Vince Li, Greyhound bus killer, granted unsupervised passes to Winnipeg

The man who beheaded a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba in 2008 has been granted more freedoms from the hospital where he is living, this time in the form of unsupervised day passes to visit Winnipeg. Tim McLean, 22, was stabbed and beheaded by Li aboard a Greyhound bus near Portage La Prairie, Man., on July 30, 2008. The Manitoba Review Board, which released its decision on Friday afternoon, also said it may consider eventually allowing Li to live in a group home.

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Prince Harry to quit the Army later this year

Prince Harry is to leave the armed forces this year, the Evening Standard can reveal today. He has taken the decision to end his active military career after having served two tours of duty on the front line in Afghanistan with distinction. Harry, 30, plans to focus on his charity work and aims to spend “a significant period abroad” on field projects in Africa.

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Singapore at 50: From swamp to skyscrapers

Fifty years ago Singapore became an independent state,

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China’s Great Firewall is demolishing foreign websites

Craig Hockenberry noticed something strange was happening to his website one morning last month: traffic had suddenly spiked to extremely high levels—equivalent to more than double the amount of data transmitted when Kim Kardashian’s naked photos were published last year. The reason, he discovered, was that Chinas Great Firewall—the elaborate machinery that China’s government uses to censor the internet—was redirecting enormous amounts of bogus traffic to his site quickly swamping his servers.

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Happy Christmas! Stolen Picasso posted to New York by FedEx

It appeared to be a mundane parcel like scores of others lovingly posted across the ocean in the run-up to the holiday season: a package labelled “art craft/toy” with a value put at $37 (£24) and the message “Happy Christmas”. But when US customs officers examined the contents, they found a stolen Picasso painting worth at least $2.5m, which had been lost for 14 years. The 1911 Cubist masterwork, La Coiffeuse (The Hairdresser), had been registered missing from...

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Indiana may install 'baby boxes' for abandoned infants

A 2-foot-long metal box is Indiana's attempt to save newborn infants from dangerous abandonment and possible death. The proposed baby box is an answer to the state's problem of unwanted infants who are abandoned in the woods, creeks and dumpsters. Local officials want to put these boxes in local hospitals, fire stations, churches and nonprofits for parents to use as a safe, anonymous last resort.

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China draft counterterror law strikes fear in foreign tech firms

China is weighing a far-reaching counterterrorism law that would require technology firms to hand over encryption keys and install security "backdoors", a potential escalation of what some firms view as the increasingly onerous terms of doing business in the world's second largest economy. A parliamentary body read a second draft of the country's first anti-terrorism law this week and is expected to adopt the legislation in the coming weeks or months.

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Graffiti artist Banksy highlights condition of people living in Gaza

The elusive graffiti artist Banksy has reemerged among Palestinian ruins to give his instantly recognizable stenciling style a meaningful backdrop. A politically charged travelogue of a war-ravaged neighborhood appeared on his YouTube channel late Wednesday with the title "Make this the year YOU discover a new destination.” The footage shows Palestinian civilians standing among the devastation of war as darkly satirical captions appear.

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Weed Vending Machines Have Hit the U.S.

This month, Washington state’s legalization of recreational marijuana seemingly reached its logical conclusion with the installation of the state’s first weed vending machine in Seattle. In abstract, the device (which is also Bitcoin-compatible, just for added zeitgeist-y value) sounds like a terrible idea, prone to the sort of general abuse that could set back the tide of legalization that’s been sweeping the country.

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Toronto Police Try To Uncover Riddle Of Mystery Tunnel

Police in Toronto are asking for the public's help to solve the riddle of a mysterious tunnel discovered more than a month ago. Investigations have so far been unable to determine who built the tunnel or its purpose, but its discovery has fueled security concerns ahead of the Pan American and Parapan American Games in Canada this summer.

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Oxford University Is Older Than the Aztecs

The historical timeline you keep in your head is all messed up.

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Doctors Join Forces With Lawyers To Reduce Firearms Deaths

More than 32,000 people die each year in the United States in gun-related suicides, violence and accidents. The physicians seek universal background checks and other measures to reduce the toll.

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Why 40-Year-Old Tech Is Still Running America's Air Traffic Control

On Friday, September 26, 2014, a telecommunications contractor named Brian Howard woke early and headed to Chicago Center, an air traffic control hub in Aurora, Illinois, where he had worked for eight years. He had decided to get stoned and kill himself, and as his final gesture he planned to take a chunk of the US air traffic control system with him.

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Marco Rubio Tries To Lecture Obama On ISIS, Commits Epic Error

Rubio says Obama doesn't want to fight ISIS because that would upset Iran.

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Research shows Asian herb holds promise as treatment for Ebola virus disease

New research that focuses on the mechanism by which Ebola virus infects a cell and the discovery of a promising drug therapy candidate is being published February 27, 2015, in the journal Science. Dr. Robert Davey, scientist and Ewing Halsell Scholar in the Department of Immunology and Virology at Texas Biomedical Research Institute announced today that a small molecule called Tetrandrine derived from an Asian...

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Life in Prison for Selling $20 of Weed

On September 5, 2008, Fate Vincent Winslow watched a plainclothes stranger approach him. Homeless and hungry, on a dark street rife with crime, the 41-year-old African American was anxious to make contact, motivated by one singular need: food. Another man, this one white, stood next to Winslow. He is referred to in court documents exclusively as “Perdue.”

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To Fight Homegrown Jihadis, Germany Takes Lesson From Battle With Neo-Nazis

Germany has turned away hundreds of neo-Nazis from violence and reintegrated them into society. Could the same approach work for German would-be jihadis?

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Couple married 67 years dies holding hands

Floyd and Violet Hartwig died holding hands at the end of a marriage lasting 67 years. Their daughter, Donna Scharton, said Thursday that once the family sensed the couple was close to death, they pushed their two hospice beds together, gently joining their hands. Floyd went first, followed by Violet five hours later. They died Feb. 11 at home in Central California, as they had wished.

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Mom loses custody for alienating dad

In a stunning and unusual family law decision, a Toronto judge has stripped a mother of custody of her three children after the woman spent more than a decade trying to alienate them from their father. The mother's "consistent and overwhelming" campaign to brainwash the children into thinking their father was a bad person was nothing short of emotional abuse, Justice Faye McWatt of the Superior Court of Justice wrote in her decision.

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Bangladeshi-American blogger Avijit Roy hacked to death in Dhaka

Machete-wielding assailants hacked to death a blogger in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, in the latest of a series of attacks on writers who support freethinking values in the Muslim-majority nation.

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Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov shot dead in Moscow

Former Kremlin insider and critic of Vladimir Putin who was due to take part in march on Sunday was reportedly killed near the Kremlin.

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Why Going Back In Time Will Make You A Better Architect

Are you passionate about architecture? Did you know that looking to the past can make you a better architect? Here is how to rediscover your love of design and extend your skills even further.

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Walker perceived to liken union protesters to IS

The Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference's new post-speech question-and-answer format claimed its first victim on Thursday evening.

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How Oregon's Second Largest City Vanished in a Day

The mere utterance of Vanport was known to send shivers down the spines of "well-bred" Portlanders. Not because of any ghost story, or any calamitous disaster—that would come later—but because of raw, unabashed racism. Built in 110 days in 1942, Vanport was always meant to be a temporary housing project, a superficial solution to Portland’s wartime housing shortage. At its height, Vanport housed 40,000 residents...

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Yemen ex-president amassed up to $60 billion, colluded with rebels

Yemeni ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh is suspected of corruptly amassing as much as $60 billion, equivalent to Yemen's annual GDP, during his long rule, and colluding in a militia takeover last year, U.N.-appointed investigators have told the Security Council. The report by the world body's Panel of Experts on Yemen echoes criticism by his opponents that Saleh's rule from 1978 to 2012 was marred by graft, and that even out of office he is fomenting instability...

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'You are not suitably dressed': Quebec judge refused to hear single mother's case because of hijab

A Quebec Court judge refused to hear the case this week of a single mother trying to retrieve her car because the woman would not remove her Muslim head scarf. “In my opinion, you are not suitably dressed,” Judge Eliana Marengo told Rania El-Alloul Tuesday, according to a courtroom recording obtained by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

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Freezing Temperatures Cause Amazing and Rare Phenomenon at Nantucket

New England's record freezing temperatures have caused a semi-frozen wave phenomenon captured by a local photographer.

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Leonard Nimoy dead at 83

Leonard Nimoy, who lived long and prospered, died Friday at his Los Angeles home.

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Spaniards turn against domestic violence football chant

Tens of thousands of people have posted online messages of anger against Real Betis FC fans, because of a chant that seems to encourage domestic violence.

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Missouri Auditor and Governor Candidate Is Dead from Apparent Suicide

Tom Schweich, Missouri's Republican state auditor and a leading contender for the governor's office in next year's election, has died, according to his office. Earlier in the day, a police source said Schweich had sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The police source said Schweich's wife was in another room of their house when she heard her husband making phone calls, followed by a single gunshot.

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American Sniper ballad reaches No 1 on country music chart

Tribute to Chris Kyle, recorded by his friend Pete Scobell, is released just days after man who shot him is found guilty of murder.

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Chewing Tobacco Could Be Banned In California Ballparks

Two California lawmakers are teaming up to take on a classic trapping of American baseball: chewing tobacco. At a baseball field near the state capitol, Assemblyman Tony Thurmond introduced first-in-the-nation legislation on Wednesday that would prohibit the use of smokeless tobacco—including electronic cigarettes—wherever organized baseball is being played. San Francisco supervisor Mark Farrell is slated to introduce a similar bill in the coming days...

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How science made an honest man of God

Until the Scientific Revolution, God’s power included a licence to deceive. How did science make an honest man of Him?

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LAPD kill unarmed mentally ill veteran on TV. Their defense won't shock you.

He went for his waistband. Yeah, it's so strange how much unarmed men, confronted by police with guns drawn, seem to LOVE digging in their waistband. Police claimed that they thought they saw Brian Beaird do this over and over again, but as you watch the video below, you won't see anything like this—which is probably why the City of Los Angeles just agreed to pay his family $5 million.

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Justices: Dentists can't decide who whitens your teeth

Dentists can make your teeth sparkling white, but they can't decide who else can, the Supreme Court said Wednesday. The justices ruled 6-3 that a North Carolina state board dominated by dentists acted illegally by excluding non-dentists from the business of teeth whitening — a business that had been offered at reduced rates in shopping malls, spas and stores.

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Photos: The Lady Racing Drivers of Brooklands

The significant influence had by women on motor racing, especially in the formative years of the sport, has been largely forgotten and even swept under the rug in some instances. It seems like a shame to let this history disappear into the ether, especially when you consider the enormous odds that these ladies had to overcome to even be allowed into a car in the first place – let alone permitted to race shoulder-to-shoulder with men.

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Ross River Fever confirmed in Queensland

Ross River fever is expected to afflict thousands of Queenslanders in coming weeks after an outbreak was confirmed in the state's south.

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FCC votes to Protect the Internet With Title II Regulation

Net neutrality has won at the FCC. In a 3-to-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission today established a new Open Internet Order that implements strict net neutrality rules

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Lithuania restores compulsory military service

Lithuania will restore compulsory military service for young men as tensions in Ukraine continue to worry the small Baltic nation, the government said Tuesday. After a meeting of military leaders and top government officials, President Dalia Grybauskaite said the measure was necessary because of “growing aggression” in Ukraine.

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Are ET3 magnetic levitation tubes the future of Vancouver Island transit?

Technology company ET3 is advocating for a futuristic tube transportation system on Vancouver Island, that could move passengers from Nanaimo to Swartz Bay using magnetic levitation. "It is literally space transport on earth," Daryl Oster, founder and CEO of U.S.-based ET3, told On The Island's Gregor Craigie. "It's car-sized vehicles that are magnetically levitated and they operate in a network of tubes that have almost all of the air removed from them, to remove almost...

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Apple ordered to pay $533-million for patent infringement

Apple Inc has been ordered to pay $532.9 million after a federal jury found its iTunes software infringed three patents owned by Texas-based patent licensing company Smartflash LLC. Though Smartflash had been asking for $852 million in damages, the verdict, which came late Tuesday night, was still a costly blow for the U.S. tech giant, the most valuable company in the world.

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DC legalizes pot, ignoring House Republicans

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser defied congressional Republicans and implemented D.C.'s new local law allowing its residents to smoke marijuana. In implementing the new pot laws that went into effect Thursday, Bowser rebuffed two influential House Republicans who'd warned her that she'd be breaking federal law -- and risking retribution.

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No federal charges for Zimmerman in Trayvon Martin death

The Justice Department said Tuesday its independent investigation found "insufficient evidence" to charge George Zimmerman with federal civil rights violations in the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. Attorney General Eric Holder said the evidence did not meet the "high standard for a federal hate crime prosecution," but the decision should not end efforts to explore racial tensions in the justice system. The decision closes the federal investigation.

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Amnesty: World Response to Violence 'Shameful'

World governments failed to protect civilians from violence by states and armed groups, Amnesty International said Wednesday, calling the global response "shameful and ineffective." I...

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Afghanistan Avalanches, Winter Storm Leave 108 People Feared Dead

An emergency official in Afghanistan says at least 108 people are feared killed in avalanches amid a massive winter storm. Slides buried homes Wednesday across four provinces.

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Al-Jazeera Arrests Over Paris Drone

Police spotted the drone flying in the Bois de Boulogne in western Paris

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ISIS Burns 8000 Rare Books and Manuscripts in Mosul

While the world was watching the Academy Awards ceremony, the people of Mosul were watching a different show. They were horrified to see ISIS members burn the Mosul public library. Notables in Mosul tried to persuade ISIS members to spare the library, but they failed. The former assistant director of the library Qusai All Faraj said that the Mosul Public Library was established in 1921, the same year that saw the birth of the modern Iraq.

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Should you fact-check your grandma’s Facebook posts?

The internet is rife with myths, scams and hoaxes. When any claim can be checked out, why does fiction still trump fact?

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Florida Companies Push US to License Ferry Services to Cuba

Catamaran builder Brian Hall is too young to remember when ferries plied the route between Florida and Cuba in the 1950s, but he has plans to be among the first to revive the once-popular route. ...

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1959 Chevrolet Corvette: All American Sports Car

The white Corvette in this press release photo from Chevrolet shows off a couple of the subtle changes Chevy made to the Vette for the ’59 model year.

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