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The British teacher jailed for letting her students name a teddy bear "Muhammad" as part of a writing project arrived in England after being pardoned - ending a case that set off an international outcry and angered many moderate Muslims. Gillian Gibbons is back home after serving eight days of a 15-day sentence for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad" as part of a writing project. This angered Sudanese authorities who said it was an insult to the Islamic prophet. She was released after being pardoned by Sudan's President Omar

The anti-poverty group Oxfam says global warming is altering the human food supply and threatening some of the world's poorest people with hunger. At the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Bali, the group argued developed countries should pay to address the problem, and costs could top $50 billion a year. Climate change, which many scientists believe is fuelled by human activities, alters rain cycles and causes increased droughts and flooding. Rising temperatures mean some traditional crops do not grow as well as they used to. The

Parts of the northeastern coast of Newfoundland, Canada, in particular the Bonavista Peninsula, were hit hard following a Sunday evening storm. Power went out in St. John's Sunday night, but was promptly restored. By Tuesday, around 7500 customers were without electricity on the Bonavista Peninsula alone. However a spokeswoman with Newfoundland Power Corporation said Tuesday that power had been restored faster than expected in parts of the peninsula.

At Thanksgiving dinner David Shankbone told his white middle class family that he was to interview Reverend Al Sharpton that Saturday. The announcement caused an impassioned discussion about the civil rights leader's work, the problems facing the black community and whether Sharpton helps or hurts his cause. Opinion was divided. "He's an opportunist." "He only stirs things up." "Why do I always see his face when there's a problem?" Shankbone went to the National Action Network's headquarters in Harlem with this Thanksgiving discussion t

The draw for the third round of the 2007-08 FA Cup was held on December 2 in England. The third round is where teams from the Premier League and Football League Championship join the cup. Aston Villa have been drawn at home to Manchester United. The two teams will meet for the second time in two years. In the 2006-07 encounter Aston Villa were defeated 2-1 at Old Trafford. There are three other fixtures consisting entirely of Premiership sides: Tottenham Hotspur v Reading, Sunderland v Wigan Athletic and West Ham United v Manchester City.

Russian opposition movement "Smena" has published a clandestine video of what it claims is falsification during the Russian elections. The video allegedly shows the election zone no. 730 in Moscow. "Smena" claims a woman is illegally voting on behalf of soldiers as she feeds their voting bulletins into the electronic voting machine, while a man watches. "Smena" presumes both are members of the local electoral commission. Other allegations include a disproportionate share of absentee ballots used in polling places, voting numerous times by visi

The freshly elected president of the World Climate Change Conference Rachmat Witoelar, Indonesian Minister of the environment, as well as his predecessor, Nabiel Makarim, and Yvo de Boer of the UNFCCC, called for a breakthrough in negotiations on the first day of the 13th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Bali today. All three speakers agreed that by the end of the conference, which lasts till the 14th of December, an agenda must be set for negotiations on a post-2012 agreement on climate change mitigation. In founding this demand, t

Chinese officials have confirmed that a man admitted to a hospital on November 27, died on Sunday from the H5N1 Avian Flu virus. The man, only being identified as 24-year-old Lu, is from the Jiangsu Province of eastern China and was admitted to the hospital after having severe flu-like symptoms. Lu was originally diagnosed with pneumonia. Tests done on blood samples from Lu confirmed the presence of H5N1. Officials say that Mr. Lu was never in close contact with dead poultry and there are no reports of any birds being infected in the area and

Kevin Rudd, current Australian Labor Party leader, was sworn in today as Prime Minister of Australia by Governor-General Michael Jeffrey. Rudd has become the 26th Prime Minister since Australia's federation in 1901. Former Prime Minister John Howard and the Liberal Party and Coalition were beaten in the 2007 election which took place last month, by the Australian Labor Party who managed to gain the extra 16 seats they needed to have a majority in the House of Representatives. Mr Howard lost his seat that he held for 33 years, 11 as Prime Minis

Venezuelan voters rejected a referendum on changes to the constitution. The chief of the National Electoral Council said it was rejected by a margin of 51% to 49%. The referendum vote on sweeping reforms to the constitution would have allowed Hugo Chávez to run for reelection indefinitely, control Venezuela's foreign currency reserves, appoint loyalists over regional elected officials and expand presidential powers in the case of an emergency. It would also have established a maximum six-hour working day and 36-hour working week, cut the votin

The Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has issued a full pardon to British school teacher Gillian Gibbons who was sentenced to 15 days in jail after allowing children in her class to name a teddy bear "Muhammad". The decision came after a meeting with two members of a British Muslim group, Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi who travelled to the Sudan after her imprisonment around a week ago. The imprisonment of the 54 year-old teacher from Liverpool caused international outcry with Muslims in Sudan protesting for her death, and British Muslims prot

Kevin Rudd has been sworn in as Australia's new Prime Minister with an agenda of action on climate change and the repeal of unpopular industrial laws. The new Labor government has signed ratification document to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and also plans to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq by the middle of 2008. The agreement, which will come into force in 90 days, means Australia's greenhouse gas emissions should not be higher than 8 percent above 1990 levels. Environmental groups believe the Australian economy could easily manag