A 15-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped by her step-father, has been sentenced by a court in the Maldives to 100 lashes for having pre-marital sex with another man. Police in the strict Islamic country had been investigating allegations the girl had been abused by her stepfather for years when they uncovered new evidence. The girl and her step-father were first arrested after the body of a baby... 

The US has eroded freedom of speech, moral values and human rights for the American people over the past decades, a political activist tells Press TV. “[US President] Barack Obama came into office as a constitutional professor and we have seen him do more damage to our constitution than even George Bush did,” said Tighe Barry, an activist with the CODEPINK group. The advocate further criticized... 

An internal report by the European Union has come down hard on Israel’s decision to continue settlement construction in occupied East Jerusalem, threatening to end economic projects that involve the Jewish settlements. The harshly worded 15-page report provides recommendations to the 27 member-states for responding to Israel’s activities in the occupied territories – which the document described... 

“In recent times, negotiations have stalled somewhat and I am in favor of opening a new chapter in order to move forward,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Turkey for an official visit. Meanwhile, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the delay in talks ‘unforgivable.’ Previously Merkel`s conservative Christian Democratic Union spoke against full Turkish membership, favoring... 

The Obama administration has declared war on the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations in the US. The soon to be implemented “Affordable Care Act” has several provisions in it which will adversely affect religious organizations. The US government is requiring religious organizations to comply with this law, some of which violates their religious beliefs. The law requires all... 

Kirill and Maxim Kuzmin Texas Child Protective Services say they have no plans to remove two-year-old Kirill Kuzmin from his adoptive family, US media reports. On Friday Russian lawmakers called on US Congress to facilitate the boy’s return to his country of birth. Kirill is the brother of Maksim Kuzmin, who died several months after the two boys were adopted by the Shatto family in the US. The incident... 

Bolivian President Evo Morales Bolivian President Evo Morales has nationalized (stole) a Spanish company that operates the country’s three main airports. Morales said on Monday he had instructed the country’s ministry of public works, services and housing to take “full operational control” of SABSA, a joint venture of Spanish Abertis and airport authority Aena. He also ordered the military... 

Horsemeat products at a horse butcheray in Dortmund. The Swiss-based food giant Nestle has been hit by a widespread horsemeat contamination scandal, forcing it to remove products from European stores. “Our tests have found traces of horse DNA in two products,” Nestle said in a statement on Monday, adding, “The mislabeling of products means they fail to meet the very high standards... 

Jailed: Osas Odia, who returned to Britain after being deported, has been jailed for two years for his role in a £2.7million lottery scam A Nigerian who returned to Britain after being deported has been jailed for his role in a £2.7million lottery scam. Osas Odia, 33, was booted out of the UK in 2005 after immigration officials discovered he was using a forged stamp in his passport to work. However,... 

Russian politicians and media are outraged by the death of a three-year-old adopted Russian boy and US silence on the matter. The boy was reportedly brutally beaten in Texas by his adoptive mother, who allegedly also gave him psychotropic medication. Maksim Kuzmin was adopted at the beginning of November 2012. Just two-and-a-half months later he was found dead, on January 21, 2013. Russia has reacted... 

Anjem Choudary has been recorded telling followers to claim benefits as part of their struggle to bring Sharia law to the UK. A controversial Muslim cleric who lives off benefits is urging his followers to also sponge off UK taxpayers by claiming their ‘Jihad seeker’s allowance’. Anjem Choudary, who in the past has planned to disrupt the minute’s silence on Remembrance Sunday,... 

A police officer prepares to search a group of Romanians living on Park Lane’s central reservation in London Up to 40 beggars have made Park Lane their home, transforming a stretch of the central reservation into a gambling den and doss house On Saturday, in the first part of this major series on the expected imminent influx of unskilled workers from Romania and Bulgaria, we revealed how countless... 

Spain is hit by a wiretapping scandal with report saying 500 politicians and distinguished figured were allegedly spied on. The Spanish government has been hit by a fresh illegal wiretapping scandal, with reports suggesting different politicians and distinguished figures were eavesdropped on. According to Spainish El Mundo daily, a detective bureau allegedly spied on 500 political figures in northeastern... 

It looks like an episode of Dan Brown’s sagas involving secret societies, conspiracies, the opus Dei and the prophecies of Malachy, who predicted the pope’s resignation and a final crisis in the already chaotic history of the Catholic Church. Are the days of Armageddon finally near, especially after the Maya deception of 2012? Last night a lightning stroke a dome in the city of the Vatican.... 

US defense giant Raytheon has developed a controversial software that uses social networking sites to track your movements, able to predict where a person will be and their future behavior. The program has drawn criticism from civil rights groups. A video obtained exclusively by The Guardian shows how software developed by the US defense contractor Raytheon, can gather vast amounts of personal information...