WORLD

The United Nations has announced that Mexican mariachi music, Chinese shadow puppetry and poetic dueling competitions in Cyprus are among several cultural traditions that are both crucial to a living culture and are at risk of dying out, prompting moves to protect and encourage their practice. UNESCO has placed 19 new items on the Intangible Heritage List.

Following the example set by the Arab League and the U.S., Turkey on Wednesday slapped a series of economic and financial sanctions on Syria over the government's continued bloody crackdown on an eight-month uprising.

The CEO of Swiss pharmaceutical company Naari AG said its sodium thiopental was never intended for a U.S. market or lethal injections.

These newly defined poor will now qualify to receive subsidies.

Molinari, who has reportedly had a longstanding feud with Republican presidential hopeful New Gingrich, says he might do something when Gingrich holds a town hall meeting in Staten Island this weekend.

Between 1990 and 2010, the rate of poverty rate on the continent plunged from 48.4 percent to 31.4 percent; while the rate of indigence (extreme poverty) dropped from 22.6 percent to 12.3 percent.

AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi said it is troubling that the Federal Communications Commission released a staff report on the wireless provider's $39 billion proposal to buy T-Mobile.

Herman Cain's alleged mistress Ginger White defended her claims of a 13-year affair with the Republican presidential candidate on Good Morning America early Wednesday. White added that she does not believe Cain would make a good president.

Oneal Ron Morris (30), the fake doctor from Miami who allegedly performed life threatening surgeries injecting her patients with cement, mineral oil and flat-tire sealant, was released from custody Monday night, after posting a $15000 bail.

The highly contested provision, part of the National Defense Authorization Spending bill Act, was upheld after the Senate rejected an amendment on Tuesday that would have removed the detainee provision.

No one else should ever wear a baseball cap; it serves no purpose, neither practical nor aesthetic.

The Department of Transportation has launched its new Curbside Haiku safety program, which combines traditional Japanese poetry and modern art to increase traffic safety.

Show-Me Cannabis Initiative, a petition now circulating in Missouri, seeks to place a constitutional amendment on the November 2012 ballot to legalize marijuana in the state for people aged 21 or over. The Show-Me Cannabis petition would allow Missouri to regulate the sale, distribution and legal enforcement of marijuana in the same way the state currently regulates alcohol sales.

Occupy LA protestors vowed Wednesday morning to take the movement beyond City Hall despite police overnight raids that shut down their encampment. More than 200 demonstrators were arrested in Los Angeles.

India's economic growth in the current fiscal year ending March 2012 is expected to be around 7.5 percent, as the growth in fourth quarter will be better than the 6.9 percent growth

Among Cain's Republican opponents, two -- former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas -- have been conspicuously absent from the public discussion of his future. But several other candidates have voiced their opinions on whether Ginger White's allegations mean lights out for the Cain campaign:

British diplomats left Iran on Wednesday, a day after the embassy in Tehran was stormed by protestors.

Herman Cain's chief of staff said Tuesday night that there was no way Cain would end his presidential campaign in response to the allegation that he had a 13-year extramarital affair. According to Block, there are only two things that would make Cain drop out of the race: if his wife of 43 years asked him to, or if we show up to do events and no one is there.

States could be facing further budget shortfalls and cutbacks as they try to compensate for evaporating federal stimulus and explosive growth in healthcare costs, according to a new report by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.

The Obama administration on Tuesday appealed a U.S. judge's ruling and injunction that blocked tobacco companies from having to display graphic images on cigarette packs and advertising, such as a man exhaling smoke through a hole in his throat.

Enbridge Inc's proposed C$5.5 billion ($5.3 billion) pipeline to British Columbia poses a raft of environmental risks, according to a new report that signals the project will become the next battleground over the future of Canada's oil sands.

Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son of deceased Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, might need to have one or more fingers amputated.

Australia's foreign minister on Wednesday backed the formation of a security pact with India and the United States, a tie-up that could fuel China's worries of being fenced in by wary neighbors.

Stymied by a six-month drilling moratorium, the climb to recovery appears slow for the oil and natural gas industries in the Gulf of Mexico since the Macondo spill of 2010. In reality, it's a little more ambiguous than public perception or data numbers suggest.

India's economy grew at the slowest pace in more than two years, according to the recent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers which shows the country's economy rose 6.9 percent in the July-September quarter.

Initial signs say that the former Godfather's pizza CEO and Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain's highly-anticipated next campaign move can be anything except dropping out of the race.

For most of the Republican nomination race thus far, Jon Huntsman has been considered little more than a side note. But while his national poll numbers remain very low, he is gaining support in New Hampshire. What are his positions?

Gold prices fell Wednesday after eurozone finance ministers said there are only 10 days left to save the monetary union from financial catastrophe.

The Eurozone seems all set to enter a period of deep recession, with the credibility of governments' ability to keep the region in balance under serious doubt. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has already issued a warning that Eurozone and U.S. leaders must act urgently to stop their debt crises from spiralling out of control.