Iceland’s Parliament narrowly voted to apply for membership in the European Union – 33 for and 27 against, the AP reports.
Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir wants to submit a membership application to the EU by the end of the month.
A final decision to join the bloc would need approval by Icelanders in a referendum.
Iceland’s banking sector and currency collapsed and the volcanic island became an early casualty of the global economic crisis. The disaster forced Icelanders to …

A group of Europe’s influential political figures – among others former Polish President Lech Walesa, former Czech President Vaclav Havel and former Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar – have written an open letter to US President Barack Obama, warning him of Russia’s increasing intimidation in the region and calling for the US to take a strong line.
Altogether 22 former leaders signed the letter that expressed deep concern over America’s declining interest in the part of …

Cherie Blair, the wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, is reportedly suffering from suspected swine flu and has been forced to cancel public engagements because of the illness, the Daily Mail reports.
Mrs Blair started to feel unwell at the beginning of the week.
Doctors are reported to have given her a course of Tamiflu and she is now said to be resting as she fights the illness.
Her husband Tony has not picked up the bug, …

The Watergate Hotel made famous by a presidential scandal is expected to be on the auction block next week, the AP reports.
Alex Cooper Auctioneers are announcing that they will take bids Tuesday on the Washington landmark.
The Watergate complex was made famous by the 1972 burglary that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

Of 67 UK’s Apache attack helicopters, only a mere eight are in use in Afghanistan, fellow blogger TrueBlueBlood reports.
No wonder the Defence Select Committee released a powerful report slamming the Government this am.  The Select Cttee Chairman James Arbuthnot said:
“It seems to us that operational commanders in the field today are unable to undertake potentially valuable operations because of the lack of helicopters for transportation around the theatre of operations. We are also concerned that operational commanders …

Gavin Paslow, a security guard who swindled benefit money to pay for operations to make himself look like the devil has been banned from leaving his house at night, the Daily Mail reports.
Paslow was handed the curfew after using £3,552 to fund operations to give himself a fangs, a forked tongue and horns.
Paslow, who has changed his name to Diablo Delenfer, or devil from the inferno – said he needed to carry out “body …

The number of murders, manslaughters and child killings in England and Wales has dropped by 17% to a 20-year low,
but robberies at knife point have risen by almost a fifth and domestic burglaries jumped 4%.
There were 136 fewer killings in 2008/9 compared to a year earlier, the BBC reports.
The number of attempted murders is also down 7%, but attempted murders with knives is up 11%. Other violent offences were up, however, including a 5% increase in …

Today 40 years ago, on 16th July, 1969, at 9:32 local time (13:32 GMT) a Saturn V launched Apollo 11 space ship from the Kennedy Space Center.
Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr were on board of Apollo 11.
The destination of Apollo 11 – the Moon.
It entered orbit 12 minutes later. After one and a half orbits, the S-IVB third-stage engine pushed the spacecraft onto …

The city of Udaipur in India’s state of Rajasthan, also known as the city of lakes, is the best tourist city in the world, according to Travel and Leisure Magazine.
Udaipur in Southern Rajasthan is famous for its Rajput-era palaces. Particularily famous is the Lake Palace, which covers an entire island in the Pichola Lake. The palace is also famous for the fact that many scenes of the James Bond film “Octopussy” were filmed there.
Cape Town …

Russian campaigner on human rights, Natalya Estemirova, was abducted and murdered on Wednesday, hours after her organisation backed calls for Vladimir Putin to face trial over atrocities in Chechnya, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Estemirova, who won numerous international awards for her work, was bundled into a car as she left her home in Grozny, the Chechen capital. Her body was later found by the side of a road in the neighbouring province of Ingushetia. She had …

Parliament in Iceland – the Nordic country that went pretty much bankrupt last year – is preparing to vote on whether they should seek to join European Union.
If parliament supports membership, the Icelandic government will then have to present its application to the EU and – if successful – put the issue to the Icelandic people in a referendum, the BBC reports.
The Prime Minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, predicted that the result of the vote in Parliament …