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Benjamin Mullany, the British man who was shot along with his wife while on holiday in Antigua has died. He and his wife, Catherine had been on the last day of their honeymoon when both were shot during what seems to be a botched robbery on July 29. Catherine died instantly while Ben fell into a coma. Doctors were unaware if he knew that his wife did not survive the attack. Ben was flown back to Britain on August 2 after a 22 hour operation to try and save his life. He died at Morriston Hospital, in Swansea, Wales where he remained unresponsi

Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has died today aged 89. As well as a novelist he was also a dramatist and historian. Solzhenitsyn served with the Red Army in World War Two but became one of the most prominent dissidents of the Soviet era. He spent eight years in a Soviet Gulag. Solzhenitsyn criticized the Allies for not opening a new front against Nazi Germany in the west earlier in World War II. In 1970 he was awarded Nobel Prize in Literature but was charged with treason and exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974. Soviet President Mi

A 54-year-old German farmer who lost both arms in a farming accident six years ago has become the first patient to receive a complete double arm transplant. The patient, whose name has not been released, underwent the operation at the Klinikum rechts der Isar, part of the Technical University of Munich (Technische Universität München), last week; he is said to be recovering well. The operation lasted 15 hours and was performed by a team of 40 specialists in Plastic Surgery, Hand Surgery, Orthopedics and Anesthesiology, under the direction of

Reuters, AFP, the Associated Press are reporting that a gas explosion in a Turkish school killed at least seventeen girls Friday. Reuters reports the initial death toll at sixteen, with 27 injured. The number of deaths later rose to 17 when a body was removed from the rubble. Two survivors were pulled from the rubble as rescuers worked into the night. One girl is still missing. "We won't stop until we find her," village mayor Mehmet Demirgul, told the Associated Press. About fifty students and teachers were in the school, where some had gat

Three men held up a sign reading "What about the black community Obama?" at a town hall meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida where presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama was speaking on stage Friday. According to the video shown on the BBC website, Obama stopped speaking, while the camera zoomed in on the men. Other attendees began repeatedly chanting "Yes we can!" a common phrase used by Obama and his supporters. Obama addressed the men, saying: "Excuse me young men, there's going to be a question and answer session, so you c

Tottenham Hotspur defeated Scottish team Celtic Football Club 2 – 0 with goals coming from Darren Bent and new signing David Bentley. The game was a pretournament friendly exhibition game between the English and Scottish sides at the Feyenoord Jubilee Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Celtic were last season's Scottish Premier League champions. Tottenham Hotspur finished 11th in the English Premier League last season. Bentley, the £15 million new signing and English international scored in the eightieth minute with veteran Bent first ope

The Bristol Harbour Festival 2008, which is expected to have 200,000 people attending over the weekend, has been launched in the British city of Bristol. The event features a variety of different bands and circus acts. The festival resulted in the closure of some of the roads in the centre of Bristol. Well known ships from the Royal Navy were also displayed in the event. Organisers have claimed that the event is the biggest free event in the South West of England. The director of the event told BBC News that "it is a unique opportunity for a w

On Saturday, 188 supporters of Fatah were allowed to enter Israel from the Gaza Strip, said one IDF spokesman. The Fatah supporters were fleeing after a bloody conflict in Gaza City. Defense minister Ehud Barak was the one who gave the permission for the Palestinians to enter Israel. Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas requested that they be allowed in on Saturday, according to the spokesman, as a result of Hamas' capture of a neighborhood in Gaza City. The Palestinians entered Israel at the checkpoints near Nahal Oz and

The Phoenix probe that was sent to Mars has had its mission extended. Part of Phoenix's mission was to chemically analyze soil samples, and to confirm the presence of water ice. The ice was confirmed by the use of an instrument that can identify vapours; a small sample of ice within Martian soil was heated until it melted at 0°C (32°F), the melting point for water. The original mission was planned to be funded for a 3 months, with the cutoff in late August. However, as a result of the probe's good condition, NASA has stated that its mission wi

International tennis star Maria Sharapova will miss the 2008 Beijing Olympics because of a shoulder injury sustained during the WTA Rogers Open in Montreal, Canada. Sharapova, 21, defeated Poland's Marta Domachowska during the second round of the Open, but was in pain during the three-hour match. "This is something that needs a lot of time to heal. It really hurts me to say I have to miss the Olympics," she said on her official website, according to the BBC. "After Wednesday's match I knew there was something seriously wrong with my shoulder.

Recently Wikia, a commercial company co-founded by Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley, announced that it would be making changes in the appearances of its wikis, specifically making advertising more prominent. This change to mix advertising directly into the content has led many Wikia hosted sites to begin discussions regarding leaving Wikia hosting for their own. As Wikia's business model hinges entirely upon user-generated content, large numbers of sites leaving could leave Wikia in financial trouble. Wikia has lost editors and volunteer "janitor

The Associated Press reported early Friday that a camouflaged gunman opened fire, killing three, on a northeast Wisconsin river Thursday night. A fourth person was wounded when the gunman opened fire at about 5:30 p.m. The four victims had gathered to go swimming near the East Kingsford railroad bridge over the Menominee River near Niagara, Wisconsin. The river forms the border between Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The suspect used a military-style assault rifle from a distance of 7 to 10 feet from one victim, Marinette Count