Recently in International Category

Vietnam disbanded Anti-China protests in two major cities today (BBC).

In Hanoi, the second largest city in Vietnam, police stopped a protest, that was approved by the government, after 30 minutes. They allegedly took 20 out of the 200 protesters onto a bus and drove them away for questioning. They were later released.

Many protesters held up signs saying "China's military expansion threatens world peace and security" and yelled "Down with China."

Another protest broke out in Vietnam's capital Ho Chi Minh City, comprised of 100 people. It lasted 10 minutes before being disbanded said blogger Huynh Chenh.

China recently made a new passport which illustrates islands in the South China Sea as apart of China. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan dispute this claim. Vietnam refuses to stamp passports like this and will instead issue a visa on a piece of paper (Daily News Online).

China also allegedly sabotaged one of Vietnam's seismic survey vessels in the South China Sea. The government issued a list of violations in the sea to Beijing.

The United Nations voted on Thursday to allow Palestine to have limited statehood.

The United Nations voted 138 - 9 votes, with 41 absent votes, to recognize Palestine as a "non-member observer state." This grants the right for Palestine to join international treaties. This may also allow for Palestine to hold Israel for war crimes. In the past, the International Criminal Court investigated these allegations, but nothing could be done because Palestine was not recognized as a state (New York Times).

"We have been clear that only through direct negotiations between the parties can the Palestinians and Israelis achieve the peace they both deserve: Two states for two peoples, with a sovereign, viable and independent Palestine living side by side in peace and security with a Jewish and democratic Israel," said Hilary Clinton (The New York Times)

After the vote, Susan Rice ambassador of the United Nations called for Palestine and Israel to have talks without "preconditions".

Israel has created misiles that can identify enemy rockets, determine if they are a threat to populations within the area and destroy them.

The missile defense system is very efficient and has saved many lives, however each missile costs $40,000. Therefore Israel is aiming it's missiles in areas that may have some HAMAS connections. The missile system, however is not able to stop a wall of missiles fired by HAMAS, according to ABC News.

HAMAS is considered a terrorist organization by the US and Israel and has had members shooting short and long range rockets into Israel. In 2006, 44 Israelis died due to HAMA's rocket attacks which sparked investment into the missile defense system.

Israel has called 60,000 reserve soldiers to prepare to potentially invade the Gaza Strip according to Fox News.

The Iranian government said that they are investigating the death of a jailed blogger who reportedly died in custody according to AFP.

Sattar Beheshti posted up many blogs criticizing the Iranian government and before he was arrested said that he was being harassed by security agents who were calling him constantly.

The announcement came on the radio by Ahmad Tavakoli, a law maker and conservative critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In an open session of parliament, broadcasted on the radio, Tavakoli criticized the government for not being proactive in finding why Beheshti died according to ABC News.

It is rare for the Iranian government to investigate allegations against human rights abuse.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said that Iranian police must release the full profile on the "suspicious death." (ABC News)

Today, Bishop Tawadros was chosen to be the new pope of the Coptic Christans, a small religious group in Egypt (CNN).

The previous pope Pope Shenouda III died in March due to the effects of diabetes. He was 88.

The ceremony of choosing the new pope happened at the Cairo cathedral. A blindfolded young boy, who was chosen by lottery, chose out of a chalice one of three candidates to become pope (Huffington Post)

Pope Tawadros will officially be the pope on Nov. 18.

With the new regime Muslim regime in Egypt, he will have to properly represent the Coptic Christians, who only make up 10% of Egypt's population. There have been many recent attacks on them, and it is up to Tawadros to try and deter the violence according to the Huffington Post.

The homepage of the Euromillions lottery website had a passage from the Quran condemning gambling after it was hacked on Sunday morning according to the BBC.

The hackers are apart of a group called the "Moroccan Ghosts". According to Soft Pedia

The message read, "Oh you believers. Wine, games of chance, statues all augur impurity and are the work of the devil." It was written in both Arabic and French (BBC).

The company running the website Francaise de Jeux, said that no other games or data on were affected. However all the Euromillions websites in France are unavailable so far.

Euromillions is a lottery system that was started in 2004 and now serves Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland, according to AFP