02/19/13

* Chavez back in Venezuela, on Twitter with four million followers The 58-year-old flew back from Havana before dawn and was taken to a military hospital.

* Syria 'mulled killing Vatican ambassador' A top Syrian intelligence official planned to assassinate the Vatican's ambassador to Syria following his outspoken criticism of the Bashar Assad regime late last week.

* Moses replaces Hitler in Japanese comics Israeli Ambassador to Japan Nissim Ben-Shitrit visited a book store at a Tokyo Metro station recently, and he was shocked to discover a manga comic book with a drawing of Adolf Hitler on its cover.

* North Korea threatens South with "final destruction" North Korea threatened South Korea with "final destruction" during a debate at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday.

* PM: Unarmed Palestinian state critical to peace Palestinian acceptance of a demilitarized state and recognition that Israel is the Jewish homeland are both critical for long-term peace.

* China military unit 'behind prolific hacking' A secretive branch of China's military is probably one of the world's "most prolific cyber espionage groups", a US cyber security firm has said.

* Cosmos may be 'inherently unstable' Scientists say they may be able to determine the eventual fate of the cosmos as they probe the properties of the Higgs boson.

* The Search Is on for Meteorite The meteor that crashed to earth in Russia was about 55 feet in diameter, weighed around 10,000 tons and was made from a stony material.

* EU Agrees to Send 'Non-Lethal' Aid to Syrian Opposition European Union foreign ministers on Monday stopped short of meeting Britain's demand to lift an arms embargo on Syria.

* UN: Syrian Refugee Numbers Top 850,000 The number of Syrian refuges forced to flee the conflict-ravaged country has topped 850,000.