US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has reiterated that the Pentagon has prepared “options for all contingencies” in Syria and is ready to use force if President Barack Obama gives the green-light. “President Obama has asked the Defense Department to prepare options for all contingencies. We have done that and we are prepared to exercise whatever option — if he decides to employ one... 

Iran has warned the US not to cross “the red line” on Syria threatening it would have “severe consequences” for the White House. This follows a statement from Syrian officials who said a strike would create “very serious fallout” for the whole region. “America knows the limitation of the red line of the Syrian front and any crossing of Syria’s red line will have severe consequences... 

Everyone got used to the largest officially announced U.S. national debt of 16 trillion dollars. Moreover, despite the dire predictions, the global economy seems to be more or less stable, and recently liberal media have been happily reporting GDP growth in the United States and the European Union. However, it is not all that great. Let’s start with statistics. A number of researchers have conducted... 

Scientists have pinpointed that photographing the retina can provide information which help predicting the potential for stroke in people with high blood pressure. According to a new study conducted at the National University of Singapore, the eye examination mainly retinal imaging explores symptoms on the status of blood vessels in the brain. While high blood pressure is the most important risk factor... 

August 23, 2013 is the day, for which the infamous Grigori Rasputin predicted the end of the world in the beginning of the last century. Rasputin predicted a “terrible storm” in which fire would swallow all life on land, and then life would die on the whole planet. He also said that Jesus Christ would come down to Earth to comfort people in distress. There was always an aura of mystery... 

UN Security Council Lebanese President Michel Sleiman has tasked caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour with filing an urgent complaint with the UN Security Council against a recent Israeli airstrike. Israeli warplanes bombed a target near the coastal town of Naameh, between Beirut and Sidon, on Friday, a day after rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel. The Israeli military said in a statement... 

The world’s largest software maker announced on Friday that Chief Executive, Steven Ballmer, will retire in the next 12 months. Ballmer will continue as acting CEO and will lead the company until a successor is chosen by the board. Microsoft shares surged 9 percent in premarket trading on the news. “We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction,” Ballmer said in an... 

Libertarian Texas congressman Ron Paul spoke to Larry King on a new episode of Politicking, advocating an end to the surveillance programs exposed over recent months and calling for former Army Private Bradley Manning’s immediate release from prison. Paul, who conducted an “Ask Me Anything” session Thursday on the social news site Reddit, is perhaps best known as the perennial presidential... 

New research has indicated that soft drink consumption is associated with aggression, attention problems, and behavioral abnormalities in young children. The study was conducted by a team of researchers from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, University of Vermont, and Harvard School of Public Health. The team assessed nearly 3000 children at about 5 years old and monitored... 

France’s Interior Minister Manuel Valls said that there was a need to review the country’s migration policy in relation to Africans and questioned the compatibility of Islam and democracy. France has long been assimilating immigrants, but in recent years the situation has changed, and the locals are now the ones that are asked to adjust. At a government meeting dedicated to the major challenges... 

An F-16 Fighting Falcon from the 421st Fighter Squadron In response to recent allegations of chemical attacks in Syria, the Pentagon has begun refining its military options for possible strikes in the Middle Eastern country, US officials said. Officers at the Pentagon said they were updating target lists for potential airstrikes on a number of government and military installations in Syria, should... 

New Zealand’s police and intelligence services have direct access to US surveillance systems such as PRISM, to monitor email and capture various data traffic, according to police affidavits in connection with the raid on Kim Dotcom’s mansion. The news that the Organised and Financial Crime Agency New Zealand (OFCANZ) requested assistance from the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB)... 

The United States Department of Justice has requested that former President George W. Bush and the highest figures in his administration receive full exemption from being tried for the Iraq War, which the DoJ says was in line with international law. Apart from Bush, the names listed in the paper the DoJ filed on Tuesday are former Vice President Richard Cheney, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld,... 

Few would argue that a logo is the “face” of the company and has a certain impact on the popularity of various brands. Incidentally, logos of popular brands are not always created by ‘cool’ designers and are expensive. Here is the history of some of them. The first Citroen logo was designed personally by the founder Andre Citroen, and was free for the company. The exact amount... 

A new research carried out by an international team suggests that regular consumption of coffee and tea can reduce fatty liver in people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Headed by Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and the Duke University of Medicine, the study demonstrates that daily consumption of four cups of coffee or tea shares a health benefit due to the caffeine present in both...