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A school of giant Nomura's jellyfish are being blamed for the sinking of a fishing boat earlier this week, sending the three man crew overboard, and the 10-ton ship to the bottom of the ocean just off the eastern coast of Japan.
According to this story from Sky News, the fishermen were attempting to pull in a net filled with the creatures, but the weight of the catch caused the boat to roll onto its side and begin taking on water.
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They are the face of Chilean guidebooks: giant statues made of volcanic rock scattered across Easter Island.
Constructed centuries ago, the figures are thought to represent ancestors or chiefs of the indigenous Polynesian population. It is their descendants who now inhabit the tiny triangular island nearly 2,000 miles off the Chilean coast.
But they're fed up with the hundreds of immigrants who keep flooding the island in search of fortune. These immigrants, they say, are destroying the ecosystem, taking their jobs and ruining the historical legacy of their ancestors.
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Venezuela announced the deployment of 15,000 troops to the border to increase security following the recent violence. They arrested nearly 100 undocumented Colombians yesterday on the border as they search for "paramilitaries." They also claim to have arrested 3 DAS agents. Venezuelan President Chavez has shut down several border crossings and threatened to shut down more. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Maduro said the violence along the border was part of a US and Colombian plot to destabilize Venezuela.
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Albino killers in Tanzania are now at long last facing justice, seven men have been found guilty of butchering albinos and selling their body parts to witchdoctors and have been sentenced to death for their crimes. Following the international pressure on Tanzania to take control of the situation there was a visible crackdown on witchdoctors and several people were successfully prosecuted for their parts in the albino slayings which have plagued the country in the past couple of years
Twenty-nine South African beaches have been awarded Blue Flag status this year, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk announced last week.
This was ten more than last year and extremely good news for tourism, he said in a statement issued after a ceremony to mark the announcement at Muizenberg beach in Cape Town.
"South Africa's Blue Flag beaches increase our desirability and reputation as a world class destination."
While noting the significant steps that have been taken in Mauritania to tackle slavery, an independent United Nations human rights expert today called for a comprehensive strategy to put an end to this scourge, warning of its impact on the country’s future.
“Unaddressed, slavery in all its forms may be an obstacle to the stability, sustainable development and prosperity of Mauritania,” said Gulnara Shahinian, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, at the end of her visit to the country.
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The ice atop Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania has continued to retreat rapidly, declining 26 percent since 2000, scientists say in a new report. 85% of the ice cover that was present in 1912 has vanished. It is anticipated to be completely go...
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For weeks at Lindy’s General Store in Pembroke, Massachusetts, customers had been putting money into a can on the counter top to support Paula’s People. Paula’s People is a family team representing Paula Swanson, a victim of breast cancer. The team was planning to enter a road race that raises money in the fight against breast cancer.
Hurricane Ida made landfall near Tasbapauni, Nicaragua, about 60 miles north-northeast of Bluefields Thursday morning.
Ida came ashore as a Category 1 hurricane with a well-defined eye, according to satellite imagery, National Hurricane Center forecasters said.
Hurricane Ida is expected to weaken as it makes its way inland over the next few days. As AHN reported earlier, the slow-moving storm is expected to bring heavy rainfall and flash flooding to eastern Nicaragua and eastern Honduras.
MSNBC reports that there are at least two people dead and no suspect in custody. The police have not released information about the suspect, but early reports indicate that there was just one shooter. The shootings took place on multiple floors of the office building. AP reports that the building is on lock down and surrounded
The hero cop who ended the bloody rampage at Fort Hood had been directing traffic moments before she confronted the gunman and pumped four bullets into him despite being shot herself.
Civilian police Sgt. Kimberly Munley and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfire Thursday afternoon, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said Friday.
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A plastic bottle thrown into a Taipei recycling bin could be reincarnated as a blanket to warm disaster victims in any of 20 countries, thanks to a unique project by the world’s largest Buddhist charity.
The Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation has been taking plastic bottles from the waste stream of Taipei, a city of 2.6 million, for three years to convert them into about 244,000 polyester blankets intended for disaster zones. It has sent volunteers with relief supplies to some of the world’s biggest disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005 and last year’s devastating Sichuan earthquake in China.
In an unfortunate road accident at least 30 passengers were killed and 26 others injured as an overcrowded 32-seater bus fell into a 100-ft deep gorge in northern India Friday. The injured had been rushed to hospital in the hill town of Dharamshala. Six of the injured are in critical state.
The incident happened in the Haripur area of Himachal Pradesh, about 210 kilometres (130 miles) from the state capital Shimla. While the authorities are still investigating the cause of accident, as per the initial reports the bus was overcrowded and while negotiating a turn the driver lost control of the bus.
Once a year, North Korea’s often vitriolic rhetoric machine fires up with special intensity to attack those who attack its human rights record. The exchanges usually come toward the end of the year when the U.N. General Assembly approves what has b...
Sokha and Makara are from Poipet in Cambodia. When they were just 14 and 15 years old, their mother was ill with a liver problem. The family needed money to pay for the medicine to treat her. They also hoped to buy some land to build a home. A man promised good jobs for the girls in nearby Thailand, and offered the family some money if they would let them go. Sokha and Makara were excited at the thought of being able to help the family with the money they earned.
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The 78 Sri Lankans aboard the Oceanic Viking in port in Indonesia have declared that their "final decision" is to remain on the Australian ship.
In handwritten letters thrown from the vessel, the Sri Lankans say they have rejected all offers made by Australian officials in negotiations over the past few weeks.
Aussies are definitely not impervious to the charms of a cold can of Fosters; after all, they do have record-breaking pub crawls and boats made of beer cans. But if you're flying on a domestic Qantas flight Down Under, there are a few less beers going round these days.
Citing unruly behavior, mostly from drunken mine workers heading home after a couple of weeks working in the desert, Qantas has banned full strength beer and spirits on all flights within Western Australia.
Kevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister, announced the trip, saying the prince would use the visit to "get to know the Australian people".
During his time in New Zealand, the prince will represent the Queen at the opening of the Supreme Court building in Wellington
So far 27 people have been rescued from the unidentified craft, but another 11 were believed to be missing.
Merchant ships that responded to distress calls from the stricken vessel plucked dozens from the sea, while some of the survivors swam to a life raft dropped by an Australian military plane. One person taken aboard a rescue vessel died.
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One in 20 children think Adolf Hitler coached Germany's national football team, a survey has revealed.
The poll of over 2,000 British kids - testing what the know about the world wars - also found one in six kids believed Auschwitz is a World War Two theme park.
Berlin celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of its notorious wall last night with an emotionally tone-deaf decision to erect another one around a U2 pop concert dedicated to freedom.
True, there were no minefields or watchtowers, but the new temporary wall erected before the performance certainly sent the wrong signals.
Britain has become the online "designer drugs" capital of Europe with more than a third of all internet retailers that sell "legal highs" based in the UK, according to a report from the European Union's drug agency.
This new generation of online "head shops" is at the centre of a rapidly growing market in highly potent synthetic drugs, such as Spice, that mimic the effects of illegal substances such as cannabis and ecstasy.
It must be feisty female day on the TOW, because we have another dustup…
News out of the UK is that Miss England Rachel Christie has given up her crown after being arrested on suspicion of a nightclub assault!!
Organizers of Miss England said the 21-year-old wanted to concentrate on clearing her name. She allegedly punched Miss Manchester, Sara Beverley Jones, 24, in the face in a dispute at a Manchester nightclub.
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Anecdotal evidence suggests breast cancer is on the rise in Pakistan but budgetary constraints, bogus healers and a lack of awareness is hampering early diagnosis, according to healthcare professionals.
“While we do not have any official data on breast cancer, from my experience I have seen the numbers go up,” said Rufina Soomro, consultant general and breast surgeon at the Liaquat National Hospital (LNH) Breast Clinic in Karachi, one of the country’s leading breast cancer treatment centres.
"Migrant workers bring with them a profusion of diseases - hepatitis, measles, tuberculosis, AIDS and drug addiction: Our critics can be as sanctimonious as they like, but unless we stop the wave of migrant workers, the whole character of the State of Israel, its Jewish character, will be under threat."
The resort by Israel's Interior Minister Eli Yishai to a blatant racist stereotype is the latest outburst in an increasingly heated public debate....
A young Iraqi woman died tonight in Arizona because her father believed she had become too Westernized. Noor Faleh Almaleki, the 20-year old pictured here, moved to the Phoenix area in the mid-90s with her family.
Her father, Faleh Hassan Almaleki,...
The intensifying conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan has claimed considerable collateral damage, including the kidnapping of Greek teacher and aid worker Thanassis Lerounis.
Lerounis was the only Westerner living in a series of lush interconnected valleys inhabited by a lost pre-Islamic tribe on Pakistan’s mountainous frontier.
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