World

On October 22, WikiLeaks released nearly 400,000 United States military field reports detailing events of the Iraq War between 2004 and 2009. That amount of documents makes it the largest leak in the history of the United States military. The documents report 109,000 deaths during the 2004–2009 period, including 66,000 civilians deaths. The war logs describe scenes of torture and abuse asserted to have been committed by Iraqi security forces.

Typhoon Megi passed by Taiwan devastating the island, killing seven and trapping 400 in automobiles. Megi is currently heading northwards and is expected to make landfall in Mainland China by 0600 UTC today. Megi currently has winds of 150 kph (95 mph) with gusts of 185 kph (115 mph). According to Taiwan's Central News Agency at least 23 people were missing including nineteen passengers of a tour bus. Rescuers were searching for the missing persons, while distributing aid to stranded tourists in the mountainous northwestern region of the count

A nineteen-year-old California teenager, Lucas Ransom, was killed on Friday when he was attacked by a shark while he and his friend Matthew Garcia were surfing at Surf Beach west of Lompoc and within Vandenberg Air Force Base's 42 mile coastline. "Imagine a river of blood. That's what the wave looked like for a minute," Garcia said. "It was very stealth. You would have never known there was a shark in the water. It was all really quick." The Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department stated that they believed the shark was between 14 and 20 feet (4.3

A helicopter crash in the Mourne Mountains is believed to have killed four people in Northern Ireland. Just before 4 pm local time (1500 UTC) the police received reports of a "plane in distress" from residents. The helicopter is believed to have crashed in an area called Leitrim Lodge located between Hilltown and Rostrevor. The Democratic Unionist representative for the region has said "the local community was shocked and now feared the worst." The local fire services, police and the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team are currently combing the area

A "sudden" and "terrifying" aftershock of the magnitude 8.8, February 27 earthquake hit central and southern Chile on Wednesday night. The aftershock, as reported by the Servicio Sismológico de la Universidad de Chile (University of Chile Seismological Service), had a magnitude of 5.8, and occurred at a depth of 32.6 kilometers (20.3 miles). It took place at 23:49:56 local time (Thursday 02:49:56 UTC). The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said it occurred at a depth of 7 km (4.4 miles). Universidad de Chile measurements placed the center

A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck western Mexico today at 11:53 a.m. (17:53 UTC) local time , according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). There were no reports of damages or injuries. The epicenter was located in the Gulf of California, 105 km (65 miles) south of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, with a depth of just over five and a half miles. The earthquake caused residents of Sinaloa to panic and run into the street. The USGS initially reported the quake as a 6.9, but later revised it to 6.7. The earthquake occurred at a depth of about 10

One of Australia's leading jockeys Stathi Katsidis has been found dead at the age of 31. He was found dead on Tuesday morning by his fiancee, Melissa Jackson. Katsidis died less than a week before he was due to ride in the Cox Plate and was set to ride in the Melbourne cup in November. He was going to be riding former Australian Derby winner Shoot Out. Born in Toowoomba, Katsidis had recorded over 170 victories last season. He had success in both the Australian Derby and the Group One Randwick Guineas. He suffered a knock back in 2008 when h

A scientist for the National Wildlife Federation, Doug Inkley, has criticised what he described as America's "addiction to oil". Inkley stated it is ultimately responsible for the Deepwater Horizon disaster earlier this year. Inkley commented on the incident, six months after the explosion which killed eleven rig workers and resulted in over 170 million gallons of crude oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico causing damage to marine wildlife habitats as well as the Gulf's fishing and tourism industries. Inkley is a senior scientist working for

After devastating the Philippines, Typhoon Megi is heading towards Mainland China and is expected to make landfall on Saturday. The typhoon regained its Super Typhoon status and is expected to make landfall east of Hong Kong and currently has winds of 185 kph (115 mph) with wind gusts up to 235 kph (145 mph). Hong Kong hoisted the lowest typhoon alert level and winds in the area are expected to gradually strengthen in the coming days. The China oceanic administration has advised that wave heights of 5–7 meters (16–23 feet) are possible. The mi

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