World Gossip News

President Obama on Monday pledged up to $5 billion in U.S. money over the next three years to the pre-eminent global program to combat AIDS on the condition that the rest of the international community pitches in $10 billion. Obama announced the pledge to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as the White House marked World AIDS Day. Obama also announced that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will invest $100 million in re-prioritized funding over the next three years to launch an HIV cure initiative.

Barack Obama has admitted he has banned his daughters from using Facebook – because he doesn’t want ‘strangers knowing our business’. The U.S. President said it ‘does not make much sense’ to put the most private details of his family life on public view. His elder daughter, Malia, is 13, and just old enough to use Facebook. Her younger sister Sasha is ten. Obama said he won’t consider allowing them to join the site until they are both four years older.

In an interview, the President described the thinking behind the Facebook ban as: ‘Why would we want to have a whole bunch of people who we don’t know knowing our business? That doesn’t make much sense.’ He added: ‘We’ll see how they [his daughters] feel in four years.’ 

Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha dropped in Saturday at Washington's Politics and Prose bookstore and purchased what he said was a "long list" of books that included "The Kite Runner," ''Harold and the Purple Crayon," and "The Sports Gene." The president said he bought a reader for every age, from 5 to 52 — his age. He paid by credit card. The total was not announced. Obama sent a tweet earlier Saturday about the importance of supporting small businesses.

On Wednesday, President Nicolas Maduro visited the Air Force Bolivarian Academy to inaugurate a new Auditorioum by the name of "Hugo Chavez" and commemorate his last revolutionary coup in1992 against then-Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez. It was a second attempt by Chavez supporters to militarily overthrow the government. Chavez himself was in jail, but a group of Venezuela's Air Force officers attacked the presidential palace, nontheless they failed after a fierce air battle. However, as for socialist believers and President Maduro himself, Hugo Chavez became a hero after the events.

Latvia’s prime minister has announced his resignation over a Riga supermarket collapse that killed more than 50 people last week. Dombrovskis has headed the country’s government since March 2009, making him the longest-serving prime minister in Latvia's history. It is now for President Andris Berzins to either accept or reject the resignation. If he accepts it, Berzins will nominate an acting prime minister, who will be tasked with forming a new cabinet.  Prime minister's resignation also ends the mandate of his government, which faced criticism following the collapse. Fifty-four people have been killed and dozens injured after the roof of a large store collapsed in Latvia’s capital.

The director of the National Security Agency attempted to resign shortly after Edward Snowden revealed himself as the source of leaked NSA documents in June, but the White House refused to let him leave. It was previously announced in mid-October that Gen. Keith Alexander would walk away from his roles atop both the NSA and US Cyber Command next March or April, but the White House refused to let him leave.

Crowds have gathered in the US city of Dallas to observe a moment of silence to mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F Kennedy in the city's Dealey Plaza. The moment of silence began on Friday at 12:30 pm (1830 GMT), the moment on November 22, 1963 when the fatal shots were fired at Kennedy's motorcade from the Texas School Book Depository by Lee Harvey Oswald. The young leader's brutal televised death, a dark turning point even in an era gripped by the Cold War nuclear stand-off and bloodshed in the jungles of Vietnam, shocked a global audience of millions.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has emphasized the importance of nuclear weapons in the defense doctrine of the United States. He also talked about the importance of decreasing the threat of nuclear weapons. The top US diplomat also reiterated Washington’s commitment to the New Start Treaty with Russia that was signed in 2011. The treaty gives Washington much visibility into Moscow’s nuclear activities. The US government plans to spend $60 billion over the next 25 years to modernize the US nuclear arsenal.

A Spanish newspaper published a document Monday that it said shows the U.S. National Security Agency spied on more than 60 million phone calls in Spain in one month. Last week the French paper Le Monde reported similar allegations of U.S. spying in France and German magazine Der Spiegel said Washington had tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone. The El Mundo newspaper report came as Spain summoned the U.S. ambassador in Madrid to express its displeasure over the reports of spying on allies. El Mundo said the Metadata system used by the NSA could also monitor emails and phone texts, although these were not shown on the graph. The newspaper said the document was one those leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

US President Barack Obama was personally informed of mobile phone tapping against German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which may have begun as early as 2002, German media reported on Sunday as a damaging espionage scandal widened. News weekly Der Spiegel reported that leaked NSA documents showed that Merkel's phone had appeared on a list of spying targets since 2002, and was still under surveillance shortly before Obama visited Berlin in June. 

US President Barack Obama had assured German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the US is not monitoring her communications. German government's announcement that it has obtained information suggesting the US may have tapped Merkel's mobile phone. Merkel called Obama to demand an immediate clarification. Just four months ago, Obama defended US anti-terrorism tactics on a visit to Berlin, telling Germans at a news conference with Merkel that Washington was not spying on ordinary citizens.

Vietnam's legendary General Vo Nguyen Giap, whose guerrilla tactics defeated the French and American armies, died Friday at the age of 102, prompting an outpouring of tributes for the independence hero. A military source confirmed the time of Giap's death at Hanoi's 108 military hospital, where he had been living for the last three years. He died surrounded by his family. Giap, second only to late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh as modern Vietnam's most revered figure, was the founding father of the Vietnam People's Army, whose guerrilla tactics inspired anti-colonial fighters worldwide. Vietnamese Internet users immediately begun paying tribute to the general, who remained hugely popular in Vietnam despite being relegated to the political sidelines after the war. He went on to secure victory in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu, the battle that ended French rule in Indochina and precipitated nearly two decades of US involvement in Vietnam. His greatest triumph will always be the Dien Bien Phu victory, based on an astounding logistical feat by his Viet Minh fighters, who surprised the French by hauling their artillery into surrounding jungle hills from where they pounded enemy positions below. "It was the spark that lit the powder keg for the empire. Less than six months after Dien Bien Phu, the Algerian war (for independence) began with the All Saints Day attacks. Dien Bien Phu was effectively where it all started," said French historian Hugues Tertrais. He was eased out of the Politburo in 1982 and left politics officially in 1991. He is survived by Dang Bich Ha, his wife since 1949, and four children.

A U.S. government shutdown will immediately slow approval of thousands of mortgages. If it lasts more than a week, it threatens housing and the broader economic recovery. Congress forced the first partial government closure in 17 years after failing to pass a budget, meaning borrowers in the process of obtaining home loans could be delayed as lenders are blocked from verifying Social Security numbers and accessing Internal Revenue Service tax transcripts. The process may also lengthen the wait for borrowers seeking approval for mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration because its fulltime staff is now less than a tenth of its normal size and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which backs mortgages in rural areas, won’t take on new business during the shutdown. The shutdown comes as construction and new housing sales are climbing back from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. 

A trip that President Barack Obama is scheduled to take to Asia has been cut short by the continuing stalemate between the White House and Republicans over the U.S. government shutdown.  The president was forced to cancel stops in Malaysia and the Philippines. The White House has not ruled out the possibility Obama may have to cancel the remaining legs of his trip, his attendance at the APEC summit in Bali, Indonesia and the East Asia Summit and Southeast Asian meetings in Brunei.

Malaysia is a key economic, security and counterterrorism partner important to Obama's strategy of re-balancing U.S. economic and security priorities to Asia. Secretary of State John Kerry, already traveling in Asia, will lead a U.S. delegation to Malaysia and the Philippines. Obama is due to depart for Asia late Saturday Washington time.