A graphic picture has emerged which appears to show Syrian rebels so desperate for food they have killed and butchered a lion.

Parts of Damascus have been under siege by the Syrian army for more than six months, causing food to become scarce as winter draws near.

The picture, which has not been independently verified, appears to show a visibly emaciated lion.

It is though to have been captured from Al-Qarya al-Shama Zoo, in east Ghouta.

Last month, clerics issued a fatwa, or religious order which allowed staving Syrians to eat cats and dogs if food supplies became desperate.

The public's approval rating for Congress has finally hit rock bottom: For the first time, America has a higher opinion of car salespeople.

A new Economist/YouGov.com poll put the approval rating of Congress at a historic low of 6 percent. A December 2012 Gallup poll comparing Congress' approval ratings to other occupations had car salespeople at the bottom at 8 percent and Congress at 10 percent. Now Congress is the cellar dweller.

The nation's bad opinion of Congress, impacted by inaction, budget fights and the battle over the filibuster, has also spread to Senate leaders. Just 19 percent approve of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell while 54 percent disapprove. Democratic leader Sen. Harry Reid's ratings are 52 percent unfavorable, 25 percent favorable.

One Family Is Still Struggling To Regain Their Credit 6 Years Later

If you have ever written a negative online review of a product or service it could wind up costing you thousands of dollars and causing countless headaches.

When John Palmer tried to buy his wife some Christmas gifts his holiday shopping spree turned into a nightmare that he is still living with 6 years later.

"We don't want them to get away with this," Palmer said.

The gifts that Palmer ordered off of KlearGear.com never arrived, he claimed. After 30 days Pay Pal canceled the transaction.

The couple repeatedly called the website to find out what happened but did not get an answer so they posted a review on RipOffReport.com, CBS 2′s Kathryn Brown reported.

"There is absolutely no way to get in touch with a physical human being. No extensions work," the review said.

No one knows what Jesus would do to feed today's poor, hungry Americans - but Fox News host Bill O'Reilly is pretty sure the Christian savior wouldn't be "down with" giving them food stamps because it's "their fault."

After Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) recently said that Jesus "didn't charge food stamps" in response to Republican efforts to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Pope Francis called income inequality immoral, O'Reilly tried to set the record straight with a segment about the "nanny state" on Tuesday.

The Fox News host acknowledged that Christ would have fed the poor, but objected to the idea that he would have "hurt" richer Americans to help feed them.

"The problem I have, as I stated is that you're helping one group by hurting another group and a bigger group, and so I don't know if Jesus is going to be down with that," O'Reilly told Pentecostal Pastor Joshua Dubois.

"Jesus would be down for the poor," Dubois pointed out. "He would want to make sure every single person in this country had enough food to eat. And the bottom line is if you add up every single private charitable dollar that feeds hungry people in this country, it's only 10 percent of what we would need to make sure everyone has food in their stomachs. The rest comes from the federal government."

Seventeen-year veteran accused of using service set up by co-ordinator of base's sex assault and harassment prevention program

Female soldiers at Fort Hood testified Monday that they were recruited for a prostitution ring set up by a sergeant involved in the sexual assault and harassment program at the Central Texas post.

The testimony came as the court-martial began for another Fort Hood soldier accused of using the service, which Army prosecutors said preyed upon young, cash-strapped female soldiers at Fort Hood.

Master Sergeant Brad Grimes is a 17-year Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Army prosecutors said in the military court on Monday that Grimes participated in the prostitution ring set up by another Fort Hood sergeant not yet charged but still under Army investigation, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

Over a decade after a similar case shocked the world, a German daily reported that a German police officer may have seduced and murdered a man he met on a cannibalism fetish website. The suspect has been arrested.

Police on Wednesday found body parts on a property in the Ore Mountains, in the eastern German state of Saxony, that, according to German tabloid Bild, came from a murder carried out as part of a cannibal fetish act. The body parts are believed to belong to a 59-year-old man from Hanover, while the main suspect, who, according to Bild, owns the property on which the remains were found, is a 55-year-old police officer.

The spokesperson for the head prosecutor, Lorenz Haase, confirmed to German news agency DPA that "the men knew each other." According to Bild, the two men met on a website for cannibal fetishists. The suspect then allegedly invited the man to his property in Reichenau, a small town in the mountains.

According to Bild, the victim had been cut into many small pieces some time in early November and many parts of the victim have yet to be found, leading to suspicions part of his body may have been eaten.

A Japanese man living in the city of Osaka has been taken in for questioning by the city police after it was found that he has been keeping more than 80 reptiles, which includes venomous lizards and snakes, as pets in his small one-room flat. The police were alerted after a very scared neighbor found a long snake slithering along a wall outside his flat, after which he promptly informed the authorities.

Police officers then raided the property and found that that there were dozens of reptiles being kept in individual containers within the very small 107-square-feet studio flat. For many of the different types of reptiles found, a prospective owner would need to obtain correct permits to keep them in a home within the city, and the owner could not show such permits. The reptiles for which the owner did not have permits for were then seized by the police, including a boa constrictor that stretched nearly 10 feet. The owner was a 40-year-old man, who reportedly told the officers that all the reptiles found inside his home were kept as personal pets, and he regularly fed them frozen mice.

Most Japanese pet owners would probably opt for cats or dogs, but owning exotic reptiles such as snakes and lizards have become increasingly popular in recent years. Japan is already home to a "reptile café", where visitors observe and pet a range of different species of reptiles while having a cup of tea. The prosecutors' office in Osaka is currently examining the case on suspicion that the man, who was not arrested, violated laws in relation to the welfare and the management of animals in his home. "The man told us he kept them as pets and fed them on things like frozen mice. We are investigating where he obtained these reptiles," a police official said.

Source: The Telegraph

A truck carrying radioactive material was hijacked in central Mexico, the UN's nuclear watchdog reported.

The truck was reportedly carrying outdated medical equipment used to perform radiotherapy when it was hijacked at a gas station in Tepojaco, Hidalgo - near Mexico City - on Monday, the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards (CNSNS) said.

The white Volkswagen Worker semi-trailer had reportedly stopped en route from a hospital in Tijuana to a radioactive waste storage center.

CNSNS authorities said the cobalt-60 teletherapy source posed no health risk as long as the part of the equipment housing the radioactive source is not cracked.

"At the time the truck was stolen, the source was properly shielded. However, the source could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the shielding, or if it was damaged," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

"The Mexican authorities are currently conducting a search for the source and have issued a press release to alert the public," the UN nuclear watchdog said. Local authorities have urged calm, telling the public the threat posed by the stolen equipment is minimal.

A Canadian woman said she was denied entry into the U.S. by a Customs and Border Protection Agent who cited her hospitalization last year for clinical depression.

Ellen Richardson, of Weston, Ontario, said she intended to fly Monday to New York City on her way to a 10-day Caribbean cruise, but she said the agent working with the Department of Homeland Security told her she must first get medical clearance.

Richardson, who is paraplegic and set up her cruise through the March of Dimes with about a dozen other travelers, said the agent told her she must be examined by one of three Toronto physicians approved by DHS.

"I was so aghast. I was saying, 'I don't understand this. What is the problem?'" said Richardson, who paid about $6,000 for the trip. "I was so looking forward to getting away . . . I'd even brought a little string of Christmas lights I was going to string up in the cabin . . . It's not like I can just book again right away."

Richardson, who said she hadn't discussed her private medical history or background with agents at the airport, said she was told that a call to her psychiatrist wasn't sufficient.

A Florida police officer who was protesting US President Obama's newly implemented healthcare law has been arrested because he refused to take off a Guy Fawkes mask he was wearing at a demonstration.

Ericson Harrell, 39, was wearing a mask, a black cape, and holding an inverted American flag when police approached him in Plantation, Florida. Harrell told officers he was "protesting Obamacare" but the police report notes "he refused each time" when he "was asked several times to remove his mask and produce some form of identification or tell us his name" and taken into custody.

The mask is the same one popularized in the film V for Vendetta and then by the activist hacking collective known as Anonymous.

The police report does not mention whether other protesters were at the scene or if Harrell was holding his own individual rally. It does say Harrell was not willing to tell police who he was, "stating his anonymity was his cause, thus the mask...He stated the mask was used by movement groups around the world for protests."

He only told responding officers "I'm a cop, I'm a cop" and was apprehended when one policeman found a .40 caliber pistol in his waistband.

Harrell, who was charged with obstruction of justice and with wearing a hood or mask on the street, was given a notice to appear in court and not jailed.