This will be the fourth consecutive emigration of the last three generations of my immediate family. My grandparents emigrated from Portugal to Mozambique during the 1940s and 50s in search of a better life. The massive and undeveloped colony seemed like the land of milk and honey for those willing to get their hands dirty. A few decades later my parents-to-be immigrated to South Africa as Mozambique headed towards what would become a 10-year war for independence. Then when I was just 4 years old they decided that a fascist state fully enveloped with the evils of apartheid was no place to raise a child. My mother was fortunate enough to get a work visa into the United States and that's where we've been ever since.

Now the time has come for me to follow in my family's footsteps. Maybe it's in our blood to not only yearn for change but to have the fortitude to go out into the unknown in search of it. But this time something is different. I'm leaving the United States of America, the shining city on the hill; a land where millions of people try to enter each year, often at great risk.

Upon learning of my wife and my decision to leave our friends, family, great jobs, and fantastic home, everyone immediately asks us: Why? It's such a painfully awkward question to answer. How could the answer be anything but obvious? That said, we learned our lesson early and have stopped telling people the truth behind our exodus. Instead we've been answering with generic statements like "Oh, just for a change of pace" or "We've always wanted to experience another culture."

I'm tired of holding my tongue. It's not healthy to keep so much bottled up inside and it's even more painful to watch those closest to me living a most ignorant and animal-like existence. So here are our real, unfiltered, and honest reasons for fleeing the land of the free.

After rejecting an anti-war license plate for being offensive, the state of Michigan defended its decision in court by arguing that it was protecting children by prohibiting an area driver from registering a vanity tag that would have read "WAR SUX."

According to a December filing in Grand Rapids federal court, the state asked the judge to throw out a lawsuit that accuses Michigan of violating the plaintiff's First Amendment-protected freedom of speech when it rejected the proposed license plate.

Ann Arbor, Michigan's David DeVarti is suing the state with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union. He requested the plate but was denied by the Michigan Secretary of State's office, which called the lettering offensive.

In court, the state clarified its position by suggesting the move was made with the best interest of children at heart.

"Many young children of reading age ride in vehicles and are unwillingly exposed to license plates on other vehicles," reads the motion to dismiss the suit. "They sometimes amuse themselves by reading or playing games with license plates. And because vehicles often travel in residential neighborhoods, youth may be exposed to license plates from their yards or driveways"

A five-story building under construction in the southern Indian state of Goa collapsed on Saturday, killing at least seven workers and leaving dozens more feared trapped under the rubble, police said.

Authorities were trying to determine how many people were at the construction site when the structure crumpled in Canacona, a city about 70 kilometers (44 miles) from the state capital of Panaji, Police Superintendent Shekhar Prabhudessai said.

Witnesses said about 40 workers were at the site.

The government of France has declared all-out war against Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, a French comedian whose comedy sketches are performed at large, sold-out venues and remain popular with French audiences despite the fact that he has long since been banned from appearing on national television. The comedian stands accused of 'anti-semitism', particularly in relation to a gesture he makes in his comedy sketches, 'La Quenelle', which has become widely popular in France.

Many charges have been brought against the comedian in recent years - some were successful and resulted in fines, others were thrown out of court. What's different this time around is that the French state itself is going after Dieudonné. Up until recently, French Jewish organizations have pressed charges 'on behalf of French Jews', on the grounds that Dieudonné's public comments and comedy sketches broke France's strict 'hate crimes' laws forbidding expressions of 'anti-semitism'.

The French state's strategy to date of ignoring Dieudonné and minimizing his access to mass audiences apparently changed between Christmas and the New Year when top government officials, including President François Hollande, publicly declared their intention to shut the comedian out of French public life altogether. The Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, declared he would "thoroughly examine all legal options that would allow a ban on Dieudonné's public gatherings, which no longer belong to the artistic domain, but rather amount to a public safety risk."

The extent of the world's obesity epidemic has been thrown into stark relief as a report from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) puts the number of overweight and obese adults in developing countries at more than 900 million.

Future Diets, an analysis of public data about what the world eats, says there are almost twice as many obese people in poor countries as in rich ones. In 2008, the figures were 904 million in developing countries, where most of the world's people live, compared with 557 million in industrialised nations.

"The growing rates of overweight and obesity in developing countries are alarming," said the report's author, ODI research fellow Steve Wiggins. "On current trends, globally, we will see a huge increase in the number of people suffering certain types of cancer, diabetes, strokes and heart attacks, putting an enormous burden on public healthcare systems."

The report warns that governments are not doing enough to tackle the growing crisis, partly due to politicians' reluctance to interfere at the dinner table, the powerful influence of farming and food lobbies and a large gap in public awareness of what constitutes a healthy diet.

According to the report, overweight and obesity rates since 1980 have almost doubled in China and Mexico, and risen by a third in South Africa, which now has a higher rate than the UK. Regionally, north Africa, the Middle East and Latin America all have overweight and obese rates on a par with Europe.

DIY shops may now open on Sundays in a temporary relaxation of the usual law on Sunday opening, the government has said.

A new decree adds the shops to a list of categories exempt from the usual ban on Sunday trading, but it is only operational until July 2015.

Commerce and Employment Ministers Sylvia Pinel and Michel Sapin stated that "this exemption aims at, temporarily, giving a stable legal framework for the Sunday openings that have been found to be taking place in this sector, while awaiting a general overhaul of exemptions to Sunday closing, which should remain the general rule".

The death penalty in the United States continued its pattern of broad decline in 2013, with experts attributing the low numbers to a critical shortage of drugs used for lethal injection, increasing public concern over judicial mistakes and the expense of capital cases, and a growing preference for life without parole.

Eighty death sentences were imposed by American courts this year, compared with a peak of 315 in 1994, and 39 executions took place, compared with 98 in 1999, according to an annual accounting released on Thursday by the Death Penalty Information Center, a private group in Washington.

"A societal shift is underway," said Richard Dieter, the executive director of the information center, which opposes capital punishment.

In May, Maryland became the sixth state in the last six years to abolish the death penalty, leaving 32 states with capital punishment on the books. But for the second straight year, only nine states put prisoners to death.

Food safety officials could impose a ban on Danish pastries over concerns they contain dangerously high amounts of cinnamon.

A 2008 health law passed in Brussels limits the amount of cinnamon allowed in "everyday baked goods" to 15mg per kg of food.

The measure, following consultation with the European Food Safety Authority, aims to limit intake of coumarin, a naturally-occurring toxic chemical found in the most commonly used cinnamon, cassia.

A panel of experts has rejected concerns by religious conservatives in Texas that a high school biology textbook contained factual errors about evolution and a state board approved the book on Wednesday for use in public schools.

The debate over the Pearson Biology textbook was the latest episode of a lengthy battle by evangelicals in Texas to insert Christian and Biblical teachings into public school textbooks.

Two years ago, conservatives pushed for changes in history textbooks, including one that would have downplayed Thomas Jefferson's role in American history for his support of the separation of church and state. That effort was unsuccessful.

The second-most populous U.S. state, Texas influences textbook selections for schools nationwide.

In the case of the biology book, an unidentified volunteer reviewer complained to the Texas State Board of Education that it presents evolution as scientific fact rather than a theory, which conflicts with the creation story written in the Book of Genesis in the Bible.

A Tulsa, Oklahoma man is in jail after allegedly assaulting a woman he believed to be Muslim.

According to police reports, the woman - who is Lebanese and was wearing a headscarf - pulled into Bill and Ruth's Deli. When she exited her vehicle, Stuart Manning began to berate her for having parked too close to his Jeep.

"Hey, you f***ing b***h Muslim, why did you get so close to my car?" he reportedly said. She claims he followed her to the door of the restaurant yelling, "Muslim b***h!" As she entered the store, she says she observed Manning crouching by her car.