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On Sunday morning, at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, a gunman identified as 58 year old Powell, TN resident Jim Adkisson fired a number of shots with a 12 gauge shotgun, killing two people, and wounding seven others. He was finally tackled by two parishioners and restrained until the authorities arrived. Seven wounded victims from gunfire were taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Twelve others received minor wounds and were cared for at the church. Greg McKendry, one of the victims who

On July 7 and again on July 23, there were accidental leaks at the Tricastin Nuclear Power Center in France, which is a collection of sites in four different communes: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux and Pierrelatte in Drôme, and Bollène and Lapalud in Vaucluse. Along with two other minor incidents on July 18, it has prompted the Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity (Criirad) to order a review of security and safety. Already last week, Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said the ground water near all reactors sho

Scottish National Party (SNP) candidate John Mason has won a surprise victory in the Glasgow East by-election in Scotland. Labour won a majority of 13,507 in the last election, and the constituency has been in Labour Party control in some shape or form since 1922, and the result has been called a "political earthquake". In his maiden speech, John Mason said: The SNP has a history of upset wins in by-elections in and around Glasgow, including Winnie Ewing in Hamilton in 1967, Margo MacDonald in Govan in 1974, and another in Govan in 1988 by

When United States Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem to pray on Thursday, July 24, he left a prayer on a sheet of paper in the cracks as is traditional. A orthodox seminary student took the note and gave it to Israeli newspaper, Maariv. Obama is on an international tour to strengthen his foreign affairs credentials ahead of the November election. Jewish clergy and others have expressed dismay at this personal violation of privacy. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, who is the supervisor of the Western W

After several days in Europe, Barack Obama has found his lead in the polls have increased by 2 percent over John McCain. This comes from a polling average that is produced on a daily basis from the polls conducted in the past week. On the 21st of July the polling average had Obama with a 1.5% lead over McCain, 45.8% to 44.3%. As of July 25, Obama is coming at 46.4% and John McCain at 42.9%. Obama has increased by 0.6% of voters, and John McCain has lost 1.4% of voters. The margin of error for the polling average is 0.87%, which means even if

Following a series of explosions in Gaza, killing five Palestinians including a six year old girl, the ruling party Hamas arrested 200 Palestinians, citing it as "only the beginning". Many of the arrested are affiliated with the Islamist movement's Fatah rivals who denies responsibility for the events. The detainees were transferred to a prison previously used by the Palestinian Authority and colloquially known as the "Guantanamo of Gaza", after the controversial United States detention center. On Friday, a bomb exploded at a junction in the s

A Saturday, July 26th, meeting of the United States Senate resulted in the passing of a $300 billion housing aid bill designed to help homeowners facing foreclosure by providing financial aid. In addition, the bill created a government emergency fund for mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The legislation is expected to benefit up to 400,000 homeowners. The Congressional Budget Office said that between now and December 31, 2009, that if any bailout for the companies was needed, they expected it to be less than $25 billion. The Hous

The federal minimum wage in the United States increased Thursday by 70 cents from US$5.85 to $6.55. This is the second of three increases to take place each year in the federal minimum wage under a law passed by Congress in 2007. Next year, the federal minimum wage is scheduled to increase to $7.25. Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia already have higher minimum wage settings than that of the Federal Government. The new minimum wage can be considered to be less than the wage level of 1997, which when adjusted for inflation, was th

A Boeing 747-438, Qantas airways flight number QF30 from London, England to Melbourne, Australia, had to make an emergency landing at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila after a door panel popped open, creating a massive hole in the plane's fuselage. After a brief stopover in Hong Kong, passengers reported hearing a large bang and saw what appeared to be papers flying around outside their windows. Oxygen masks were deployed and an emergency descent from nearly 30,000 feet to 10,000 feet was initiated by the pilots, who managed to suc

Randy Pausch, professor of computer science, human-computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University has died at the age of 47. Pausch died from pancreatic cancer early this morning. He was born Randolph Frederick Pausch on October 23, 1960 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. He was known for his "The Last Lecture" speech on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon University. The Pittsburgh City Council declared November 19, 2007 to be "Dr. Randy Pausch Day." Finally, Brown University professor Andries van Dam followed Pau

A bus crash in Victoria, Australia has injured at least 20 people, two of whom are listed as critical. One victim is reported to be still trapped in the wreckage. The accident occurred between a bus and a semi-trailer on the Princes Highway in the Traralgon area around 10:50am AEST. The La Trobe Valley Busliner bus was traveling east when it collided with the back of a heavy haulage truck. Those critically injured are being airlifted to a hospital in Melbourne. Others are being transported by Ambulance to La Trobe Valley Hospital in Traralgo

Two large earthquakes have shaken areas of Japan and Russia within 11 hours. Before dawn on Thursday, at 0:26 local time, a strong earthquake jolted eastern Japan. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that its moment magnitude was at 6.8 and that its epicenter was 30 km (20 miles) east-northeast of Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, 485 km (300 miles) north-northeast of Tokyo, also where its tremor was observed. Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency announced that as of Friday noon, 158 were confirmed injured, no one dead or m