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Space debris passed within a short distance of the International Space Station (ISS) Tuesday, forcing the crew to enter their escape capsules to be ready to depart in case of a collision. The debris ultimately missed the orbital outpost and passed within of the station at 12:08 UTC (8:08 EDT). Approximately half an hour after the closest approach of the debris, the crew were given the all-clear to reenter the space station from their escape capsules. Under normal circumstances and had mission controllers known about the collision threat soon

On Monday, Google added the "+1" button to its search results. It works similarly to the Facebook "Like" button. Today, Google began planning to add it to text ads, globally known as "AdSense". Google Product Manager Nick Radicevic commented at Google's AdSense blog: "Today, +1's will start appearing on Google search pages globally. .... We'll be starting off with sites like google.co.uk, google.de, google.jp and google.fr, then expanding quickly to most other Google search sites soon after." Individual websites also can use this feature. Pe

Workers in Greece have gone on strike in protest against the government's second round of austerity packages. Greek prime minister George Papandreou announced €28 billion in cuts Monday; loans worth up to €155 billion from the European Union and International Monetary Fund depend on the measures passing. Tens of thousands of workers are planning to march through Athens and five thousand police officers have been brought into the capital to supervise the strike. Most public services in Greece are affected, including hospitals, ambulances, train

Twelve people have died and twenty more were wounded following the collapse of a wall in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. At the time of the collapse Tuesday, the wall was supporting a shed under which residents were seeking shelter from heavy rain. "I have been told that a shed of my bungalow collapsed where daily wagers gather every day seeking work," said police superintendent OP Pal. He is away from his house in Ambikapur, where the incident occurred, taking leave in Uttar Pradesh. Chhattisgarh authorities have promised to compensate eac

Televison star Ryan Dunn was twice over the legal drink-drive limit at the time of last Monday's car accident that killed him and a friend. The pair died when Dunn's Porsche left the road and crashed into a tree causing the car to burst into flames. Police have determined that the vehicle was travelling at speeds between 132 and 140 mph. The accident occurred in West Chester, Pennsylvania where the legal drink drive limit is a blood alcohol reading of 0.08. Toxicology results show that Dunn had a blood alcohol level of 0.196. The star had prev

Frederick Chiluba, former President of Zambia, has been laid to rest in the capital, Lusaka. Chiluba is credited with introducing democracy to the nation. Chiluba led protests that caused then-President Kenneth Kaunda to agree to an election, which Chiluba won in 1991. During his two terms in office he allowed foreigners to invest in the nation. He relinquished his post in 2001 after attempts to modify the constitution to allow a third term saw his turn to face protests. Chiluba was a figure of some controversy, being implicated in various c

The New York State Legislature passed a bill Friday that legalizes same-sex marriage in the state. It was signed into law by Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo. New York now becomes the sixth and largest U.S. state with legalized same-sex marriage. The practice is legal in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Iowa and Washington, D.C.. Four Senate Republicans including Stephen Saland of Poughkeepsie, Mark Grisanti of Buffalo, Roy McDonald of Saratoga Springs, and James Alesi of Rochester, joined 29 Democrats in support, for a m

Google has confirmed that it has "received formal notification," that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating its business practices. The acknowledgment was posted on the internet search engine company's blog Friday. Google said it was unclear about the nature of the probe. A broad FTC investigation would cause the company be tied up in defending itself for years, and according to Bloomberg, might well be the government’s biggest antitrust case since the Microsoft probe. The FTC will likely launch an anti-trust investigation,

Rebel authorities in the Libyan city of Misrata have begun implementing tighter restrictions on foreign journalists in the city this week, in response to fears that spies for President Muammar al-Gaddafi may be among them. Under the new restrictions, reporters have been barred from traveling to the front lines of the conflict, denied access to high-speed internet links and ordered to use translators approved by Misratan officials. Additionally, reporters accredited by the rebel government based in Benghazi, the National Transitional Council,

A third of U.S. forces in Afghanistan are to be withdrawn from the country by the end of next year, president Barack Obama has announced. In a televised statement on Wednesday evening, Obama announced 33,000 soldiers would be withdrawn from the country by the summer of next year, and declared the U.S. had beaten al-Qaeda and the Taliban. During the speech he announced the U.S. was "meeting our goals" to reverse the momentum of the Taliban and train the Afghan National Army, and said al-Qaeda was "on a path to defeat" after the death of Osama b

Two nuclear power plants in Nebraska, US, near the city of Omaha, remain on alert following flooding. One is shut down pending floodwater receding. The Fort Calhoun nuclear reactor - 19 miles north from Omaha - has been shut down since April 9 partly due to flooding from the Missouri River. It sits nearly two feet below the current river level. This month, the plant lost power needed to cool the spent fuel pool for a short time after a fire. The current flooding with record water releases is expected to stay at high levels until August, so t

A United Nations court today convicted a woman, a former minister in the Rwandan government, for her role in the 1994 genocide in the ethnic war between the Tutsi and the Hutu peoples. Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, 65, was found guilty of seven charges including publicly inciting genocide and rape, and conspiracy to commit genocide "as part of a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population on political, ethnic and racial grounds," said the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), a UN backed court in Arusha, Tanzania. N