The World Trade Organisation has sealed its first global trade deal after almost 160 ministers who had gathered on the Indonesian island of Bali agreed to reforms to boost world commerce.

The agreement, which was criticised by anti-poverty charities, came after intense lobbying by India over measures to protect its poorest farmers. A last-minute compromise between the US and Cuba was also needed over references in the final draft to the continuing trade embargo of the Caribbean island.

"I think there's somebody shooting in here," says an unidentified woman calling from inside the school.

"What makes you think that?" a 911 dispatcher asks.

"Because somebody's got a gun, I saw a glimpse of somebody running down the hallway," she replies, her voice shaking. "They're still running, they're still shooting."

Harrowing 911 calls made from Sandy Hook Elementary School to police in Newtown, Conn., were released Wednesday, giving the public a small but chilling window into the mass shooting that killed 26 people, including 20 children, last December.

Authorities released seven audio-enhanced calls made as 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza shot his way into the school and began his killing spree.

Newtown police dispatchers can be heard urging school administrators to take shelter amid the massacre.

"Keep everyone down, keep everyone away from the windows," a female dispatcher calmly tells a teacher. "Try to lock down the school."

A male dispatcher stayed on the line for several minutes with Rick Thorne, the school's custodian.

"There's still shooting going on, please!" Thorne shouts. "I keep hearing shooting. I keep hearing popping." The sound of gunshots can be heard in the background.

The dispatcher picks up several calls in a row while keeping the custodian on the line for updates on the shooting.

"Guys, we've got a shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown," the dispatcher says to his colleagues. "That's why 911 is ringing off the hook right now."

Stephen Sedensky III, a state's attorney, fought against the release of the calls, arguing that the tapes - which were "being made on the murder of children as it occurs" - were too gruesome for residents to bear.

San Francisco has long been a desirable place to live - and that's even more true today as the city is basking in the glow of another tech boom. But the influx of new money and new residents is putting a strain on the city's housing market.

The city has the highest median rent in the nation, and evictions of longtime residents are skyrocketing.

Ground zero for San Francisco's eviction crisis is the Inner Mission District. Until recently, this edgy neighborhood was home to a mix of working-class Latinos, artists and activists.

Tom Rapp, an airport building maintenance worker, rents a modest second-story flat that he has called home for 15 years. He says a lot of his neighbors have been evicted over the past couple of years. Then bad news came knocking on his door, too.

"We received an eviction notice at the end of August," he says.

"But we've gotten like three different ones, right?" adds his roommate, Patricia Kerman.

Kerman, a senior on a fixed income, has lived in this flat for 27 years.

The two are fighting to stay in their rent-controlled apartment as their landlord tries to evict them under what's known as the Ellis Act. It's a state law that allows an eviction if the landlord wants to pull the building out of the rental market, usually with a plan to sell the units.

"They found this loophole where they're now able to get people out of their rent-controlled apartments, and it's just becoming an epidemic," Rapp says.

Ukraine should hold a referendum to decide its political course, Alexandra Thein, the German MEP from the EU-delegation to Ukraine told RT. The politician believes it is normal to support protests in the streets, if it doesn't incite violence.

A delegation of Members of the European Parliament descended on Ukraine on Saturday, to meet with the opposition leaders and address the crowd in the streets of Kiev, fueling the protest further.

Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, a European Parliament member from Poland expressed full support for the protesters' demand for an early election, calling the situation "unacceptable" when "the choice of the majority of Ukrainians, millions of people, is being put aside."

However, speaking with RT, German MEP Alexandra Thein, said that the "unofficial" visit of the European politicians was all about democracy and the Ukrainian people's desire to associate with Europe, and not the ousting of a democratically elected government which just recently survived a no confidence vote.

RT: We've seen scores of EU politicians come mingle with the protesters in Kiev. Why aren't they letting Ukraine's elected leaders democratically decide?

Alexandra Thein: I think it is not against Ukraine's leadership. I think they just show their solidarity with the protesters and I think we want the Association Agreement with the EU signed and therefore we assist them.

Hundreds of protesters have broken into a Chevron site after the US oil giant resumed its search for shale gas in northeast Romania. RT's Lucy Kafanov reports from the scene, where clashes ensued as riot police started streaming in.

Some 250 people gathered on Saturday in the village of Pungesti. RT's Lucy Kafanov reports that the demonstration kicked off quite peacefully with the protesters chanting "Chevron go home."

"The situation then escalated. Some people had run across the road towards the Chevron property, there was a bit of a commotion, and we saw the protesters run into the property; the surrounding perimeter fences were taken down," Kafanov reports. Local media said people were able to tear down fences to 20 acres of land owned by the company.

Despite background investigations that revealed wrongdoing, incompetence, or poor performance, the department still hired dozens of problem applicants in 2010, internal records show.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department hired dozens of officers even though background investigators found they had committed serious misconduct on or off duty, sheriff's files show.

The department made the hires in 2010 after taking over patrols of parks and government buildings from a little-known L.A. County police force. Officers from that agency were given first shot at new jobs with the Sheriff's Department. Investigators gave them lie detector tests and delved into their employment records and personal lives.

The Times reviewed the officers' internal hiring files, which also contained recorded interviews of the applicants by sheriff's investigators.

Ultimately, about 280 county officers were given jobs, including applicants who had accidentally fired their weapons, had sex at work and solicited prostitutes, the records show.

For nearly 100 hires, investigators discovered evidence of dishonesty, such as making untrue statements or falsifying police records. At least 15 were caught cheating on the department's own polygraph exams.

Despite ongoing anger about how the U.S. government is snooping on people around the world, one agency is still keen to boast about its spying - with a creepy cartoon octopus and an alarming logo.

A top-secret rocket carrying spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office launched from the central California coast late on Thursday, and it had a large badge emblazoned on the side

The new logo features a huge and sinister octopus, with just one angry eye visible, as it wraps its tentacles round the globe. Written underneath is: 'Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach.'

Information released Wednesday from police wiretaps has Toronto Mayor Rob Ford facing a host of new accusations and revelations.

The allegations, from a police investigation called Project Brazen 2, are unproven and have not been tested in court.

Here are some of the allegations in the documents:

Heroin use:

When Ford admitted after months of denials to having smoked crack cocaine once likely during one of his "drunken stupors," he said he "has nothing left to hide."

But wiretap interceptions from the Toronto police investigation suggest crack cocaine may not have been the only drug the mayor has used.

During an April 20 phone conversation between Liban Siyad and Abdullahi Harun, Harun claims he has multiple photographs of Ford "doing the hezza," or heroin.

The new "exit" portals gulags at Syracuse Hancock Airport are bulletproof pods that are meant to make you feel like a prisoner who cannot leave.

They've been called pods, bubbles, capsules, even Willy Wonka's glass elevator, and they have caused confusion and frustration.

Adam Hayes, who was traveling from Fort Worth Texas, said "I've never see those before, so I travel quite a bit through many airports and I don't understand the purpose of that right there. So it bottlenecks you coming out, when they should want you to leave."

A futuristic voice gives the captive instructions on how to handle the temporary imprisonment. And yes, these new "portals" were designed and approved by the TSA. We are told to expect these to spread to airports all over the US in the near future. Some really bloody, sick tyrants came up with this contraption.

South Africa has declared ten days of official mourning for Nelson Mandela. As people reflect on his legacy, it's important to remember that his struggle against apartheid was a fight against a system of political and economic oppression.

When he was sworn in as president in 1994, justice and peace for all were at the top of his list of goals for South Africa. But in his next breath came an economic hope. "Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all," he said.

But the country has continued to struggle with economic inequality. The black middle class in South America has nearly doubled just in the last decade.

For many South Africans, "work, bread, water and salt" are still hard to come by. The country has an unemployment rate of nearly 25 percent. For those who do find work, wages can be widely divergent. South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world in terms of income distribution, and the differences often fall along racial lines. As Bloomberg's Mike Cohen points out, white households earn an average of six times more than black ones. And while nearly all white homes have modern plumbing, two thirds of black homes do not, notes Charles Kenny of the Center for Global Development.