The federal government hired the highest percentage of veterans in more than 20 years during the past fiscal year, the Office of Personnel Management announced Tuesday. Veterans represented 28.5 percent of total federal hires in fiscal 2011, an increase of 2.9 percent over fiscal 2010 and 4.5 percent over fiscal 2009, according to preliminary figures released by OPM. Read full article > >

The rest is here:
Veteran hires in federal government hit 20-year high

LONDON — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange prolonged his stay in Britain on Monday, winning the right to petition the Supreme Court to hear his case against extradition to Sweden over sex crime allegations. On Monday, two High Court judges in London ruled that Assange’s case raised a question of “general public importance,” which means he now has 14 days to apply to the Supreme Court, the highest court in Britain. Read full article > >

Read the original:
WikiLeaks founder continues extradition fight

Teenagers in Northern Ireland have the highest level of tooth decay in Europe, a study funded by Queen’s University in Belfast says.

Read the original:
NI teens’ teeth worst in Europe

The number of qualified staff for each vacancy in the City of London is at the highest for two years, according to a financial services recruitment firm.

See original here:
‘More competition’ for City jobs

The UK has the highest ratio of obese women in any country in Europe, according to European Union figures.

More:
UK women are ‘fattest in Europe’

Mexicans, the fastest-growing major immigrant group in the city, have the highest dropout rate: about 41 percent of Mexicans ages 16 to 19 have dropped out of school.

Read the rest here:
Now Arriving: Mexicans in New York City Lag in Education

Annual net migration to the UK was 252,000 in 2010 – the highest calendar year figure on record, Office for National Statistics figures show.

Continue reading here:
Migration in 2010 at record high

The Prince George’s County Council and county executive, already among the highest paid county government officials in Maryland, are due for a 3.4 percent raise next month. The increase comes at a time when public employees are enduring pay freezes and unpaid furloughs to plug local government budget gaps. In nearby Howard and Montgomery counties, pay raises are also in the offing. Read full article > >

See more here:
Prince George’s elected officials due for a raise in tough economic times

JERUSALEM — Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered former President Moshe Katsav to spend seven years in prison after rejecting the disgraced politician’s appeal of a rape conviction and other sex crimes. The decision capped a long and sordid chapter in Israeli politics that captured the country’s attention for more than five years and ended with Katsav becoming the highest-ranking Israeli official ever sentenced to prison. He is to start serving his sentence on Dec. 7. Read full article > >

View post:
Israel’s Supreme Court rejects ex-president’s rape appeal, upholds 7-year prison term

The Olympic flame will be taken by rail to the summit of Snowdon, the highest point of the 2012 relay route.

View original post here:
Top of Snowdon for Olympic flame

Michele Flournoy, the highest-ranking woman in Pentagon history, went to Beverly Hills High School with 1970s teen idol Shaun Cassidy and did her homework on the set of television’s “The Odd Couple,” where her father worked as a cinematographer. Today she sits in her office in the Pentagon’s E Ring of top officials bathed in a green glow from the high-tech security equipment that creates a sound screen to prevent eavesdropping. It’s a requirement for the job: Flournoy is one of the most powerful people at the Pentagon, the woman in charge of thinking about how and why the United States fights wars. Read full article > >

Read the original post:
Michele Flournoy, Pentagon’s highest-ranking woman, is making her mark on foreign policy

Astronomers spot the highest-energy light known – gamma rays – coming from what seems to be the youngest millisecond pulsar yet found.

Read more:
Young short pulsar shines bright

In October 1963, before war and assassination crushed the optimism of the age, a proud stonemason took an old nickel and probably with a hammer and chisel whacked a single dent in it. Then he and his colleagues took the nickel, a quarter, a penny and a dime, and pressed them into the mortar that was about to cement the top pieces of the highest part of Washington National Cathedral, hiding the coins forever. Read full article > >

Read more:
Cathedral mason finds marks of those who went before

In October 1963, before war and assassination crushed the optimism of the age, a proud stonemason took an old nickel and probably with a hammer and chisel whacked a single dent in it. Then he and his colleagues took the nickel, a quarter, a penny and a dime, and pressed them into the mortar that was about to cement the top pieces of the highest part of Washington National Cathedral, hiding the coins forever. Read full article > >

Continue reading here:
Cathedral mason finds marks of those who went before

A new record is set for the highest temperature recorded in October – at 29.9C (85.8F)

Read more from the original source:
October heat record set at 29.9C