7 days quiz

The Birds Keep Falling! But What Does It All Mean?
The Huffington Post reported on this earlier today. UPDATE: Hundreds and possibly thousands of dead birds have reportedly fallen from the sky in Italy. UPDATE: Wildlife officials say that even more previously unreported dead birds were found in Kentucky last week. Millions of dead fish surfaced in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay in the U.S., Tuesday, while similar unexplained mass fish Deaths occurred across the world in Brazil and New Zealand. On Wednesday, 50 birds were found dead on a street in Sw...

Dozens of jackdaws found dead in Sweden
STOCKHOLM -- Officials say about 50 birds have been found dead on a street in Sweden. Veterinarian Robert ter Horst says the cause of jackdaws' Deaths was unclear but that Fireworks were set off near the scene Tuesday night. The birds were found dead on Wednesday. Ter Horst says cold weather, difficulties finding food and possible shock from the Fireworks could be responsible, leading to the stressed birds either dying from the stress or being run over by vehicles. Five of the dead jackdaws fo...

At least nine incidents of mass animal deaths across the globe
Blue stain believed to be sign of poisoning or hypoxia - lack of oxygen that is precursor to altitude sickness Cold weather and overbreeding blamed for Deaths of two 2million fish in Chesapeake Bay Disease behind Deaths of 100,000 fish in Arkansas River At least nine incidents of mass animal Deaths across the globe Hundreds of confused birds plummeted to their Deaths in multiple locations in the U.S. Rapid movement of Magnetic North Pole towards Russia may have caused bird deaths Thousands of...

Dennis Hopper art collection up for auction in NYC
NEW YORK (AP—Works of art, Memorabilia and decorative arts that belonged to the late "Easy Rider" film star Dennis Hopper are going on the auction block in New York City. Among the highlights is a portrait by Andy Warhol titled "Mao." The auction house says Hopper shot two bullet holes into the portrait of the Chinese Communist leader after a wild night in the early 1970s. Christie's says Warhol circled the holes and labeled them "warning shot" and "bullet hole." It says the two men agree...

Dennis Hopper art collection up for auction in New York
Dennis Hopper shot two bullet holes through an Andy Warhol portrait of Mao Tse-tung but instead of earning the wrath of the artist, Warhol called the 'Easy Rider' star a collaborator....

Dennis Hopper art collection up for auction in NYC
Dennis Hopper shot two bullet holes through an Andy Warhol portrait of Mao Zedong but instead of earning the wrath of the artist, Warhol called the "Easy Rider" star a collaborator. Warhol's "Mao" is among 300 works of fine art and Memorabilia owned by the late actor-director of the 1969 Counterculture film up for auction at Christie's next week. The 1972 colored screenprint is expected to bring $20,000 to $30,000. Most of the items adorned the actor's Venice Beach, Calif., home. Hopper, who was...

Thousands of dead doves rain down in Italy
Tests are being carried out on the bodies of turtle doves after hundreds rained down from the skies on an Italian town in the latest of a global phenomenon. For the past five days wildlife experts and officers from the forestry commission have picked up more than 1,000 turtle doves as well as other birds including pigeons near the town of Faenza in northern Italy. Yesterday alone 300 dead birds were r ADVERTISEMENT ecovered, all having a blue tinge to their beaks, which scientists say indicate...

Concrete cell has not silenced dissident who might have been president
Campaigner for freedom ... Boris Nemtsov demonstrating for the assaulted Journalist Oleg Kashin. Photo: AFP Moscow: He was once a deputy Prime Minister of Russia; indeed he was even tipped to succeed Boris Yeltsin as president. But Boris Nemtsov spent New Year's night in a tiny concrete Prison cell without even a mattress, as punishment for having ''disobeyed the police''. Nemtsov, 51, leader of the opposition Solidarity Movement, was detained with 130 others in Moscow and St Petersburg on New Y...

19 held at Moscow protests of opposition jailing
MOSCOW -- Moscow police detained 19 people Wednesday in the latest Protests against the jailing of Boris Nemtsov, one of Russia's most prominent opposition leaders, whom Amnesty International has called a Prisoner of conscience. Nemtsov, a former deputy Prime Minister and member of parliament, was arrested along with more than 60 others at a rally on New Year's Eve and jailed for 15 days. His supporters have held Protests every day this week and at each one police have moved in to stop them. Po...

Britain vows to change 'embarrassing' libel law
LONDON - Britain's deputy Prime Minister says the country's plaintiff-friendly Libel laws have become an international embarrassment and must be changed. Nick Clegg says the existing laws, which place the burden of proof on defendants, have a chilling effect on journalism and scientific debate. He is saying in a Speech Friday that it is "simply not right when academics and Journalists are effectively bullied into silence" by the prospect of costly legal battles. The government, elected in ...

David Cameron denies Oldham byelection pact claims
David Cameron visited Oldham East and Saddleworth today to dispel claims of a byelection pact with the Lib Dems. The prime minster urged voters to back the Conservative Candidate, barrister Kashif Ali. Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images David Cameron paid a flying visit to Oldham East and Saddleworth today to dispel suspicions that the Tories are pulling punches in the byelection campaign to help their Lib Dem coalition partners defeat Labour next Thursday - or at least to spare them a ...

Nick Clegg: Coalition will replace control order regime
guardian.co.uk, Friday 7 January 2011 12.07 GMT Nick Clegg said more account needed to be taken of Civil Liberties while countering Terrorism. Photograph: Getty Images The deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, today confirmed that the control order regime will be replaced by the Coalition Government, ending the "virtual house arrest" of Terror Suspects. In a keynote London Speech on civil liberties, Clegg said no final agreement had been reached by ministers on a replacement of the controversi...

Britain vows to change 'embarrassing' libel law...
Britain's plaintiff-friendly Libel laws have become an international embarrassment, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Friday, vowing to change rules that have made the country a "libel Tourism" destination for angry corporations and foreign celebrities. In a Speech on Civil Liberties, Clegg said the existing laws, which place the burden of proof on defendants, have a chilling effect on journalism and scientific debate. It is "simply not right when academics and Journalists are effectively bu...

The LWOT: Obama considers ignoring Congressional Gitmo ban; UK to modify but continue control orders - by Andrew Lebovich
Foreign Policy and the New America Foundation bring you a twice weekly brief on the legal War on Terror. You can read it on foreignpolicy.com or get it delivered directly to your inbox -- just sign up here. The Investigative Journalism website ProPublica reported Jan. 3 that President Barack Obama was considering issuing a "signing statement" declaring his intention not to abide by provisions of a new defense spending bill limiting his authority to transfer Guantánamo Bay detaine...

Britain vows to change 'embarrassing' libel law
Britain's deputy Prime Minister says the country's plaintiff-friendly Libel laws have become an international embarrassment and must be changed. Nick Clegg says the existing laws, which place the burden of proof on defendants, have a chilling effect on journalism and scientific debate. He is saying in a Speech Friday that it is "simply not right when academics and Journalists are effectively bullied into silence" by the prospect of costly legal battles. The government, elected in May, has promis...

UK moves to extend freedom of information laws
Britain's No. 2 official says the government should release its secrets sooner and has proposed reforming the U.K.'s freedom of information law. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says he wants to cut the time officials can keep records from the public down to 20 years from the current 30 years. He also wants to expand the scope of law, which now covers U.K. government departments and local councils. Clegg says he wants it to cover more para-governmental bodies, such as Britain's Association of Ch...

Clegg Admits Defeat: UK Control Orders to Remain in All But Name
With his political star already clearly fading, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg saw another defeat today when his much publicized effort to end the practice of “control orders,” the British term for House Arrest without charges, has been a failure. This comes less than a week after his party was touting the secret “Compromise” deal as a big win, but now reports say that the program will remain essentially unchanged, except that they will stop calling them ̶...

Clegg vows to restore civil liberties in Britain
Reporting from London — Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg pledged Friday to restore "our great British freedoms," saying that too many basic liberties had been eroded in the name of keeping Britain safe from Terrorism. Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats who last year teamed with Conservatives to form a new Coalition Government, accused previous Labor Party governments of a relentless assault on Civil Liberties, pledging to reverse it. "The British people have become accustomed to...

Nick Cleggs agonies over control orders show how far he has come
One of the arguments frequently deployed against liberals who demand the abolition of anti-terror Legislation is of the “But what would you do?” variety, imagining a moment when said liberal might, as if by magic, be teleported into a ministerial office and confronted with the secret files held by those who work in the darker areas of government. All that information about what the bad guys are up to would be laid out for them to read - and before you know it, they’d be calling for

Arkansas bird deaths blamed on fireworks
"It's looking more and more like that," said Keith Stephens, spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. It appears unusually loud noises frightened the birds out of their nighttime roost, and they may have flown into trees, houses and other objects, the commission said in a statement. Blackbirds have poor night vision and typically do not fly at night. Meanwhile, wildlife officials reported other mass blackbird Deaths in Louisiana, Tennessee and Kentucky. While the Deaths have sparked...

Disney Marathon, other races prop business at parks during slow seasons
In almost a matter of hours after the smoke cleared from its New Year's Eve Fireworks, Walt Disney World abruptly lurched from its busiest time of the year to one of its leanest, as holiday vacationers flew home and Children across the country returned to school. And yet, this weekend, an estimated 110,000 visitors are descending on the giant resort — more people than attended last week's Capital One Bowl or will attend next week's International Builders Show. They are in town for the Wal...

FACT CHECK: Mass bird, fish deaths occur regularly
First, the blackbirds fell out of the sky on New Year's Eve in Arkansas. In recent days, wildlife have mysteriously died in big numbers: 2 million fish in the Chesapeake Bay, 150 tons of red tilapia in Vietnam, 40,000 crabs in Britain and other places across the world. Blogs connected the deadly dots, joking about the "aflockalypse" while others saw real signs of something sinister, either biblical or environmental. The reality, say biologists, is that these mass die-offs happen all the time and...

Mass Bird, Fish Deaths Occur Regularly
WASHINGTON — First, the blackbirds fell out of the sky on New Year's Eve in Arkansas. In recent days, wildlife have mysteriously died in big numbers: 2 million fish in the Chesapeake Bay, 150 tons of red tilapia in Vietnam, 40,000 crabs in Britain and other places across the world. Blogs connected the deadly dots, joking about the "aflockalypse" while others saw real signs of something sinister, either biblical or environmental. The reality, say biologists, is that these mass die-offs ha...

Mass bird and fish deaths stoke curiosity
Five thousand dead blackbirds rained from the sky on the first day of the New Year in Arkansas. Then more dead birds fell in other states. Then huge fish kills were discovered in multiple US waterways. And suddenly it became a worldwide phenomenon, with reports of mass die-offs of birds and fish in Sweden, Britain, Japan, Thailand, Brazil and beyond. Doves, jellyfish, snapper, jackdaws... it seemed no species was immune. Conspiracy theorists, doomsdayers and religious Extremists warned that the ...

Birds Dying In Italy: Thousands Of Turtle Doves Fall Dead From Sky
On Wednesday, GeaPress reported hundreds -- possibly thousands -- of dead and dying birds in Italy. Countless turtle doves were found scattered in the streets, in flower beds and hanging tragically from trees "like Christmas balls" in the town of Faenza. Many of the birds that fell dead from the sky were discovered with a mysterious blue stain in their beaks. In the past week, similar incidents of mass animal Deaths have been reported across the world. Thousands of dead birds fell from the sk...