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Amin al-Hafez, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, has died at the age of 83. Al-Hafez was sworn in as Prime Minister on April 25, 1973 by President Suleiman Franjieh. Al-Hafez was forced to resign after less than two months on June 21. The Sunni Muslim al-Hafez faced a hard time as Prime Minister as opposing religious leaders and fellow Sunnis refused to recognise him as Prime Minister. Two years after he resigned, Lebanon, which was already in conflict with Palestinian troops, entered a 15-year civil war. He continued to serve as a member

A Scottish firefighter has died while helping to put out a fire at a pub in Edinburgh. Ewan Williamson, 35, died when the floor collapsed of the multi-story building. The Balmoral Bar, where the fire broke out was situated in the basement of the building. A second firefighter was injured but later released from hospital. Chief fire officer Brian Allaway said two firefighters were injured by a collapse of an internal floor. He added “tragically and despite the best efforts of all his colleagues at the incident one of those firefighters lost hi

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the pragmatic-conservative Iranian politician, head of Iran's Expediency Council and former president of Iran, will lead Friday prayers in Tehran on July 17, according to Mir-Hossain Mousavi's Facebook page. Although the content of Ayatollah Rafsanjani's sermon is not yet known, the former Iranian president, a member of Iran's pragmatic-conservative faction and the richest person in Iran, is widely thought to be a "behind-the-scenes" supporter of Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Members of Rafsanjani's family have been arrested d

Daisy Dick has won the Barbury Castle International CCI 3* horse trials on Spring Along, her 16-year old veteran horse. Andrew Nicholson came second on Neroe, with Sam Watson on Bushman came third. Badminton Horse Trials winner Oli Townend disappointed fans, gathering 19 penalties in show jumping on Flint Curtis. Daisy Dick said "I was happy with my dressage as I knew he can do a good test, I'm just glad he decided to do it here! I'm annoyed with my time penalty but I know exactly where I lost the time - just one too many pulls but I did fe

A plane, carrying blood donations, crashed in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada on Thursday night. The plane, a twin engine PA-31 Piper Navajo departed from Victoria, when it nosedived into a parking lot during its final approach to Vancouver International Airport shortly after 10:00 p.m. PDT (UTC-7). Witnesses report the plane flying unusually low prior to it crashing and bursting into flames by Bridgeport Road, behind a large Ikea store. "The plane engine sounded real low, it came almost straight down," according to The Vancouver Sun who

The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) has upgraded Tropical Depression Four-E to tropical storm status. The storm, now officially Tropical Storm Carlos, is the third named storm of the 2009 hurricane season. The storm currently has maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour, with slightly higher gusts. Carlos is located about 910 miles south-southwest of Baja California, Mexico, and is currently tracking west at 14 miles per hour. Minimum barometric pressure is 1005 millibars. A fairly small and well-organized storm, Carlos is

Registering 5,081,441 views in the past week alone, an international advertisement featuring roller-skating babies has become a YouTube sensation. French and US versions of the advert for Evian mineral water have also seen 500,000 and 1.5 million visitor hits respectively. "It's one of the cutest things I've ever seen," said one YouTube viewer. Reviewer Saul Relative says, "You'll find yourself watching this feel good video commercial again and again." The babies roller-skate to a remix of The Sugarhill Gang's top 40 hip hop single Rapper's D

Merriam–Webster announced that it has added over a hundred new words to the pages of its Collegiate Dictionary. Notable among these additions include: webisode, a television episode viewed from the web; staycation, a vacation that occurs near one's home; and vlog, a form of blog that features videos. Two recurring themes among the new words included "government activities" and words of Arabic origin. The term "waterboarding" reflected the former theme, and was defined as "an interrogation technique in which water is forced into a detainee's m

The launch of Endeavour has been delayed at least 24 hours after the shuttle's launchpad area was struck by lightning at least 11 times this afternoon. According to NASA, technicians are currently evaluating the incident, but so far there appears to be no major damage. "Sensors indicated there were 11 lightning strikes within 0.35 miles, which is inside the launch pad's threshold," said a statement on NASA's website. "The Mission Management Team will meet at 8:00 a.m. (EDT) Sunday to evaluate the latest data," it added. "We've seen nothing s

The leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) countries are meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, from July 8 to July 11. On Wednesday, the group announced that it had agreed to a cut in carbon emissions. The G8 agreed to a target to cut emissions by 80% by 2050, though interim targets were not defined. "I believe we've made some important strides forward as we move towards Copenhagen," said United States President Barack Obama. "I don't think I have to emphasise that climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time. The science is clear and concl

The Saskatchewan provincial government alongside the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) have come together to establish a CA$500 million, 10 megawatts research nuclear reactor to produce medical isotopes. "In 1949 … cobalt-60 treatment was tried for the first time here in Saskatchewan, where it saved a woman battling cervical cancer. Maybe we can lead again in terms of nuclear medicine," said Brad Wall, the Premier of Saskatchewan, "Governments should be involved in pure research. We're dealing with some circumstances as they present themse

Reports say a major fire has broken out in the Soho area of central London. Sixty firefighters were called to Dean Street, where the four-storey office building occupied by the finance company Future Capital Partners was alight. Eyewitnesses say a column of smoke is visible from up to a mile away from the site. The fire started around 2:00 pm BST (1300 GMT). No injuries are reported and the cause of the fire is currently unknown.