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Senator Robert Byrd, the longest serving member of the United States Congress, died yesterday at the age of 92. A spokesman for the Democratic Senator from the state of West Virginia said Byrd had been hospitalized since last week. At first he was thought to have been suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration but other medical conditions developed. On Sunday, his condition was described as "serious". Byrd was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1952 and to the U.S. Senate in 1958. He suffered from ill health in

The Wikimedia Foundation has taken action in response to last month's image controversy on their Commons project, requesting Executive Director Sue Gardner to examine the issue, and communicating with the wider community about their concerns. Ms Gardner has hired fellow journalist and former broadcasting executive Robert Harris to carry out this study. Ms Gardner and Mr Harris worked together for seventeen years at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In early May Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales deleted scores of images which were targe

The United States announced the arrest of eleven people accused of acting as spies for Russia, breaking up what the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) called a "long term, deep cover" spy ring within the US. Those arrested were, according to the US government, members of a spy ring that had existed for several years, involving Russian agents adopting civilian identities. All are charged with acting as unlawful agents for Russia, which carries a sentence of a prison term up to five years. Nine were charged with money launderi

According to media reports, at least one person was killed and several more were injured when a train derailed in the Czech Republic yesterday. The incident occurred near Ústí nad Labem in the north of the country. As a result of the crash, the train was seriously damaged. At least six people were injured with wounds of varying seriousness, all of which were hospitalised; conflicting media reports, however, suggested that the number of hurt passengers was substantially more. According to Czech media, the dead man was the train's driver. Accor

Traralgon defeated Wonthaggi by five goals at the Wonthaggi Recreation Reserve as they kept in touch with Maffra at the top of the Gippsland Football League in Australia's state of Victoria. Wonthaggi now sit a game out of the top five. Maffra (nine wins one loss) are on top a game clear of Traralgon, with Moe a further game back. Morwell (five wins five losses) are two games behind Moe in fourth. Drouin (four wins five losses) sit in fifth ahead of Sale (four wins five losses) and Leongatha (four wins six losses) on percentage. Warragul have

French oil company Total announced Monday that it has stopped shipping petroleum products to Iran, the latest Western oil company to stop or reduce trade with the country. A spokesperson for Total, confirming an earlier report, said that the company "has suspended its sales of gasoline or refined products to Iran." Although Total didn't comment on specifics, an anonymous source said that the cessation of trade had minimal effect on Iran, and had begun several weeks ago. In a separate development, a Spanish company, Repsol, said that it was n

__NOTOC__ Slovakia eliminated defending champions Italy from the World Cup. First round groups E and F were decided on Thursday: Japan, Paraguay and the Netherlands progress alongside Slovakia. When a team finishes third or fourth in a group, they are on their way home. After the elimination of France, runners-up in 2006, it was the turn of the reigning champions. Slovakia met Italy in their first World Cup finals as an independent country. After 81 minutes, the Azzuri (Italy) were down by two goals, both struck by Róbert Vittek, when they

Toyota announced on Friday that it will recall around 17,000 Lexus vehicles in response to risks of the fuel tank in the cars leaking after a collision. The Lexus HS 250h model was subjected to the recall following a US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation. Despite previously passing Toyota safety inspections, the conclusions of an NHTSA sub-contracted investigator were that; when the vehicles in question collided with an object at more than fifty-miles-per hour, more than 142 grams of fuel, the maximum allowed

Kyrgyzstani citizens on Sunday voted on a referendum concerning a proposed constitution ahead of the country's elections this September. Polls are open from between 0800 and 2000 local time (0200 and 1400 UTC) today, with results of the poll expected to be made public on Monday. According to Kyrgyzstan officials, around 55% of the eligible population had participated in the poll, which was announced in April. Under the proposed constitution, Kyrgyzstan would move towards becoming a parliamentary republic, with elections for the parliament he

Fijian Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama announced Wednesday night that Fiji had joined the Non-Aligned Movement. Bainimarama described this decision as way to refocus Fiji's relationships away from its traditional trading partners of Australia and New Zealand, towards countries outside of the South Pacific. Joining the Non-Aligned Movement would support the “Look North policy which involves developing relationships with countries outside the southern Pacific sphere,” he said. The Fijian Cabinet of Ministers had agreed to start the pr

Spain has qualified for the second round of the 2010 FIFA World Cup after beating Chile 2-1. The game took place in Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria, and had an attendance of 41,958 people. Early in the match, the Chilean team tried to suffocate the Spanish. After a long shot in the twenty-fourth minute, David Villa scored the first goal when Claudio Bravo left the goal open. Iniesta scored Spain's second goal in the thirty-seventh minute. Chile pressed the Spanish players in the second half, and Rodrigo Millar scored the first and only goa

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Juan Montoya won his first pole position of the season on Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. His time of 28.781 was faster than all others who qualified. Kasey Kahne followed in the second position with a time of 28.820, ahead of Kurt Busch and Mark Martin in third and fourth. Two drivers did not qualify quickly enough; they were Travis Kvapil and Mike Bliss. Montoya said, "It was a good lap until Turn 3, when I got sideways, still in the gas, and I thought, 'They're going to kill me.' I was about to pre