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Australia is on one of the fastest moving tectonic plates on the planet, and must therefore update its longitudinal and latitudinal positions on global maps periodically. In the last 50 years four such updates have happened, and another is in the works. The last one, in 1997, moved the country's position by about 650 feet, the upcoming one moves only about 5 feet. These changes may seem minute on the global scale, but will be very important to GPS systems, which will be crucial to industries of the future.

A great resource from one of the most respected foreign policy journals in the United States about the current situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and how they may affect the world, not just the United States. It is updated very often, and could act almost as a periodical of sorts, like TIME or Newsweek, but more focused.

It looks like this gets updated frequently.

Interesting seeing this vs the US

A little sad to see that in comparison, only 55% of California adults are full vaccinated

the EU proposed new sanctions on Russia in response to so-called "referendums" in four Ukrainian regions. more import bans on russian products. Expected to deprive Moscow of an additional $6.7 billion.

"Ethiopia, Yemen, the Sahel, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Sudan, Haiti, Colombia, and Myanmar."

Having spent last week trying to persuade other countries to support the U.S.-led military assault on the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, President Obama used an interview with Steve Kroft, of CBS News' "60 Minutes," to give Americans an update. In general, his tone was upbeat. The article discusses the U.S. military action being taken in Iraq, and discusses the question of the how effective the strategy may be. It says that the strategy seems to be more about causing problem for ISIS and seeing the outcome. The complexity of the situation makes the result especially difficult to predict.

By Hamza Hendawi Associated Press Updated: 09/07/2015 11:29:19 AM EDT Click photo to enlarge MYTILENE, Greece (AP) - It was supposed to be the first step on their journey to Western Europe. But now thousands of migrants are mired in despair, anger and frustration on the scenic Greek island of Lesbos.

59 minute video 2010

This is such an amazing story. And the world's myriad reactions to the event are compiled very well by "The Week" it think that it is amazing how Chile pulled itself together to save these people lives. It is also a good thing that Chile and many other countries around the world like Pakistan are updating their Mining rules and regulations to try to prevent this from happening again.

It looks like NATO is trying to get some cooperation over missile defense going with Russia. Russia has apparently agreed to continue talks, and may be present at the NATO summit in Portugal to discuss cooperation on the missile defense system, which now looks like a precaution against Iran. More in article.

This is video evidence on the toxic pollution caused by Texaco, bought by Chevron, which now refuses to take responsibility to clean it up. A family friend used to be a geologist and work examining soil quality. The company she worked at got most of their business from (I think) Chevron. Chevron (or some other company) would finish with well sites and then neglect to clean them up/ make them safe. When environmental agencies requested that Chevron examine and clean up their left over sites, Chevron made our friend's company file a report saying that they were "monitoring" the site to see what happens. Basically, instead of working to help the environment, they were helping a big petroleum company squirm out of taking responsibility. She eventually quit her job because 1) it wasn't what she had hoped it would be, and 2) there was nothing to do all day, since one of their only jobs was to report that sites were being "monitored" and meanwhile do nothing. NOTE: take this story with a grain of salt, because I don't remember the conversation perfectly, nor do I know the details of her job, the company, the situation, etc... this is just my general recollection.

Yeah I sort of feel ignorant right now because i honestly had no idea that that was going on. I am shocked at how blatant that is. When i first saw the oil on the ground i was like wow that horrible but then i was even further horrified with i realized that it was so blatant they even put a pipe connecting it to the rest of the forest for drainage purposes. It is unbelievable what huge corporations do to the world and make a huge profit by polluting someone else's backyard. :( awesome video though Heather. Thank you for educating me

Last year Latino Club went to see "Crude" (Heather, I think you went too) and it only built off of what you see in this video here. The rivers that he was saying would get contaminated are used by different villages and many people developed cancer and other health problems from the oil in their water. It's appalling what Chevron did and, as you all said, how few people know about it.

Latest update on Brazil's presidential race - there will be an Oct. 31 runoff. Rousseff got 46.8% of the vote.

An update on what's going on in the case

A quick update: So, it looks like Hong Kong is going the way of Occupy. In less than 24 hours, negotiations between the HK government and students will be held. Most people, protestors and others, predict very little change will take place. They seem to agree any sort of meaningful change has to come from the issuer of the controversial voting amendment itself -- the Chinese government. There seems to be an increasing sentiment among residents that the show for Beijing needs to reach an end, because of all of the economic and mobility issue it currently presents.