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Czech authorities, helped by the U.S. Department of Energy, have transferred 176 pounds of highly enriched uranium to Russia, the U.S. Embassy in Prague said Monday.

The move took place under a Russian-American program to secure Russian-produced, highly enriched fuel located in often poorly guarded research institutes in one-time Soviet-allied countries. Under the program, the fuel is returned to Russia to be blended down to a less dangerous concentration no longer suitable for weaponry.

The uranium, from the Nuclear Research Institute AS in Rez near Prague, was transported through Slovakia and Ukraine by train and reached a secure reprocessing facility in Russia on Saturday, the embassy said in a statement. (Content Read …)

A Briton who turned up alive - years after being declared dead in a canoe accident - appeared in court Monday on fraud charges for allegedly faking his own death in an insurance scam.

John Darwin, 57, was ordered by Hartlepool Magistrates’ Court to be held in jail until Friday, when he is to appear again via video link.

Dressed in a maroon sweat shirt and red track trousers, Darwin, a former prison officer, appeared disheveled and confused. He spoke twice during the four-minute hearing, responding “That’s correct” when the court read him his full name and saying his date of birth. (Content Read …)

This article was written by Rym Ghazal.

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In the midst of overlapping murmurs of prayers in a sea of white-cloaked worshipers, a woman’s voice interrupts the collective trance as she asks: “Are you single?”

For hundreds of years, Mecca has been the sacred meeting point of millions of Muslims from across the world. They come to perform the hajj, the annual major pilgrimage, or umrah, a minor pilgrimage that can be performed anytime.

Matchmaking is a profession that’s at least as old as Mecca. But until now, say Saudi scholars, it hasn’t been practiced at Islam’s holiest site. (Content Read …)

The United States will impose travel and financial sanctions against 38 additional people and two companies with ties to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, a senior State Department official said.

Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, warned in a speech Monday that the U.S. will expand the sanctions further if violence does not cease, saying “Mugabe’s tyranny needs to end.”

She did not identify the people or the companies affected, but she said they included nine state security officials and five adult children of Zimbabwean government officials studying in the United States.

The United States already has imposed travel and financial sanctions against 130 people with ties to Mugabe. (Content Read …)

Recent congressional and public attention has focused on access problems at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, which provides medical care to servicemen and women once they have left active duty in a time of war or an official period of hostility. Although investigators note that improvements are under way, they say the VA has a long way to go. With this article

Nearly , active-duty personnel and reservists who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Afghanistan’s Operation Enduring Freedom have been eligible for VA health care since healthhealth. More than health, have sought it out so far, the Congressional Budget Office reported in October.

(Content Read …)

The Bangladesh government pledged Thursday to feed more than two million people left destitute by Cyclone Sidr amid warnings the country faces acute food shortages after the storm ravaged crops.

The pledge comes as officials and relief agencies struggle to get desperately needed rice, drinking water and tents to remote villages wrecked by the Nov. 15 storm, which killed more than 3,100 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

The government will distribute 33 pounds of rice per month to each of the estimated 2.5 million people, many of them in crowded relief camps, starting Dec. 1, said Tapan Chowdhoury, the government’s adviser on food and disaster management. (Content Read …)

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A methane blast ripped through a coal mine in eastern Ukraine early Sunday, killing at least 33 miners and leaving dozens of others trapped, emergency officials said.

The explosion occurred at the Zasyadka mine in the Donetsk region at a depth of more than 3,280 feet at around 3 a.m., Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Ihor Krol said.

Rescue workers have found the bodies of 28 miners, and dozens of others have remained trapped throughout the sprawling mine, Krol said. Rescue authorities were working to bring them to the surface.

Several hundred workers were in the mine when the explosion occurred, although only around 30 were in the immediate area of the blast, officials said. (Content Read …)

A group of teenage girls is taking up fisticuffs to challenge Afghanistan’s gender barriers.

“Move, move, move,” coach Saber Sharifi shouted as the 20-odd girls sparred recently. “Steady, watch your left shoulder.”

The boxers belong to a new generation of Afghan youth, challenging stereotypes that persist five years after the fall of the Taliban. They train in a room in Kabul’s main sports stadium, a venue for public executions during Taliban rule in the late 1990s. Boxing is helping them gain confidence and self-respect, the girls say. Their goal: to be Afghanistan’s first women’s boxing team.

“Many people are trying to stop us from participating in sports by saying it is not good for women,” said 15-year-old Shabnam, who uses only one name. (Content Read …)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned the Unites States on Saturday that oil prices could more than double if Washington attacked his country or Iran - part of a provocative opening address here to a rare OPEC summit.

The Venezuelan leader also appealed to fellow members of the Organization of Petroleum Countries to join his crusade for social justice, saying the group should be “at the vanguard in the fight against poverty.”

After Chavez’s speech, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, the conservative head of the world’s largest oil exporter, appeared to rebuke the leftist president by insisting “OPEC has always acted moderately and wisely.”

“Oil is an energy for development, it should not become a tool for conflict and emotions,” said Abdullah, a strong U.S. (Content Read …)