May 12, 2008
Massive earthquake strikes central China, at least 8500 feared dead
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) a magnitude 7.8 earthquake has struck eastern Sichuan Province in China. The USGS recorded the quake at 6:28:00 UTC. Officials say that at least 8,500 may have been killed and local reports indicate over 10,000 injured.
At least 107 people, some of them school children, were killed when [...]
May 9, 2008
US denies arrest of al-Masri, al-Qaeda in Iraq leader
A day after it was reported by Iraqi military spokesperson, Mohammed al-Askari, that Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri was arrested, the United States says he was not.
Major Peggy Kageleiry, a spokesperson for the US forces in Iraq, said “neither coalition forces nor Iraqi security forces detained or killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri. This guy [...]
Leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq arrested
An Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman said that the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was arrested Thursday. Al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, was reportedly arrested in the northern city of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.
There has been no official confirmation or comment from United States forces yet, but news of [...]
May 7, 2008
Boy stops wearing Brett Favre jersey after four years
After 1,581 consecutive days, David Witthoft of Connecticut has stopped wearing his #4 Brett Favre jersey.
The Ridgefield, Connecticut boy, 12, wore the No. 4 jersey every day since receiving it as a gift for Christmas in 2003. David’s father, Chuck, said Monday that his son’s last day wearing the jersey was April 23–his 12th birthday.
Witthoft [...]
Obama wins North Carolina primary, Clinton wins Indiana by narrow margin
Tuesday, voters in Indiana and North Carolina of the United States cast their votes in the tightly contested presidential primaries of the Democratic Party.
The Associated Press declared Barack Obama the winner in the North Carolina Democratic primary, based on exit-polling data, and CNN has also projected that Obama will win the North Carolina primary and [...]
May 5, 2008
Pipe bomb explodes outside California courthouse
No one was injured when one or more pipe bombs exploded outside the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Courthouse located in San Diego, California.
The bomb exploded around 1:40 a.m. Sunday morning on May 4, 2008 and was reported by guards patrolling the building. Debris from the blast was found across the street in the AT&T building [...]
At least 3000 missing after Burma cyclone; death toll may rise to 10,000
At least 4,000 people have been reported dead after a tropical cyclone officially named “Nargis” struck Burma, which is also known as Myanmar. As a result it has been declared by the Burmese government that five states are currently disaster areas.
A diplomat in the area spoke to the Reuters news agency, giving them a description [...]
Last Stauffenberg plotter dies at age 90
Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, the last surviving member of a cabal that on July 20, 1944 attempted to kill Adolf Hitler with a briefcase bomb, has died at the age of 90, according to a statement released Friday by the German Bundeswehr.
Von Boeselager, then a Major in the German Wehrmacht, was one of a number [...]
May 4, 2008
Microsoft drops bid for Yahoo
Microsoft has announced it is dropping it bid to acquire one of their Internet competitors, Yahoo, after a three-month courting effort by Microsoft.
Microsoft chief executive officer, Steve Ballmer notified Yahoo chief executive officer, chairman and co-founder, Jerry Yang via a letter that Microsoft was dropping their bid for the Sunnyvale, California based search engine giant.
In [...]
May 2, 2008
Research shows that bats cry to detect prey
New research has indicated that bats will ‘cry out loud’ to detect their prey. The report, which was published at PLoS ONE, states that “source level varied with species, but all bats emitted intense search call.”
The report also states that bats will make calls with a lesser intensity when they are close to the ground. [...]