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A 17-year-old was arrested in connection with setting a Limassol school on fire on Thursday evening. According to police the fire broke out at around 7.30pm at the 19th elementary school. It started from wooden palettes outside a warehouse containing recyclable materials and spread to the main building. Before the blaze could be extinguished it caused extensive damage to the building. Police later arrested a 17-year-old young man in connection with the fire.

Middle-aged white people now account for a third of all suicides in the U.S., a new government report shows. Suicide is the nation's 10th leading cause of death, and the overall rate rose 24 percent in 15 years, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicides have long been most common among white people — particularly older white males. But most striking in the new report is the growth in whites ages 45 to 64. They were a third of suicide deaths in 2014, up from about a quarter in 1999. "The findings in this report are extremely concerning," said Nadine Kaslow, an Emory University researcher and past president of the American Psychological Association. The CDC data — released Friday — provides a detailed look at the latest year's suicide statistics, and a broader look at how much the situation has changed over 15 years. There were nearly 43,000 U.S. suicides in 2014. More than 14,000 of them were middle-aged whites — twice t

Law enforcement agents are outside a building in the south of Moscow where weapons and munitions were found. © Ramil Sitdikov / Sputnik Over 100 residents have been evacuated from an apartment building in southwest Moscow after a cache of ammunition and explosives were discovered in its basement. The size of the cache is unknown. “Earlier today, the staff of the Moscow police discovered a cache of ammunition in the basement of a house on Kulikov Street. Officers have cordoned off the area,” the Interior Ministry’s press office said, Interfax reported. “Currently, we are conducting special investigative activities to find out who [has placed] the ammunition there,” a press service representative said. Earlier, Interfax reported that over 100 people had been evacuated from the building, citing a source in law enforcement. Meanwhile, RIA Novosti news agency reported that a demining robot has been delivered to the scene of the incident, along with a special box for the safe transpor

Volkswagen (VW) said on Friday it would take a 16.2-billion-euro ($18.2 billion) hit to its 2015 results and slash its dividend to help pay for its emissions-test cheating scandal. The news came amid growing signs a regulatory clampdown in the wake of VW’s cheating is affecting the broader industry, with Germany-based automakers including Mercedes-Benz, and Opel – as well as VW – agreeing to recall a total of 630,000 cars to fix diesel engine technology blamed for high pollution. On Thursday, VW agreed a framework settlement with US authorities to buy back or potentially fix about half a million cars fitted with illegal test-fixing software, and set up environmental and consumer compensation funds. Analysts said the deal was crucial for VW to give a cost for the scandal in its 2015 results, which have been delayed since February, and provide a starting point for Europe’s biggest carmaker to try to rebuild trust with investors and customers. VW said on Friday the money it was setti

Canadian authorities said Wednesday that a budding high school basketball star is actually a 29-year-old refugee from South Sudan. The Canadian Border Services Agency said that Jonathan Nicola was arrested earlier this week for contravening the country's Immigration Refugee Protection Act. The agency said Nicola "misrepresented material facts" on his application for a study permit to Canada, submitting an application with a date of birth of Nov. 25, 1998 — which would make him 17. The agency says when Nicola recently applied for a U.S. visitor visa, a fingerprint match determined he was an individual who had made a previous application to the U.S. using a date of birth of Nov. 1, 1986 — making him 29. The Windsor Star reported that Nicola was remanded into custody after a hearing before the country's Immigration and Refugee Board Tuesday. Another hearing is scheduled for next week. Nicola faces deportation if convicted Nicola was attending Catholic Central High S

An aerial view shows Baghdad © Saad Shalash / Reuters At least nine people have been killed in a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in southwest Baghdad, according to police and hospital sources cited by Reuters. At least 25 others were wounded. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. The blast took place after Friday prayers, when the bomber detonated his explosive vest. A second suicide attacker was shot and killed by security forces before he could set off his explosives, the police sources said. Meanwhile, a separate bomb went off in Abu Ghraib district, west of Baghdad, on Friday. That blast killed two people and wounded nine others, according to security and medical sources. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for that attack. It comes less than one month after an IS suicide bombing killed at least 29 people and injured 60 others at a football stadium in Baghdad. An Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) suicide truck bomb also killed at least 60

Still image of Angela Dimitriou taken from the controversial Jumbo advert Advertisers for Greece’s biggest toy retailer Jumbo have pulled an Easter TV advertisement – also shown in Cyprus – after criticism by human rights activists and social media comments that it was discriminatory against women. The commercial, which became a viral media sensation soon after it was released this month, featured a popular female Greek singer carrying a red-painted egg and calling on a young man to crack it. “Hit, hit like a man,” says 61-year-old singer Angela Dimitriou. Egg tapping is a traditional Greek Easter game in which a player attempts to crack an opponent’s hard-boiled egg without damaging his or her own.                                          Orthodox Easter falls on May 1 this year, a month after the Catholic/Protestant festival. Jumbo declined to comment but its advertising agency denied the allegations saying the advertisement was humorous. Greece’s general secretariat for gend

Newly-elected President of Britain’s National Union of Students (NUS) Malia Bouattia, 28, was accused of anti-Semitism during her campaign. Now she’s been voted in by a landslide, some of her critics are threatening to leave the union. Despite winning the election by more than 50 percent of the vote, a number of students’ union members say they may disaffiliate from the national body over claims Bouattia – who previously served as the NUS Black Students officer – is an anti-Semitic racist. Last week she was accused in an open letter signed by fifty heads of university Jewish groups of referring to Birmingham University as a "Zionist outpost" in a 2011 article. Elements within students’ unions in Durham, York, Birmingham, the London School of Economics, King’s College London, Westminster and Edinburgh are all said to be considering disaffiliation. It is a move which, if successful, could hit NUS funding hard.                                       Bouattia, who fled Al

The long-standing demand of the people of Agra for an international airport in the city took an interesting turn when members of civil society and several other tourism and social organizations gathered at the Yamuna bank opposite the tomb of Itmad-ud-Daulah and flew paper airplanes for an hour, launched from a mock airport made out in the dried up Yamuna. The interesting fact in this novel protest was that each paper airplane bore the contents of the entire electoral speech Prime Minister Narendra Modi had delivered in Agra on 13th November 2013, promising a full river and a new international airport as soon as he came to power. Talking to India Today, Rajeev Tiwari, President of Federation of Travel Associations said that it was clear that the Prime Minister has forgotten his promises as the airport that was supposed to be built in Agra, was now being shifted to Jewar near Delhi, while the Yamuna river is still dry. He said that the paper airplanes are a symbol of the bag of air

London Mayor Boris Johnson attends the unveiling of a recreation of the 1,800-year-old Arch of Triumph in Palmyra, Syria, at Trafalgar Square in London London Mayor Boris Johnson, figurehead of the ‘Out’ campaign ahead of Britain’s referendum on European Union membership, was accused on Friday of demeaning the EU debate with a comment about US President Barack Obama’s Kenyan heritage. The “In” campaign and lawmakers attacked the Conservative mayor over a passage in an opinion article he wrote in the Sun newspaper criticising Obama, who is visiting Britain and has urged Britons to vote to remain in the bloc. Johnson speculated about why a bust of Britain’s wartime leader Winston Churchill had been removed from the Oval Office in the early days of Obama’s presidency in 2009. “Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British Empire, of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender,” wrote Johnson. Obama’s

A woman was dragged out of her office, abducted and later raped by a man in Punjab's Muktsar town recently. A CCTV video shows a man dragging the woman in broad daylight across a street while she is struggling and shouting for help. The incident occurred on March 25. Several people and vehicles are seen in the video but no one stopped to help the Dalit woman. The woman told the police that she was later raped by the man at a farmhouse. The Muktsar Police has failed to arrest the accused even almost a month after the shocking incident. Meanwhile, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes has taken note of the incident and summoned top Muktsar Police officers demanding an explanation over the delay in arresting the accused.

A woman involved in a lawsuit over the lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint, Michigan was reportedly found shot to death in her home along with another individual. On Tuesday, police found the bodies of two women inside of a townhouse, where they also found a one-year-old who was unharmed. Both women were shot, and have been identified as Sasha Bell and Sacorya Reed, though police only said their ages are between 18 and 20 years old, WJRT reported. The child was taken into protective services. Police are treating the deaths as homicides and have a suspect in custody, but no charges have been filed. Notably, the Flint Journal reports that Sasha Bell was one of the first individuals to file a lawsuit over the water crisis in Flint, which saw city water become contaminated with lead after officials chose to switch to the Flint River as its main drinking source. According to the outlet, Bell claimed that her child suffered from lead poisoning as a result of the switch. Police hav

US Secretary of State Kerry holds his granddaughter as he signs the Paris Agreement on climate change at United Nations Headquarters in New York China and the United States, the world’s top producers of greenhouse gas emissions, pledged on Friday to formally adopt by the end of the year a Paris deal to slow global warming, raising the prospects of it being enforced much faster than anticipated. The United Nations said some 174 states were set to take the first step of signing the deal on Friday, the biggest day one endorsement of a global agreement. Of those, 16 states were also expected to formally notify the United Nations that they had ratified the deal. Many countries still need a parliamentary vote to formally approve the agreement, which was reached in December. The deal will enter into force only when ratified by at least 55 nations representing 55 per cent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. China and the United States together account for 38 per cent of global emission

April 21, 2016: The Solar Impulse 2 solar plane lifts off at the Kalaeloa Airport in Kapolei, Hawaii. The solar plane will fly a two-and-a-half day journey to Northern California. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia) Two pilots are slowly carving their way into a new future of solar-powered flight as one embarks on the latest leg of their around-the-world journey in a plane powered only by the sun. After some uncertainty about winds, the Solar Impulse team took off from Hawaii on Thursday, and hours later it was still ascending over the Pacific attempting to reach a high altitude before night sets in. The Swiss-made Solar Impulse 2 was on course to land in Mountain View, Calif., in about three days. The crew that helped it take off was clearing out of its Hawaiian hangar and headed for the mainland for the weekend arrival. The aircraft landed in Hawaii in July and was forced to stay in the islands after the plane's battery system sustained heat damage on its trip from Japan. The aircraft s

The Portuguese superstar was seen limping off clutching his thigh at the end of Real Madrid's 3-0 win over Villarreal on Wednesday Cristiano Ronaldo faces a race against time to get fit for Real Madrid’s Champions League semi-final first leg at Manchester City on Tuesday after he picked up a thigh muscle injury. “Ronaldo has been diagnosed with a muscle strain in his right thigh. His recovery will continue to be assessed,” Real said in a statement on Friday. Spanish newspaper Marca reported that the prolific striker has been ruled out of Madrid’s La Liga game at Rayo Vallecano on Saturday. The Portuguese, who is the top scorer in La Liga with 31 goals, was seen limping off clutching his thigh at the end of Real Madrid’s 3-0 win over Villarreal on Wednesday.

Authorities say New York City has agreed to pay $40 million to settle civil rights lawsuits filed by five people who claimed they were wrongfully convicted of murder in the Bronx. The New York Times reports the Law Department said Thursday it had agreements with three plaintiffs and agreed to two more in principle. The plaintiffs are to receive $8 million each. Their lawsuits accused two police detectives of misconduct during the investigation. Each of the plaintiffs spent over 17 years behind bars. Three of the plaintiffs were convicted in the 1995 killings of a livery cab driver and a Federal Express executive. The other two were convicted only in the cab driver's slaying. The Law Department says the settlements are in the best interest of the city.

A consultation period is underway on a bill amending regulations for driving licences for young drivers as well as the elderly. The draft bill provides for granting a learner’s licence at 17, minimum hours of compulsory training for candidate drivers by instructors, as well as annual medical tests for drivers over 75, in order to have their licences renewed. In addition, it regulates the obligations and responsibilities of doctors who issue such health certificates. As regards learner’s licences, the bill provides that they can be granted at the age of 17, instead at 17.5 according to the existing legislation, to “increase the duration of training of candidate drivers from six months to one year”. The aim is to help trainees acquire more experience and further practice “in low-risk conditions before obtaining a driving licence”. Licences are granted to people over 18 after they successfully pass the relevant tests. It also provides for minimum mandatory training of between five an

The Mississippi state flag © Jonathan Ernst / Reuters With the Mississippi State flag falling from favor in Washington, DC, over its Confederate imagery, the standards of all American states are being removed from the Capitol’s subway system. Replacing them will be prints from each state's official coin. The flags are on display in the most-traveled of multiple subway tunnels connecting the Capitol to the House and Senate office buildings. The Mississippi flag was removed from a subway tunnel 10 months ago following a shooting at a black church in South Carolina’s Charleston by a white supremacist. The flag was controversial due to the Confederate imagery on it, evoking a racially-charged past. The idea to pull down the flags of the other 49 states, the District of Columbia and US territories is attributed to House Administration Committee Chairman Candice Miller (R-Michigan). “Given the controversy surrounding Confederate imagery, I decided to install a new display,” Miller

There is no respite from heat wave in Odisha. As per records, at least 72 people have died so far. While, Titlagarh was recorded as the hottest place at 47.5 degrees Celsius, Sonepur district recorded maximum temperature at 46.3 degrees Celsius. Balangir district and Sundergarh boiled at 46 degrees Celsius. Regional director of met department Sarat Chandra Sahu said, "High temperature in Odisha may continue for next 5-7 days." According to the met department, 16 places recorded above 40 degrees Celsius while mercury soared above 45 degrees Celsius in nine towns. Sahu said the heat wave condition would prevail in several parts of the state till April 24, and also warned that some places would experience severe heat wave in next two days. He, however, said southern parts may experience rain within the next 24 hours or so while interior and western parts will continue to face crippling heat conditions. Meanwhile, sources at the special relief commissioner's office said

A new elevated bike path that was heralded as a top legacy project of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics collapsed Thursday, killing at least two people. The accident on the Tim Maia bike path was the latest in a series of problems besetting preparations for the Aug. 5-21 games, which include worries about an outbreak of the Zika virus, political turmoil that threatens to topple President Dilma Rousseff, underwhelming ticket sales and budget cuts amid Brazil's worst recession in decades. Municipal Secretary Pedro Paulo Carvalho said a third person was thought to be missing after a giant wave apparently swept up a rocky cliff, lifted an approximately 50-meter stretch of the bike path and sent it plunging onto the rocks and sea below. Rio's fire department confirmed only the two deaths. Local news media said two other people were rescued alive. Helicopters fished the two who died out of the water and laid them out on the golden sands of Sao Conrado beach. Initially covered by colorful

Someone is missing a pet tiger in Southeast Texas, where police received multiple calls from residents who spotted the young animal wandering around all by her lonesome. The big cat was wearing a collar and a leash, but no one was on the other end of it. The Conroe Police Department began receiving phone calls at 11:50 am on Thursday reporting a small tiger on the loose. Given that tigers are not native to the Houston, Texas suburb, this probably seemed pretty strange. Not all of those encountering the lost pet had the same reaction, however. Erin Poole and Jonathan Gessner were out driving when it happened. “I see something run into the bushes – it was really big,” Poole told KHOU. “And Jonathan hopped out of the car and was like, ‘I’m gonna catch it.’” Gessner told the Houston Chronicle that he noticed the cub lying in the bushes, so he approached her. As he got closer, she started “shaking her butt like a cat getting into attack mode.” However, instead of turning around, he k

A massive plume of smoke has erupted after an explosion occurred at a warehouse with chemical and fuel products in China. A warehouse storing chemicals and fuel exploded and caught fire in the eastern Chinese city of Jingjiang on Friday, the local government and media reports said, but the blaze was under control with no casualties. The blast recalled huge explosions caused by improper storage of chemicals in the northern city of Tianjin last August, when at least 165 people were killed and fears were raised of toxic contamination. The latest accident was at the premises of a company called Jiangsu Deqiao Storage, which is authorised to keep hazardous chemicals, reports said. The Jingjiang government said on its verified microblog that the fire was “under control” with no deaths or injuries. One photo posted online showed dark clouds of smoke with the fire still burning amid what appeared to be storage tanks. The Jingjiang government statement said activity near the site had retur

Russian President Putin meets Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in Moscow Russian forces in Syria have fired at least twice on Israeli military aircraft, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek improved operational coordination with Moscow, Israel’s top-selling newspaper said on Friday. Asked about the alleged incidents, however, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “In this case, Israeli press reports are far from reality.” But Netanyahu, in remarks published by Israeli reporters whom he briefed by phone on his talks on Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said “there have been problems” regarding Israeli military freedom of operation in Syria. He gave no details, but said: “If you don’t deal with the friction, it could develop into something more serious.” The unsourced report in Yedioth Ahronoth made no mention of dates or locations for the two reported incidents, nor did it give any indication of whether the Israeli planes were hit. Russia mounted its mi

US B-52 bomber © Viktor Korotayev / Reuters Video footage of an American B-52 Stratofortress bomber destroying an Islamic State weapons storage facility has been published online. The targeted strikes took place near Qayyarah, Iraq. The footage was tweeted by US Army Col. Steven Warren, a spokesman for the US military operation against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), known as 'Operation Inherent Resolve.' An aerial view shows the warehouse seconds before it is bombed. Huge clouds of smoke can be seen immediately after it has been struck. The video's text says the strikes, which took place near the Iraqi town of Qayyarah on April 18, targeted a weapons storage facility and were aimed at “disrupting terrorist operations.” The long-range multi-purpose heavy bombers were sent to Qatar earlier this month, in their first Middle East operational deployment since the 1991 Gulf War.

Christians in China are being increasingly persecuted, and a pastor's wife was killed last week protesting demolition of her church (ChinaAid.org) A Christian woman's fateful and defiant stance in front of a bulldozer last week evoked the memory of Tiananmen Square and has become a rallying cry against persecution at the hands of the Beijing government. The woman, identified by Christian activists as Ding Cuimei, wife of the Rev. Li Jiangong, was trying to stop the government-ordered demolition of Beitou Church in the central Hena province city of Zhumadian. Unlike the iconic man who brazenly stopped a tank in the 1989 uprising, Ding was pushed into a ditch and buried alive as horrified congregants watched helplessly. “Bury them alive for me,” a member of the demolition team said according to a report by China Aid, a nonprofit focused on human rights and religious freedom in the world’s most populous country. “I will be responsible for their lives.” The grim incident under

US President Obama walks down the steps of Air Force One as he arrives at Stansted Airport near London, Britain US President Barack Obama appealed directly to British voters on Friday to remain in the European Union, saying membership had magnified Britain’s place in the world and made the bloc stronger and more outward looking. In an article in the conservative Daily Telegraph — which the eurosceptic newspaper placed on page 20 –Obama invoked the interlinked history of the United States and Britain and the tens of thousands of Americans lying in European war graves as his reason for speaking on a June 23 referendum. “The European Union doesn’t moderate British influence – it magnifies it,” he wrote under the headline: “As your friend, I tell you that the EU makes Britain even greater.” Obama, who opinion polls show is popular in Britain, arrived in London on Thursday to applaud Britain’s EU membership which he said had helped make the world freer, richer and better able to tac

The dialogue process between India and Pakistan had not been suspended, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said today, nearly a fortnight after Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit's remark that talks between the two neighbouring nations have been shelved. Talking to reporters, Swarup pointed out that New Delhi's recent engagements with Islamabad centered around the Pathankot terror attack but other issues have also been part of discussions. "Multiple conversations have been held between India and Pakistan at multiple levels including at the level of the two Prime Ministers who spoke to each other quite recently. Obviously, after the Pathankot terror attack, the focus of the conversations was on the investigation of that particular attack," Swarup said when asked about the status of On the status of India-Pakistan dialogue. "However, other aspects of the relationships have also been discussed. I have made statements and so has my Pakist

Seven members of the same family have been killed at an Ohio home, according to the state's Bureau of Criminal Investigation. The shooter is on the loose, local media outlets report. Authorities are searching for the suspect, according to WKRC. Fox 19 has reported that the shootings occurred at three different scenes, rather than at one house. Aerial video and photos show numerous law enforcement vehicles in the area. Peebles High School is on a "lockout" as a precaution, meaning that classes will continue but no one is allowed to come or go. The high school is about 10 miles from the shooting scene. The attorney general's office confirmed "multiple homicides" but refused to release additional information, WBNS reported. “The mail carrier told me there’s something seriously bad going on up the road," nearby resident Goldie Holderbran told WCPO. "I’m on the other side of [highway] 32 on Union Hill Road. I’m not very far." The Pike County S

A 16-year-old Delaware high school sophomore died Thursday morning after a fight broke out in a restroom involving several female students. Family members identified the victim as Amy Francis-Joyner. She had gotten involved in a confrontation involving two other students at Wilmington's Howard High School of Technology, spokeswoman Kathy K. Demarest said in a statement. She said no weapons were involved and police were questioning other students. Francis-Joyner was pronounced dead at A.I. DuPont Children's Hospital, where she had been airlifted in critical condition, police spokeswoman Sgt. Andrea Janvier said. "I think this is a dream and I'm trying to wake up," the girl's father, Sonny Francis, told Fox 29 Philadelphia. "All I know is my daughter is gone. She was the love of my life and it hurts." Student Kayla Wilson said she was in a stall in the girl's restroom when the fight broke out. "She was fighting a girl, and then that'

Torrential rains triggered a massive landslide which took away lives of at least 16 people in a labour camp in Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh today. Unplanned housing in the hills have made it one of the most landslide prone areas. The jolts of the landslide were experienced by people far away from the grief stricken spot. The incident took place today morning when 19 labourers were engaged in construction work inside the camp near a 5 star hotel at Phamla village, 6 km away from Tawang town. So far 16 bodies have been extricated from the wreckage. The incessant rains had only stimulated this landslide in the various pockets of the border district. Among the injured people, one severely injured has been shifted to Tezpur while the other two injured have been taken to a local hospital for treatment. A joint operation was executed by the army, civil administration, police and the villagers to help with the rescue work. All the bodies were carried out from the debris. For a lon