An International Space Station coolant system has malfunctioned. A valve in one of the International Space Station’s cooling systems has malfunctioned, says the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA said on Wednesday that the situation did not represent a life-threatening emergency for crew members, but may require a repair spacewalk. “The crew was never in any danger,” NASA... 

The U.S. needs to prepare for a potential war with China, according to a group of defense analysts at a U.S. House armed services subcommittee hearing this week. At the hearing, the defense analysts told the U.S. House Armed Services’ Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee that the Pentagon should begin a massive arms build-up, including additional nuclear submarines, for a possible war with... 

The UN mission probing allegations of chemical attacks in Syria says chemical weapons were probably used at least five times during the foreign-sponsored turmoil in the Arab country. The UN inspectors, led by Swedish expert Aake Sellstrom, handed a final report to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, citing “evidence consistent with the probable use of chemical weapons” in the Syrian districts... 

Senior National Security Agency officials in the United States say they’ve considered making a deal with former contractor Edward Snowden that would give amnesty to the leaker charged with espionage if he stops disclosing secret documents. Both the director of the NSA and the government official in charge of the agency’s Snowden task force tell CBS News that they’ve considered the possibility... 

The Catalan regional parliament has set November next year for a referendum on the Spanish province’s independence. The government in Madrid blandly said the vote won’t happen, but activists wonder how it might be stopped. Catalonia’s four pro-independence parties, which hold a majority in the regional parliament, announced Thursday that the rich industrial Spanish province will hold a referendum... 

Icy blast: The Western Wall compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel, today was covered with snow as temperatures plunge below zero It’s a festive scene that’s adorned countless Christmas cards… and, for once, the Holy Land actually became a snow covered winter scene. The ancient city of Jerusalem, which normally basks in fierce heat, was dusted with a light covering of snow... 

A Department of Homeland Security employee who called for the mass murder of white people has finally been fired over four months after it first emerged that he was running a website which advocated a genocidal race war. Black supremacist Ayo Kimathi’s website, entitled ‘War on the Horizon’, calls for the “ethnic cleansing” of “black-skinned Uncle Tom race traitors” while warning that,... 

View of Uruguay’s lower house during the debate of a bill that legalizes marijuana. The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has criticized Uruguay’s decision to legalize marijuana, saying the move violates international law. On December 10, the Latin American nation’s parliament passed a bill to legalize and regulate marijuana after Uruguayan President Jose Mujica championed the measure... 

Russia will not allow any nation to dominate it in military terms, the Russian president said. Some nations are developing new kinds of weapons, which may tip the global strategic balance, but Russia knows how to counter them. “Let no one have illusions that he can achieve military superiority over Russia. We will never allow it,” Vladimir Putin said in a speech to the Federal Assembly, the joint... 

Russia is going to write off 90 percent of Cuba’s $32 billion Soviet-era debt as part of a deal to end a 20-year dispute, according to diplomatic sources cited by Reuters. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev agreed to write off the island’s debt during a visit to Havana in February 2013, stressing details would be finalized by the end of the year. In October, the two sides announced a refinancing... 

US President Barack Obama speaks with military personnel while viewing an Iron Dome missile battery on March 20 at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport. The US Congress has authorized $284 million to fund Israel’s missile systems program, triple the amount the Obama administration had requested. The bill, introduced jointly by the House of Representatives and Senate budget committees,... 

Long form document stoked suspicions of forgery. The health director who approved the release of President Obama’s long form birth certificate, which some claim was a fraudulent document, has died in an unexplained plane crash in Hawaii, it was announced today. Everyone else onboard survived the plane crash, except for her. Was Loretta Fuddy’s plane crash just a tragic accident, or did she have... 

Spaniards wait in line at a government employment office in the Madrid suburb of Santa Eugenia. Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) says the country’s population is shrinking at an accelerating pace amid soaring unemployment. The INE said on Tuesday that nearly 260,000 people moved from the crisis-hit country in the first half of 2013, while only 134,312 migrated to the country. This left... 

It appears that even employees of media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s own publications don’t too much care for the cantankerous octogenarian — and they’re not half bad at puzzles, either. That’s at least the determination that many readers of Australia’s largest newspaper made this week after catching a curious secret message of sorts in the Sunday Telegraph. It took a few days for anyone to... 

A step towards making 3D printing affordable has been made at Michigan Technological University, which presented an open-source 3D metal printer for only $1,500. Detailed plans and software are all open-source and freely available, too. So far affordable 3D printing has been more about using polymers. Yet we all know that the ‘real thing’ must be made of metal. But the price of 3D metal printers...