The head of Germany’s Catholic Church apologized to victims of child abuse by priests and said after meeting Pope Benedict Friday the pontiff encouraged him to press ahead with tackling the problem.Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, head of the German Bishops’ Conference, said the German Church was taking steps to investigate numerous allegations of abuse in Catholic [...]

New York The abrupt transformation of Colleen R. LaRose from bored middle-aged matron to “JihadJane,” her Internet alias, was unique in many ways, but a common thread ties the alleged Islamic militant to other recent cases of homegrown terrorism: the Internet.
From charismatic clerics who spout hate online, to thousands of extremist websites, chat rooms and [...]

BEIJING Eleven rare Siberian tigers kept in small cages and fed only chicken bones have died of malnutrition at a cash-strapped zoo in China’s frigid northeast, state media said Friday.A manager at the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in Liaoning province, however, said the animals had died of disease.Siberian tigers are one of the world’s rarest [...]

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico The death toll from last month’s devastating earthquake in Haiti could jump to 300,000 people, including the bodies buried under collapsed buildings in the capital, Haitian President Rene Preval said on Sunday.”You have seen the images you are familiar with the pictures. More than 200,000 bodies were collected on the streets [...]

North Texans, already reeling from a record day of snowfall, were braced this morning for a tough commute.Throughout the region, temperatures at 5 a.m. were hovering right around freezing – but falling fast. As they dip into the high 20s by sunrise, roads, bridges, and overpasses – many of them already caked in snow – [...]

North Korea warned South Korea that any attempt to bring down the communist country would draw “strong measures” from its military, a threat issued Monday even as Pyongyang embarked on a flurry of diplomacy with Seoul, Washington and Beijing.Pyongyang is poised to mobilize troops to defend itself, including a “world-level ultramodern striking force” that [...]

The winter storm paralyzed the U.S. capital, Washington D.C, and dumped up to 60 centimeters of snow in the area.  It is one of the worst winter storms in the city’s history.From New Jersey south to Virginia, the heavy snow and powerful winds left many homes without electricity, and toppled trees across roads and power-lines.  [...]

This woman could not realize if his back stuck a knife. Not in detail described how the incident took place. Reports circulating mention, she was traumatized by the events experienced by the attack on the way back to his house so he did not realize there was a knife stuck in his body. Julia Popova [...]

WASHINGTON The threat of up to 2 feet of snow in parts of the Mid-Atlantic caused airline cancellations Friday, school closures and emptied Virginia’s Statehouse.Those who can work from home should do so, said Joan Morris, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation. Across the region, state officials were deploying thousands of trucks and [...]

Sharks are being blamed after a man kite surfing off a Florida beach was surrounded and attacked so badly that he died.Whileswimmers and surfers often receive minor bites in Florida waters, officials say fatal shark attacks are extremely rare.The Martin County Sheriff’s Office said a lifeguard first saw the man in distress about 500 yards [...]