The International Olympic Committee delivered a stunning rebuke to the United States and President Barack Obama, selecting Rio de Janeiro to host the 2016 summer games after a dramatic election that saw Chicago dumped out in the first round, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Rio’s Olympic triumph means that Brazil, already host of the 2014 World Cup, will stage the world’s two premier sporting events in the space of two years. It marks a personal victory for …

A popular US Christian preacher has been refused entry to Britain leaving thousands stranded at an evangelical rally in London planned for this weekend, The Times reports.
Benny Hinn, a televangelist from Texas, who draws large crowds to his Pentecostal revival rallies, was turned back at Stansted airport after he fell foul of new rules on visiting ministers of religion.
Many thousands of Pentecostal Christians had travelled from throughout the UK and Europe and booked long weekend …

Arab terror organisation Hamas today gave the Israeli Government a videotape that proves that kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is alive and in good condition. Israel, in turn, released 20 female Arab terrorists for that videotape.
Here’s the video, released to public by Israel:

Translation of the statement (from Jerusalem Post):
“Hello, I am Gilad, son of Noam and Aviva Schalit, brother of Hadas and Yoel, who lives in Mitzpe Hila. My ID number is 300097029.
“As you see …

Geologists have found a cluster of fossilised dinosaur eggs, said to be about 65million years old, the Daily Mail reports.
The discovery in a village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu could help to unravel the mystery of how dinosaurs became extinct.
The geologists found layer upon layer of spherical eggs and body parts of dinosaur and each cluster contained eight eggs, which were about five to eight inches in diameter and lying in sandy nests …

An IT consultant who for more than two years used forged rail tickets on his daily commute into London was today given a suspended sentence and ordered to pay back the fares, the Guardian reports.
Jonathan Moore saved £12,472 by using his computer skills to produce replica tickets for his daily journey from East Sussex to London.
Moore, 27, was foiled when a ticket inspector suspected something was awry with his ticket during a routine inspection last …

A desperate homeowner plagued by yobs has made a last ditch appeal for police action by taking out an advert in his local paper – offering a £2,000 reward, the Daily Mail reports.
Retired primary school teacher Ted Nottingham, 71, was forced to take the unusual approach following a total failure by police to catch the culprits responsible for a five-year-long harassment campaign.
He spent £610 on the half page appeal addressed directly to his Chief Constable …

The unemployment rate in the United States rose to 9.8 per cent in September as employers cut far more jobs than expected, evidence that the longest recession since the 1930s is still inflicting widespread pain, FoxNews reports.
The US Labour Department said today that the economy lost a net total of 263,000 jobs last month, up from a downwardly revised 201,000 in August. That’s above Wall Street economists’ expectations of 180,000 job losses.
If laid-off workers who …

Both Jews and Muslims celebrated holidays in September, however, the United States Consulate in Jerusalem – America’s representative in Israel’s capital – chose to focus entirely on Islam this year, while ignoring the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur completely, Arutz 7 reports.
The consulate’s website features Eid il-Fitr greetings from US President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Consul General Daniel Rubinstein. Their staff were involved in Ramadan celebrations in Jenin …

It’s impossible to tell if it’s the head injury Ferrari pilot Felipe Massa suffered in Hungary this year or he just doesn’t remember what exactly happened in Singapore last year, but his recent claims of how he was “robbed” of the championship title because of Renault’s fix-up are quite idiotic.
Massa, who’s been recovering from the accident and head injury he suffered at Hungaroring this summer, said that Renault driver Nelson Piquet’s deliberate crash and his …

The daughter of Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave birth to a baby boy on Wednesday night, making the Prime Minister a grandfather for the first time.
Happy mother, Noa Netanyahu-Roth was born to Bibi’s first wire Micki Weizmann and is the 59-year-old Prime Minister’s only daughter. Noa is married to Daniel Roth.
From The Empire Chronicles, a big mazal tov to Bibi, his daughter and son-in-law!

During last month I asked the readers of The Empire Chronicles, how do they think the Governments and NATO should handle the situation in Afghanistan, and 55% of the respondents (502 people) think that a new military strategy – to which many have been calling – should be found.
25% or 226 people think that the military should continue in Afghanistan without a change, and 12% – 112 people – suggest to pull out of Afghanistan …

Israel released today 19 female Arab prisoners in exchange for a minute-long video proving that kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was still alive and in good condition; the 20th prisoner will be released on Sunday.
18 of the 19 prisoners released today were sent to Judea and Samaria, one to Gaza. The twentieth prisoner will be released on Sunday, after it was found that a prisoner released Wednesday was finishing her sentence anyway and would therefore be …

Conservative leader David Cameron said on Friday that he would set up a war cabinet for the Afghan conflict if he becomes prime minister, AFP reports.
Cameron said that he would bring together top ministers, armed forces and intelligence chiefs in a group similar to the US National Security Council.
“Our military is at war in Afghanistan, but quite frankly, Whitehall isn’t,” Cameron said, referring to politicians and civil servants. He added that the cabinet would meet “from …

The London Evening Standard is to become a free newspaper, about 600,000 copies of the paper – which currently costs 50p – will be given out in London from 12th October, the BBC reports.
Current circulation of the London Evening Standard is about 250,000.
The move comes after the paper was sold by the publisher of the Daily Mail to Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev.
Last month, the free London Paper, owned by News International, ceased publication. The …

HTC Hero, the phone which uses Google’s Android operating system, has been voted the Gadget of the Year, the Independent reports.
Fraser Macdonald, one of the judges at the 2009 Stuff Gadget Awards, said: “With the HTC Hero, we’ve finally got a phone that fully exploits the potential of the Android OS to be as clever and as sexy as the iPhone.”
Apple’s iPhone 3GS picked up awards for Phone of the Year and Readers’ Gadget of …

FIA’s outgoing President Max Mosley threatened the supporters of presidential candidate Ari Vatanen, saying that those who vote for Vatanen in next month’s election, can expect to be marginalised under Jean Todt, who also runs for FIA President and is expected to win the race.
In an astonishing letter to HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein, the Jordan Motorsport chairman and one of Vatanen’s nominations for vice-president, Mosley also states categorically that the Finn “will lose the …