The U.S. space agency NASA says the twin spacecraft of its lunar-mapping mission have completed their assignment and have been deliberately crashed into the rim of a moon crater. Officials say the probes named Ebb and Flow hit the moon’s surface Monday afternoon, eastern U.S. time, in the last phase of NASA’s GRAIL mission. The […]
NASA’s Twin Probes Scheduled to Crash Into Moon Monday
Posted December 17th, 2012 at 7:45 pm (UTC-5)
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US to Increase Pressure On North Korea After Rocket Launch
Posted December 17th, 2012 at 7:05 pm (UTC-5)
The U.S. says it will increase pressure to further isolate the North Korean government after Pyongyang launched a rocket into space last week in defiance of an international ban. At her daily briefing Monday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters that despite U.S. efforts last year to engage North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong […]
Morsi-appointed Egypt’s Prosecutor General Hands In Resignation
Posted December 17th, 2012 at 6:00 pm (UTC-5)
Egypt’s prosecutor general named by President Mohamed Morsi only last month has handed in his resignation. Talaat Abdullah submitted his resignation letter Monday, after hundreds of public prosecutors staged a sit-in protest outside his office, saying his swift appointment was improper. President Morsi appointed Abdullah after issuing a decree on November 22 putting himself above […]
First Funerals Held For US School Rampage Victims
Posted December 17th, 2012 at 4:40 pm (UTC-5)
Grief-stricken families have buried the first two young victims of a shooting rampage last week at an elementary school in the northeastern U.S. Two six-year-old boys were laid to rest Monday, one of them a boy whose twin sister survived the massacre. Meanwhile, classes at the school in Newtown, Connecticut where the shooting took place […]
US Politics: Conservative Lawmaker Appointed to Senate Vacancy
Posted December 17th, 2012 at 3:45 pm (UTC-5)
A conservative Republican congressman from South Carolina has been named to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat representing the southern state. Representative Tim Scott was named Monday by the state’s governor, Nikki Haley, to take over the seat being vacated by the recent, unexpected resignation of Senator Jim DeMint. He is leaving the Senate to […]
South Africa’s Zuma Faces Challenge for ANC Leadership
Posted December 17th, 2012 at 3:05 pm (UTC-5)
Delegates from South Africa’s ruling African National Congress are voting on the party’s top six leadership positions including who will lead the organization in the run-up to the 2014 presidential election. President Jacob Zuma is facing a challenge by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe in Monday’s vote for the ANC chairmanship. Mr. Zuma is expected to […]
Russian Activists Support US ‘Magnitsky Act’
Posted December 17th, 2012 at 2:15 pm (UTC-5)
Russian rights activists say they will draft a list of Russian human rights violators, after the United States passed a law last week that imposes sanctions on such individuals. Ex-Soviet dissident and leader of the Moscow Helsinki Group for Human Rights, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, announced the creation of a new group that she says will investigate […]
US ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Talks Moving Toward Compromise
Posted December 17th, 2012 at 2:10 pm (UTC-5)
U.S. President Barack Obama and his political opponents in Congress are moving a bit closer to reaching a compromise over contentious year-end financial issues. No deal appears imminent, but officials say the leader of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Speaker John Boehner, met again with the president at the White House. For the first time […]
First Funerals Being Held For US School Rampage Victims
Posted December 17th, 2012 at 12:50 pm (UTC-5)
A small town in the northeastern United States is beginning the grim task of holding funerals for the 20 children and six adults killed in a shooting rampage at an elementary school. Funerals for two six-year-old boys are being held Monday, the first for those gunned down at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, […]
Officials: Landmine Kills 10 Girls in E. Afghanistan
Posted December 17th, 2012 at 11:45 am (UTC-5)
Afghan officials say 10 young girls died in an explosion as they were collecting firewood Monday in eastern Afghanistan. Authorities say they believe the blast came from an old landmine, one of many that are hidden in fields and rural areas across the country after decades of war. But the area near Pakistan is in […]
