French authorities have evicted some 800 Roma immigrants from a campground in northern France, as the controversial treatment of the Roma population in the European country continues. Around 300 police forces attacked the Roma camp in Saint-Ouen in the northern suburbs of Paris early on Wednesday, forcing hundreds of Roma people, including women and children, to leave the place. The cleared shantytown... 

The US military is handing over leftover equipment from the Iraq conflict to police under a military surplus program. Civil liberties groups have criticized the initiative as unnecessary and a move toward the militarization of American law enforcement. American law enforcement agencies have received 165 MRAPs – 18 ton, armored vehicles with gun turrets – this year, according to an AP investigation.... 

Two panels of the Belgian Senate approved Wednesday a controversial proposal to include in an existing law the possibility of allowing children – in certain cases – to opt for euthanasia. The social affairs and justice committees voted for the measure, 13 to 4, during a joint meeting. The divisive bill now goes to the full Senate for deliberation. If approved by the Belgian legislature,... 

Tensions are still running high in Egypt as Cairo sentences 21 girls to 11 years in jail each, while arresting 17 mosque imams in Gharbeyah over what they call incitement against the military. The misdemeanors court in Alexandria handed down 11-year sentences to 21 female demonstrators for their role in anti-government protests, al-Shorouk reported on Wednesday. Seven of the demonstrators, who were... 

Finnish authorities took an eleven-month-old baby from Russian woman Irina Kulikova. A court of Finland ruled that there was a danger for the little girl to be “kidnapped” to Russia, Finnish human rights activist Johan Beckman said. Eleven months ago, Irina Kulikova, a Russian citizen, gave birth to a daughter in Finland. After childbirth, the woman had to remain at hospital for a while.... 

The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning headed to the South China Sea on Tuesday. The United States and China embark upon a new military-power showdown in the Pacific with Beijing sending its sole aircraft carrier to the South China Sea after American bombers defied a Chinese no-fly zone in the region. The Chinese warship Liaoning, which left its home port of Qingdao on Tuesday, was accompanied by two... 

An Israeli woman has been sentenced to paying $140 per day for refusing to circumcise her one year old son until the boy undergoes the procedure as required by Jewish law. “The baby was born with a medical problem, so we couldn’t circumcise him on the eighth day as is customary,” Haaretz has quoted the boy’s mother Elinor as saying. The boy is now over one year old. “As time went on, I started... 

Pope Francis has taken aim at capitalism as “a new tyranny” and is urging world leaders to step up their efforts against poverty and inequality, saying “thou shall not kill” the economy. Francis calls on rich people to share their wealth. The existing financial system that fuels the unequal distribution of wealth and violence must be changed, the Pope warned. “How can... 

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says the European Union will likely lift some of the sanctions imposed against Iran in December following a deal between Tehran and the west. Fabius said on Monday that EU foreign ministers would meet in a few weeks to present a proposal to partially lift some sanctions imposed by the bloc against Iran as agreed in the deal... 

Intelligence services considered assassinating Muslim leader, blaming neo-nazis. French intelligence services planned to stage a terror attack in Britain and then blame it on neo-nazis in a bid to assassinate Muslim hate preacher Abu Hamza, according to an investigation by pressure group Hope Not Hate. Following the 1999 nail-bombing campaign in London, carried out by far-right terrorist David Copeland,... 

A meeting of Saudi Arabia’s Shoura Council Saudi Arabia is reportedly trying to obtain atomic bombs as Iran and the west reach a deal over Tehran’s nuclear energy program. Abdullah al-Askar, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Saudi Arabia’s appointed Shoura Council, said he was worried after Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council —... 

The newly signed amendments to the law on healthcare introduce a ban on the abortion advertising, and make the illegal practicing of folk medicine a misdemeanor. The law was signed by President Vladimir Putin and published on the official website on Monday. Russia’s Federal Law on Advertising now includes the ban on advertising abortions and several restrictions concerning the advertising of traditional... 

The deal with Iran is not a “historic mistake”, as claimed by Benjamin Netanyahu, but brings Iran in from the cold and puts the option of military strikes off the table, Gideon Levy, journalist and columnist for the Haaretz newspaper, told RT. Israel and particularly Netanyahu now stands increasingly isolated, and as the peace talks with the Palestinians go nowhere, it depends on Washington if... 

Parents in Duplo, Ill., are up in arms over a book portraying white Americans as racist – required reading for their fourth-graders under the Common Core curriculum. Students at Bluffview Elementary School were told they would be tested and graded on the book, “Barack Obama,” part of the Scholastic “Reading Counts” program, according to EAGNews. The author, Jane Sutcliffe, has written numerous... 

Angola has reportedly banned the religion of Islam and begun destroying mosques, becoming the first country in the world to do so. On Friday, several newspapers in the South African country quoted the Angolan Minister of Culture, Rosa Cruz e Silva, as saying that “the process of legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human rights… Mosques would therefore...