Another Greek lawmaker from the country’s oppressed right-wing Golden Dawn party has been imprisoned on charges of being a member of a “criminal organization”, with no presented evidence, even though the Golden Dawn party has not been outlawed in Greece by the justice system. On Sunday, Stathis Boukouras was put behind bars following the imprisonment of two other members of the party,... 

Israel’s former prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has died at a hospital in Tel Aviv after eight years in coma, Israeli media reported. Israeli Army Radio said the former premier died on Saturday at the age of 85. On January 4, 2006, Sharon suffered a stroke and went into a coma, from which he never recovered. He was being treated at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv. Sharon’s health condition... 

Over 80,000 people in southern Germany have signed an online petition against a plan to teach children about LGBT lifestyles in school – an initiative put forward to promote tolerance towards sexual minorities. A new education plan, which should come into force in 2015, has sparked a bitter dispute in the state of Baden-Württemberg in the southwest of the country. Thousands of parents and teachers... 

Obama has spent recent weeks reviewing a series of recommendations made by a White House review panel. President Obama will unveil his proposed reforms to the nation’s surveillance programs in a speech next Friday, Jan. 17, the White House announced. “He will be remaking remarks to discuss the outcomes of the work that has been done in the review process,” White House press secretary... 

French troops have deployed tanks around the presidential palace in the capital Bangui shortly after the resignations of the president and the premier of the Central African Republic. Several French tanks were deployed around the presidential palace and other government buildings across the violence-stricken city on Friday. This comes hours after both the interim President Michel Djotodia and the... 

The National Security Agency refuses to deny whether it is spying on members of Congress after it received a bluntly worded letter from a senator seeking clarification on the issue. Sen. Bernie Sanders sent a letter to the NSA on Friday, asking whether it has or is “spying” on US lawmakers and other elected officials. The Vermont independent said he was “deeply concerned” about the... 

Bulgaria has been accused of hypocrisy and double standards after Sofia banned foreigners from buying land, while its citizens have the right to work anywhere in the EU. The Southeastern European country has reinforced a ban stopping non-Bulgarian nationals from purchasing agricultural plots, inciting a volley of criticism from lawmakers including Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev and Britain’s... 

The Obama administration has touted the White House website’s ‘We the People’ section as a powerful platform for the American public to petition their government. According to a new report, however, those solicitations are all too rarely acknowledged. “When I ran for this office, I pledged to make government more open and accountable to its citizens,” United States President Barack Obama... 

Tens of thousands of Africans took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Sunday in protest of Israel’s detention of their fellow migrants deemed illegal job-seekers by the nation. The rally is the biggest ever held by migrants in the state. “More than 30,000 demonstrators marched peacefully in Tel Aviv,” police spokeswoman Lubra Samri told AFP. The protesters gathered in the capital’s centre Rabin... 

Targeted attacks against children, looting and burning of houses have been reported in the ongoing sectarian violence in Central African Republic by the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR. Hundreds of thousands have fled to refugee camps or hidden in the bush. Violence between mostly Muslim ex-rebel Seleka members, whose leader seized power last March, and Christian vigilante groups “has pushed the number... 

Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party (BNP) Leader of the UK’s far-right political party, the British National Party (BNP), has been declared bankrupt. Appearing at Welshpool County Court in Wales on Thursday, Nick Griffin was declared insolvent. This came after Griffin was found to have been left with debts following a dispute with Gilbert Davies & Partners legal firm that represented... 

Reports out of North Korea state the country’s dictator, Kim Jong-un, fed his disgraced uncle to starving dogs. Jang Song-taek was supposedly stripped naked, along with his aides, put in a cage, and then 120 starving dogs were set on them. In December, we learned that Jang, who was said to be included in Jong-un’s inner circle of advisors, was executed, or so we were told by North Korea’s KCNA... 

Romania’s Ambassador to the UK Ion Jinga Romanian Ambassador to the UK Ion Jinga has mocked British newspapers and lawmakers waiting for an influx of Romanian immigrants to arrive in the country after transitional controls were lifted. Jinga said the MPs and reporters waiting for the arrival of Romanian immigrants at the London Luton Airport on January 1 “discovered that only two Romanians”... 

The US has been voted as the most significant threat to world peace in a survey across 68 different countries. Anti-American sentiment was not only recorded in antagonistic countries, but also in many allied NATO partners like Turkey and Greece. A global survey conducted by the Worldwide Independent Network and Gallup at the end of 2013 revealed strong animosity towards the US’s role as the world’s... 

Latvia has celebrated the New Year by joining the eurozone, becoming the 18th member of the Europe-wide currency bloc. However, recent opinion polls show that a majority of Latvians oppose the move, with just one-fifth strongly in favor. The euro switchover ceremony took place Jan. 1 at the HQ of the state-owned Citatele Bank – the lender reconstituted from the collapsed Parex Bank, where Latvia’s...