Authorities in Europe are looking for two twin 6-year-old girls who vanished. Their father, Matthias Kaspar Schepp, apparently committed suicide in Italy by throwing himself under a train. (Feb. 7)
Continue reading …Anti-government protests were continuing in Egypt as concessions kept coming from the regime as well. The cabinet offered government employees a 15 percent raise Monday. (Feb. 07)
Continue reading …Fire destroyed the headquarters of at least three of Rio de Janeiro’s top-tier samba schools on Monday, less then a month before the city’s Sambadrome parade. (Feb. 7)
Continue reading …On Thursday evening I noted news reports that the Fox entertainment network would not air an ad by a Christian website, LookUp316 — referring of course to John 3:16 — during Super Bowl XLV. So I was pleasantly surprised last night to find that Fox did air the ad after all, just before the beginning of the 4th quarter of the game. USA Today religion reporter Cathy Lynn Grossman was also surprised , telling her readers in a February 7 post that she has to look into what made network executives change their mind. [To view the ad, click play on the embedded video posted after the page break] The ad, sponsored by the Fixed Point Foundation, was “originally rejected by Fox Sports for containing too much 'religious doctrine' and for being too offensive,” Nathan Black of The Christian Post noted this morning. Like Grossman, Black had no explanation from the Fox officials as to why they changed their minds. Perhaps its possible the ad only ran in the Washington, D.C. market as a Glenn Garvin blog post at the Miami Herald's website this morning counted the LookUp316.com ad as one that was not broadcast last night. For his part the Herald columnist failed to see the controversy in the “milquetoast” ad, quipping of the actors in the ad, “Maybe Fox and the NFL think fat people can’t go to heaven.”
Continue reading …Internet company AOL Inc. is buying news hub Huffington Post in a $315 million deal that observers say represents a bold bet on the future of online news. (Feb. 7)
Continue reading …Britain’s previous government did all it could to help Libya win the release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the 1998 Pan Am Lockerbie bombing, according to a new report. However the London-based government has insisted the decision was made entirely by officials in Scotland. Paul Brennan reports from the British capital.
Continue reading …Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Cairo who was held by the military outside Tahrir (Liberation) Square on Monday has now been released, and has spoken to Al Jazeera about his experiences. “As we have been for the past several weeks, we’ve been reporting daily from Liberation Square, and yesterday as I was making my way into Liberation Square I was essentially stopped by the Egyptian military and there was a young recruit there … who asked me for my identification. And when I presented him with my identification, he asked me ‘What you are coming to do?’” Ayman said. “I simply said I was a journalist, I didn’t really have any major equipment on me, just a small camera and my cellphones. Immediately it seemed like he was taken aback, suprised perhaps by my identity. At that time they didn’t know who I was working for, and they didn’t ask me, really. “It was just the mere fact that I was a journalist who was trying to go into Liberation Square seemed to be enough for them to take me for further questioning.” Ayman describes how he was taken to a separate holding area, where he was handcuffed with plastic strips, had his equipment taken off him and was interrogated. At least two other journalists were already present at the holding area. Other detainees appeared to have been severely beaten, intimidated and at least one person broke down in tears under the pressure. While foreign journalists were released fairly quickly, Ayman and a Reuters cameraman of …
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