A pair of car bombings in Baghdad has killed 19 people. The blasts happened in the middle of the afternoon rush hour. The first bomb exploded outside a restaurant and the second a few miles away at a passport office.
Insurgents connected to al-Qaeda have been behind the overwhelming majority of the violence and have left 240 people dead this month. The current assault is part of an ongoing campaign of bombings that ramped up with a massive attack on July 23rd that killed 107.
More than 50 people were injured in today’s attacks.
The government confirmed a suicide bomber carried out the first attack while TV news channel al-Sharqiya said that both attacks were suicide bombings.
On the same day that Italy’s prime minister proclaimed he could see a “light at the end of the tunnel” for the Eurozone debt crisis reports surfaced that the unemployment rate is at a record high.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti met with French President Francois Hollande in Paris for discussions on the euro. Hollande agreed their had been “significant progress” in recent weeks and that the euro should be “defended, preserved and consolidated.” Continue reading →
Over 200,000 people have fled the Syrian city of Aleppo due to the intense fighting between rebels and government forces.
In addition to those fleeing the battles, UN Humanitarian head Valerie Amos stated many are trapped within the city and need urgent help to escape or be provided with food and clean water. Continue reading →
Ebola, the virus that kills up to 90% of those infected, has broken out in Uganda and now has killed one person in the capital city of Kampala. President Yoweri Museveni is urging people to avoid physical contact in an attempt to stop the disease.
Health officials are attempting to track down anyone who had contact with the victim in an attempt to constrain the outbreak. Nationwide, fourteen have died from the disease in this latest outbreak. Continue reading →
The recession in the UK officially deepened after reports of the country’s gross national product falling .7% between April and June. The fall was more than double the .3% drop in the first three months of 2012.
The fall marks the fourth negative quarter in five quarters for the UK with the latest the worst of the four declines. It’s the largest fall in GDP growth since a 1.6% fall in the first quarter of 2009. Continue reading →
NASA is reporting the ice sheet that normally covers the nation of Greenland experienced an “unprecedented” melting in a four day span. The area of thawed ice jumped from 40% to 97% from July 8th to July 12th.
The jump is over 40% higher than any previous melting seen by satellites in the last 30 years.
Ice core records shows that the current ice melt at Greenland’s highest point, Summit station, is in line with levels not recorded since 1889. Continue reading →
Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, is calling for the world to take action to stop the “slaughter” in Syria caused by the country’s civil war.
The plea from the UN head came as reports came from Damascus of 23 people killed in a massacre in the Qaboun neighborhood. The reports from Damascus were released after the government positioned forces around the city of Aleppo. Continue reading →
Police have labeled a mass murder plot in Maryland as a possible copycat attempt of the Dark Knight Rises massacre in Colorado.
Neil Prescott, 28, referred to himself as “a joker” like the theatre killer in Aurora, Colorado. Prescott called his employer and said he was coming in to “shoot the place up” after finding out that he was about to be fired, according to police sources. Continue reading →
Major General Robert Mood, head of the UN’s Syrian Observer team that left last week, told Reuters that it’s “only a matter of time” until the government of President Bashar al-Assad falls in Syria.
“It is only a matter of time before a regime that is using such heavy military panel and disproportional violence against the civilian population is going to fall,” Mood told Reuters. Continue reading →
The anti-Christian organization Freedom from Religion Foundation threatened and intimidated the city of Steubenville, Ohio into removing a cross from the city’s logo. The group, dedicated to removing Christians from public life, told the city they would bring multiple lawsuits unless the city removed the logo on their own.
The logo contains shadow renditions of important locations within the city. The cross was part of a building connected to Franciscan University, one of the city’s biggest employers and most recognized city entities. Continue reading →
