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Seven people were killed and 37 were injured Saturday night at an Internet cafe in the southwest region of China's Guizhou province, after the explosion of chemicals being stored illegally at a chemical shop. Chinese state media reported that sodium nitrate, aluminum chloride, and other chemicals were being kept in a nearby chemical shop and exploded at about 11:05 pm local time (1505 UTC), causing the Internet cafe to catch on fire. It is unknown how the chemicals ignited. Forty five people were in the cafe when the explosion occurred. Six

A man was seriously injured yesterday after a stunt went wrong during a live game show in Germany. Samuel Koch, 23, suffered injuries to his neck and back after he failed to jump over a car being driven by his father on the show Wetten, dass..? (Wanna bet?). The show was halted after the accident for the first time in the show's history. A spokesperson at Dusseldorf University Hospital commented on Koch's condition. He said Koch was "in an extremely critical stage" and warned that he was showing "signs of paralysis". Koch was attempting to ju

Michael Warren, the mayor of the Pitcairn Islands, has been arrested and charged with possessing images and videos of child pornography. He was charged with twenty counts of possessing indecent images of children and five counts of possessing pornographic images, videos, and documents concerning children. Warren was arrested by a New Zealand police officer posted on the island. The Pitcairn Islands, which are home to around 50 people, have seen about a third of the male population face child sex charges, with major cases in 2004 and 2007. In 2

A 55-year-old unidentified male died Saturday after his silver Peugeot motor vehicle collided with a red and white articulated truck and tanker on the A15 road. According to the Humberside Police, the road traffic accident happened on the A15 near the small village of Hibaldstow, North Lincolnshire at approximately 0739 UTC on Saturday. Although the sole occupant of the Peugeot was fatally injured, the occupant of the lorry was uninjured. A spokesperson stated: "Officers would like to speak to anyone who witnessed the collision or the vehicle

The controversial plan to raise university tuition fees in England and Wales will be voted on in the House of Commons on Thursday, December 9. The policy has been the cause of protests across the United Kingdom by students, some of which have turned violent. It has also been a source of considerable criticism and political difficulties for the Liberal Democrats and has raised questions as to the long-term viability of the Coalition government. The new policy on tuition fees will allow universities to double the current tuition fees from £3,290

Much of the interior of New South Wales, Australia continues to be affected by floods caused by heavy rains. With more rain predicted, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has issued a flood watch for all western flowing rivers in New South Wales from the Namoi River in the north of the state to the Murrumbidgee River in the south. Coonamble, in the central-western plains district of New South Wales, has been isolated by major flooding of the Castlereagh River. The State Emergency Service estimates that around 2,760 people are currently trappe

Alassane Ouattara won the Ivory Coast's presidential run-off election on Thursday according to the country's electoral commission. However the Constitutional Council has contested the announcement. Ouattara was the challenger in the run-off against President Laurent Gbagbo. Supporters of Gbagbo have claimed that the vote should be blocked because of fraud in the north of the country. The head of the electoral commission, Youssouf Bakayoko, released the results of the vote while under armed guard. He announced that Ouattara had won 54% of the v

The British Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition government has scrapped plans by the previous government to change the rules on equal pay between men and women. The previous Labour government included a provision in the Equality Act 2010—Section 78—to allow the government the option to introduce regulations that would require companies to publish details of the difference in pay between male and female employees. If the government had activated such regulations, they would have come into force in 2013. The current government have decided

Police in Kent, England have described a woman who called the emergency services to report the theft of a snowman as "completely irresponsible." The woman rang 999 after noticing the snowman outside her house had vanished. "There's been a theft from outside my house," she told the operator. "I haven't been out to check on him for five hours but I went outside for a fag and he's gone." When asked who had disappeared, the woman said: "my snowman." Chief inspector Simon Black said that the call "could have cost someone's life if there was a genui

On Tuesday the U.S. Army released its revised solicitation for the Ground Combat Vehicle infantry fighting vehicle three months after scrapping its previous plans. The United States Army retracted its first solicitation for the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) on 25 August. It was decided by the army to begin anew after a "red team" recommended that the army either upgrade the existing ground vehicle fleet or rewrite the requirements. Program officials choose to end evaluations of vehicle submissions and to begin again in two months with new requir

The British warship HMS Invincible has been put up for auction online. Invincible, an aircraft carrier that served in the Falklands, Balkans, and Iraq wars, was decommissioned in 2005 after 25 years of service with the Royal Navy. Jon Rosamond, editor of a naval magazine said that it "has been offered by the MoD for non-warlike purposes." No bids have yet been received, but it is thought that it could sell for £2m. During service, the vessel's four Rolls-Royce engines could propel it to a top speed of 28 knots, with a range of 7,000 nautical m

Australian transport investigators have announced they have identified a "critical safety issue" with engines fitted to the world's largest passenger airliner. Some Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, which power some Airbus A380 "superjumbos", may be prone to "fatigue cracking", which could lead to oil leakage and a fire. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said they think this was "central to the engine failure" which occurred on a Qantas A380 on November 4, shortly after take-off from Singapore. The airline grounded all six of its flee