The Conclave Cardinals who are the ones eligible to vote on a new pope are banned from using Twitter. According to an edict the last

Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict signed before resigning, any of the Cardinals who uses the microblogging site faces excommunication.

A majority of the 117 Cardinals eligible to vote in a new pope are actually not on Twitter, however, there are at least nine active tweeters among the ranks, according to Rte

According to report, the Santa Marta residence where the cardinals will be staying has an electromagnetic shield that ‘bounces’ any signals, in the rare case there are any cardinals willing to disobey the edict.

The Conclave law was amended by the pope to enable the automatic excommunication of non-cardinals who broke the ‘absolute oath of secrecy’ of the College of Cardinals.

“An infraction will incur the penalty of automatic excommunication,” the pope’s order said.

Chancelor Merkel

Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that the German economic climate in 2013 will be “even more difficult”.

The new year message from Mrs Merkel also cautioned that the eurozone debt crisis was far from over.

However, she did say that reforms designed to address the roots of the problem were beginning to bear fruit.

Her comments appeared to contradict German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble who said last week that the worst of the crisis was over. Her comments was totally against that of the finance minister.

Mrs Merkel urged Germans to be more patient and added that “I know that many people are naturally concerned going into the new year.”

“The economic environment will not in fact be easier but rather more difficult next year. But we shouldn’t let that get us down; rather it should spur us on.”

She linked future German prosperity to a prosperous European Union.

“For our prosperity and our solidarity, we need to strike the right balance,” she said.
Analysts say most Germans remain wary of eurozone bailouts but generally approve of Mrs Merkel’s handling of the crisis.

In October, the German government slashed its forecast for economic output in 2013 to 1.0%, compared to 1.6% previously anticipated.

Germany central bank has said Germany may even come close to recession early in the new year.

Nevertheless, Mrs Merkel underlined that Germany in 2012 had the lowest unemployment since reunification in 1990.

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Hugo Chavez

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was born on 28 July 1954. He is the current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999.

He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

He was born into a working-class family in Sabaneta, Barinas, Chávez became a career military officer, and after becoming dissatisfied with the Venezuelan political system, he founded the secretive Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) in the early 1980s to work towards overthrowing it.

He founded a social democratic political party, the Fifth Republic Movement, and was elected president of Venezuela in 1998.

He subsequently introduced a new constitution which increased rights for marginalised groups and altered the structure of Venezuelan government, and was re-elected in 2000.

On 7 October 2012, Chávez won his country’s presidential election for a third time, defeating Henrique Capriles, and was elected for another six-year term.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has suffered “new complications” after a cancer operation in Cuba, his vice-president has said.

On 30 June 2011, Chávez stated that he was recovering from a 10 June operation to remove an abscessed tumor with cancerous cells.

He required a second operation in December 2012.

In a televised address from Cuba, Nicolas Maduro said Mr Chavez continued to be in a “delicate state”.

Mr Chavez underwent his fourth cancer operation on 11 December in Cuba but suffered a respiratory infection.

Mr Maduro, appearing solemn, spoke alongside Mr Chavez’s eldest daughter, Rosa, his son-in-law Jorge Arreaza, and Venezuelan Attorney General Cilia Flores. He added that the treatment was “not without risk.”

Officials have never disclosed the type or severity of Mr Chavez’s cancer, which was first diagnosed in June 2011.

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Rebels forced out of Syria

Rebel Forces in Syria have been forced out by the Syrian government forces. The government forces have forced rebels out of the Deir Baalbeh district of the city of Homs after several days of fierce fighting.

According to one of the activist group, nothing less 200 civilians were killed by regime forces after the fierce fighting.

The city of Homs has seen much of the heaviest fighting in Syria’s 21-month conflict and this has caused rise in death rate..

Death toll rate has rise across Syria and it was reported that the death rate is as high as 400.

Execution of residents of Dier Baalbeh were rounded up and residents were forced into a petrochemical plant were they were killed by the rebels

According to the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), women and children were among the dead.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said it had not been able to get through to Deir Baalbeh to document the deaths there due to the violence across Syria on Saturday, including the suburbs of the capital of Syria, Damascus.

Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, warning on Saturday, said that Syria will be hell if no political solution was negotiated and will bring about the latest violence from the enemy of his  peace envoy.

Mr Brahimi, speaking after talks with the Russian foreign minister, said the conflict had become more militarized and sectarian.

Opposition groups say more than 44,000 people have been killed since protests against Syria’s government began in March 2011.

Earlier this month the UN’s refugee agency said more than half a million Syrians had fled to neighboring countries in other to survive.

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Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton born on October 26, 1947.

She is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama.

She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009.

She was the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton.

Hillary Clinton was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was admitted to a New York hospital Sunday after the discovery of a blood clot stemming from the concussion she sustained earlier this month.

Philippe Reines, her spokesman said Clinton’s doctors discovered the clot Sunday while performing a follow-up exam.

He would not elaborate on the location of the clot but said Clinton is being treated with anti-coagulants and would remain at New York-Presbyterian Hospital for at least the next 48 hours so doctors can monitor the medication.

Clinton, 65, fell and suffered a concussion while at home alone in mid-December as she recovered from a stomach virus that left her severely dehydrated.

Although the State Department officials vehemently denied the rumor that Clinton was faking her health but some conservative commentators suggested Clinton was faking the seriousness of her illness and concussion to avoid testifying.

According it was stated that Clinton is the most traveled secretary of state in history, having visited 112 countries while in the job.

President bozize

Francois Bozize, the Central African Republic leader said he is ready to form a national unity government with rebels, as they continue their advance towards the capital Bangui.

Mr Bozize’s remarks came after a meeting with African Union chairman Thomas Boni Yayi.

He said he would hold peace talks with rebels in Gabon, and would step down when his term ended in 2016. The rebels reply that they would consider the president’s offer.

Meanwhile President Bozzzie is growing waeker both physically and millitarily due to the on going rebels treat.

Mr Bozzie said “I am ready to form a government of national unity with Seleka to run the country together, because I am a democrat.”
He said this at a news conference after his meeting with Mr Boni Yayi.

He said he was ready to attend the Gabon talks “without condition and without delay”.

More than 100 French paratroopers have also been sent in.

However, France insists they are only there to secure its nationals – not to save the regime.

The US has evacuated its embassy in Bangui and UN are also evacuating all its international staff to neighboring Cameroon.

The government is reported to have fallen back to Damara, the last major town on the road to the capital.

In Bangui, residents have reported sharp rises in staple food prices as the rebels draw closer.

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Italian Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini

The Italian Science Nobel winner who was born on the 22nd of  April 1909 died on 30 December 2012.

She was an Italian neurologist who, together with colleague Stanley Cohen, received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of nerve growth factor (NGF).

From 2001 until her death she also served in the Italian Senate as a Senator for Life.

Rita Levi-Montalcini had been the oldest living Nobel laureate and the first ever to reach a 100th birthday.

On 22 April 2009, she was feted with a 100th birthday party at Rome’s city hall.
The Italian Nobel prize-winning neurologist Rita Levi-Montalcini died at the age of 103.

Miss Levi-Montalcini lived through anti-semitic discrimination under fascism to become one of Italy’s top scientists and most respected figures.

Senator Rita won acclaim for her work on cells, which furthered understanding of a range of conditions, including cancer.

She shared the Nobel prize for medicine with biochemist Stanley Cohen for research carried out in the US in 1986.
She had died peacefully “as if sleeping” after lunch, her niece, Piece Levi- Montalcini told the La Stampa newspaper.

She studied medicine but after she graduated in 1936 the fascist government banned Jews from academic and professional careers, and Miss Levi-Montalcini set up a makeshift laboratory in her bedroom, experimenting on chicken embryos.

Miss Levi-Montalcini’s family lived underground in Florence after the Germans invaded Italy in 1943. She later worked as doctor for the allied forces that liberated the city, treating refugees.

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 A tour bus careened through a guardrail on an icy Oregon highway killing at least nine people and injuring about 20 others.

The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon, which made the bus to fell several hundred feet down an embankment on Sunday.

The accident happened on the west end of the Blue Mountains, and west of an area called “Deadman Pass,” where stretches of the highway tend to be icy in winter months said Lt. Greg Hastings.

Lt. Greg Hastings said the bus crashed along the west end of the Blue Mountains, and west of an area called Deadman Pass.

Stretches of highway in the rural and agricultural area of east Oregon tend to be icy in winter months.

The bus slid down the hill and landed upright, with little or no debris visible around the crash site.

Larry Blanc said the St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton treated 26 people from the accident, including some who were treated and then transported to other medical facilities.
I-84 is a major east-west highway through Oregon that follows the Columbia River Gorge.

Police did not say where the vehicle was traveling to or from, or information on the company that owns the bus.
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Since 1907, the iconic Times Square Ball has dropped down the 77-foot pole here to mark the end of the old and the beginning of the new.

The ball wil be dropped down from twenty five stories up, on the roof of Times Square, for millions of eyes to fix upon at 11:59p.m on December 31.

The hosts of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” Ryan Seacrest and Jenny McCarthy are getting themselves prepared ahead of tonight as the ball goes through final preparations for the big day.

They are both preparing for the bittersweet celebration – one that will be missing a very important person.

For the first time in almost 40 years of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” there will be no Dick Clark.

The year 2013 will mark the first year for Seacrest without Clark around.

However, despite Clark’s absence, the spirit of excitement that he embodied will continue.

“We’ll reflect, but we’ll also have some big celebratory moments with live performances,” Seacrest says.
Yet, in the midst of all the romance and excitement, the magic of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” for Seacrest is in its ability to bring people closer.

He said “In a universe and world where there’s so much conflict and so much chaos, that in the few moments that we’re all gathered together, standing in Times Square and watching on TV … you feel like we’re all on the same page.”

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Micah Sierra Williams, better known as Katt Williams, is an American comedian, rapper and actor.

Katt Williams was born on  September 2, 1971, The 41 years old is best known for his role as Money Mike in Friday After Next.

He is also known for his stint on Nick Cannon’s MTV improv show, Wild ‘n Out, for playing the fictional character Bobby Shaw on the program My Wife and Kids, as well as providing the voice for the character “A Pimp Named Slickback” in The Boondocks.

Katt Williams, the comedian who has repeatedly found himself on the wrong side of the law, is out on bail after being arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of child endangerment and possession of a stolen gun.

Police Officer Norma Eisenman says Williams was taken into custody Friday after the LA County Department of Children and Family Services did a welfare check at his home.

Accoreding to sources authorities found more than one firearm in his house, one of which had been reported stolen.

Katt Williams was arrested this month on a felony warrant related to a police chase. In November, he was accused of hitting a man on the head with a bottle during a fight.

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