Urging people to "cheer up" when they are miserable makes them feel worse.

I have always found it frustrating to be subject to that sort of "help". I understand it as a demand, "Stop being a downer!"

Poachers in Africa are using poison that kills vultures. It is so effective that the vultures could be wiped out.

Libyan human rights advocate Salwa Bugaighis was assassinated.

Egypt has held Khaled Al-Qazzaz in prison without charges for a year based apparently on his having a government job under Morsi.

The UK proposes a law to treat its undersea fossil fuel reserves solely in business terms; it would require maximizing income from them.