Environmental service workers finished picking up the carcasses on Sunday of about 2,000 red-winged blackbirds that fell dead from the sky in a central Arkansas town. Mike Robertson, the mayor in Beebe, told The Associated Press the last dead bird was removed about 11 a.m. Sunday in the town about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock. He said 12 to 15 workers, hired by the city to do the cleanup, wore... 

Disaster: Properties across central Queensland are inundated by floodwaters. The Fitzroy River was at 8.8 metres - and expected to rise to nine metres Woman, 41, drowns trying to drive across flooded road as natural disaster in Australia reaches ‘biblical proportions’. Australia’s disastrous floods have claimed their first fatality. A 41-year-old woman died after she tried to cross... 

From 1 January shops will have to stop supplying shoppers with plastic bags A ban on plastic bags is coming into effect in Italy, which has one of the highest rates of consumption of the bags in Europe. The ban begins in shops across Italy on 1 January, with only biodegradable, cloth or paper bags to be offered. Italians use 20 billion plastic bags a year – more than 300 per person. Supporters... 

Silsbee Highschool cheerleader kicked off squad for refusing to cheer for player who raped her. A Texas high school cheerleader who was kicked off the squad for refusing to chant the name of an athlete she said had raped her will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate her free-speech suit against the school district, her lawyer says. The cheerleader and her parents are also challenging federal court... 

Anti-Arab demonstration in Bat Yam, December 20, 2010 Rabbi Gilad Kariv condemns letter by 30 rabbis’ wives calling on Jewish girls to stay away from Arab men. The head of Israel’s Reform Judaism movement on Tuesday harshly criticized a letter by 30 rabbis’ wives calling on Jewish girls not to date Arabs, work with them or perform national service in the same places where they work. “Israeli... 

A new report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared for President Medvedev by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that the United States, in 2010, continued its headlong descent into becoming one of the most feared police states our modern World has ever seen. The term police state as used in this report describes a government that exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic... 

An estuarine crocodile better known as the saltwater or saltie, lying in the sun on the banks of the Adelaide river near Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory. Flooding in Australia's tropical north has prompted a warning about crocodiles, with several of the reptiles spotted in swollen waterways, an official said Monday. Flooding in Australia’s tropical north has prompted a warning... 

A little-known United Nations-affiliated organization is using members of President Obama’s Kenyan family — as well as Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona — to promote the idea that a type of algae is the solution to world hunger. The grandly-named Intergovernmental Institute for the Use of Micro-Algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition (IIMSAM) proudly advertises that President Obama’s... 

Arctic conditions: A bus tries to make its way through Tunbridge Wells, Kent, as bad weather sweeps across the country Ten years ago global warming “scientists” were saying the opposite, that Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past. So if winters become warmer it’s global warming’s fault and if they become colder it’s still global warming’s fault. So whatever... 

In a first for the Vatican and British broadcaster BBC, Pope Benedict XVI Friday was given a radio slot to deliver a Christmas message to the people of Britain. The pope, 83, said he remembered his September visit to Scotland and England with great fondness. ‘I want you to know that I keep all of you very much in my prayers during this holy season,’ he said. The message was broadcast only... 

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister, has ordered a range of measures in a bid to improve Israel's image in Europe. ‘Allies and friends’ will promote government policy to press and public meetings as part of fresh PR drive. Israel has instructed its embassies in 10 European countries, including the UK, each to recruit 1,000 members of the public to act as advocates for its... 

Most of the children will be in France in time for Christmas with their new families. Some 200 Haitian orphans are being brought to France to be with their adoptive families for Christmas. On Wednesday, a plane carrying the first group of more than 100 children arrived in Paris from Port-au-Prince. Another flight carrying another 80 children is expected on Friday. More than 300 adopted children are... 

Nearly a quarter of all students who try to join the U.S. Army can’t pass the entrance exam, a new study says. The study, “Shut Out of the Military: Today’s High School Education Doesn’t Mean You’re Ready for Today’s Army,” puts the blame on America’s educational system. “This is true for men and women of all races and ethnicities, but especially... 

On the heels of World AIDS Day comes a stunning medical breakthrough: Doctors believe an HIV-positive man who underwent a stem cell transplant has been cured as a result of the procedure. Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the “Berlin Patient,” received the transplant in 2007 as part of a lengthy treatment course for leukemia. His doctors recently published a report in the journal Blood... 

A federal judge ruled that a central plank of the health law-the requirement that most Americans carry insurance-violates the Constitution, dealing the biggest setback yet to the Obama administration's signature legislative accomplishment. A federal court ruled Monday that a key part of the health-care overhaul violates the Constitution, dealing the first legal setback to the Obama administration’s...