This post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global-news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in Le Figaro. On this rainy spring morning, the Pic de Bugarach in southern France is completely shrouded in mist. But though the peak, at 4,000 ft., is invisible today, its rugged outline is known all over the world. Hundreds of websites are claiming that after an apocalypse on December 21, 2012, only the small village ...

One of the first times I went on a date with a girl, she asked me, "Are you bi or gay?" "Well, I'm still figuring that out," I told her. Her response was: "I knew you were too good to be true." I then fell all over myself in an effort to explain to her that, although I was unsure about how to define my sexuality, I was definitely into girls, more so than I'm into guys. I am ...

The would-be assassin of Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, head of Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism efforts, hid his bomb in his underwear, apparently believing that cultural taboos would prevent a search in that part of his body, according to a Saudi government official close to the investigation. The prince, head of Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism efforts, was slightly injured when the bomb exploded in the August attack. Several news reports this week have said the assailant hid the bomb inside his ...

You're probably not thinking about what you would like for Christmas yet. But ask any environmentalist for their ideal gift and you'll get a version of this answer: a binding agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December that is strong enough to match the science. The talks are the latest in a line of climate conferences that began in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This year the focus will be on the details of a ...

Former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana was convicted Wednesday on 11 of the 16 corruption charges against him. Jefferson, a 62-year-old Democrat, was indicted by a federal grand jury on June 4, 2007, on corruption charges, about two years after federal agents said they found $90,000 in his freezer. Authorities said the cash was part of a payment in marked bills from an FBI informant in a transaction captured on video. Jefferson had pleaded not guilty. The jury convicted ...

Doctors chose a woman who survived a shotgun wound to her face as the first recipient of a face transplant after treating her for nearly four years. Connie Culp knew of the Cleveland Clinic's interest in face transplants and approached the medical staff, doctors said at a news conference Tuesday. Dr. Maria Siemionow, the Cleveland, Ohio, hospital's director of plastic surgery research and head of microsurgery training, had more than 20 years of experience in complex transplants. By 2004, Siemionow ...

Pakistan cracked down on Taliban militants within its borders Tuesday, carrying out airstrikes in its northwestern region, a Pakistani military spokesman said. The appeal by Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi at the Criminal Appeal Court in Edinburgh is expected to last four weeks, a court spokeswoman said. Megrahi was convicted of the Lockerbie bombing in January 2001, but he maintains his innocence and fought for the right to appeal. After he brought his case before the Scottish Criminal ...

The man convicted in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, began an appeal of his conviction Tuesday in a Scottish court. The appeal by Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi at the Criminal Appeal Court in Edinburgh is expected to last four weeks, a court spokeswoman said. Megrahi was convicted of the Lockerbie bombing in January 2001, but he maintains his innocence and fought for the right to appeal. After he brought his case ...

A pilot who parachuted from his disabled Marine Corps jet last year said he was horrified to see it smash into a California home, newly released documents say. Marine Corps Lt. Dan Neubauer's statements, describing the December crash that killed four family members in a San Diego home, were released Tuesday by military officials. The four-page document details in technical terms several attempts Neubauer made to keep his crippled F/A-18D from crashing. When it became apparent that the plane was ...

Richard Friedman lost more than $3 million to Bernard Madoff's investment scheme. Following the disgraced broker's guilty plea Thursday, Friedman said he hopes Madoff lives a long time. "He is going to be sentenced for 150 years. I hope he lives a very long life," said Friedman, one of several victims who was allowed to sit in the courtroom for Madoff's plea. Madoff, 70, pleaded guilty to charges that he swindled investors through his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities ...