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In a first, United Russia has struck a deal under which the other three parliamentary parties are “pretending to play the opposition” in exchange for guarantees that they will secure seats in the next State Duma, a high-ranking elections official said. The agreement, which comes amid an all-out drive to secure votes for United Russia, provides an indication that the Kremlin might be panicking ahead of Sunday’s elections as it faces an unexpected development: growing discontent with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and United Russia’s domination of the political landscape. The elections official said the three smaller Duma parties — the Communist Party, the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party, or LDPR, and the left-leaning A Just Russia — have agreed not to hinder United Russia from getting the percent of the vote it wants in exchange for a promise that they will clear the 7 percent threshold to win Duma seats.     Full Read The Moscow Tim...

A Russian-Mongolian expedition has captured the first-ever photographs of snow leopards in a remote part of the Altai Mountains. Scientists climbed to altitudes of up to 4,000 meters to post 10 photo-traps on Chikhachyova Ridge, on the Russian-Mongolian border. Two snow leopards were photographed by the motion-sensitive cameras between Oct. 26 and 30, before researchers returned to recharge the devices. It's the first time that the ridge — which is believed to be home to about 15 of the elusive predators — has has been simultaneously monitored.    More Read The Moscow Times

Retired Arapahoe County Sheriff, Patrick J. Sullivan Jr., is being held at the Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility for unlawful distribution, manufacturing and dispensing of a controlled substance. The Colorado acility was named after Sullivan when he retired back in 2002 after serving 40 years as a law enforcement official. Ironic, isn’t it? The 68-year-old former cop was arrested on Tuesday after he was caught with a hidden video camera handing over what appeared to be methamphetamine to an adult male in the bedroom of an Aurora residence, according to an arrest affidavit. Sullivan now finds himself on thin ice as he is being accused of trading meth for sexual favors. Two adult males, whose names aren’t being disclosed, claim they had participated in sexual activities with the retired sheriff in exchange to get high.     Full Read

Russia has launched a military partnership project with its Cold War ally Cuba, amid rising tensions over US plans to deploy an anti-missile system in Europe. Russian contractors are to supply production equipment for manufacturing 7.62-mm rifle rounds, Kommersant daily reports. Cuban arms plant called Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara will also receive a license and technology for recycling used ammo. The daily cites its sources as saying that Havana officials decided to purchase the equipment after visiting a similar production line in Venezuela. The insider did not reveal any details on the financial terms of the future deal, but said it was close to being sealed. Russian arms producers further hope to win a contract for upgrading the whole ammunition plant in the future. It was built in late 1970s early 1980s with the help of Soviet specialists.   More Read

GOOGLE Maps today launched an INDOOR version of their popular software to help guide people around places like shopping centres and airports. It automatically displays detailed floor plans of buildings and can even tell which floor you are on by working out your exact location. A pulsing blue dot — just like on the existing Maps Apps — shows where you are and the direction you are facing and can steer you to a particular store or airport gate. The Google Maps 6.0 Android software currently only works at selected sites in Japan and the US, including San Francisco International Airport and Mall of America in Minneapolis.    Read More

GEORGE Osborne scrambled to plug a giant new black hole in the nation's finances yesterday with cuts to workers' wages and toiling families' tax help. The Chancellor said growth had plummeted by two thirds from predictions in March. Mr Osborne admitted that to balance the books now the country must suffer at least two extra years of pain. A second £23billion round of cuts will now be enforced after the next election in 2015 — so Britain will have suffered seven years' hardship. But the Chancellor insisted the misery was vital to keep Britain afloat and away from the chaos engulfing debt-laden countries like Greece.     More Read

YULE be amazed at this festive light show in New York. Projected on to Saks department store on Fifth Avenue, the illuminations show bubbles and snowflakes covering the facade of the famous building. The Snowflake and Bubble Spectacular, by creative agency iris, runs for five hours every night, from November 21 until January 6, which makes it the longest outdoor video mapping experience in the world.   Full Read

A gang in north Afghanistan reportedly indignant at a father's refusal to give his daughter up for marriage have sprayed the family of five with acid. Allegedly led by the suitor, they broke into the house in Kunduz, beat the father up, then sprayed him, his wife and three daughters in the face. The father and eldest daughter are in critical condition, doctors say. The lives of the wife and other two daughters are said to be out of danger after the attack early on Wednesday. Skin-burning acid is used intermittently as a weapon in Afghanistan, usually against women, correspondents say.    More Read

The interwoven banking and sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone has become so dangerous for the world that the US Federal Reserve has been forced to take emergency action, acting as global lender of last resort to shore up Europe's banking system. That it should have to do so as Germany and the European Central Bank hold back for legal reasons and refuse to commit decisive power adds a strange diplomatic twist. The move came once it was clear that Europe's prostrate banks would struggle to roll over $2 trillion (£1.3 trillion) of debts denominated in dollars. Data from ratings agency Fitch shows that US money markets have slashed funding for French banks by 69pc and German banks by 50pc.    Full Read

Scientific evidence shows that blood may have flown off the knife used to stab Stephen Lawrence and on to the collar of one of the two men accused of murdering him, a jury has heard. A microscopic amount of blood was found by scientists on the jacket collar of Gary Dobson 14 years after the murder, the Old Bailey was told. Dobson and fellow defendant David Norris deny involvement in the 1993 murder, when a gang stabbed Lawrence twice after shouting racist abuse at him. Scientist Edward Jarman told the court that a cold case review of clothing taken from the suspects and the victim had made a series of breakthroughs and produced new evidence. The defence claims that the possibility of contamination makes the evidence unreliable. The scientific evidence is at the heart of the crown's case, with the judge, Mr Justice Treacy, telling the jury that Jarman's appearance would be "significant".      Read Full

Farmland birds in Britain have declined to their lowest numbers ever recorded, despite efforts in some parts of the country to protect them from damaging changes to their habitats. The number of birds that forage and nest on farmland has fallen 52% overall in the past 40 years, with some species, including turtle doves, grey partridges, starlings, tree sparrows and corn buntings down more than 80% over the same period. The turtle dove is now the UK's most threatened farmland bird and in danger of being wiped from the British landscape entirely, conservationists said. Other farmland species, including yellow wagtails, lapwings and greenfinches, are also in worrying decline. While most species are suffering from changes in land use and farming practices, the greenfinch is falling victim to the disease trichomoniasis.     More Read

High inflation , cuts and the longest period of wage stagnation on record will see the spending power of the average British family plummet over the next five years, a leading thinktank warned on Wednesday. An Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis predicted that average incomes, adjusted for inflation, will fall by 3% this year and further in 2012. The director of the IFS, Paul Johnson, said: "In the period 2009-10 to 2012-13, real median household incomes will drop by a whopping 7.4% – a record matched only by the falls seen between 1974 and 1977." As up to 2 million public sector workers walked out in protest against changes to their pensions, and signs emerged of a potentially damaging rift within the Liberal Democrats in the wake of George Osborne 's autumn statement, the thinktank warned that families with children will be worse off in 2016 than they were 14 years earlier as they cope with more than a decade of austerity.     Full Read

Actor Rupert Everett and Oscar Wilde 's grandson Merlin Holland were among those at a ceremony in Paris today unveiling the Irish dramatist's restored tomb, which had become blighted by lipstick smears left by thousands of kisses. The ceremony at the Père Lachaise cemetery marked a restoration that returns the memorial to the look its sculptor, Sir Jacob Epstein, would have recognised in 1912. There is now also a protective barrier to deter loving vandals for whom kissing Oscar's tomb had become a cult pastime. The monument to Wilde, who died in Paris aged 46 in abject poverty, features a flying naked angel inspired by the British Museum's Assyrian figures. Although the angel was vandalised in the early 1960s, the tomb was relatively unscathed until 1985, when the graffiti started, with lipstick grease eventually beginning to erode the stone.   More Read

Relatives of an African-American shopkeeper burnt to death in 1964 – apparently by the Ku Klux Klan – are demanding to know why there has been no progress in solving the case after a grand jury hearing was brought to a close this week having failed to reach any conclusions. The expiry of the grand jury looking into the civil rights era murder of Frank Morris in the small town of Ferriday, Louisiana , has prompted expressions of anger and frustration from those involved in the case. Almost a half-century after Morris, 51, was set alight in a petrol bomb attack on his shop, legal experts and the victim's family are incensed that no charges have been pressed – despite the fact that a suspect in the killing has been identified still living in the region. The cold case of Frank Morris was one of more than 100 civil rights era murders that have been reopened by a specialist unit within the US department of justice working with the FBI . Morris's case was reopened ...

General Electric set out proposals on Wednesday to build a new nuclear reactor at Sellafield that would convert the UK's stockpile of radioactive plutonium into electricity. The multibillion pound project would take plutonium – the residue from the UK's nuclear power plants – and use it as fuel for a 600MW reactor that could provide power for 750,000 homes, according to GE Hitachi . The company's "Prism" reactor has been in use for more than 30 years in the US, but if the new plant goes ahead it would be the first such plant in private operation outside the US. However, the government has still not decided which option it prefers for dealing with the UK's plutonium – others include long-term storage, converting it for use in a thorium reactor or building a new mixed oxide fuel ('mox') processing plant – and GE's proposal is likely to face competition. Ministers have been increasingly talking about the future of the stockpil...

'If I were God," says Michael Shannon , "I would just be up there scratching my head, thinking: what the hell am I supposed to do with this? For everyone helping an old lady across the street, there's someone else bludgeoning a person to death. And sometimes they're the same. How can He separate us all out?" He stares at his latte, confounded. The plight of the Almighty does not trouble everyone. But Shannon's sense of empathy extends even to those whose existence he doubts. Or loathes. The day we meet, he is shaken by shots of the dying Gaddafi. "It's just amazing how destructive we're capable of being." He believes vehemently in the capacity for kindness. It is this sensitivity that makes him such a singular actor. Soon he will be a superstar – when he plays the baddie General Zod in Man of Steel , the revamped Superman. So far he has specialised in men desperate to do the right thing: incontinent truth-tellers, reg...

TWO more women have been caught hurling vile racist abuse on a train - in sickening YouTube videos. One shows a female jabbing her finger at the victim before she unleashes a string of obscenities, while other passengers beg her to stop. Another captures an angry traveller launching a racist torrent at foreigners on the Tube as she "welcomes" them to London.     More Read

THESE water babies may have been thrown in at the deep end — but they seem to just love their new hobby. Our snaps show youngsters, from as little as six weeks old, taking to the water at London Baby Swim in Osterley, West London. The specialist centre — catering for the smallest and youngest of swimmers — is making waves with parents keen to give their little ones water skills as soon as physically possible.    More Read

THIS angler landed an a-ray-zing catch — a stingray weighing 20-STONE. Brave Brit Jeremy Wade grappled with one of the world's biggest and deadliest freshwater fish for four hours before reeling the whopper in. The 53-year-old caught the monster short-tailed stingray during a fishing trip to Argentina. The flat fish is one of the heaviest found in the world's freshwater rivers and has been known to kill people with its lethal poisonous barb. Jeremy, host of the TV series River Monsters, hooked the 280lb specimen while fishing on a small motor boat on the River Parana near Buenos Aires.     Full Read

THIS plucky jackal wasn't taking it lion down — when a big cat sat on him. The animal squared up to his giant foe after being squashed as he wandered around a waterhole. The incredible pictures were taken in the Ongava Game Reserve in Namibia. And experts were amazed because they had never seen a jackal brave enough to take on a lion before. Reserve director Dr Ken Stratford said: "The tail end of the dry season is a time of year when the waterholes in Ongava Game Reserve are particularly busy.     Read More

HUNGRY Ross Dance bit into a Nando's chicken wrap — and found he was chomping on a live FROG. The horrified diner managed to spit out the 4in-long animal, but fears he may have already eaten one of its legs.  Accounts manager Ross, who was with his girlfriend Karen and a pal, said: "I bit into the wrap, but couldn't chew through it. I excused myself and got it out of my mouth. " There was a whole frog there. It was still alive. I felt really ill."   Ross, 32, was so angry at the chain's outlet in Victoria, central London, that he took a mobile photo and insisted on taking the evidence home in a plastic tub.      Read More

A GRISLY jumble of dogs lies dead — slaughtered in the name of football. This horrific photo was taken at an animal "shelter" in the Ukraine, joint host of the Euro 2012 tournament. Authorities have ordered thousands of stray dogs and cats to be rounded up so the streets look spick and span for visiting foreign teams and supporters.    More Read

A JUDGE blasted a driver as he jailed him for killing a motorcyclist while texting his gran. Father-of-three Stephen Rawlinson, 26, was told: "Even the time to text eight characters is the time it takes to kill a man." Judge Jonathan Rose said the distracted motorist's "arrogance" cost married factory worker Nigel Earnshaw his life. The 58-year-old was riding his Honda 125cc bike to start a nightshift when Rawlinson's Ford Focus ploughed into him at a roundabout in Saltaire, West Yorks. Mr Earnshaw was rushed to hospital with a smashed ankle and died 18 days later from deep vein thrombosis.   Read More

FURIOUS sport stars and presenters branded the BBC a "disgrace" last night for failing to shortlist any women for Sports Personality of the Year. The corporation's own pundits called it a "desperate situation" after ten men were put through to face a public vote at the prestigious awards bash next month. No female athlete was included in the list — despite the likes of swimmers Rebecca Adlington and Keri-Anne Payne, and triathlete Chrissie Wellington winning world golds this year.     Read Here

An eight-month-old baby is desperately clinging to life after he was miraculously pulled from a Thanksgiving day blaze which left four of his family critically ill.  Firefighter Neil Malone furiously pumped baby Josiah Alexis' chest giving him the 'breath of life' after he was rescued from the fire in Brooklyn. 'I knew I was working against the clock — every second, every minute is crucial,' Malone told the New York Daily News.    Read More

A five-year-old boy who died suddenly has given the gift of life to four people.  Luca Giovannini died two weeks ago, only 24 hours after suffering what is believed to be a rare reaction to a usually treatable virus. When doctors told his parents Vickie and Renzo that their son was not going to survive they made the decision to donate some of his organs for transplant. One of those Luca has saved is a two-year-old girl who was close to death, and is now expected to be home in time for Christmas.    Read Full

A coroner yesterday criticised a hospital for discharging a  student hours before she killed herself by jumping from the 13th floor of a tower block. Victoria Nye’s father Graham had begged doctors not to let her leave and warned staff: ‘If she goes back to her flat she will throw herself off the balcony.’ Coroner Keith Wiseman described the inquest as ‘as troubling and concerning as any I have dealt with over the best part of 20 years’.   More Read

Thanks largely to the Kepler space telescope, astronomers have discovered more than 2,000 planets orbiting distant stars — not half bad considering that until recently we knew of only eight planets in the entire universe, all of them in the immediate neighborhood. The point of Kepler isn't simply to rack up numbers, though: the ultimate goal is to find worlds similar to Earth — places where there's a chance that alien life might have taken hold. Those planets could then get a closer look as a new, more powerful generation of telescopes comes on line. But the search for life across interstellar space will still not be easy, and even the most advanced telescope on the drawing boards will have to work hard to suss it out, so it will be key to choose the best possible targets. That's the reasoning behind a new paper in the journal Astrobiology in which environmental scientist Dirk Schulze-Makuch, of Washington State University, along with nine other col...

Foreign businesses are ramping up interest in the long-isolated but potentially lucrative market of Myanmar, as signs of a thaw between its government and Western leaders raise hopes of a possible end to Western sanctions. For now, the push is confined mainly to Asian companies that aren't covered by tough sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe since the late 1990s to punish Myanmar for its poor human-rights record. Some investors held back because of concerns about risks to their reputations, while others doubted the opportunities were worth pursuing and now are changing their minds. Meanwhile, Western companies are looking for ways to get back in, though few are willing to discuss plans in public or in depth because of a possible backlash from customers who remain skeptical about recent reforms in the country. U.S. officials say they don't intend to lift sanctions until they see more changes in Myanmar, including more transparency in the country's dea...

Lord Lawson has accused David Attenborough of sensationalism and alarmism over the environment. The former Tory chancellor, who is a climate change sceptic, said the broadcaster’s claims about global warming were sheer speculation. In the final episode of his natural history series Frozen Planet, which is broadcast next Wednesday, Sir David is expected to suggest the Arctic could be free of ice by 2020.   Read More

China's nuclear arsenal may be many times larger than estimates suggest, a group of students have claimed after three years of painstaking researching through restricted documents. Led by a former top Pentagon official, the students at Georgetown University, in Washington DC, have scrutinised satellite imagery, translated Chinese military documents and filtered through thousands of online files. The focus of their extensive research has been the thousands of miles of underground tunnels dug by the Second Artillery Corps to hide China's missile arsenal.    Read More

It's a familiar scene - two testosterone-fuelled drivers line up at a set of traffic lights and prepare to settle who is the best in a drag race. As children and cyclists cross the road in The Woodlands, Houston, the drivers of the $40,000 C5 Corvette and $45,000 C6 Corvette rev their engines as they wait for the lights to change. Both cars accelerate rapidly as the lights switch to green, racing across the junction side by side. But as the video footage shows, instead of one motorist emerging triumphant, both were left red-faced as one lost control, swerved into the other and sent both of them crashing into trees.   Full Read

When passers-by heard meowing coming from inside a clothes recycling bin their first thought was to get help as quickly as possible. Especially as it was feared the trapped cat could be missing pet Puss-Puss, who may have been struggling get out as she was pregnant. Firefighters were even called to the clothes bank recycling centre on Anglesey, North Wales, as part of the 12-hour effort to rescue the trapped animal. In the end it had needed engineers with cutting equipment to slice through the steel. - but all they discovered inside was a battery-operated toy.    Read Here

A stay-at-home father who dodged tax on £4.7million-worth of electrical goods he sold on eBay was jailed today. Gregory Allnutt, who has a seven-year-old son, avoiding paying more than £420,000 in VAT. He raked in £4,000 a month over three years selling cut price electrical goods on the internet. The 40-year-old, from Croydon, set up a company called Shapewise to sell nutrition products from the comfort of his home. But instead he bought tax-free electrical goods from the European Union through online site Pixmania before selling them on for a profit. Instead of declaring the sales and adding on the price of VAT, he undercut his rivals and maximised his profits.      Read More

A father-of-one has shown off his unusual new thumb after he lost his original in a carpentry accident. James Byrne, 29, had his big toe grafted on to his hand after he severed his left thumb while sawing through a piece of wood last December. Surgeons had first tried to sew his original thumb back on but the blood would not start flowing again despite months of treatment, including using leeches.    More

QUEENSLAND MPs have voted in favour of legalising same-sex civil unions during an historic night in Parliament.    After almost four hours of debate Andrew Fraser's private member's bill was passed by a vote of 47 to 40, the Courier-Mail reported. The bill, introduced by Deputy Premier Andrew Fraser, enables same-sex couples to register their union with the Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. The bill will grant same-sex couples the right to enter in to legally recognised civil unions. It prompted a strong reaction from gay rights, religious and family groups.       More Read

AN official says two farmers fed up with bribery demands emptied three bags filled with slithering snakes in a busy tax office in northern India.    Uttar Pradesh state official Ramsukh Sharma says the 40 or so snakes of different sizes and species - including at least four deadly cobras - sent clerks and villagers scurrying atop tables and out the door to escape the office in Basti, about 300km southeast of Lucknow.    Read More

DANIEL Craig thinks the Kardashians behave like "f**king idiots".    The actor explained while he doesn't "judge" the reality TV family – whose most famous member is Kim - and acknowledges that they have made "millions" through their show Keeping Up with the Kardashians , he doesn't agree with selling your soul to make good television. He explained: "It's a career, I'm not being cynical. And why wouldn't you? Look at the Kardashians, they're worth millions. Millions! I don't think they were that badly off to begin with, but now look at them. "You see that and you think, 'What, you mean all I have to do is behave like a f***ing idiot on television and then you'll pay me millions?' I'm not judging it. Well I am obviously." The 43-year-old star – who is married to actress Rachel Weisz – thinks there is "a lot to be said" for keeping your private lif...

AN off-duty police woman has been hailed a hero after risking her life to save a man who fell under a train at Edgewater station late yesterday.    Police said the 34-year-old man's leg was severed below the left knee after he was hit by an incoming train at the northern suburbs Joondalup line station late yesterday. The off-duty police woman, who was travelling on the train, leapt into action after the man stumbled on the platform and went under the moving train. Risking her own life, Detective Sergeant Raelene Longden, was lowered between the platform and the train where she located the injured man. When she was told of the safety issue due to high voltage electricity she made her way to the other side of the train.     Full Read

A MAYLANDS man today struggled to explain what happened to his wife after she was killed while walking their son on Tuesday night.    Gurdeep Gurdeep fought back tears as he recalled how his wife, Manju Bala, 25, was hit by a car as she walked ahead of him pushing their son in a pram on Peninsula Road. The accident happened after an 18-year-old P-plater lost control of his vehicle. The woman was rushed to Royal Perth Hospital but died shortly after arriving. Mr Gurdeep said the accident happened very quickly and, despite telling his wife to get out of the way, it was too late.    More Read

HARRISON COUNTY -- Austin Beaver, 10, is recuperating at home after receiving more than 100 stitches in his face following a reported attack by a neighborhood pit bull. He can’t go back to school until a plastic surgeon releases him to resume normal activity, said his mother, Brandy Beaver. “He has an incision underneath his eye, but he is very lucky he didn’t lose his eye or his ear,” she said. “He has all his limbs and he’s alive.” Austin, his brother Mason, 8, and friend Michael Horst, 9, have been summoned to appear in court Dec. 12 along with Daniel Catchings, whose dog allegedly attacked them after the dog ran out of Catchings’ home and the boys tried to help catch the dog.    Read Full

THE wife of a Gold Coast businessman accused of running a tax avoidance scheme cannot refuse to answer questions about her husband's alleged illegal activities, the High Court has ruled. In a majority opinion, the court held that the common law does not recognise a privilege against spousal incrimination. The case arose when Louise Stoddart was called before the Australian Crime Commission to give evidence in an examination of her husband, Ewan Alisdair James Stoddart in April 2009. Mrs Stoddart, who worked part-time as a secretary in her husband's accounting practice, refused to answer questions about her husband, claiming that as his wife she had the right not to give evidence that might incriminate him.    Read Full

For anyone who watched the phone-hacking scandal and wondered, ''What were those journalists thinking ?'', answers have come from a former reporter at the News of the World , who says editors including ''criminal-in-chief'' Rebekah Brooks had encouraged the ''perfectly acceptable'' practice. Paul McMullan gave frank evidence about the mind-set at the former tabloid paper to Britain's Leveson inquiry into media practices on Tuesday. He said: Former editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson knew about phone hacking, and their denials made them ''the scum of journalism for trying to drop me and my colleagues in it''; Only evil people needed privacy: ''Privacy is for paedos''; Hacking was ''perfectly acceptable'' given the need to find the truth and the sacrifices reporters made for their careers.     Read Here

GONE are the days of not knowing if your piece of rump steak will be tender and juicy or tough and fatty. More than 80,000 consumers have taste-tested 605,000 pieces of beef cooked using eight methods to develop a standard for the popular red meat to help consumers know exactly what they are buying. A new green and gold Meat Standards Australia (MSA) logo will be used by butchers and some supermarkets across the country to identify beef that has met an independent consumer standard for tenderness, juiciness and flavour. If the cut of beef has the logo, it means it has been graded as being at least ''good everyday'' meat.      More Read

(CNN) -- A Chilean judge requested the extradition of a former U.S. military official Tuesday, accusing him of involvement in the 1973 killing of an American journalist that inspired an Oscar-winning movie. An indictment charges former Navy Capt. Ray E. Davis with the homicides of journalist Charles Horman and student Frank Teruggi. Former Chilean military official Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo was also charged in the killings, which occurred shortly after the South American nation's military coup. Horman's disappearance and his family's attempts to find him inspired the 1982 movie "Missing," starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. The film won an Academy Award for best screenplay, and also sparked a libel lawsuit from several U.S. officials for the way the movie portrayed them.    Read Here

Washington (CNN) -- On the day he shot President Ronald Reagan, 25-year-old John Hinckley Jr. left in his hotel room a letter addressed to young actress Jodie Foster, with whom he was infatuated. The letter began: "Dear Jodie. There is a definite possibility I will be killed in my attempt to get Reagan." See letters Hinckley sent to Foster But on March 30, 1981, Hinckley survived. His gun empty after he fired six shots at the president in less than two seconds, Hinckley was tackled by police and Secret Service agents. He was rushed away and all but disappeared into custody for the past three decades. On Wednesday, a federal judge will begin a week and half of hearings on whether Hinckley eventually should be released from the mental hospital where he has been a patient since his 1982 trial ended in a jury verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.     Read Full

London (CNN) -- Mass strikes began across the United Kingdom Wednesday, with up to 2 million public sector workers walking off jobs in schools, hospitals and police stations to protest proposed pension reforms. Chaos was predicted at Heathrow airport near London, one of the world's busiest international airports, but Wednesday morning operations were more or less normal, officials said. Lines at immigration counters were moving smoothly, but BAA, the company that operates Heathrow, said they could get worse and incoming passengers could expect waits of two to three hours because of strikes by border control staff. British Airways said it had not canceled any of its own flights, although a few code-sharing flights were called off. BAA could not say how many flights were being canceled.    Read More

Former secretary of state for Northern Ireland Peter Hain has met with police over the alleged hacking of his computer. The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday that any hacking may have been carried out by private detectives working for News International. It said it was related to his role in Northern Ireland. A spokesman for Mr Hain said he had discussed the matter with detectives from 'Operation Tuleta'. It is looking into privacy intrusions not involving phone-hacking. The spokesman said: "Earlier today Peter Hain met with Metropolitan police officers leading Operation Tuleta regarding an investigation into the alleged hacking of his official and personal computers during his time as secretary of state for Northern Ireland."    More Read

The Catholic bishop of Raphoe has apologised for "poor judgements" in managing priests accused of "horrific acts of abuse" against children. Bishop Philip Boyce was speaking as a review of the County Donegal diocese found "a significant level" of clerical abuse cases in past decades. The case of Father Eugene Greene, the convicted paedophile, stood out. The review is one of six, including two from Northern Ireland dioceses, published on Wednesday. A report for the Derry diocese said it had dealt with 23 allegations of sex abuse against its priests. A total of 31 allegations had been reported to the police in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.    More

A strike by public sector workers is the biggest day of industrial action since the 1979 "Winter of Discontent", trade union leaders have said. Up to two million people have joined Wednesday's walk-out across the UK. Many services across Northern Ireland have been disrupted. Thousands of strikers have converged on Belfast City Hall and NI towns for rallies opposing changes to pensions. Trade unionists have been picketing hundreds of civil service buildings. Translink said there had been a total shut down of all rail and bus services. It is thought that about two thirds of all schools in Northern Ireland - that is about 800 - are closed.     More Read

A US Judge has ordered Google, Yahoo, Twitter and Facebook, among others, to delist domain names linked to websites selling counterfeit goods. It represents a significant step in the ongoing battle against the sale of fake items online. The case was brought by luxury goods maker Chanel against 600 sites which it had identified as trading in counterfeits. Many experts were surprised at the scope of the Nevada judge's ruling. US firm GoDaddy, which manages around 45 million domain names, has been given control of the web addresses of the 600 firms. It has been told to ensure that none of the sites can be accessed.     Full Read

Police in Hong Kong have launched an investigation into a fire in a Kowloon street-market which killed nine people and injured more than 30 others.  The fire broke out in the early morning and tore through stalls and apartment buildings in a narrow street in Mongkok. Officials say they suspect the fire was started deliberately. Donald Tsang, Hong Kong's chief executive, has promised a thorough investigation. Television footage showed a wall of flame and thick black smoke as the fire tore through the flimsy stalls along Fa Yuen Street.    Read Full

China has redefined the level at which people in rural areas are considered poor to include everyone earning less than $1 a day (6.5 yuan). Previously people in the countryside were only regarded as poor if they earned less than 55 cents a day. The move should see millions more people get access to state benefits. Some 27 million people were classifie d as rural poor last year. The new threshold is expected to increase that number fourfold. Chinese President Hu Jintao has made tackling rural poverty a cornerstone of his leadership.   More Read