Already one of the poorest countries by many measures, Yemen — a nation of roughly 22 million people — has been struck by severe droughts and depleted water supplies in recent years. Some Yemenis are calling the situation a potential time bomb.

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A new political party in Germany has made saving the working class and the country's welfare system rallying points for attracting votes. Die Linke, or the Left Party, is drawing support from mainstream parties with a radical message.

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American diplomat Winston Lord was part of secret delegations sent to negotiate with enemies of the United States.

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On her Tokyomango blog, Lisa Katayama profiled two fascinating Japanese artists I'd never heard of: Yayoi Kusama (L) and Mariko Mori (R).

UFOCapture is a Windows application that helps you videotape meteors and other fast-moving stuff in space. You hook up a sensitive video camera to your computer, point it out your window, and while you slumber, the software saves all the good bits.

No, he just uses a fantastic piece of software that automates mostly everything: the UFOCaptureV2! It’s joined by the UFOAnalyzer and the UFOOrbit. The whole package automates the process of detecting unusual phenomena in the sky, and even attempts to automatically classify and analyze it.

Check the samples of videos captured by the software: meteors, birds et al and, what I was quite skeptical when I first saw it, even sprites, elves and jets! Of course, it wouldn’t be worth its name if it didn’t also capture UFOs.

The software is free for use for 30 days, and the price is more than worth it, as the developer actively adds features and corrects bugs, being also available in support forums. For less than U$5,000 one would be able to set up a system, and that’s from scratch: the most expensive parts would be the high-sensitivity night camera and associated optics, and the dedicated PC.

Link (Forgetomori)

Flying baseball bat scares people (Arbroath)

There was a lot of buzz when it was announced that American and Iranian diplomats would sit at the same table for talks on Iran's nuclear program. Just how effective Saturday's talks were remains to be seen. What is clear is that Iran faces a new deadline and the threat of more sanctions.

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Since Birmingham, Ala., Mayor Larry Langford took office late last year, he's been a man on a mission. His city has an annual budget of about $430 million, yet he's proposed more than a billion dollars in new projects. But Langford's ambitious agenda has been hobbled by charges that he accepted kickbacks in the past.

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