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A Chinese official says harsh winter weather is threatening food production and adding to inflationary pressures. Political pressure is also building on the government for its failure to anticipate and solve the problems. A top Chinese disaster relief official was quoted by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper Thursday as calling it the worst natural disaster since the People's Republic was founded in 1949. Tens of millions of Chinese have been affected by the snowstorms across the central and southern parts of the country. Hundr

The Blue Man Group issued a press release Friday morning refuting a man's claims that they forced a tube down his throat as part of a show. Earlier this week, audience participant James Srodon filed a court claim in Cook County Circuit Court that members of performance trio forced a dirty tube down his throat against his will while he was part of a skit called "Esophagus Video." The description of the incident is not true, says the musical performance group. "We are shocked and surprised to learn of the allegations made in reference to one o

Alonzo Spellman, a former National Football League player, was arrested Tuesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma after a twenty minute car chase with police. Officers used "spike sticks" that flattened three tires on Spellman's car, but he refused to get out until officers fired pepper-spray pellets into the vehicle. Spellman was hospitalized and had to attend psychiatric evaluations after being involved in a police standoff at the home of his publicist in 1998. In 2003 he was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to interfering with the

The Saint Paul Winter Carnival in Saint Paul, Minnesota suffered a brief thaw on Monday, with Monday's 41°F afternoon temperature plummeting below zero twenty four hours later. On Sunday, judging of both ice and snow sculptures had taken place. By Monday afternoon, temperatures above freezing had greatly damaged the outdoor sculptures. In Rice Park, fallen ice from sculptures mixed with chunks left from the previous day's carving. Snow sculptures at the State Fairgrounds were also significantly damaged. The brief warmth made for comfortabl

In a deal announced Tuesday, the Minnesota Twins have traded pitcher Johan Santana to the New York Mets. The trade is yet to be finalized, pending a physical examination and agreement on a contract extension, but an agreement is expected to be made before 5:00 EST Friday. In exchange for the three-time all-star and two-time Cy Young award winner, the Twins would receive outfielder Carlos Gómez, and three right-handed pitchers, Philip Humber, Deolis Guerra, and Kevin Mulvey. Santana is reportedly looking for a 6 to 7 year deal worth around US$

Former United States Senator John Edwards announced today that he is quitting the United States presidential election. Edwards made this announcement during a speech in New Orleans, Louisiana, that was scheduled for 1:00 p.m. EST (UTC-5) today. This decision comes after Edwards lost his home state of South Carolina to Barack Obama. "Today, I am suspending my campaign for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency," Edwards said. "Now, I've spoken to both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. They have both pledged to me and more importantly t

The opposition party of Zimbabwe, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has announced that it wishes for constitutional reform to take place before the planned March election. The party has warned that they may boycott the planned elections, as well as saying in a press release that they believe the current election to be a "farce". The party also said that they believed the planned date for the poll did not allow enough time for fair elections to take place. The election, which was announced by Mugabe last week, are due to take place on M

United States Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has won the State of Florida's Republican Party primary election, edging out former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney by five percent (36 versus 31%). With this win, Sen. McCain is now clearly the frontrunner going into next week's Super-Tuesday primaries. One time GOP front-runner Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who placed a lagging third in Florida, the state he based his campaign on, dropped out of the race Wednesday, largely because he had no previous primary wins and dwindling support.

During the fourth day of the 2008 Taipei Game Show, held at the Taipei World Trade Center, visitors voted for their favourite participating companies and games at the "Popular Game Voting" competition. According to the organizer Taipei Computer Association (TCA), this is the first-ever vote. It has two main categories, quality of the game itself and quality of the presentation at the convention. In the game section there were four categories: leisure game, PC console game, online RPG, and upcoming games. Balancing the vote, booth setup and sta

The Internet-based group "Anonymous" released a new video on YouTube Monday, announcing international protests outside Church of Scientology centers set for February 10. The video "Call to Action" uses the same computer synthesized voice as a previous video titled "Message to Scientology", which was posted to YouTube last Monday. The "Message to Scientology" video has been viewed over 1,400,000 times, and the "Call to Action" video has already been viewed over 237,000 times. Anonymous is taking action against the Church of Scientology in respo

Jared Foster, a transfer quarterback with the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) Rebels football team, was arrested yesterday in Oxford, Mississippi and charged with selling steroids. Rebels head coach Houston Nutt said that Foster will not be allowed to remain with the team. Foster was arrested for alcohol possession by a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor in 2006 while a star player for Madison Central High School in Madison, Mississippi. Prosecutors agreed then not to try the case on the conditions that Foster help poli

President George W. Bush has delivered his eighth and final State of the Union Address to Congress and the American people. In the speech he urged the American public to support his Iraq policies and called on other politicians to take action to boost the U.S. economy. Since 2008 is a presidential election year and he has already served the Constitutional maximum of two four year terms, he may not run again. Since State of the Union addresses are traditionally only given yearly in January, he will likely not give another one. Rather than focu