Chile is evacuating nearly half a million pigs from one of the largest meat processing plants in Latin America after the foul smell sparked riots.

View original post here:
Chile riot over smelly pig plant

Parents are questioning the long-term effects of the often-used laxative, Miralax, which has become a staple in many American households since it was first introduced 13 years ago.

Read more here:
Miralax, a Drug for Adults, Is Popular as a Children’s Remedy

BERLIN — Supporters of major new measures to ease Europe’s economic crisis confronted a sinking realization Thursday: Their best chances for success might come only if the situation worsens. A French demand that the 17 countries that use the euro currency back one another’s borrowing has won new supporters in recent days, but it has been met with full-throated resistance from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose thrifty taxpayers would bear the biggest burden of any plan. Read full article > >

Visit link:
Euro-zone countries appear far from compromise

Gets confirmation of American citizenship.

Visit link:
Ariz. to Allow Obama on Ballot

Despite an influx of American assistance, residents of an area of Honduras that has become a way station for cocaine on its way north say they feel threatened.

See original here:
In Remote Honduras Area, Drug Raid Stirs Anger

At least 10 alleged militants were killed on Thursday when an American drone struck a compound in northwestern Pakistan, government officials said.

The rest is here:
Pakistan Says U.S. Drone Strike Kills Suspected Militants

If Phillip Phillips had been craving a victory on “American Idol,” he did an outstanding job of hiding it. But on the show’s 11th season, he performed as if there were no competition.

The rest is here:
Critic’s Notebook: American Idol Winner Phillip Phillips Is Known for His Modesty

The winner of this year’s American Idol contest is announced, after a record 132 million votes are cast in the final showdown.

See original here:
American Idol winner announced

Phillip Phillips, a 21-year-old pawnshop employee from Georgia with a gutsy vocal style, won the Fox talent competition “American Idol,” beating out Jessica Sanchez, a vocal prodigy.

Continued here:
ArtsBeat: Phillip Phillips Wins ‘American Idol,’ Beating Out Jessica Sanchez

Mexican authorities have arrested a man they say shot an American freelance journalist to death at a 2006 protest, state media reported.

Excerpt from:
Suspect held in U.S. man’s Mexico killing

VALLEJO, CALIF. — The first couple of years were ugly. After this working-class port city became the largest in America to declare bankruptcy in 2008 , crime and prostitution surged as the police force was thinned by 40 percent. Firehouses were shuttered, and funding for libraries and senior centers was slashed. Foreclosures multiplied and home prices plummeted. Read full article > >

See original here:
Vallejo, Calif., once bankrupt, is now a model for cities in an age of austerity

At the NATO summit in Chicago, President Obama and leaders of America's NATO allies agreed on an “irreversible” plan to withdraw from Afghanistan. But challenges remain.

Continued here:
Opinion: Afghan war is far from over

While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday. Pull out all the stops – May 23 is National Taffy Day ! One of America’s oldest candies has a mildly misleading name – there’s actually no salt water in taffy. Rumor has it, this common misconception started after a candy company on Atlantic City’s boardwalk flooded with sea water. All the candy maker had left to sell was, quite literally, salt-water soaked taffy. The name stuck, much like the candy sticks to your teeth. It’s not certain who started making this chewy treat, but most credit New Jersey native Joseph Fralinger with popularizing it. Humble beginnings of molasses and vanilla flavors have exploded into almost every flavor imaginable. The candy is made my melting sugar, water, butter and some stabilizers (like cornstarch) and then pulling the final product into long strands. Pulling the taffy aerates it which gives the sticky treat its chewiness and a lustrous shine.

Read more here:
National taffy day

Eugene J. Polley, an electronics engineer who revolutionized American leisure by inventing the first wireless TV remote control, a gadget that also featured the first mute function to silence the more obnoxious sounds of television, died May 20 at a hospital in Downers Grove, Ill. He was 96. Read full article > >

Read the rest here:
Eugene J. Polley, engineer who invented the first wireless TV remote control, dies at 96

“Killing Them Softly,” Andrew Dominik’s adaptation of the George V. Higgins crime novel “Cogan’s Trade,” will have its gala premiere tonight at the Cannes Film Festival. The film screened this morning for the press, who were treated to a gritty, stylized and deeply cynical genre exercise in which Brad Pitt played hardened hit man Jackie Cogan. (Pitt last worked with Dominik on “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”) Ray Liotta, Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendolsohn co-star in a film that takes its inspiration from Martin Scorsese, murder ballads and America’s recent economic crisis which, as in the movie was brought on by greed and a fatal lack of self-control.   Read full article > >

Follow this link:
Brad Pitt film, ‘Killing Them Softly’ premieres at Cannes