World

British media has reported that Prince William and his recently wedded wife, Kate, are to move their London residence into Kensington Palace, close to Hyde Park. Two units in the Palace, labeled Apartments 8 and 9, were previously occupied by Prince Charles and Diana, William's parents, when they married in 1981. Prince William and his brother Prince Harry went to nursery and school nearby. Diana also lived in Kensington Palace after her separation and divorce from Prince Charles. However, the newlyweds will not live in Apartments 8 and 9, a

A jury last week cleared four officers from London's Metropolitan Police of assaulting a Muslim arrested on suspicion of al-Qaeda involvement. After trial their lawyer described the charge as "unfounded and unsubstantiated" – but in 2009 the police said Babar Ahmed, 34, had suffered "a serious, gratuitous and prolonged" assault. Ahmed has been previously paid £60,000 in a civil case, which the jury was unaware of. After one hour of deliberations, they acquited Pc Roderick James-Bowen, 40; Pc Mark Jones, 43; Pc Nigel Cowley, 34; and Detective C

Australian rider Casey Stoner has won the 2011 Catalunya MotoGP, marking his third win of the season. The victory moves him closer to championship leader Jorge Lorenzo, who placed second in the race. American Ben Spies came in third, while Marco Simoncelli—who had the pole position—suffered a bad start and finished in sixth. Stoner, who led for the majority of the race, said, "Jorge got off to a good start and I had to wait until the end of the first lap to overtake him and then he couldn't stay with me, fortunately." Catalunya is the fifth ra

The French institution of regulation of broadcasting media has recently prohibited the use of the words "Facebook" and "Twitter" on television or radio broadcasts; except where these social networks are a central part of a news report. The regulation, issued by the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA), cites a 1992 statute governing the relationship between journalists and advertising, sponsorship, and "teleshopping". Mentioning the words "Facebook" or "Twitter" on air, in the eyes of the CSA, constitutes "clandestine advertising". CSA sp

Three tornadoes struck western Massachusetts on Wednesday according to the National Weather Service's (NWS) Taunton, Massachusetts office, the biggest and longest being an EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale according to meteorologists at the agency. The EF-3 tornado was described by the NWS in a statement as a "very significant tornado" which "will be noted not only for its intensity, but also for the length of the continuous damage path". A tornado is considered an EF-3 when its winds exceed 135 mph (218 km/h). The tornado which began in the

Vanuatu, a small island nation in the Pacific, has denied recognizing Abkhazia as an independent nation. The announcement comes only days after it was reported that Vanuatu had signed an agreement to recognise Abkhazia. Abkhazia has been fighting to break away and gain independence from Georgia. So far only Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and another tiny island state, Nauru, have announced the recognition of Abkhazia. The permanent representative to the United Nations for Vanuatu, Donald Kalpokas, released a statement saying "I have asked my

Space Shuttle Endeavour landed for the final time at 2:34 a.m. EDT (0534 UTC) at Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. Wednesday, marking the end of its nineteen-year operational career. The mission, STS-134, is the penultimate of the NASA Space Shuttle program; Atlantis is scheduled to fly the final mission in July. [[File:STS-134 Official Crew Photo.jpg|thumb|left|Official photo of Endeavour'''s final crew, taken in January 2010. ]] The commander of the mission, Mark Kelly, paid tribute to the spaceship shortly after touchdown, saying, "It's sad to

On Monday night, two Australian soldiers serving in Afghanistan died in separate incidents. This brings the total death toll to 26 for Australians fighting in the 'war against terrorism'. These events have sparked renewed debates about the role Australians play in this region. Greens leader Bob Brown has called for the return of all troops by the end of this year. Lieutenant Marcus Case (27) died in a Chinook helicopter crash at the Tarin Kwot base in the Zabul Province. Any connection to the Taliban in this incident has been ruled out by Aust

Although prom may have taken place over two weeks ago at Maine's Sanford High School, the fact that students elected a gay couple as prom king and queen remains the talk of the local community. During the May 14 event, 17-year-old Christian Nelsen was named prom queen, running as a write-in candidate. One of Nelsen's friends, Holly Smith, spoke of the help they provided in getting him elected: "The day of prom, we went downstairs, and he was yelling 'Vote for Christian Nelsen!' And I was helping people spell his name, or telling them how to wr

The fourteenth Quiksilver Ceremonial Punta de Lobos Big Wave Invitational surf championship took place on Saturday in the Chilean city of Pichilemu, often called the "Capital of the Surf." In this year's competition, 24 surfers from countries such as South Africa, Peru, Chile, the United States, and Argentina participated in the championship, including Pichileminians Ramón Navarro and Cristian Merelló, and Hawaiian Köhl Christensen. The surfers competed for a US$20,000 prize. Background The Quiksilver Ceremonial Punta de Lobos has been a tradi

The University of Chicago's Joe and Rika Mansueto Library was shut down by a power outage for a short time on Saturday, preventing library personnel from providing full services to its patrons. The US$81 million library, which opened May 16, includes a 180-seat reading room under a 691-panel glass dome. Five stories underground, a system of five cranes retrieves books sorted into bins, carrying a maximum of about 3.5 million volumes. As of 3:50 p.m. CDT, the automated storage and retrieval system, along with staff computers at the circulation

The United States military plans to begin to withdraw military training troops from Pakistan after the Pakistani government requested the departure of the troops. Pentagon spokesperson David Lapan said that official sources from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad requested a scaling down of the American training force, which is estimated to be composed of between 120 and 300 troops, on Wednesday. "We were recently notified in writing that the government of Pakistan wished for the US to reduce its footprint in Pakistan. Accordingly, we have b