World

Hyon Song-wol, a singer who was reportedly connected to Kim Jong-un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, has made an appearance on state television Friday, contradicting reports she was executed last year by firing squad. The singer appeared speaking at a national art workers rally in Pyongyang. She expressed her support for Kim's governance and her dedication to help “stoke up the flame for art and creative work”. Hyon was first reported dead in August last year by South Korean newspapers, among them Chosun Ilbo with reported ties to South Ko

Yesterday, on Fiestas de San Isidro Labrador in Madrid, Spain, a small protest demanding justice for victims of the Franco regime was held in Puerta del Sol for an hour starting around 8:00 pm local time. One sign said "Contra la Impunidad Solidaridad con las víctimas del Franquismo", which translates to "Against Impunity, Solidarity with victims of the Franco regime". The protest started with speakers on a megaphone, and was followed by a march around the plaza several times with the leaders holding a large banner. They were followed by peop

The USA Freedom Act, introduced in to the US House of Representatives as HR 3361 and to the US Senate as S. 1599, on Thursday passed out of House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and on to the House floor. Foreign Policy reported the bill was "the most aggressive NSA reform bill under consideration in Congress", however, after amendment, the bill has been questioned for extending the Patriot Act and the reduction of reform to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The USA Freedom Act had the stated goal of ending t

Citing violations of its policy regarding "Marine mammal items", eBay terminated an online listing on Monday by the town of Cape St. George, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, for a 40 ft (12 m) sperm whale carcass reportedly beached upon its shores about a week prior. With an initial asking price of 99 cents, bidding for the carcass reportedly rose to C$238.03 within 15 bids. Reports variously state the final price of the whale, prior to the removal of the listing from the auction site on Monday at about 2:30pm, was C$2,025 or C$2,075. Listed

A three-try second half has seen University of the Sunshine Coast defeat Toads 27 points to 20 yesterday in their second round Sunshine Coast Rugby Union at Woombye, Australia. Trailing 10–6 at half time, University piled on three tries in the final twenty minutes. In the other result of the round, Maroochydore defeated Caloundra 43 points to 22.

Carlton Lindbergh Johnson, a 77-year-old pastor, was found guilty on three charges of raping and sexually abusing minors yesterday in Muskegon, Michigan. Johnson was arrested in June of 2013 following allegations to police from one of the victims in 2012. Johnson — who held a position as church leader at the Faith Congregational Church of God in Christ in the Jackson Hill neighbourhood of Muskegon — awaits sentencing in June for the two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one second-degree criminal sexual conduct charge. By thei

Gerry Adams, the leader of the Irish republican party Sinn Féin, was arrested Wednesday by the Police Service of Northern Ireland as part of an investigation of the 1972 disappearance and murder of Jean McConville, a mother of ten. McConville was taken from her flat in Divis in west Belfast shortly before Christmas of 1972, then shot. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) later admitted to the abduction and killing. A statement from the police said: "Detectives from the serious crime branch investigating the abduction and murder of Jean McConville i

Ahead of Sunday's scheduled canonization of Pope John Paul II, in the Italian village of Cevo, a massive stone and wood crucifix dedicated to the late pontiff collapsed, instantly crushing a man to death and landing another in the hospital. Reports variously say the collapse took place on Wednesday or Thursday. Marco Gusmini, 21, died after part of the wood of the crucifix splintered and broke, sending it, along with the attached statue of Jesus Christ, toppling to the ground. He was reportedly posing for a photograph under the monument. The

Scientists at Chicago's Field Museum and New York's American Museum of Natural History have discovered three new species of yellow-shouldered bats, genus Sturnira, in the Neotropics. On Wednesday open-access journal ZooKeys published their paper on two of the new species, Sturnira bakeri and Sturnira burtonlimi. The two new species were previously confused with S. ludovici, and S. lilium and S. luisi, respectively. With the discovery, genus Sturnira now has the most species of any genus in family Phyllostomidae, the leaf-nosed bats. Species S.

At least twelve people have been killed, and over ten thousand evacuated from the Chilean city of Valparaíso, following an ongoing fire sweeping across parts of the city. The fire, which began on Saturday in woods on one of Valparaíso's hills, has razed at least five hundred houses. 1,200 fire personnel are tackling the blaze, whilst members of the Chilean Navy have been deployed to discourage looting. Many residences of the affected area have no water supply, and are joined by narrow winding streets; yesterday firefighters dropped water on th

Cynthia Ashley-Nelson died the night before last while attending the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin, Germany. She was very active in the Wikimedia movement, and was named the vice-chair of Wikimedia's Affiliations Committee on Thursday, the day prior to her death, after only having joined the Committee earlier this year. The day before she died, she spent a lot of time talking to a number of the event's attendees and spent time with several members of the Affiliations Committee. An announcement regarding her death was made on the main Wikimed

Yesterday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit overturned the conviction of Andrew "weev" Auernheimer, who had been sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison after exploiting a bug in AT&T's website, allowing him access to confidential data about their iPad customers. The hacker and self-described "troll" was convicted of conspiracy to unlawfully access AT&T's servers and identity theft by federal jury in November 2012 by a New Jersey court under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Co-defendant Daniel Spitler ple