US life expectancy is low and is now projected to be on par with Mexico by 2030

The poor levels of life expectancy in the U.S. against other rich nations has been laid bare in a new report, which predicts that minimal gains over the coming years will see the country have similar rates to Mexico by the year 2030.

In general, global life expectancy is on track to increase by the year 2030, according to the study released on Monday, but the U.S. is predicted to continue to lag behind its peers .

N. Korea has up to 400,000 slave workers

The 81-page report, titled “Sweatshop, North Korea,” was based on testimony from 18 North Korean defectors in South Korea, including four former workers for the construction projects.An estimated number of 200,000 to 400,000 construction workers toil more than eight hours a day under extreme conditions for 10 years although they receive hardly any wages.

Many of them, both men and women, are physically weak and came from lower-class families. They were forcibly taken to toil when they were in their senior years at middle school.

U.S. General: Military Will Face ‘Great Pressure’ to Lower Standards for Women in Combat Roles

Current and future U.S. military leaders will face immense pressure to lower standards in the services in order to allow more women to serve in combat roles, a top general recently warned.

Gen. John Kelly, commander of U.S. Southern Command and a Marine for 45 years, told reporters on Friday that his “greatest fear” is the easing of the military’s stringent training standards as a result of the new policy of integrating women into combat and infantry posts.

Wave of refugees to Europe an “organised invasion” says Czech PM

Milos Zeman urges young Iraqis ad Syrians to take up arms against Isil

Czech President Milos Zeman has called the current wave of refugees to Europe “an organised invasion”, adding young men from Syria and Iraq should instead “take up arms” against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) group.

“I am profoundly convinced that we are facing an organised invasion and not a spontaneous movement of refugees,” said Zeman in his Christmas message to the Czech Republic released on Saturday.