Britain came alarmingly close to a dangerous clash with Moscow when David Cameron was asked to consider giving an order to forcibly board a ship headed towards the English Channel carrying three Russian-made helicopters for delivery to the regime in Syria, it emerged today. Any seizure would have been carried out by members of the Special Boat Service, SBS, the only military unit authorised to performing... 

The International Trade Committee (INTA) of the European Parliament recommends rejecting ACTA. The committee rejected the controversial legislation 19 votes to 12. This is the fourth and final committee to deliver its report on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and will likely affect the European Parliament’s vote early July. MEP Marietje Schaake, a member of the INTA committee, shares... 

German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere Germany has strongly opposed military intervention in Syria, adding voice to the calls for a political solution to the country’s prolonged crisis. German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Wednesday warned that military action — strongly supported by Britain, France and the US — could easily lead to an all-out war in Syria. “We must... 

The Justice Ministry has registered a political party with the declared objective of creating a unified state of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus called the Russian Union. The party is called the Russian People’s Union and is the first nationalist party registered under the new, much simpler rules adopted earlier this year. It should be noted that the word “Russian” in the party’s title is used... 

Former Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase tried to kill himself on Wednesday evening (June 20 ), before being taken into custody by the Police and sent to jail, following the Supreme Court decision in a corruption case earlier during the day. He shot himself in the neck with a 9 mm gun that he owned. Nastase was rushed into the Emergency Room at the Floreasca Emergency Hospital in Bucharest, where... 

A computer visualization of dark matter in the Universe which scientists have previously battled to explain People often say that time speeds up as we age, but if the latest scientific theory is true the opposite could well be the case. The radical theory by academics suggests that time itself could be slowing down – and may eventually grind to a halt altogether. The latest mind-bending findings... 

A “UFO-shaped” object, found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea last year, has puzzled many. And a Swedish expedition that plunged into the deep eventually surfaced with more questions than answers. ­Covered in soot, with little “fireplace”-like structures and lying at the end of a 300-meter “runway” – this is not something you would expect to find sitting on the sea floor. And whatever... 

Portuguese workers protest in a demonstration against the government’s austerity measures, Lisbon, June 16, 2012. People in Portugal have staged a protest rally against the government’s austerity measures imposed to help cap the country’s public debt. Thousands took to the streets of Lisbon on Saturday following a much larger rally in the northern city of Oporto last week. They condemned... 

The pro-bailout New Democracy party has come out on top in Greece’s parliamentary elections, having gained 30 per cent of the votes. With more than 80 per cent of votes counted, the anti-austerity leftist Syriza party is trailing on 26.6 per cent. The results have kept fears of Greece’s imminent exit from the eurozone at bay for the time being. “The Greek people today voted for Greece to remain... 

Russian tank T90C Russian Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the military-industrial complex, praised the domestic weapons this week. In his words, Russian weapons are not inferior to world’s best standards and may sometimes exceed them. In particular, he pointed out the sniper rifles, which are produced by a private company supported by the Russian government. The company “produces... 

Seven years ago, when Great Britain won the tender for the Summer Olympic Games in 2012, there were expectation that the City of London will be gorging on cheap credit and mega-bonuses. A few days later, terrorists staged a series of explosions on public transport in London, killing 52 people. Then came the global financial crisis and expectations of easy money have failed. The Olympics are prepared... 

The European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will use a mirror 39 meters in diameter to image planets outside the solar system. Most members of the European Southern Observatory’s Council have supported the 1.1 billion-euro project to build the world’s largest optical telescope. Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland voted to start the program while... 

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with personnel at a Russian air base Russia has every possibility to provide a proper response to the projected deployment of a U.S. missile shield in Europe, though Moscow would like to see the U.S. plans revised, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. “We should look forward and give response [to these plans] in a timely manner,” Putin told... 

Western European countries are preparing the ground for the revision of the Schengen border control and recovery. France and Germany are primarily interested in taking such measures aimed at ensuring the EU’s internal borders. The new French president Francois Hollande, as well as his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, is in favor of strengthening the fight against illegal migration. Enhancement... 

Scientists laser scanned several skeletons of modern-day mammals in order to measure the minimum amount of skin needed to cover them Biologists at the University of Manchester have developed a method of measurement, which shows that dinosaurs were not as big and heavy as previously though. According to the study, published in the journal Biology Letters, scientists laser scanned several skeletons of...