Japan suffers lowest number of births on record as population shrinks

Number of newborn babies last year fell to 1.001 million against 1.269m registered deaths in its population.

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AirAsia QZ8501: Forty bodies found in missing plane search

At least 40 bodies have been recovered from the sea in the search for missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501, the Indonesian navy says. The bodies were spotted along with debris floating in the Java Sea off the Indonesian part of Borneo, in one of the search zones for the plane. Indonesian officials have confirmed that bodies and debris found in the Java Sea off Borneo are from AirAsia flight QZ8501 that went missing on Sunday, a statement by AirAsia says.

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Media Blacks Out New Snowden Interview The Government Doesn’t Want You to See

This past Sunday evening former NSA contractor Edward Snowden sat down for an interview with German television network ARD. The interview has been intentionally blocked from the US public, with virtually no major broadcast news outlets covering this story. In addition, the video has been taken down almost immediately every time it’s posted on YouTube.

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Putin sends New Year’s Greetings to Obama

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday sent a New Year’s greeting to U.S. counterpart Barack Obama, saying the two countries share mutual responsibility to ensure world peace.

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Sweden hit by third mosque arson attack in a week

Swedish police launched a manhunt Thursday after the third arson attack against a mosque in a week, amid growing tensions over the rise of a far right anti-immigration movement. A police spokesman told Swedish news agency TT that the burning object was a Molotov cocktail and that no one was in the building at the time.

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Inside the box

IN THE 1960s Robert Propst, an inventor and artist who had patents in heart valves, livestock-tagging machines and aeroplane parts, was asked by Herman Miller, an American design company, to find problems outside the furniture industry that could be solved with design. He flooded the company with concepts ranging from agriculture to medicine, but in the end found himself drawn to the problems of office life. He was particularly troubled by how sedentary people were.

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My Mother the Ganja Dealer

Two kilos of marijuana mailed to a newborn baby ignited my hippy mom’s quarter-century career as a pot dealer—and launched a family legend that was almost too good to believe.

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