Kate and William to spend Christmas Day with her parents

 Prince William and his pregnant wife Kate will spend Christmas Day with her parents, their office said on Saturday, in a break with the tradition of royals joining The Queen at her country estate at Sandringham.The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will celebrate in private with Carole and Michael Middleton at their home in the village of Bucklebury, about 50 miles (80 km) west of London."The Duke...

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UK prosecutors consider charges over royal hoax call

 British detectives investigating the death of a nurse found hanged after she took a prank phone call at a hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife Kate have passed an evidence file to prosecutors, police said on Saturday.Public prosecutors must decide whether the case is strong enough to bring charges over a stunt that was condemned around the world and fuelled concerns about media ethics.Indian-born...

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Prince William to spend Christmas with the in-laws

 Prince William will spend Christmas with his pregnant wife Kate and his in-laws in the southern England village of Bucklebury, royal officials said Saturday.That means a family Christmas for the Duchess of Cambridge, who was recently hospitalized after suffering from severe morning sickness.A statement from St. James' Palace, William's official residence, didn't go into much detail, saying only...

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Pope pardons ex-butler who stole, leaked documents

 Pope Benedict XVI granted his former butler a Christmas pardon Saturday, forgiving him in person during a jailhouse meeting for stealing and leaking his private papers in one of the gravest Vatican security breaches in recent times.After the 15-minute meeting, Paolo Gabriele was freed and returned to his Vatican City apartment where he lives with his wife and three children. The Vatican said...

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Abducted German aid worker seen alive in video

A German aid worker abducted in Pakistan 11 months ago was seen alive in a video broadcast Saturday urging authorities to fully meet his captors' demands, warning that otherwise they could kill him within days.The undated video — probably recorded under duress by his captors — was broadcast Saturday by Pakistan's Dunya TV. The German Foreign Ministry in Berlin said it "knows the case" and is aware...

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FTC tightens rules protecting children's online privacy

The government announced tighter rules on Wednesday to protect children's online privacy by restricting the collection of data, like the child's location, unless parents consent. The actions by the Federal Trade Commission mark an update to rules that were based on the 1998 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, developed when most computers were big beige boxes sitting under office desks instead...

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Vatican takes first spot in Internet domain name draw

The Vatican has come out in first place in a long-awaited draw to expand the Internet address system with new domain names that go beyond the usual .com, .org or .net endings. ICANN, the corporation that oversees the Internet address system, announced this week the domain name .catholic written in Chinese characters will be the first bid it considers in a drive to expand and reorganize sites on the...

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Vatican says pope beats Justin Bieber on re-tweets

Pope Benedict, white-haired, 85, and a neophyte to social media site Twitter, has beaten out 18-year old heartthrob Justin Bieber to set a percentage record for re-tweeting by his followers, the Vatican said on Thursday. The Vatican newspaper said that as of noon Italian time on Thursday the pope had 2.1 million followers on Twitter, eight days after his first tweet was sent. While Canadian singer-songwriter...

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Saudi website editor could face death for apostasy-rights group

The editor of a Saudi Arabian website could be sentenced to death after a judge cited him for apostasy and moved his case to a higher court, the monitoring group Human Rights Watch said on Saturday. Raif Badawi, who started the Free Saudi Liberals website to discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in June, Human Rights Watch said. Badawi had initially been charged with the less...

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Sri Lanka arrests 100 Chinese for cyber fraud, police say

Sri Lanka on Saturday arrested at least 100 Chinese nationals accused of an internet fraud scheme targeting people in their home country, a police spokesman said. The accused, all in Sri Lanka on tourist visas, are suspected of hacking into computers in China and then demanding their owners transfer them money, police spokesman Prishantha Jayakodi told Reuters. Chinese police requested help from...

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NRA returns to public debate, to meet with media

One week after the mass shootings that killed 26 people at a Connecticut elementary school — 20 of them children — the nation's largest gun-rights lobby is returning to the spotlight as Congress prepares to consider tighter restrictions on firearms in the new year.The 4.3 million-member National Rifle Association largely disappeared from public debate after the shootings in Newtown, Conn., choosing...

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NRA calls for armed police officer in every school

Guns and police officers in all American schools are what's needed to stop the next killer "waiting in the wings," the National Rifle Association declared Friday, taking a no-retreat stance in the face of growing calls for gun control after the Connecticut shootings that claimed the lives of 26 children and school staff."The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," said...

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Few report sex assaults at military academies

 New details in a Pentagon report show that military academy students report just a fraction of the sexual assaults they say occurred in the past school year, signaling a continued reluctance by victims to seek criminal investigations.As reported earlier this week, the report shows that reported sexual assaults at the nation's three military academies jumped by 23 percent overall this year. But...

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Iran claims it has circumvented sanctions

Iran's oil minister claims his country has successfully circumvented sanctions on the sale of its oil.State TV on Sunday broadcast comments by Rostam Ghasemi that the industry was in "bad shape" about two months ago due to the oil embargo by the West, "but we left the bottleneck behind, almost."Ghasemi also said that Iran has set up its own insurance for ships that carry its oil after Western companies...

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Iran claims it has overcome sanctions

Iran's oil minister claimed Sunday his country has successfully overcome sanctions on the sale of its oil, state TV reported.The U.N. and West have imposed tough economic sanctions on Iran to try to persuade it to stop its uranium enrichment project, including a ban by the EU on oil imports, but Iran remains defiant.Oil Minister Rostam Ghasemi that the industry was in "bad shape" about two months...

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Dutch officials impound Steve Jobs’ ‘iYacht’ after alleged missed payments

Officials in Amsterdam have impounded a yacht that late Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs commissioned back in 2007 after Jobs’ estate allegedly missed payments to its architect. Reuters reports that yacht designer Philippe Starck claims that he has only received €6 million of the €9 million owed for his commission and that Dutch authorities are holding the yacht “in Amsterdam port pending payment by lawyers...

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5 Cameras to Surveil Your Home During Vacation Season

1. Logitech Security CamerasLogitech's customizable home security systems are easy to personalize and create. All you have to do is scroll through a few screens here and build your custom system, depending on your home security preferences. Home owners have the option of building an indoor or outdoor camera network with night vision or without. Prices for cameras, accessories and premium services...

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Natural Setting and Tech Break Boost Creativity

Robert Frost famously wrote: "The woods are lovely, dark and deep."But such natural settings may offer more than just beauty. They might also foster creativity. A recent study suggests that a backpacking trip can substantially increase just how inventive your brain can be. The finding is in the journal PLoS ONE. [Ruth Ann Atchley, David L. Strayer and Paul Atchley, Creativity in the Wild: Improving...

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R.I.P.: 10 Products That Were Discontinued in 2012

1. Apple White MacBookAlthough actually discontinued in 2011, 2012 was the year the white MacBook got the official "End of Life" status. Popular with students, the white MacBook had been the budget option for Apple users since 2006. Image courtesy of AppleClick here to view this gallery.[More from Mashable: 2012′s Biggest Winners and Losers]This year, quite a few products disappeared from the market,...

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Top Comments: Mashable Readers React to Instagram's Terms of Service

Readers had varying reactions to Instagram's updates. Some felt that they were fair: If you don't like the terms of service, argued some users, you have the option not to use the service. Others were far more outraged.Click here to view this gallery.[More from Mashable: Why xkcd Is Wrong About Instagram]This week, the top comments on Mashable brought into focus both the state of the world around us...

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Russian parliament wants winter time restored

MOSCOW (AP) — On the darkest day of the year, Russia's parliament is pleading with the government for a little more light.The Duma on Friday formally asked Speaker Sergei Naryshkin to query the government about abandoning year-round daylight-savings time.The 2011 decision by then-President Dmitry Medvedev to keep Russian clocks set as if the country enjoyed perpetual summer was one of the least popular...

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Cold weather kills 61 people in Poland since Oct.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Police in Poland have appealed to residents to dress warmly and look out for elderly and homeless people, after saying that 61 people have died of the cold weather since October.Another 41 have been killed by carbon monoxide inhalation from coal or other ways of heating their homes since temperatures started falling.The Interior Ministry said Friday the death toll from sub-freezing...

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French leader honors troops home from Afghanistan

PARIS (AP) — President Francois Hollande on Friday declared "mission accomplished" for French combat troops in Afghanistan, hailing their 11-year military commitment even as the fight goes on for France's NATO allies.After his election in May, Hollande announced a fast-track pullout of French combat troops from NATO's mission in Afghanistan by year-end — a goal now achieved. Increasingly, France has...

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Russian parliament passes anti-US adoption measure

MOSCOW (AP) — The lower house of the Russian parliament on Friday overwhelmingly passed a bill that would ban adoption of Russian children by Americans, sending the controversial legislation a step closer to President Vladimir Putin's desk.Putin hasn't said whether he will sign the measure into law if it passes its next stage of being approved by the upper house.Some top government officials including...

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UK doctor stripped of license over death of Iraqi

LONDON (AP) — A British doctor was stripped of his medical license Friday for misconduct and dishonesty over the death of an Iraqi man who was beaten and killed while in the custody of British troops.The latest fallout from Britain's troubled occupation of Iraq came as defense officials confirmed they have paid 14 million pounds ($23 million) to settle claims of abuse from more than 200 Iraqis.Dr....

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