By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/23/2025 7:28 AM
Britain's Competition and Markets Authority announced investigations into Apple and Google on Thursday to examine if their mobile ecosystems are breaking the country's competition rules. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/23/2025 4:01 AM
A 28-year-old Afghan man is in police custody after attacking a group of kindergarteners in the German city of Aschaffenburg, killing two people, including a 2-year-old. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/23/2025 2:08 AM
The Iran-backed Yemen-based Houthi militia has released the crew of the Galaxy Leader cargo ship, more than a year after it seized the vessel as part of a maritime blockade in the Middle East during Israel's war in Gaza. ... Read full Story
The couple says the education system in this country, which has supported their daughter with special needs, is one of the main reasons they're hoping to remain in Canada. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/22/2025 6:04 PM
Hundreds of couples this week are poised to marry in Thailand as its overwhelmingly popular marriage equality law goes into effect, according to multiple reports. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/22/2025 2:35 PM
A European court has ordered the Dutch government to cut nitrogen pollution in designated protected areas or face a $10 million penalty, according to new information. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/22/2025 2:02 PM
A rumor of a fire on a train in India led to a panic, causing several passengers to jump from the coaches and into the path of another train on Wednesday afternoon, officials said. Twelve people died in the incident. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/22/2025 12:24 PM
The escalation of Hezbollah-Israel war in late 2024, which led to widespread destruction and large displacement, has left 30% of Lebanon's population facing acute food insecurity, ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/22/2025 12:01 PM
One person was killed and two hurt in a stabbing attack Wednesday at Japan's JR Nagano train station. One woman and two men were waiting for a bus on the station's north side when they were attacked. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/22/2025 11:31 AM
A British official sent a public warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday after the Royal Navy started tracking the Russian spy vessel Yantar in British waters this week. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/22/2025 11:18 AM
Over 80 people have died and tens of thousands have been displaced in escalating violence between armed groups as the border city of Cucuta scrambled Wednesday to cope with thousands of civilians fleeing the violence. ... Read full Story
Among those affected are the more than 1,600 Afghans cleared to resettle in the U.S. as part of the program that the Biden administration set up. ... Read full Story
Prince Harry blames the media for the death of his mother, Princess Diana. He also blames them for the persistent attacks on his wife, Meghan Markle. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/22/2025 10:32 AM
An open letter Wednesday signed by 126 non-governmental organizations urged public and private lending institutions to end financing for a Mozambique liquified natural gas facility being built by France's TotalEnergies. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/22/2025 10:06 AM
The Australian Federal Police said it has opened an investigation on Wednesday to determine if local criminals are being paid by "overseas actors of individuals" to commit anti-Semitic acts there. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/22/2025 9:28 AM
Former Amazon UK Country Manager Doug Gurr Tuesday became interim chair of Britain's Competition and Markets Authority as government directs regulators to focus on growth instead of market competition compliance. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/22/2025 9:21 AM
The West Bank city of Jenin was the target of an ongoing Israeli "anti-terror" operation that claimed the lives of at least 10 Palestinians and injured as many as 40 others. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 1/22/2025 8:26 AM
Prince Harry settled his phone hacking case against Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers on Wednesday, receiving an apology from the company and damages, his attorney told the British high court. ... Read full Story
“A century or so ago, if you lived in the Boston area and were obsessed with trees, you were in good company. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which had united enthusiasts of rare apples and ornamental maples since 1832, had helped found Mount Auburn Cemetery and endowed it with an immense, exotic plant collection. ... Tree mania seems to have come late to Greenlawn, however. Photographs taken sometime before 1914 show a bleak, bare sward.” — Veronique Greenwood, The Boston Globe, 18 Dec. 2023
Did you know?
Sward sprouted from the Old English sweard or swearth, meaning “skin” or “rind.” It was originally used as a term for the skin of the body before being extended to another surface—that of the Earth. The word’s specific grassy sense dates to the 16th century, and lives on today mostly in novels from centuries past, such as Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles: “The sun was so near the ground, and the sward so flat, that the shadows of Clare and Tess would stretch a quarter of a mile ahead of them, like two long fingers pointing afar to where the green alluvial reaches abutted against the sloping sides of the vale.”