News

Priyanka Motaparthy is a children’s rights researcher and co-author of “Look at Us With a Merciful Eye,” that has been enolved in research of Yemen's underage offender executions, with some other members. She writes that they've studied 22 cases of alleged child offenders on death row, many of which have exhausted all forms of appeal, in prisons across Yemen. Yemen’s 1994 penal code bans execution of child offenders as does the international law of which Yemen is a part of but executions of teens under 18 continue in Yemen on a regular basis. The government has executed 15 children in the past five years. One such case was Hind al-Barti a child offender who was convicted of murder at 15 and executed without warning by a government firing squad 9 months later. Juvenile executions happen in four countries around the world, Yemen, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan. Hopefully there are enough people who are fighting to prevent these atrocities.

A 24 year old Dianna Hanson from Seattle was mauled and killed by a 350-pound African lion named Cous Cous inside a cage at the 100 acre Northern California Cat Haven sanctuary located in San Franciso, where she has been interning since January in hopes of working with big cats. This lion was a favorite at the facility and never exhibited agression towards his handlers, he has even appeared at Ellen DeGeneres show as a cub. 14 people have been mauled by big cats in California between 1990 and 2011, and Dianna has unfortunately become the 2nd death. The facility is very professionally run, and the reasons for the attack are yet unknown.

Thousands of marijuana enthusiasts gathered in Denver on April 20th for an annual weekend celebration of cannabis, the first such assemblage since Colorado voters legalized the recreational use of pot last fall. Take a look at some of the interesting photos from the event.

A swarm of small bird sized locusts have swarmed Egypt, and are now taking over Israel. It's almost like a scene from the Biblical plagues of Exodus and is quite scarry. Tens of millions of these insects are heading to Israel and Jordan, according the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Google has offered a $20 million prize to the first private company to land a robot on the Moon. It must explore at least 500m from its landing spot, and it has to happen before 2015. The are runner up prizes and bonus prizes for travelinglonger distances, finding water or locating any traces of previous expeditions to the Moon. There are currently more than 25 private companies vying for the prize. Gotta love Google.

Federal officials issued a serious warning on Tuesday! A very dangerous group of superbugs is posing great health risks throughout U.S. hospitals. These germs are known as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE. CRE cases have gone from 1% a decade ago, to 4% in 2012, which is a significant growth rate. Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC said "What's called CRE are nightmare bacteria, they're basically a triple threat". What makes this virus so dangerous is that it's resistant to virtually all antibiotics, it can transfer it's invincibility to other bacteria and lastly the bacteria are deadly, with fatality rates as high as 50%. Currently the virus has only affected hospital patients and all possible safety and quaranteen measures are being taken to prevent it from getting out.

The US Transportation Security Administration will allow passengers to carry small pocket knives with retractable blades, lacrosse sticks, pool cues, ski poles, hockey sticks and up to two golf clubs onto passenger flights, Bloombergreports. TSA Administrator John Pistole announced the changes at an aviation security conference today, and the new rules will take effect on April 25th. 

But what about water? Wine? So dumb that we can take knives but not tweezers or shavers.

Another star with brain cancer. Hopefully this one will make it

The on and off couple has been looking pretty happy together since they've reconnected, and there are even engagement rumors. But the most exciting part is that they might start a family soon. In Rih's recent interview with ELLE U.K., she confessed "I will probably have a kid within the next five years". Another source told HollywoodLife "Chris feels the same way — he would have a baby with RiRi". So watch for the next celeb parents to be!

PETA is known for picking on celebrties for their furry accessories. They have recently shifted attention from Beyonce and Jay-Z to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Wendy Wenger, PETA's spokesperson commented on the parents-to-be's liking of fur. “Youngsters naturally identify and empathize with animals – so even though Kim and Kanye will undoubtedly serve as poor examples when it comes to kindness toward animals, perhaps their child will take after aunt Khloe and choose kindness by rejecting fur”. Wenger has gone further then just bringing up Kimye's insensitivity to animals, expressing her overall disregard for Kim by stating “Kim is a commodity; she is paid to wear things like fur, a particular makeup, or to shake hands with questionable people, so she is not a good example to a child or anyone else of how to show a social conscience". Wow seems like someone might be looking for publicity.

A girl born in Mississppi is the first child and the second person in the world that has been cured of HIV in 32 years, since the virus became a global pandemic. Until now, such children have been considered permanently infected. Specialists think that the major reasons behind her being cured is the fact that Hannah Gay, a pediatric infectious disease specialist of the University of Mississippi, treated the child immediately and with a higher than usual dose of antivirals. She gave her the first dose within 31 hours of birth, followed with three powerful HIV drugs rather than the "prophylactic" doses usually given to kids in these circumstances. These news have sparked hope for prevention and cure of the disease in future births, and has stimulated funded studies.

Samsung's Galaxy S line is the strongest Apple's iPhone challenger, and they're now coming up with a new model, the Galaxy S IV. This amazing smartphone will allow it's users to control it with their eyes! Samsung will be trademarking a technology called "Eye Scroll" and "Eye Pause". The new phone will be unveiled at a New York City event on March 14th, 2013.

Natalia Vodianova was an inspiration to all career-driven, health-conscious people, balancing her fashion week with running a half-marathon on a Sunday morning and walking in a Givenchy fashion show in the evening of the same day.

Vodianova says partaking in the 13.1 mile marathon has been an annual habbit of hers, being the fourth one she has run in a row. In fact, the mother of three never trains. Her boyfriend Antoine Arnault, the son of Louis Vuitton MH owner Bernard Arnault, testified on twitter that the supermodel did, in fact, not train at all before the marathon, and prepared only by eating ice cream and "good french food".

Vodianova takes part to not only show off her extreme endurance, but mainly to raise money for her charity - the Naked Heart Foundation, which constructs playgrounds in Russia. After the marathon, the model took her grandmother, Larisa, who is also her "fashion icon" to watch her model in the fashion show.

Britney's little sister Jamie, 21, is getting married to her boyfriend of 3 years, Jamie Watson, 30. She broke the news on Twitter, and shortly after posted a pic of her beautiful, round-cut diamond engagement ring to prove it's official.

Spears was previously engaged to Casey Aldrich, the father of her 4-year old daughter, Maddie. But they called it quits in 2010. Sister Britney, 31, unfortunately broke it off with fiance Jason Trawick a few weeks earlier.

The rumors are finally real. Taco Bell has horse meat in it's ground beef. They've recalled the affected stock and stopped their purchases from the tainted European plant, as well as apologyzed to the costumers. This just makes fast food so suspicious, I don't think I'll ever buy another taco or burger.

This years Mobile World Congress in Barcelona presented some interesting uses of digital technology. Check out what tech giants came up with!

A very large order of french fries in Korea has caused anger on the internet as well as the McDonald's restaurant where the incident has occured. These kids were either very hungry or simply looking to cause some chaos, and ordered $250 worth of french fries. They soon got kicked out of the restaurant by one of the fed-up workers who told them: "Stop causing trouble, you brats! Get out of here!"

Whatever happened to treating your customer with respect and 'the customer is always right' attitude?. Guess everyone has a limit, and even the internet seemed to support the restaurant in this regard: "I'd cry if this happened in my local store." and "Report this to McDonald's headquarters! Upload those kids' pictures online!" and "Those kids seriously need to leave. How annoying!"

Perhaps there was a deeper purpose to the kids' actions besides simply irritating McDonald's workers and the public. McDonald's french fries has been very low in price, a large-size order costs only $1.63. Although unlikely, perhaps these incidents might trigger McDonalds to raise the price of their fries, thus making it less affordable and lowering its demand. Considering how unhealthy this fast-food snack is, it might not be a negative thing to support making it less affordable to the general public. 

Below is a footage of the terrifying moment a hot air ballon exploded in a fireball 1,000ft above the Valley Of The Kings in Egypt, killing 19 tourists.

George Zimmerman, a 28 year old multi-racial Hispanic American who was the appointed neighborhood watch coordinator for a gated community shot a 17 year old African American teen on February 26th, 2012, because he looked suspicious, and allegedy attacked Zimmerman punching him and slamming his head into the side walk later. This incident has caused a lot of controversy, riots and tension. As of now Zimmerman is appealing his case, and a bunch of emails sent to him throughout the year have been released. Most emails are very hateful, and others are supporting Zimmerman. There's even a theory about conspiracy from the African American leaders, who are using this case to fuel racism. It's saddening that racist presumptions are so prominent in our society and can be easily triggered. This unfortunate incident will definitely be remembered.

Here's a few of the hatefull emails: "Please shoot yourself, you racist piece of sh-t. You killed an unarmed teen that you stalked.", "You are a RACIST BASTARD, who targeted an innocent Black kid, simply because he was Black."

Here's the supporting emails: "Black people take every opportunity to claim they've been wronged.", "Don't let the damn blacks hold you back."

A hot air balloon tour went terribly wrong in South Egypt. One of the balloons exploded dropping from about 1000 feet with all of its 21 passengers and operators. 19 people are dead and 2 are seriously injured. This is the world's deadliest hot air balloon accident in at least 20 years.

What is going on with food around the world? There has been a break out of recalls due to foreign and disturbing material found in mass produced foods, such as Ikeas Meat balls, Flour, Biscuits and Enchilada Sause. Watch out for these items!

The Raiders defensive tackle Desmond Bryant was arrested on Sunday for criminal mischief. According to Miami-Dade County records he entered a neighbors house inebriated and caused a commotion. But his "crime" is nothing compared to the ridiculous mugshot that followed. Weather he was trying to be funny, or just being adorably drunk, it's hilarious!