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The European Space Agency (ESA) reported on Friday that the Wilkins Shelf, an enormous Antarctic ice shelf half the size of Scotland, could break away from the continent very soon. According to reports, only a thin strip of ice connects it to the Charcot Island, and cracks are expanding rapidly. This is the largest shelf of ice so far to have disintegrated in the Antarctic. In February 2008, the shelf lost 425 square kilometres (164 square miles) of ice, followed by a loss of another 62 square miles in May 2008. "During the last year the ice

Despite international appeals, North Korea has gone ahead with a long publicised rocket launch. Authorities from the United States, Japan, and South Korea confirm that the rocket lifted off at 11.32 local time (02.32 GMT) on Sunday April 5, 2009. "A short time ago a flying object appeared to have been launched from North Korea," read a statement by the Japanese government. The rocket seems to have passed over the Japanese capital of Tokyo and headed over the Pacific Ocean. Two parts of the rocket, the first and second stages, fell either side

Noam Chomsky is a professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Linguistics and Philosophy. At the age of 40 he was credited with revolutionizing the field of modern linguistics. He was one of the first opponents of the Vietnam War, and is a self described Libertarian Socialist. At age 80 he continues to write books; his latest book, Hegemony or Survival, was a bestseller in non-fiction. According to the Arts and Humanities Citation Index Professor Chomsky is the eighth most cited scholar of all time. On March 13, Professor

The Republican Party of Alaska is requesting United States Senator Mark Begich, Democrat, to resign to pave way for a new election. This request is based on the U.S. Justice Department withdrawing charges against former Senator Ted Stevens. Stevens was originally convicted in October just before the November election. He lost the election to Begich by a narrow margin. Given that the U.S. Justice Department has dropped charges that had affected the outcome of the election, they may have re-elected Steven if it was done before the election. Ac

United States stock indexes posted gains on Friday, marking a four-week long positive streak. This comes despite a report released by the US Labor Department on the same day, which said that the US economy shed 663,000 jobs in March, with the unemployment rate reaching 8.5%, the highest since 1983. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a modest gain of half a percent or 39 points, ending the day at 8,017. The index has not closed above 8,000 since February. The last time the Dow had risen for four weeks in a row was between September and Oct

A suspected United States drone missile attack in northwestern Pakistan has left 13 people dead, local security officials say. The strike hit a town in the tribal area of North Waziristan, near the Afghan border, an apparent stronghold of Al-Qaeda militants. "Thirteen people were killed. Ten of them are militants and the identity of the other three — whether they are militants or civilians — is not yet confirmed," a local official told AFP, asking to remain anonymous. "The missile hit a house where some guests were staying. We have informat

A Boeing 737 with 69 people on board safely made an emergency landing at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Russia, on Saturday, after the crew noticed excessive vibrations in the aircraft's left engine shortly upon takeoff. There were no reports of injuries or damage. The airplane circled around the airport to burn spare fuel in order to make the landing safer, according to Interfax. Fire crews and ambulances were at the scene when the jet landed. a spokesperson for the airport told Interfax. The plane had taken off from Vnukovo and was en route

At least five policemen are dead after a bombing took place near the Frontier Corps check post in Margala Road, Islamabad, Pakistan. Reports conflict as to whether the attack was a suicide bombing, but Interior Advisor Rehman Malik told SAMAA TV that it was. Police have cordoned off the area and the press is not being allowed within the zone of the attack. SSP Tahir Alam told Geo Web TV that the attack took place at 10pm local time as police were taking dinner. Although initial reports stated that gunfire was exchanged, Alam said that securit

At least five police officers were shot this morning in the Stanton Heights section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The alleged 23-year-old shooter, Richard "Pop" Poplawski, surrendered to police around 11 a.m. EST after fatally shooting three officers and wounding two others. Initially, four police officers responded to 1016 Fairfield Street for a domestic dispute call around 7 a.m. The shooter, who was armed with a high-powered assault rifle, an AK47 and a bullet-proof vest, was hanging out of the window and opened fire on the officers. When S

In what is described as a Canadian first, a jury on Saturday convicted an Ontario man of first-degree murder in the AIDS-related deaths of two women. Johnson Aziga, 52, was accused of knowingly infecting his sex partners with the HIV virus which can cause AIDS. The trial dealt with the cases where two women had died from AIDS-related complications, while 11 others were either infected or exposed to HIV. Aziga was informed he carried the HIV virus in 1996 and was instructed by public health authorities to inform his sex partners of his conditio

General Motors (GM) and Chrysler will receive bridge loans from the government of Canada and the provincial government of Ontario, however no more will be forthcoming from either Canadian or US governments unless the companies can reinvent themselves. "This is a regrettable but necessary step to protect the Canadian economy. We are doing this on the assumption that we obviously cannot afford either in the United States or Canada a catastrophic short-term collapse." said Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada. "We cannot, we must not, and w

In a recent discovery by researchers at Tel Aviv University, it has been determined that Mushrooms Corals (Fungiidae) can change sex from male to female and back again female to male. It was in 2004 that scientists had collected two species of Mushroom Corals near Japan and tagged them. They were kept in a lab until after the full moon when then would send out sperm or eggs in gamete explosions. Mushroom corals were classified as male or female. The corals were returned to the sea and researchers repeated the laboratory experiment in 2006 and