The new British coalition government has warned local authorities in the United Kingdom not to provide tax breaks to branches of the Church of Scientology. After an investigation by The Guardian newspaper revealed that several local authorities have granted Scientology tax breaks worth over a million pounds, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles intervened to urge councils to end the practice.
Pickles noted in a statement that Scientology was not officially recognised in the UK as a religion or a registered char
Two men have been found guilty of murdering shopkeeper Gurmail Singh in a robbery at his shop in West Yorkshire, England. During the robbery at Cowcliffe Convenience Store in Huddersfield in February, Singh was hit over the head with bottles of wine and died the next day.
Muawaz Khalid, aged twenty, and Nabeel Shafi, aged eighteen, both from Huddersfield were convicted of murder after a six-week trial at Bradford Crown Court. Three other men were cleared of murder but two were convicted of robbery; the third had previously admitted to assistin
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is facing several lawsuits, including one filed by residents of San Bruno, California, after a gas line exploded in their neighborhood on September 10, completely destroying over 50 structures, 37 of them homes. In their lawsuit, residents claim that PG&E knew the pipeline was "defective" and was a "ticking time bomb". They further allege that the company was aware that the pipeline could fail, but did not act.
The lawsuit was filed by at least five families who resided in the Glenview neighborhood o
Archaeologists from the University of Winchester in Hampshire, England have discovered what they believe to be the earliest known hospital in the United Kingdom. Burials at the former leprosy hospital in England's former capital city have been radio carbon dated and are estimated to be from AD 960–1030. Several buildings have been excavated on the site along with the foundations of other structures. Other artifacts were also found on the site.
Prior to this discovery the earliest hospitals in the country were believed to date from the Norman C
Ten people are confirmed dead and nine injured as Super Typhoon Megi, also known as Juan, cleared the Philippines Tuesday. Megi is the strongest typhoon to strike the country this year.
Megi is currently a "super typhoon" with winds in excess of 185 km/h (115 mph). It brought strong winds and heavy rains to northern provinces Monday, knocking out power and forcing the cancellation of flights.
Experts indicated that Megi might damage up to 60% of the rice crop in the Cagayan valley on the main island of Luzon, producer of about one-third of
The Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization which administers online collaborative websites including Wikipedia and Wikinews, announced yesterday that its general counsel Mike Godwin will leave his position this Friday. The author of Cyber Rights: Defending Free speech in the Digital Age, Godwin is a former fellow at the Yale Center for Internet Studies and staff counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation who has served as chief lawyer for the Wikimedia Foundation since July 2007.
Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation Sue
Indonesian police are investigating the authenticity of a new video that appears to show security forces torturing two detainees during interrogation. The video shows locals from Papua province being questioned about an alleged arms cache and beaten.
One man is bound, threatening with a knife and kicked by a group of men. At one point a burning stick is placed to one man's genitals; the Asian Human Rights Commission — the group that released the footage — has described other portions of the film as too graphic to display.
According to Marwoto
One man is confirmed drowned in a river as Super Typhoon Megi, also known as Juan, makes landfall in the Philippines. Megi is the strongest typhoon to strike the country this year.
A change in direction sees warnings for the capital, Manila, decrease to level one – an alert indicating winds around 60 km/h (35 mph) are probable.
Megi is currently a super typhoon with winds in excess of 190 km/h (120 mph). It is estimated that Megi could damage up to 60% of the rice crop in the Cagayan valley on the main island of Luzon, producer of about one-
Over 1,700 women from more than 40 nations marched through Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) yesterday, to protest sexual violence against their gender. The United Nations calls the nation the "rape capital of the world" and estimates 15,000 rapes were committed last year in the DRC. One local activist said "They [the women] have had enough, enough, enough, enough. Enough of the [civil] war, of the rape, of nobody paying attention to what's happening to them."
Both rebel groups and government troops are accused of rape, with march
Benoît B. Mandelbrot, a French-American mathematician and pioneer of fractal geometry, died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Thursday. Mandelbrot, aged 85, died of pancreatic cancer, according to a family statement.
Mandelbrot was born to Lithuanian parents on November 20, 1924, in Warsaw. Mandelbrot and his family, who were Jewish, fled Nazi persecution in 1936, moving to France. He later studied at Paris' École Polytechnique and received a master's degree in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology. In 1952, Mandelbrot went back
Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver Jamie McMurray, who qualified twenty-seventh, won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2010 Bank of America 500 held yesterday at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, United States. This became his third win of the season.
Kyle Busch was the leader before the final caution, after which McMurray became the leader. Busch was unable to catch him. Following the race, McMurray became the first driver out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup to win in the first five races.
Jimmie Johnson managed the third position
Yannis Dalianides, a Greek film director who worked on over 60 movies, has died at the age of 87. Dalianides died after spending a month in hospital. He was known as the "godfather" of the Greek musical and the "Gentle Knight of Popular Cinema".
Born in 1923, Dalianides was placed in a children's home until he was adopted. He made his first appearance in children's theatre at the age of 10. He studied at the Drama School of the Thessaloniki Conservatory, before moving to Vienna and studying dance. Dalianides tried choreography before turning t
