Politics

OTTAWA — The appointment of Ray Novak as the prime minister’s new chief of staff could signal larger changes in Stephen Harper’s office.Novak, 36, has been at Harper’s side for over a decade. Up until Sunday, he served as Harper’s principal secretary.More...

L'armée syrienne a affirmé dimanche contrôler le coeur de Qousseir, longtemps place forte des rebelles dans le centre du pays, au lendemain de déclarations du président Bachar-al-Assad martelant sa détermination à rester au pouvoir.Les militants anti-régime ont toutefois minimisé les gains de l'armée, affirmant que les rebelles opposaient une résistance acharnée dans cette ville de 25.000 habitants située sur l'axe reliant la capitale au pays alaouite, la minorité dont est issu M. Assad, sur le littoral.More...

Three Chicago teens accused of gang-raping a 12-year-old girl at gunpoint and posting the video to Facebook will face charges as adults, Cook County prosecutors announced Friday.A judge ordered Justin Applewhite, 16, Kenneth Brown, 15, and Scandale Fritz, 16, each held on $900,000 bond. The teens each face one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault.More...

Americans are focusing on the wrong IRS scandal, according to Michael Moore.During an appearance on “Real Time With Bill Maher” earlier this week, the activist filmmaker accused the Internal Revenue Service of not doing its part to collect enough taxes from profitable corporations. The IRS has come under fire over the past week after news broke that the agency targeted Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status. The IRS acting director resigned Wednesday over the scandal.More...

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — Mount Rushmore National Memorial may be the most famous landmark in the Black Hills of South Dakota, but it's not the only one.Covering approximately 8,000 miles (nearly 13,000 kilometers), the Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range with a big Native American influence. The Lakota took over the mountains from the Cheyenne in the 1700s and named it Paha Sapa (translated to Black Hills.) The Lakota signed a treaty with the U.S. government in 1868 exempting the hills from white settlers. But when gold was discovered in the mountains, the U.S. government broke the treaty and moved the tribes to reservation lands in other areas of the state.More...

The Middle East has amongst the highest average per capita energy consumption of any region in the world, at twice the global average. Consequently, it also has amongst the highest per capita carbon emissions as well. Furthermore, not only is overall energy use high but the energy mix itself is unusually weighted towards oil compared as compared with other regions, with oil accounting for 50 percent of primary energy demand compared with a global average of 33 percent and an OECD average of 38 percent.There are three major consequences of the Middle East's high energy intensity and reliance on oil: first, it carries a large implicit economic cost as a result of the value of oil and gas exports foregone and additional gas imports required in some cases; second, such a high degree of energy dependence increases the economy's volatility through its greater exposure to energy supply disruptions or price shifts; and third, it has increased the region's greenhouse gas emissions.More...

Hay quien aseguró que la película Las dos torres, de El señor de los anillos, incluía la "batalla más hermosa de la historia del cine" en el Abismo de Helm, donde soldados Rohirrim tratan de resistir el asedio de 10.000 Uruk-hai.Como recogen nuestros compañeros de El Huffington Post Italia, esa lucha épica ha despertado la imaginación de dos muchachos, Rich-K & Big J, que han utilizado cerca de 150.000 piezas de lego, que incluyen 17.000 soldados en miniatura, para reconstruir con toda minuciosidad (y paciencia infinita) la batalla.More...

MÉDIAS - Alors que la fin de la saison médiatique approche, les rumeurs sur le mercato des animateurs vont bon train. Daphné Bürki était par exemple annoncée comme la future remplaçante d'Alessandra Sublet qui quitte l'émission quotidienne "C à vous" sur France 5.Un pronostic balayé d'un tweet par la chaîne Canal +. Le compte Twitter du Grand Journal a en effet démenti le départ de la co-présentatrice. "Alors comme ça Daphné Bürki quitterait l'émission à la rentrée ? Et bien on peut vous dire que NON !", assure le tweet.More...

Labour former cabinet minister Lord Mandelson has attacked the "UK isolation party" and the "provisional wing" of the Conservatives for forcing David Cameron into making his referendum promise, accusing them of running a "Sopranos-style protection racket."Following a week of Tory wrangling over Europe the former Northern Ireland secretary said leaving the EU would be a "great setback economically for Britain" and warned that an in/out referendum would be a "lottery" which could result in the UK severing ties with Brussels.More...

La junta directiva de Yahoo ha aprobado este domingo la compra del microblog Tumblr por 847 millones de euros (1.100 millones de dólares) en efectivo, según informaron al Wall Street Journal fuentes cercanas al proceso.El microblog, orientado a la difusión de imágenes por Internet, tiene un valor estimado de 623 millones de euros (800 millones de dólares) y recientemente ha garantizado una financiación adicional de 97 millones de euros (125 millones de dólares).More...