World

A double-decker bus has overturned in Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland. Approximately thirty people have been left injured as a result of the road traffic collision near Belfast Central railway station, located close to the centre of the city. The incident occurred at around 1415 BST (1315 UTC) today. According to ambulance service spokesperson John McPoland, "The vast majority of those on the bus are being taken to hospital by ambulance." He continued, "Thankfully no one is seriously hurt; a lot of people are walking wounded. Pro

Oil producer Royal Dutch Shell has confirmed that the Gannet Alpha oil platform, located 112 miles east of Aberdeen, Scotland, has suffered a leak from an underwater pipeline between the wellhead and platform. Shell issued a statement regarding the incident, saying that "We can confirm we are managing an oil leak in a flow line that serves the Gannet Alpha platform. [...] We have stemmed the leak significantly and we are taking further measures to isolate it. The subsea well has been shut in, and the flow line is being depressurised." The comp

A car fatally crashed into three individuals in the British city of Birmingham, England. The three men, aged 31, 30, and 21, died during a second consecutive night of violent events in Birmingham. The incident occurred at approximately 0100 BST (0000 UTC) Wednesday morning in the Birmingham inner-city region of Winson Green. The men were attempting to protect property from nearby riots. Witness reports say that the vehicle contained as many as three passengers and drove at a speed of fifty miles per hour without stopping after the crash. Poli

Rioting continued to spread throughout England last night, with reports of violence in Manchester. Birmingham, Liverpool and Nottingham also suffered a second night of disorder, with three confirmed fatalities in Birmingham. In the capital, the extra ten thousand police brought into the city on Tuesday kept the city relatively under control, with no major violence reported. A Miss Selfridge shop in Manchester was set ablaze as gangs of rioters looted from and trashed shops in the city center. In Nottingham, police arrested over 90 people durin

Nancy Wake, a spy the German Gestapo nicknamed "The White Mouse" during WWII because of her evasion of them and who once topped their most-wanted list, has died. She passed away Sunday while hospitalised in London within days of turning 99. Born in New Zealand, she was raised in Australia but ran away when she was sixteen. By the 1930s she was a journalist in Paris when, in 1933, she took a trip to Austria to witness Nazi crimes against Jews. After interviewing Adolf Hitler, she chose to dedicate herself to being a thorn in his side. "In Vienn

38 people were killed on Saturday when a US Chinook helicopter crashed west of Kabul, Afghanistan, with the Taliban claiming responsibility for the crash. Thirty Americans were killed in the crash, including at least seventeen members of SEAL Team 6, Air Force members, the helicopter's crew, a dog handler and a civilian interpreter, while eight members of the Afghan Army were also on board and died. According to witnesses, members of the Taliban and officials from the US and Afghanistan, the Chinook was deliberately targeted, apparently by a

More than two years after Air France Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic, killing 228, a French pilots union, a group supporting victims' families, and Air France have all criticised the ongoing investigation. The Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA) is being accused of trying to blame the pilots in order to absolve Airbus. The controversy follows the release of the BEA's latest interim report detailing findings so far. At the last moment, the BEA removed a recommendation added by chief investigator Alain Bouillard which called for alarms on

Jenson Button of McLaren-Mercedes took first place in Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring, marking his 200th grand prix race in style. Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull-Renault came in second, extending his lead in the 2011 Driver's Championship to 85 points. Fernanado Alonso of Ferrari took the third place on the podium. The race was affected by intermittent wet weather, with tyre choice playing a crucial role in the result. Button's teammate Lewis Hamilton held the lead at times, but suffered from mistimed tyre changes, as well as a

Syrian troops yesterday launched an offensive against protesters across the nation, resulting in around a hundred deaths in the city of Hama and several dozen more in other parts of the country. The most severe violence took place in Hama, where government troops and tanks, which had previously remained outside of the city for around a month, moved into the city center beginning at dawn. The crackdown left around a hundred people dead in the city, though exact numbers were unclear. According to the government, the action in Hama was taken in

Today sees the reopening of the National Museum of Scotland following a three-year renovation costing £47.4 million (US$ 77.3 million). Edinburgh's Chambers Street was closed to traffic for the morning, with the 10am reopening by eleven-year-old Bryony Hare, who took her first steps in the museum, and won a competition organised by the local Evening News paper to be a VIP guest at the event. Prior to the opening, Wikinews toured the renovated museum, viewing the new galleries, and some of the 8,000 objects inside.Dressed in Victorian attire, Sc

Two high-speed bullet trains crashed close to Wenzhou in the Zhejiang province of eastern China on Saturday. At least 43 passengers were found dead and over 200 are injured, according to the China state-run news agency Xinhua, with 12 in critical condition. The collision occurred on a bridge after one train was struck by lightning, forcing it to stop, and was subsequently struck by a second train around 2030 local time (1230 UTC). The trains involved were the D3115 service from Hangzhou to Fuzhou, the train that was stopped at the time of the

Israelis have been gathering across the country to protest against the rising costs of housing, with "tent cities" being erected in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Beersheba, Haifa, and Kiryat Shemona. On Saturday night tens of thousands marched from the encampment on Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard, which has been a focal point for the protestors, to the Tel Aviv Museum. Rents in Tel Aviv are said to have risen by over 60 percent in four years. Buying costs have soared too, with estate agent Eli Melloul stating that the average price for an Israeli apar