The United States is exerting pressure on the United Nations to withdraw its invitation of Iran to take part in this week international peace conference on the Syrian crisis. A senior US State Department official claimed on Monday that Tehran has “never endorsed the Geneva I communiqué” and “we expect the invitation will be rescinded.” Washington has urged the UN to withdraw Iran’s... 

Twenty-one countries, including US allies France and Mexico, have now joined talks to hammer out a UN resolution that would condemn “indiscriminate” and “extra-territorial” surveillance, and ensure “independent oversight” of electronic monitoring. The news was reported by Foreign Policy magazine, which has also obtained a copy of the draft text. The resolution was proposed earlier this... 

A Muslim woman wearing a face veil distributes flyers against a cantonal vote on banning face-covering headgear in public places, in Lugano on September 18, 2013. Residents of Switzerland’s Italian-speaking region have voted to ban full-face veils, after similar laws against Muslims were enforced in France and Belgium. Results from a democratic referendum in the Swiss canton of Ticino on Sunday revealed... 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov talking to US Secretary of State John Kerry in Geneva, Switzerland, on September 14, 2014 Russia and the United States reached a deal on a framework that will see the destruction or removal of Syria’s chemical weapons by mid- 2014. Under the plan, the Assad government has one week to hand over an inventory of its chemical weapons arsenal. Russian Foreign Minister... 

The growing surveillance industry complex is providing governments with increasingly sophisticated spying software to track and control their citizens, the latest documents obtained by the pro-transparency group, WikiLeaks reveal. A trove of documents, outlining the activities of dozens of companies operating in the ever-expanding electronic snooping industry, were made available by the pro-transparency... 

The number of Americans who decided to renounce their citizenship in the second quarter of 2013 increased sixfold the same period in 2012, a number the federal government attributes to strict impending financial disclosure rules. The United States is the only country out of 34 in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that continues to tax citizens regardless of where they... 

The Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) is reporting today that Switzerland’s Federal Intelligence Service (NDB) is proposing that the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA) issue an immediate “Situation: Grave, Do Not Travel” warning for the United States upgrading that North American nation from its current status as “Stable” and on par with a similar warning issued for the... 

New analysis conducted by the Swiss scientists has uncovered that moonlight can affect good sleep patterns on nights around the full moon. The study that was carried out by researchers from the University of Basel and other research centers, suggest that lunar influence is behind sleep disruption during the full moon nights. To examine the data, researchers studied 33 volunteers sleeping in tightly... 

A local resident wades to a neighbor’s house on a flooded street near the swollen Elbe River in Elster, Germany, on June 7, 2013. Officials in eastern Germany have issued evacuation orders for thousands of people living near the swollen Elbe River. According to reports on Sunday, in Magdeburg, the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt, over 23,000 residents were evacuated after many buildings and streets... 

Floods in Central Europe kill 10 people in Czech Republic. Hundreds of people have been evacuated from the eastern city of Dresden in Germany, where thousands of troops are deployed to help flood-hit areas. On Wednesday, a city spokeswoman said that some 600 people needed to leave their homes in Dresden because of the flood. Electricity cut off was reported in parts of the city. The military also said... 

Traveling abroad with your family can seem scary. After all, you’ll be away from home and all sorts of things can go wrong. However, if you pick you are careful about choosing your destination, you’ll be guaranteed an amazing vacation and a safe trip. Any of these 10 destinations can offer you both: 1. Dubai, United Arab Emirates Dubai might not be the cheapest place to vacation with your... 

Swiss police spraying tear gas toward participants in a street parade in Bern, May 25, 2013. Swiss police say they have arrested over 60 people in the capital Bern after a street parade turned into a protest against capitalism and police brutality. Authorities said 10,000 people turned up at the event, protesting against neo-liberal economics and commercialism. The march had started peacefully late... 

It is now almost certain the subatomic particle that brings together everything in the universe has been found, CERN scientists announced on Thursday. Latest analysis of data from the Large Hadron Collider proves that the Higgs boson actually exists. The search for the missing particle dubbed as ‘the holy grail of physics,’ which has been going on for almost half a century and has brought the... 

Indian people in New Delhi protesting against the gang rape. A Swiss female tourist, on a cycling trip with her husband, has been gang-raped by a group of seven to eight Indian persons at a forest area in the South Asian country, police say. The gang attacked the couple in impoverished Madhya Pradesh state on Friday night, sexually assaulting the 39-year-old woman, police said on Saturday. Local police... 

Using a cocktail of drugs and electrical impulses, researchers regrew nerves linking the spinal cord to the brain, allowing rats to walk, run and even climb stairs. The team now say human trials will begin within two years Scientists behind groundbreaking research that enabled enabled rats with severed spines to run again after two weeks have outlined their plans for human trials. The technology brings...