Israel rules out apology to Turks over flotilla raid
Israel ruled out apologising to Turkey over the raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship that killed nine Turkish activists, as another vessel prepared to bypass its blockade of the territory.
Read more on AFP via Yahoo! News

Promise Broken On Armenian Genocide
As the 111th Congress came to a close, yet another promise made by Obama has been broken, that to recognize that the death of 1.5 million Christian Armenians at the hands of radical Islamic Turks as genocide.
Read more on The Chattanoogan

Forecast 2011 – A Year of Transition?
Since 1995, news.GoldSeek.com publishes the leading gold news commentaries, gold market updates and reports providing gold investors with the most updated gold and silver prices, news & precious metals information!
Read more on GoldSeek.com

Netanyahu slams Lieberman over peace talks outburst
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week claimed an “interim agreement” could be reached with the Palestinians if peace negotiations failed to yield significant progress.
Read more on Totally Jewish

African pygmy goat at Wingham wildlife park


Image by Daves Portfolio
African pygmy goat at Wingham wildlife park

Angelina Jolie Forces Kids To Spend Christmas In Namibia
Angelina Jolie – Hollywood star, Angelina Jolie, her hubby Brad Pitt and their six children spent Christmas in Namibia this year.
Read more on DimeWars

Jolie, Pitt enjoy Namibian Christmas
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, as well as their family, have spent Christmas in Namibia.
Read more on Sky News Australia

Old Montreal


Image by eragon
This is a corner not far from Notre Dame Cathedral in Old Montreal.

PHOTOS: Cindy Crawford & Family Have A Ball At The Beach
Cindy Crawford , her husband Rande Gerber and their son Presley had a ball — literally — on a beach in Mexico, and RadarOnline.com has all the fun pictures. PHOTOS: Cindy Crawford & Her Family Hit The Beach In Cabo America’s most gorgeous family is vacationing in Cabo San Lucas, and played a rousing game of Petanque Friday. Petanque, which is growing in popularity in the US, is a French game …
Read more on RadarOnline.com

I WAS THINKING: Bowl games mostly a losing proposition for schools financially
If everyone says the bowl system in college football is too lucrative to adopt the much more popular playoff system, then why do people with knowledge of such things tell me that UConn has lost money in every one of its bowl appearances to date?
Read more on The Register Citizen

Alex Rodriguez: Alex Rodriguez & Cameron Diaz Vacation in Mexico
Alex Rodriguez won’t be enjoying a white Christmas this year. Nor will he be braving the cold New York weather. Skipping a white Christmas this year, Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez and gal pal Cameron Diaz enjoy a day on the water off sunny Cabo San Lucas. The couple is spending the holiday in the Mexican resort city with A-Rod’s two young daughters.
Read more on ThirdAge

WBOC Weather Blog
Online weather commentary and analysis by members of the WBOC Storm Tracker Team.
Read more on WBOC Salisbury

Regional airport offers flights to Dominican Republic
Looking to escape to somewhere warm during the winter season, without the stress of flying from Pearson? You’d better hurry, because planes to a warm destination are filling up fast, says the Region of Waterloo International Airport’s general manager.
Read more on Kitchener – Waterloo Record

HotelsCombined.com Price Index(TM) Review of Global Hotel Prices for January 2011
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA–(Marketwire – December 29, 2010) – HotelsCombined.com has revealed the HotelsCombined.com Price IndexT forecast of global hotel prices for January 2011. If you are looking for the best value accommodation deals in January, then the HotelsCombined.com Price IndexT is for you. Every month we search our database of 2,500,000 hotel deals to bring you the biggest hotel destination …
Read more on Marketwire

Team India appoints yoga instructor
DURBAN: “Reminds me of Chennai,” remarked M.S. Dhoni, the Indian captain, as he left the ‘nets’, sweating and sun-burnt.
Read more on The Hindu

Christmas cheer abounds in sunny Bethlehem
In full glow: Lights illuminate the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem on Friday.
Read more on The Hindu

Heathrow problems put down to lack of de-icing chemicals
Grounded airlines moving through the UK have blamed the manager of Heathrow airport for massive delays during the bad weather of the past days. According to airline officials BAA failed to have enough de-icing fluid on hand to keep its two runways ope.
Read more on Calcutta News

Rain likely in Tamil Nadu
Pune, Dec 24: Rain or thundershowers are likely to occur at many places in Tamil Nadu and at few places in Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.
Read more on New Kerala

ISRO gears up for Dec 25 GSAT launch
Indian space scientists are gearing up for the Dec 25 launch of the advanced communications satellite GSAT-5P. The new entrant will retire INSAT-2E sent up in 1999 and will ensure continuity of telecom, television and weather services.
Read more on Calcutta News

Laughing Dove


Image by Stephen A. Wolfe
While in St. James, Western Cape, South Africa I photographed several species of birds. I need to figure out the species of this dove. It looks similar to our rock dove. Any help?

Review of the sporting year – October: Month-by-month guide to the stories that had us gripped in 2010
Another sporting year is coming to an end, and once again 2010 has delivered the goods. An Olympic Winter Games, a World Cup and so many other marvellous events have kept us enthralled for the past twelve months.
Read more on Daily Mail

Images: India battle back against South Africa
Harbhajan Singh and pace ace Zaheer Khan plotted a dramatic South African collapse to give India a vital 74-run lead in a topsy-turvy second cricket Test, which seemed headed for a nail-biting finish in Durban on Monday.
Read more on rediff.com

Valley hotels get boost from bowl games
Bowl games are bringing a surge of dollars into Arizona’s tourism industry at a time when hotels are traditionally scrambling for patrons – after the holidays and before spring-training and convention season.
Read more on The Arizona Republic

Vision Airlines will expand beyond Grand Canyon flights
After years of concentrating on short “flightseeing” trips and charters, Las Vegas-based Vision Airlines launched scheduled service last week in a way that could radically reshape Grand Canyon tours.
Read more on Las Vegas Business Press

U.S. Policy in the Democratic Republic of Congo


Image by CSIS: Center for Strategic & International Studies
CSIS cohosted “U.S. Policy in the Democratic Republic of Congo” with a keynote address by Senator John Kerry and a panel including senior U.S. policymakers and actor Ben Affleck, founder of the Eastern Congo Initiative, an advocacy and grant-making organization working with the people of Eastern DRC. Find more including full video, audio, and transcript at csis.org/event/us-policy-democratic-republic-congo

UAE ranked among top 10 most generous nations for aid
Gulf states UAE and Saudi Arabia singled out by agency for massive contributions to humanitarian aid
Read more on Arabian Business

DR. Congo hits back at rights criticism
Democratic Republic of Congo hit back Wednesday at criticism of its human rights record, after Washington deprived it of trade privileges and a French envoy called it a “shipwreck.”
Read more on AFP via Yahoo! News