris wheel. Inside, Cinderella’s coach has crashed, surrounded by clicking paparazzi. Here it is: the […]

Video: Moscow river catches fire after pipeline bursts

14 August 2015 (Viral Hog) – Amateur footage shows a large oil fire on the surface of the Moscow river after an underwater pipeline reportedly burst on Wednesday. The Moscow oil refinery, owned by Gazprom Neft, told Reuters it was unaffected by the fire, and did not own the pipeline where the incident occurred. Local […]

One American’s attempt to staunch the biggest refugee flow since World War II

By Oliver Lazarus11 August 2015 (PRI) – The number of worldwide refugees last year totaled over 50 million — the highest since World War II. They’ve come from most corners of the world — but nowhere, perhaps, has more attention than the Mediterranean Sea, where approximately 200,000 people have attempted the journey to Europe from […]

State of emergency declared as worst locust swarms in more than 30 years plague southern Russia – ‘There is nothing left of the corn. The locusts ate it all, from the leaves to the cobs.’

By Matthew Chance5 August 2015 Moscow (CNN) – Millions of locusts have descended on farmlands in southern Russia, devouring entire fields of crops and causing officials to declare a state of emergency in the region. A vast area of at least 800,000 hectares is currently being affected as the swarms of insects, each measuring about […]

Greek stocks, economy collapse, suffer worst declines in history – ‘July saw factory production in Greece contract sharply amid an unprecedented drop in new orders’

By Tyler Durden 3 August 2015 (ZeroHedge) – The Athens Stock Exchange reopened on Monday and unsurprisingly, some folks were selling. Trading was suspended five weeks ago after PM Alexis Tsipras’ dramatic midnight referendum call precipitated capital controls and a lengthy bank “holiday.” Shares opened lower by nearly 23% and the country’s banks traded limit-down, […]

Protesters film ‘incomprehensible’ slaughter of hundreds of whales in the Faroe Islands – ‘I hate whale meat but I love to kill them’

By John Vidal24 July 2015 (The Guardian) – Faroese villagers have slaughtered about 250 pilot whales in the past 24 hours according to Sea Shepherd activists monitoring the traditional summer hunts in the north Atlantic islands. The whale pods, which migrate past the islands in July and August, were herded by flotillas of small boats […]

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