Top World News

On Tuesday, Scientists said they have found the best evidence yet of ice volcanoes on Saturn's giant moon Titan. Such a volcano on Titan may spew out hydrocarbons and ice instead of molten lava.

"We finally have some proof that Titan is an active world," said geophysicist Randolph Kirk of the U.S. Geological Survey, who presented the findings.

The latest evidence comes from the international Cassini spacecraft, which spied two peaks over 3,000 feet tall and what looked like old volcanic flows. There's no sign of volcanic activity on Titan, nevertheless scientists are keeping watch.

Titan is one of the few bodies in the solar system with a thick atmosphere made up of nitrogen and methane. The source of methane remains a mystery. The existence of volcanoes may help explain how the moon got its smoggy atmosphere.

Launched in 1997, Cassini entered orbit around Saturn in 2004 to study its rings and many moons including its largest, Titan. The mission is a project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

Indian Musician AR Rahman has been nominated for Golden Globe award in the Best Original Score category for his music in the film “127 Hours”.

The Indian musician had former won a Golden Globe and 2 Oscars in 2008 for his score in Danny Boyle’s film “Slumdog Millionaire”. Coincidentally, 127 Hours, for which Rahman has been nominated, is also directed by Boyle.

Critics have described the Rahman’s compositions in the film as “haunting tracks” with “wonderful crescendos”.

Other nominees in the same category comprises of: Alexandre Desplat for The King's Speech, Danny Elfman for Alice in Wonderland, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for The Social Network and Hans Zimmer for Inception.

Hollywood actor Brad Pitt and actress Angelina Jolie are planning to have their marriage based on Hindu customs. Before this Katie Perry and Russell Brand had also got wedded in the Indian traditional way. Hinduism appears to attract Hollywood with celebrities following Yoga and marrying the Hindu way.

At the present Brad and Angelina are certain to have a Hindu wedding. Their marriage will be performed by Guru Ram Lalji Siyag of Bikaner (Rajasthan, India). According to reports, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will tie a knot in the New Year.

Siddha Guru, Siyag is said to have been guiding the couple so as to find inner peace and harmony and strengthened their five years old bond, by making them to perform Siddha Yoga together.

The spiritual master has also told them a divine mantra, which they have to repeat every morning and evening. There are rumors that this mantra has brought positive changes in their relationship.

Today Rajan Zed, President of Universal Society of Hinduism, in a statement in Nevada (USA), disclosed his delight about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to have their marriage in Hindu style.

A baby panda born at the Vienna zoo in August was baptized Monday as "Fu Hu", which means Happy Tiger in Mandarin, with his human godfather at his side, Austria's economy minister. Besides Reinhold Mitterlehner, China's ambassador to Vienna, Shi Mingde also attended the official naming ceremony.

In Chinese tradition, Giant Pandas are not officially named before they are 100 days old, because the mortality rate in the first year is so high, at about 40%, according to the zoo.

The name "Fu Hu" was chosen in a vote on the Internet that drew 25,000 participants. The little panda's name is close to that of his big brother Fu Long (Happy Dragon), who in 2007 was the first panda to be conceived naturally in captivity in Europe. Fu Long, now three, has since been returned to China and now lives at the Bifengxia panda reserve in Sichuan province.

Pandas, even when conceived abroad, are the property of the Republic of China and only loaned to foreign zoos.

Mother Yang Yang and father Long Hui are also due to leave Schoenbrunn Zoo, the oldest in the world, in 2013.

In a thrilling London derby on Sunday, Substitute Didier Drogba missed a last minute penalty as Premier League champions Chelsea drew 1-1 at rivals Tottenham.

Drogba, who had former scored the equalizing goal for the visitors, saw his spot-kick superbly saved by Heurelho Gomes -- after the Brazilian goalkeeper had clattered into compatriot Ramires in the penalty area.

Chelsea had come into the match in poor form, with a run of just one win in six league games seeing them slide down the table from top to fourth position.

And another defeat looked on the cards for Carlo Ancelotti's side when Roman Pavlyuchenko gave Tottenham a 15th-minute lead.

Strike partner Jermain Defoe looked just offside when collecting a long ball, but play was allowed to continue and his ball into the box was well controlled in one touch by Russian Pavlyuchenko, before his second touch found the bottom corner of Peter Cech's net.

Drogba, who was relegated to the bench by manager Ancelotti after a run of just two goals in 11 games in all competitions, was brought on in the second half and he made his mark in the 70th minute when his snapshot proved much too hot for Gomes to handle.

Both sides had chances to claim all three points in an end-to-end contest but Drogba's last-gasp miss ensured the points were eventually shared. The result means Arsenal stay top of the table ahead of their crunch visit to Manchester United on Monday.

The Gunners lead Manchester City on goal difference, with Manchester United and Chelsea just a point behind in 3rd and 4th in the closest title race in recent seasons.

Tottenham remain in 5th place after the draw, a further four points behind, with Bolton in sixth after defeating Blackburn 2-1 on Sunday despite the second-half dismissal of midfielder Mark Davies.

The forthcoming wedding ceremony of Prince William and his fiancée, Kate Middleton, became even more official Saturday, with the release of a pair of engagement photographs.
The photos, sent by Prince William's press office and distributed by the Press Association, came out several months ahead of the April 29, 2011, wedding at London's Westminster Abbey.

The prince proposed to Middleton, whom he had dated for much of the past 8 years, on October 20 in a remote spot 10,200 feet (3,100 meters) above sea level on Mount Kenya, Africa's second highest peak.

Photographer Mario Testino took the engagement pictures, among others, on November 25 at St. James' Palace in London.

Sir Elton John (a favorite of William's mother, the late Princess Diana) has revealed that he may perform at the wedding. And rapper Snoop Dogg recently unveiled a song that he said would be perfect for the prince's bachelor party.

On Saturday, Iranian television aired a documentary in which a woman whose stoning sentence caused global outrage staged a graphic reconstruction of her husband's murder for which she faces possible hanging.

In a half-hour film, Ashtiani acts out her supposed role in the murder of her husband in a reconstruction filmed in black-and-white in a shaky hand-held camera style, accompanied by dramatic music. It is not clear why she had agreed to take part in the film.

Dressed in black with a brown head scarf, Ms. Ashtiani, 43, demonstrated how she gave her husband an injection that rendered him unconscious, before her lover, identified as Isa Taheri, entered the house and electrocuted the man.

With an actor portraying the husband, Ms. Ashtiani described how it took several attempts before the electrical wires, attached to his foot and waist, had the desired lethal effect.

"He had decided to kill my husband by electrocuting him," she says in the interview.

The reconstruction is interspersed with actual photographs of the dead man, Ibrahim Abedzadeh, with vivid burns on his body. The murder happened in 2005.

Competitive Spanish runner Marta Domínguez, already ensnared in a doping controversy, has been suspended by the Spanish Athletics Federation.

Using stem cell technology, Scientists have created mice from two fathers, an advance that they say could help preserve endangered species and even help same-sex couples have their own genetic children one day.

Based on the study published Wednesday in the journal Biology of Reproduction, reproductive scientists in Texas were able to manipulate cells from a male (XY) mouse fetus to produce an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell line.

These iPS cells are adult cells that have undergone some genetic reprogramming in order to enter an embryonic stem cell-like state. Some of the cells that were grown from this new line spontaneously lost their Y chromosome, turning them into XO cells. Those XO cells were injected into embryos from donor female mice and transplanted into surrogate mouse moms who gave birth to babies with one X chromosome from the original male mouse.

Those babies grew and later mated with normal male mice. Both male and female offspring’s showed genetic contributions from two fathers.

Even though the genetic material came from both fathers, a surrogate female mouse was needed to carry the mice.

The study however cautioned that the ability to replicate the findings in humans was a long way off.

According to leading color guide Pantone, 18-2120 Honeysuckle, a dynamic reddish pink, is declared as the color of the year 2011.

On Dec 9th, the official report was released to the media. In it, Pantone Color Institute Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman says, "In times of stress, we need something to lift our spirits. Honeysuckle is a captivating, stimulating color that gets the adrenaline going- perfect to ward off the blues."

The hue's elevating effect is attributed to the fact that its mother color is red, the most "physical, viscerally alive hue in the spectrum.

The color translates especially well into cosmetics, fashion and interiors due to its ability to liven up any drab ensemble or barren room. In particular, Pantone experts envisage the color to work well on women's apparel and accessories, as well as on men's ties, shirts and sportswear.

In addition to being selected as the Pantone's 2011 Color of the Year, Honeysuckle was also chosen as the defining hue for spring 2011. Indeed, everyone from the upscale American label Cynthia Steffe to the Swedish "fast fashion" giant H&M has incorporated the Honeysuckle hue into their spring 2011 ready-to-wear lines.

For more than a decade, Pantone's Color of the Year declarations have influenced product development and purchasing decisions in multiple industries including home, fashion and industrial design.

List of the trending colors from the past decade are:

2000: Cerulean           2006: Sand Dollar
2001: Fuchsia Rose     2007: Chili Pepper
2002: True Red          2008: Blue Iris
2003: Aqua Sky          2009: Mimosa
2004: Tigerlily           2010: Turquoise
2005: Blue Turquoise 2011: Honeysuckle

One of Italy's leading high fashion designers, Fausto Sarli, who was famous for his artisan touch and elegant gowns, has died at 83. Fausto Sarli’s hand tailored fashions took him from his native Naples on to dress stars such as ElizabethTaylor and Carla Brun .

Alberto Terranova of Sarli's fashion house said the designer died of cardiac arrest on Thursday, in a Rome hospital.

The Naples-born designer was considered 'master of the perfect cut'. He burst on the scene in the late 1950s, in the heyday of Italian high fashion. He dressed leading women in the Italian TV and film world in slinky, beautifully tailored gowns. He was also famous for his wedding dresses.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano praised Sarli's sobriety, originality and quality in a message of condolences.

The British jeweler who brought the world the $8 million Apple iPhone 4 has gone for something a little more prehistoric

The newly designed iPhone 4 History Edition by Stuart Hughes is not only encrusted by diamonds, it features the actual tooth of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Instead of the typical glass, the back is custom fitted with a T-Rex tooth -- splintered and shaved into polished meteoric stone that dates back 65 million years. The phone also boasts a bezel of diamonds and sports a platinum Apple logo.

It’s not the first time Hughes has worked with dinosaur. His company GoldStriker specializes in custom made luxury electronics ranging from mobile phones to notebook computers -- even aquariums that made headlines in October for offering an iPhone sporting 500 diamonds that cost $8 million.

Hughes will be producing 10 of the T-Rex iPhone 4s, which are going for about $62,700 -- the perfect stocking stuffer for any dino-enthusiast.

Space Exploration Technologies, one of two firms poised to take over U.S. cargo runs to the International Space Station after NASA retires its space shuttles, test-fired its rocket on Saturday in preparation for a Tuesday launch, officials said.

The Falcon rocket's nine liquid oxygen and kerosene-burning engines briefly ignited at 10:50 a.m. EST after two aborted attempts earlier on Saturday and on Friday.

The problems were fixed and the Falcon 9 rocket's engines fired at full power for about two seconds, the company said in a statement on its website.

The company, which also is known as SpaceX and is owned and run by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, plans to launch the rocket Tuesday at 9:03 a.m./1403 GMT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a demonstration mission for NASA.

The goal of the flight is to put a Dragon capsule into space for a test run around the planet. After as many as four orbits, the capsule is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and parachute into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

Paris was covered by snow as Charles de Gaulle-Roissy airport was forced to shut, while Orly airport was briefly shut, and the bus network was also paralyzed. Motorways in the Paris region were described as impassable.

Heavy snow forced the operators of the Eiffel Tower to close on Wednesday. The 1,063ft tourist attraction was shut as salt cannot be used on the tower as it would damage the iron structure. The Eiffel Tower gets around 12,000 visitors a day at this time of year.

Severe weather has brought misery to parts of the continent, with snow closing the main airport in Paris and a flash flood causing the death of a boy in Spain.

A rare copy of John James Audubon's 'Birds of America' made a new world record for a printed book at auction Tuesday, selling for 7.3 million pounds in London.

The four-volume book was subject to competitive bidding on the phones and in Sotheby's New Bond Street galleries, and sold for 7,321,250 pounds (11,542,683 dollars, 8,647,111 euros), the auction house said in a statement.

Originally estimated to sell for between four and six million pounds, the book was bought by London dealer Michael Tollemache. The proud new owner described the work as "priceless".

Known as Audubon's Elephant due to its size (39in by 26in), large enough to contain life-size illustrations of the birds, it owes its value to its rarity and the quality of the 435 images in its pages. It was completed in 1858 having taken the author 12 years to produce, and only 119 copies still exist.

The previous world record for any printed book sold at auction was 5,565,110 pounds, or 8,802,500 dollars, for a different copy of Audubon's 'Birds of America' sold in New York in March 2000.

Meat and milk from the offspring of cloned animals should be sold freely in Britain without being labelled, the Food Standards Authority declared.

The food safety watchdog said produce from the descendants of cloned pigs and cows is safe to eat and should not have to undergo any extra checks compared with other animals before going on sale.

Ministers are expected to rubber stamp the new guidelines, clearing the final hurdle for the meat and milk of cloned animals to be sold freely in Britain.

The FSA published new advice yesterday which stipulated that farmers must seek a license before selling meat or milk from cloned animals, but not their offspring.

An advisory panel on food safety will decide whether the food from cloned animals should be labeled on a case-by-case basis, but food from the descendants of clones will not need a label.

The new guidance was prompted by a scare in the summer when it emerged that meat from the offspring of a cloned cow had been sold unwittingly in butchers’ shops without a license being obtained.

The discovery sparked a storm of controversy over ethics of cloning animals for food and the FSA commissioned an investigation into the safety of the practice.

Zynga confirmed on Tuesday that the launch of its latest game, CityVille, is its largest to date.

Scientists from South Korea, the United States and Japan have discovered a new horned dinosaur, based on an analysis of fossil evidence found in South Korea. Dubbed "Koreaceratops" after its country of origin, the new dinosaur fossil was found in 2008 in a block of rock along the Tando Basin reservoir.

At approximately 5 to 6 feet long and weighing between 60 and 100 pounds, the animal was relatively small compared to its geologically younger, giant relatives like North America's Triceratops.

Koreaceratops had a parrot-like face with a beak at the front of its jaws, indicating it was an herbivore. The claws on its hind feet suggest that it was bipedal and moved at a fairly rapid speed. Koreaceratops had a unique fan-shaped tail formed by long neural spines, which suggests it may have been a good swimmer, and spent part of its time hunting for aquatic food.

It is one of the first articulated dinosaurs known from Korea, said Michael J. Ryan, curator and head of Vertebrate Paleontology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, who co-authored the research.

The newly identified genus, Koreaceratops hwaseongensis, lived about 103 million years ago during the late Early Cretaceous period. The specimen is the first ceratopsian dinosaur from the Korean peninsula. The partial skeleton includes a significant portion of the animal's backbone, hip bone, partial hind limbs and a nearly complete tail.

The Scotland Yard has been preparing to arrest the founder Julian Assange of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, as the Swedish arrest warrant against him in connection with the rape case has reached United Kingdom.

The arrest warrant issued by the Swedish court has been submitted to the Scotland Yard on Monday, Dec 6. European media reported that Assange will be held soon. It is expected that British authorities may handover Assange to Sweden over the rape allegations made by two Swedish women.

Sweden had issued the arrest warrant for the allegations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion. Two Swedish women claimed that Assange had engaged in unprotected sex with them in Aug 2010.

Later Assange's lawyer stated the Swedish arrest warrant as a "political stunt".

Mean while, WikiLeaks continued to release the US diplomatic cables. On Monday, Dec 6, WikiLeaks released more than 355 mirror sites to continue the publication in case of any hack on the main website.

A Chinese passenger train hit a record speed of 302 miles per hour (486.1 kilometers per hour) on Friday during a test run of a yet-to-be opened link between Beijing and Shanghai, state media said.

The Xinhua News Agency said it was the fastest speed recorded by an unmodified conventional commercial train. Other types of trains in other countries have travelled faster.

State television footage showed the sleek white train whipping past green farm fields in eastern China. It reached the top speed on a segment of the 824-mile (1,318-kilometer)-long line between Zaozhuang city in Shandong province and Bengbu city in Anhui province, Xinhua said. The line is due to open in 2012 and will halve the current travel time between the capital Beijing and Shanghai to five hours.

The project costs $32.5 billion and is part of a massive government effort to link many of China’s cities by high-speed rail and reduce overcrowding on heavily used lines.

Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano erupted on Saturday, spewing ash and lava nearly a mile into the sky.

Residents evacuated the area after "red alert" was issued by country's National Agency of Risk Control. The warning was later downgraded to orange, as the volcano became less active.

Activity at Tungurahua (which means "throat of fire" in the native Quechua language) peaked Saturday between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., according to the Geological Institute in Quito.

At one point, the ash cloud reached nearly 3 km (1.9 miles) above the volcano's crater, according to the institute, and lava flowed about 2 km from the crater.

The glacier-capped, 16,478-foot (5,023-meter) volcano has erupted periodically since 1999, when increased activity led to the temporary evacuation of the city of Banos at the foot of the volcano. Major eruptions also occurred in August 2006 and February 2008, according to the government's emergency management agency.

The volcano is 140 km south of Quito, Ecuador's capital.

India's Nicole Faria, 20, has been crowned Miss Earth 2010, beating 83 other contestants.

The runners up were Jennifer Pazmino from Ecuador (Miss Air 2010), Miss Thailand Watsaaporn Wattajakon (Miss Water 2010), and Miss Puerto Rico Yeidy Bpsquez (Miss Fire 2010).

It was a majestic celebration of tradition, culture and beauty as the Miss Earth 2010 Pageant held its coronation night at the Vin Pearl Resort in Nha Trang. Among the sights to behold was a showcase of the host country's traditional garb worn by the 84 candidates.

Vietnam's culture, local talent, and the country's children also took to the stage to display the richness of their traditions. Adding a more modern and western twist was performer Ronan Keating, the voice behind hit song "You Say Nothing At All" from the movie “Notting Hill.”

Also contributing to the younger and lighter feel were the hosts of the evening, American acoustic singer Marie Digby, AXN host Oli Pettigrew, and Vietnamese actress Jennifer Fram.

The show began with 84 gorgeous and environmentally friendly women dancing to the hit song “Only Girl" by Rihanna.

Birds are being turned gay as there is too much mercury in their diet, scientists have revealed.

Researchers in Florida the effect of the metal in white ibises' diets to find out why breeding was down.

Higher the dose of mercury found in the wading birds' food pellets, the more likely a male bird was to pair with another male.

Dr Peter Frederick from the University of Florida, who led the study, said: "We knew mercury could depress their testosterone levels but we didn't expect this."We're seeing very large reproductive effects at very low concentrations of mercury so we really need to be paying more attention to this."

The team fed the birds on food pellets which contained concentrations of mercury equivalent to those in the shrimp and crayfish that make up their wetland diet.

The males with the higher mercury doses performed far fewer courtship displays, so were more likely to be ignored by females. Wetland habitats, like the Florida Everglades that are home to the birds, are particularly vulnerable to mercury contamination, which can come from burning coal and waste, and run-off from mines.

The report shows wetland birds are particularly badly affected by it. Gary Heinz, a wildlife researcher from the US Geological Survey, said: "It cannot be broken down, only be moved about and transformed from one chemical form to another."

"And any effect that might reduce the productivity of a species would likely be harmful in nature."

On Thursday, it was confirmed on Twitter that Britney Spears' next album would be released in March 2011.

The singer wrote: "My fans mean the world to me & waking up to all of your wishes really made me smile, so here's something that I hope will make you smile... I'm almost done with my new album and it will be coming out this March. I AM IN L-O-V-E WITH IT!"

The Hollywood Reporter(THR) originally reported that the 29-year-old singer's seventh LP would be out in early 2011 during an exclusive interview with producer Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald. In late October, he spoke fondly of Spears: "She's such an icon; I don't want to let anyone down. But most importantly, I want to make good music."

When THR asked about Spears' latest effort, Dr. Luke said, "She's such an amazing vehicle to getting that music out to a lot of people in every country."

Spears' manager Adam Leber had tweeted earlier in the day: "The announcement you've all been waiting for is coming today. Tell a friend..."

Dr. Luke worked on several tracks on Spears' last album, 2008's Circus, which sold 1.7 million copies in the U.S.