World

A medical helicopter crashed into a fence just outside a house in Tucson, Arizona on Wednesday afternoon, killing all three crew members on board. The crash occurred at 1:42 p.m. Arizona time (21:42 UTC) at the intersection of Glenn Street and Park Avenue. Eyewitness Ricardo Carrasco said that he saw the rotors stop working and the helicopter start plummeting towards the ground, with the pilot attempting to steer it away from the house. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the helicopter was a Eurocopter AS350B3 flown in the LifeN

A Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, operated by the United States Air Force, crashed on Wednesday near Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska at about 6:15 pm (0215 Thursday UTC), killing all four crew members. The plane was practicing for the 2010 Arctic Thunder air show. These facts were confirmed by Air Force Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins, Commander of Alaskan Command NORAD, in an impromptu press conference later in the evening. Col. John McMullen, commander of the 3rd Wing (under whose authority the plane belonged), announced the four deaths on Thursday. Th

Shirley Sherrod, an African-American employee of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) who was ousted last week, has said that she will "definitely sue" conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart over a video clip posted online at BigGovernment.com, operated by Breitbart, that made her appear racist. Formerly the director of rural development in Georgia, Sherrod was referred to on Breitbart's site as a "racist govt employee," and the video had been edited to make her appear to have discriminated against Caucasians. Sherrod spoke in Mar

French prosecutors confirmed on Thursday that nursing assistant Dominique Cottrez killed her eight newborn infants and buried their remains. Prosecutors called the case "non-standard... given the large number of newborns." According to prosecutors, Cottrez, in her 40s, is heavy-set and she was able to hide her eight pregnancies. Cottrez did not want to visit a doctor for contraceptives nor did she want more children. Cottrez admitted to strangling eight infants and hiding the remains in garbage bags. The killings occurred over a time span of

Antelope Valley, California — A huge wildfire that has been burning in the High Desert of Southern California since 2:00 pm (2200 UTC) yesterday continues to threaten residents in the city of Palmdale in the Antelope Valley region of the Los Angeles County this afternoon. Mandatory evacuation orders have been set in place, affecting 2,000 homes. The fire is one of three that ignited yesterday in the Mojave Desert and San Gabriel Mountains. The first was a 30-acre fire that began to the west of Lancaster in the Fairmont area. It was contained a

Three US troops died in two separate blasts yesterday, and three more died today, increasing the American death toll in Afghanistan for July to 66, and making this month the deadliest month for American involvement in the nine-year war. A NATO statement released on Friday stated that three troops had been killed by two blasts, and US officials said those killed were Americans. Another NATO statement released today confirmed the deaths of three more troops. Though this month has been deadliest for the US, June was the most deadly month for N

Ivy Bean, thought to have been the oldest person using the popular social networking site Twitter, has died at age 104. By the end of her life, Bean had 53,535 followers (a term used on Twitter to indicate you are watching a person's posts) on the site and was something of an internet phenomenon. In 2008, she became known as the oldest person on Facebook, a title held previously by a 97-year-old French man. Bean frequently updated her Twitter page with videos and descriptions of activities in her daily life that included her winning of the Gol

The Criminal Investigation Department of the Royal Gibraltar Police (RGP) is carrying out investigations following the discovery of a body at a house in Cumberland Road in the early hours of Wednesday morning. An RGP spokesman confirmed that a body, that of a British woman in her 50s who lived in Gibraltar, had been found, but he refused to give further details, telling reporters that the victim's next of kin had not yet been informed. He went on to say that the RGP "are dealing with this as a suspicious death". The Gibraltar Chronicle repor

An Airblue-owned passenger plane, originating from Karachi, Pakistan, has crashed on approach to Islamabad International Airport in the Pakistani capital earlier today. There were 146 passengers and 6 crew members on board. Initial reports were unclear as to the death toll, with some indicating that everyone on board, including crew, have died, and others saying at least five survivors had been taken to the hospital. Later reports, however, confirmed that all aboard had died. The people killed in the crash include six members of the Youth Par

Hot weather and peat fires near Moscow have created the worst smog in the city in almost a decade, with pollution levels around ten times higher than is considered safe. At least 43 peat fires have erupted in rural regions to the east and south of the city, and temperatures only 0.1 degrees Celsius less than the record high of 34.7 degrees, set Monday, have led to a thick cloud of smog settling over the city. According to pulmonologist Alexander Chuchalin, breathing the smog is equivalent "to the effect of two packs of cigarettes smoked withi

Chris Christie, governor of the US state of New Jersey, complained on ABC's Sunday morning talk show This Week that TV series Jersey Shore promotes a negative image of the state. Prompted by a feature in The New York Times on Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, one of the stars of the MTV show, interviewer Jake Tapper asked the governor whether he thought the series was positive or negative for the state. Christie unequivocally answered that the show was "negative for New Jersey... It takes a bunch of New Yorkers, drops them on the Jersey Shore, and tri

WikiLeaks has released a mass of "secret" material from the United States' involvement in Afghanistan in the five years from 2004 to 2009. The material was scrutinised in co-operation with the main stream newspapers The Guardian and The New York Times, and the German magazine Der Spiegel, who cross-referenced the leaked documents with published material to check the veracity of the material. The material makes explicit the accusation that the Taliban is receiving support including man portable anti-aircraft missiles from Iran, and Pakistan.