Putin’s two-day visit got underway with an impressive show of force: Italian media reported the Russian leader landed in Rome with five private jets, 50 armed vehicles, and an entourage that included 11 government ministers.

Controversial New Home for the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See It’s moving into the U.S. Embassy to Italy, nearby, which bothers several former U.S. ambassadors to the Vatican, who say the two American embassies should not share the same building. The State Department says the move will save money. The Holy See wants every country to put its embassies to Italy and the Vatican in separate places, but so far hasn’t made a stink about the American real estate consolidation. LINK

A Chinese city’s plan for a “baby box” where parents can anonymously leave their unwanted infants is proving controversial, it’s reported. Shenzhen has apparently applied to the Guangdong provincial authorities to pilot such a facility next year. Some social media users have warned that the box will encourage “irresponsible parents” to give away their unwanted children,LINK

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“It seems at that final moment of calamity, it seems like he will take over this world, he will master of the world,” the pontiff observed, adding that in that time we will become aware this apparent victory over God would be more devastating than a great natural disaster. LINK

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Scientists currently suppose that chimpanzees are humans’ closest living evolutionary relatives, a theory amply backed by genetic evidence. However, as Dr McCarthy points out, despite this genetic similarity, there are a massive number of divergent anatomical characteristics distinguishing the two species. LINK

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Video footage taken by a bystander shows the women exchanging blows inside the Franklin Mills Mall in Philadelphia at around 2.30am on Friday – with not a single police officer in sight. As they scrap on the floor, one of the women apparently uses a device that flashes blue and buzzes, apparently giving her nemesis a sharp shock. LINK

The future is coming much faster than we think. Technological developments that may seem like science fiction — robots with artificial intelligence or synthetic lifeforms, for example — are just around the corner, if not here already, and set to radically reshape all industries, including fashion. LINK

IBM, with support from DARPA , has a program called SynAPSE . Its goal is to construct a computer with components similar to those of the human brain. This synthetic brain could fit inside a robot head. It would have 10 billion “neurons” with one hundred trillion “synapses” or links between neurons. LINK

An arctic blast not seen since the historic 1990 event is setting sights on the entire Western USA, which means that ares from Seattle, Portland, down into California are in for a real cold air-mass, most notable over the Pacific Northwest and threatening production along California’s I-5 farming corridor. LINK

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As the twentieth century dawned, eugenics and the race to identify the cellular source for inheritance began. With the discovery of Mendel’s research, eugenics as a science shaped politics and public conscience. LINK

[…] radioactive water from the plant nears the West Coast of North America — the water is expected to hit in 2014 — can we be sure it’s safe? The nuclear reactor continues to leak radioactive water due to poor management, while Japanese subcontractors at the plant have admitted they intentionally under-reported radiation […] LINK