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45 people have been killed in Yemen after gunmen fired on protesters in the city of Sana'a. Several hundred more were injured. The origins of the gunmen are not known for certain, but it is believed that both government security forces and civilian supporters of the government are responsible. The shootings occurred shortly after midday prayers when protesters began moving towards a burning car. According to witnesses, several warning shots were fired by security forces before they fired on protesters, soon joined by gunmen on the tops of bu

Chris Moyles and David 'Comedy Dave' Vitty have broken a Guinness World Record by hosting a marathon programme on UK national station BBC Radio 1. The aim was to raise money for British charity Comic Relief. The programme started at 0630 UTC on Wednesday, being broadcasting live on the station's website and an interactive red button service available via digital television. On Thursday, Chris and Dave managed to surpass the record for the longest continuous broadcast by a presenter on BBC Radio 1. The record had been previously held by Simon M

The United Nations has completed its first ever assessment of the United States human rights record, which began last November. They made 228 recommendations for improvements. On Friday, the U.S. accepted about 174 of these, agreeing to such recommendations as the humane treatment of terror suspects and repudiation of torture, but rejected the recommendation to drop the death penalty. The Legal Adviser of the Department of State, Harold Koh, listed nine core areas in which the U.S. agreed to make improvements, including civil rights, immigrat

Yesterday, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the agency governing Internet addresses, approved the creation of an "adult entertainment" Internet address, .xxx, on the web, first proposed in 2003. ICANN is the manager of the Internet's top-level domains, such .com, .org and .net. ICANN's decision means success for the Florida-based ICM Registry (ICM), the company that first applied for the .xxx domain in 2004. ICM will oversee the new domain and will sell the .xxx Web addresses. ICM hopes that the establishme

French military aircraft began flying missions over Libya today in support of a no-fly zone the United Nations approved Thursday. President Nicolas Sarkozy said that "[o]ur air force will oppose any aggression by Colonel Gadhafi [...] As of now, our aircraft are preventing planes from attacking the town [and] are prepared to intervene against tanks, armored vehicles threatening unarmed civilians." One of the planes deployed has reportedly fired against a ground military vehicle. The intervention is believed to be the first such action since t

The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously yesterday that state school classrooms displaying crucifixes do not violate the rights of non-Catholic pupils. In a reversal of the unanimous November 2009 decision the court said, although the crucifix is "above all a religious symbol", it is an "essentially passive symbol" and there is no evidence crucifixes displayed on classroom walls influence pupils. The court's final ruling reverses their 2009 decision in a case brought by a Finnish-born mother living in Italy who ob

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are retaliating with air strikes, helicopters, and tank fire along the border of Gaza after a mortar attack by Hamas. The initial attack reportedly lightly injured two people in an agricultural community. The military wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack, breaking the undeclared cease-fire which has held since Israel's three-week invasion which ended in January 2009. Their attack, they said, was in response to the killing of two military members in an Israeli attack on a train

After French aircraft began missions over Libya, attacks from the United States and United Kingdom have begun. Upwards of 110 Tomahawk missiles have been fired by US and UK warships and submarines in the Mediterranean Sea. Targets include the capitol of Tripoli and military installations around the country. The attacks have been code-named "Operation Odyssey Dawn." In addition to French aircraft, David Cameron said that British aircraft are also taking part in airstrikes. Cameron said that "Gaddafi has made this happen. He has lied to the int

At 9:00 p.m. PDT Monday (0400 UTC Tuesday), Microsoft rolled out the first stable Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) release, available in 39 languages, for Windows Vista and Windows 7. Internet Explorer is the most used web browser, responsible for 56% of webpage hits. The new version adds support for new technologies with relation to the HTML5 specification and several feature changes. The browser was released as a beta with a campaign promoting the benefits of HTML5. It includes support for SVG and the HTML5 canvas, audio, and video tags. It has a f

A week ago today, at 2:46 pm JST, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the coast of the Tōhoku region in Japan. The earthquake created an extremely destructive tsunami that spawned 10 metre (33 ft) high waves just moments later. The tsunami travelled 10 km (6 mi) inland causing massive destruction in the country's northeast, including crippling a nuclear plant. The earthquake and resulting tsunami have left 5,692 dead and over 9,506 missing, with nearly 450,000 homeless. The death toll is expected to rise. In this special photoessay, Wikinew

U.S Nuclear Regulatory Secretary Steven Chu reported to Congress Wednesday that the incidents at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant may end up as a larger disaster than the Three Mile Island meltdown faced by the U.S. in 1979. However, he said reports from Japan officials are contradictory, and concluded that "[w]e don't really know in detail what's happening. We hear conflicting reports." International frustration is focusing on the slow pace and lack of detail characterizing the updates from Japan. The director general of the Internationa

The New York Times announced on Thursday that it will start charging for full access to NYTimes.com, its online version. Beginning March 28, U.S. visitors who do not subscribe to the print edition will be allowed access to 20 articles a month. A digital subscription to the website will be required to read additional content. The fee plan for Canadians is already in effect, allowing the NYT to "fine-tune the customer experience", according to the announcement. Unlimited access to articles will continue to be free for those users reachi