YIKES

Teen’s stomach removed after drinking nitrogen cocktail

Red and blue liquid poison in symmetrical glasses with strange smoke isolated on black background via Shutterstock

A teenager has had her stomach removed in life-saving emergency surgery after she drank a cocktail containing liquid nitrogen during a night out in northern England.

STRATEGY

Time to ‘change course’ in Middle East, Romney will say at Virginia Military Institute speech

Romney via AFP

Mitt Romney will call for a US change of course in the Middle East on Monday, saying President Barack Obama’s muddled strategy has failed to confront the challenges of extremism.

PANTS ON FIRE

Gingrich chides Romney on honesty: ‘It’s clear he changed’ on tax cuts

Newt Gingrich speaks to NBC

Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Sunday admitted that GOP hopeful Mitt Romney had “changed” positions during last week’s debate.

HOLD UP

Buddhist nun stops Sotheby’s sale of $1.6 million Chinese painting

Sothebys auction house via AFP

Sotheby’s said on Monday it has cancelled the sale of a Chinese painting by a top-selling artist at its auction in Hong Kong, after its ownership was challenged by a Taiwanese Buddhist nun.

LACK OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Teacher told Nobel winner John Gurdon career in science was ‘total waste of time’

John Gurdon via Flickr user Nestle

Nobel Prize-winning British scientist John Gurdon is often described as the “godfather of cloning” for his work on stem cell research but was once told by his teacher not to pursue a career in science.

DON'T BE SILLY

O’Reilly post-debate: ‘I’m not going to name’ political assassins

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly

Republican talk show host Bill O’Reilly refused to name people he referred to as “political assassins” during a Saturday night debate with comedian Jon Stewart.

Tech News

Report: Smart phone users aren’t smart about data security on their phones

Smartphone users are putting themselves at risk of having their identities stolen by failing to…

Oil prices, regulation behind growing success of biorefineries in Europe

Biorefineries and “green chemistry” seem to have a credible future built on a wide range…

Media

NPR anchor ties term ‘illegal immigrant’ to Nazi Germany

NPR Latino USA anchor María Hinojosa told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Sunday her opposition to the…

Stewart and O’Reilly debate online amid viewer complaints

Jon Stewart and Bill O’Reilly engaged in a much-anticipated debate Saturday night, though the online…

World

Hugo Chavez wins another six-year term in Venezuela

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shrugged off cancer and a unified opposition to triumph yet again at the ballot box and…

A gender-neutral pronoun makes waves in Sweden

Sweden’s tradition of gender equality has famously put more mums in the workplace while rising numbers of dads stay at…

Potential capital gains tax increase scares wealthy French into abandoning Paris, lowering prices

A flood of top-end properties are hitting the market as businessmen seek to leave France before stiff tax hikes hit,…

Workers to petition for murder charges against police after strike-related shooting

Representatives of 12,000 fired Anglo American Platinum workers in South Africa will lay murder charges after a colleague was killed…

U.S. News

Halliburton’s missing nuclear waste found alongside Texas highway

Texans can breathe easier: the radioactive waste Halliburton fracking surveyors lost last month has finally…

U.S. House report: Chinese telecom firms are a national security risk and should be banned

Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE pose a security threat to the United States and…

91 sick, 7 dead after fungal meningitis outbreak linked to injectable steroid used for back pain

At least seven people have died and 91 have fallen ill in the United States…

Team Obama steps up attacks on ‘dishonest’ Romney

President Barack Obama’s campaign intensified attacks Sunday on Mitt Romney’s honesty as it tried to…

Marijuana advocates hope reclassification lawsuit against DEA relaxes drug policy

Michael Krawitz, from Elliston, Virginia, suffered a car accident while serving in the US air…