The Lebanese Olympic Committee have confirmed that eight of their athletes will compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic games. Four athletes achieved the …

By Reuters

The move against Ayatollah Isa Qassim comes less than a week after a court ordered Bahrain’s main opposition al-Wefaq group closed, accusing it of fomenting sectarian unrest and of having links to a foreign power, in an apparent reference to regional Shi’ite power Iran. Qassim could potentially face expulsion from the country.

A crowd of up to 4,000 people gathered outside Qassim’s house in the Shi’ite village of Diraz, west of the capital Manama, to show their support for him, witnesses said. In a bluntly worded reaction, the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Soleimani, warned the Bahraini government that it would pay a price for its decision and suggested Bahrainis may respond with armed action.

“The Al Khalifa (rulers of Bahrain) surely know their aggression against Sheikh Isa Qassim is a red line and that crossing it would set Bahrain and the whole region on fire, and it would leave no choice for people but to resort to armed resistance,” Soleimani said in a statement published by Fars news agency.

Soleimani heads the Qods Force, the elite special forces arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, also called on the people of Bahrain to express anger, warning that the move against Qassim “pushes the Bahraini people to difficult choices which will have severe consequences for this corrupt dictatorial regime”.

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. Lebanon expects additional support of Russia in the fight against terrorism, Lebanon’s Finance Minister Ali Khalil said at …

Lisa Eadicicco, TIME.com

Since SMS' conception in the 1980s, text messaging hasn't changed much. Sure, over the years, smartphone messages got longer, added photos, videos, and emoji, but their purpose-concise communication-stayed more or less static.

Lately, the technology has experienced something akin to the Cambrian explosion, with a broad range of new species of messaging emerging from companies large and small around the world.

These are stretching the purpose and possibility of the lowly 'text' in novel directions. In the process, the trend has created one of the most effervescent, interesting technology races in recent memory.

Apple is the latest to rethink messages. During its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on June 15, the iPhone-maker announced that it will