Top World News

Teen pop sensation Justin Bieber wants media to stop drawing attention to the woman who has accused him of fathering her child.

California woman Mariah Yeater, 20, hit the headlines earlier this month after sensationally claiming the teenager had impregnated her during a backstage romp at one of his concerts in Los Angeles last year, Daily star reported.


"I didn`t have to do it (DNA test), I did it because I wanted to, I just wanted everything to be out in the open and be like, `Listen, there`s no reason for this to even be a discussion`. It shouldn`t even be a discussion. If I have to take it, if I don`t have to take it, I`m gonna take it just because, it just made sense.

"I don`t even know if she`s gonna take it or not, I don`t even know... I`m not even paying attention (to the rumours). I think we`re bring too much attention to this girl who just wanted, you know, (fame)," he said.

A University of Central Florida biologist reported that a rare, two-headed albino milk snake was recently born. Daniel Parker told Orlando television station WKMG-TV the snake hatched last week in an incubation container.

Parker says most two-headed snakes have typical coloration. Albino snakes don't have dark pigmentation in their skin. Albino milk snakes appear in bright shades of red, orange and white.

The biologist says two-headed snakes have been documented to live as long as 20 years in captivity. But with two brains giving commands to a single body, Parker says the snake would have a difficult time surviving in the wild.

Swedish surgeons have reattached a woman's face after being attacked by a dog—using hundreds of leeches.

The woman had a large portion of her face bitten off when she was mauled by her pet. The severe wound spanned from her upper lip all the way to her eye. As she was rushed to hospital her relatives managed to keep hold of the torn off skin and keep it chilled.

Doctors at Skane Hospital, in Malmo, southern Sweden, then reattached the flesh with the help of 358 leeches.

"The most important thing was to get blood into the torn-off body part, which we managed to do within an hour of the start of the operation," said Stina Klasson, a surgeon at Skane Hospital.

The leeches were used to force blood to flow through into the damaged skin. "The grower who supplies the hospital with leeches ran out, so more had to be flown in from the UK," she said. Surgical tech schools also recommend leech therapy for reconstructive surgery.

During the complicated operation—which lasted for 15 hours—medics repaired the woman's lip, nose and parts of her cheek.

Doctors said the operation was successful, but the woman, who has not been named, will continue to need reconstructive surgery in the future.

"The results appear to be good. Her whole nose has survived. The patient can breathe, eat and talk," said surgeon Jens Larsson.

The woman's dog has since been euthanized.

Lots of phones claim to be tough. Plenty of them are even built to meet military-grade specifications for resistance to water, shock, dust, salt fog, humidity, solar radiation, altitude, and extreme temperature storage. But Sonim can take that claim to toughness one step further, now that the Sonim XP3300 Force has been officially entered into the Guinness World Records.

The previous record was held by the JCB Toughphone, so in order for Sonim’s XP3300 Force handset to beat the record, their handset would have to be able to survive a drop of more than 3.25m. fact the Sonim XP3300 Force survived a very impressive drop of 25m onto solid concrete, which is a little bit taller than a 12-story building. The ultra-rugged XP3300, which PCMag reviewed back in February (see the slideshow below), survived a drop of over 82 feet onto concrete without any operational damage to claim the title. That's higher than a twelve-story building!

The previous world record has been held since 2008 by the JCB Toughphone, for withstanding a drop of 10.6 feet. To fulfill the requirements for inclusion in the Guinness World Records, the XP3300's record attempt was witnessed by independent judges from Guinness World Records, who tested the phone by making a call and sending a text message to confirm it was still working after the drop.

"We wanted to stamp Sonim's name on the World Record, confirming that the Sonim XP3300 Force is the toughest phone in the world," said Sonim CEO Bob Plaschke. "Most mobile phones are drop-tested to a metre, which just isn't enough in extreme environments such as construction sites, oil rigs or in the forest."

He added, "Establishing the Guinness World Record for highest mobile phone drop assures remote and tough workers that their Sonim phone is 'fit for purpose' and can withstand the daily knocks, drops and tumbles."

According to Sonim, the XP3300 surpasses military specifications for ruggedness, and is water and dust proof. It is certified against salt, fog, humidity, transport shock, and thermal shock. It's even water-submersible to 6.5 feet for 1 hour.

At PCMag, we tossed the XP3300 against brick walls and froze it into blocks of ice without a hitch. Our lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, got an XP3300 that was encased in seven pounds of concrete, which he proceeded to break out by repeatedly whacking it with a hammer until it crumbled away. Incredibly, the phone still worked, the screen was undamaged, and it was able to make and receive calls, though a few keys were left out of commission. We've even seen its predecessor, the XP1300 Core, survive a dip in antifreeze.

Fans turned out in their hundreds Sunday to farewell an emperor penguin which has gained international attention since being found on a New Zealand beach in June.

The penguin, dubbed Happy Feet, loaded aboard the research ship the Tangaroa  on Monday and  it would spend about four days at sea before being released into the ocean near Campbell Island, a remote subantarctic island.

But first a farewell party was held at Wellington Zoo, with the public encouraged to dress in black and white, make a donation toward the cost of his care and watch his final health checks. Happy Feet will also be fitted with a GPS tracker so his fans can follow his movements once he is released.

Zoo vet Dr. Lisa Argilla, who has nursed the bird back to health, told the Sunday News that Happy Feet was ready to leave.

"He is ready and he's really stroppy [touchy]," she said. "His personality has changed. He's a lot more feisty, he doesn't like us holding him and manhandling him to give him medication. I think he is going to be pretty happy to see the back of us."

Happy Feet has been in the zoo's care since he was discovered on a North Island beach on June 20, more than 1,800 miles from his home in Antarctica.

He was gravely ill when found, which was thought to have been the result of him ingesting large quantities of sand and sticks that he may have mistaken for fish and snow.

Wellington Zoo spokeswoman Kate Baker told the New Zealand Press Association that all up, including the voyage to Antarctica, the penguin had cost about NZ$30,000 (US$25,000) to look after.

Candle flames contain millions of tiny diamond particles, Scottish scientists said Thursday. Researchers successfully removed particles from the center of a candle flame for the first time and found that around 1.5 million diamond nanoparticles are created in the flame every second. 

Dr. Wuzong Zhou, from the University of St. Andrews, in eastern Scotland, embarked on the study after a challenge from a fellow academic.

"A colleague at another university said to me, 'Of course no one knows what a candle flame is actually made of.' I told him I believed science could explain everything eventually, so I decided to find out," he said.
Using a new sampling technique, Zhou and his PhD student Zixue Su successfully removed particles from the center of the flame and found that it contained all four forms of pure carbon.

"This was a surprise because each form is usually created under different conditions," Zhou said.

Since the first candle was invented in China more than 2,000 years ago, studies have shown that hydrocarbon molecules are burned at the bottom of the flame and carbon dioxide released at the top -- but what happened during the process in between had remained a mystery until now.

As well as diamond nanoparticles at the center of the flame, the researchers also discovered fullerenic particles, along with graphitic and amorphous carbon.

"Unfortunately, the diamond particles are burned away in the process," Zhou said. "But this will change the way we view a candle flame forever."

It is hoped that the discovery could lead to research into how diamonds could be produced more cheaply.

The snarling adult male leopard leapt at locals and forest officials as they tried to drive it into a wildlife sanctuary in a village near Siliguri in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district.

Forest official Dharma Dev Rai says villagers used knives, stones and batons to beat back the cat. It injured six villagers, a policeman and four forest guards before being hit with a tranquilizer gun.

The people are recovering from their injuries, mostly swipes from the cat’s claws. Leopards are protected in India, though more are straying into villages for food.

Police were called to the village on the edge of a forest reserve after residents chased the animal into an abandoned house, where it pounced on the back of one officer as he tried to tranquillize it. The animal fled, but was found a few hours later in bushes at the edge of the village.

“The forest guards were able to locate it and as they were approaching the spot in an open-hood vehicle the leopard pounced on them,” said local forest ranger Kanchan Banerjee. “Three policemen were severely injured in the incident that led to a scuffle between the animal and the policemen.”

Mr. Banerjee said police had attacked the animal with knives and batons to free their colleague.

The leopard was eventually tranquillized, but it died later that day. Leopard attacks are increasingly frequent across India as human populations rise and the animal’s traditional wildlife habitat deteriorates.

On Tuesday, a Japanese health official downplayed the dangers after cesium contaminated meat from six Fukushima cows was delivered to Japanese markets and probably ingested.

Goshi Hosono, state minister in charge of consumer affairs and food-safety, said he hoped to head off any overreactions.

"If we were to eat the meat every day, then it would probably be dangerous," Hosono said at a news conference Tuesday. "But if it is consumed only in small portions, I don't think it would have any long-lasting effects on the human body."

The meat, distributed late last month, has made its way to consumers and most likely has been ingested, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said Monday evening. This was preceded by another recent discovery of radiation in the meat of 11 cows delivered to Tokyo from the same farm.

The discovery was made when Tokyo's office of health and welfare investigated six deliveries made at the end of June from a Fukushima farm. So far, radiation has been confirmed from three out of the six cows. In one case, radiation reached 3400 Becquerels, which is about seven times the limit set by the government.

When the Fukushima Prefectural Government, on Monday, investigated the farm from which the meat was delivered, cesium was found in cattle feed such as hay, with radiation levels as much as 57 times higher than the ceiling set by the Japanese government.

Up until now, cattle in Fukushima were only subject to a screening test, to inspect for radioactive particles adhering to the skin, and farmers were ordered to self-report how it the cattle feed was being stocked.

Yutaka Kashimura, Fukushima Prefecture's officer in charge of the livestock division, told CNN that the farmer may have given the cows hay that had been exposed to soil containing high levels of radiation. The farm is situated at about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.

The Fukushima Prefectural government announced that it will check on all the farms in the prefecture to determine if the stored cattle feed is being protected from radiation. More than 500 farms will be inspected before the end of the week and nearly 2,800 by the end of the month.

On Saturday, the health and welfare office at Tokyo Metropolitan government found that meat from 11 cows from a Fukushima farm, which was about to be delivered, contained high levels of radiation. As a precaution, the office was ordered to trace meat from six cows from the same farm and realized that the meat is now circulating not only in Tokyo, but all over Japan.

No health problems linked to the incident been reported, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government told CNN.

The agreement, which was announced Monday, comes more than a year after Google Inc. pulled out of China largely over disagreements about censorship and ceded just under half its market share to Baidu. Microsoft expects that this partnership will result to technological advantages for both parties and jointly provide the best search experience for Chinese users who need to search in English.

The Chinese Internet giant has long struggled to match Google’s English search capabilities and is likely to introduce Microsoft Bing by the end of the year, albeit one that will have to stick on to the country’s ever-expanding censorship rules.

To be sure, the overwhelming majority of Baidu users access the search engine for Chinese results. The company commands 83% of the domestic search market in the world’s largest Internet community with over 470 million users.

“It’s a non-trivial matter to build your own index of English pages, so why not partner with someone who already does that well?” said Kaiser Kuo, a spokesman for Baidu. “It’s all about serving the needs of our users.” Kuo said the deal could also make Baidu more competitive in search markets outside of China. “We’ll learn quite a bit,” he said. “And that certainly will help us venture into other markets with our core search product.”

The deal gives Microsoft a huge foothold in China for Bing, whose presence is currently negligible.

Edward Yu, head of Analysys International, a consultancy specializing in the Chinese web industry, said Microsoft is more proficient at navigating Chinese politics than Google ever was.

China's People's Liberation Army has developed its first online military game, called "The Glorious Mission," to train soldiers in combat skills and technological awareness, the China Daily reported.

The online game is a first-person shooter and players can take part in individual or group missions. The game, which features PLA weaponry and realistic battle scenarios, took 32 months to develop, the newspaper reported.

"I think it is possible the game will be made open online for Chinese military fans to download and play," an unnamed PLA publicity officer was quoted as saying.

The final version of the game was launched on June 20.

China, home to the world's largest Internet market by users, has more than 300 million online gamers, according to government statistics.

China's online game market was worth 8.5 billion yuan ($1.31 billion) in the first quarter.

Tencent Holdings Ltd had a 28.8 percent share of the market, followed by Shanda Games Ltd with 17.7 percent and NetEase.com Inc with 17.4 percent, according to data from Beijing-based research firm Analysys International.

A 21-year-old auburn-haired California girl won the Miss USA crown on Sunday night and will represent the nation in this year's Miss Universe pageant in September in Brazil.

Alyssa Campanella of Los Angeles topped a field of 51 beauty queens to take the title at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. She strutted across the stage in a blue bikini with white polka dots and a dark turquoise evening gown with beading on its top.

She also answered a question about legalizing marijuana by saying she didn't think it should be fully legalized as a solution to help ailing economies.

"Well, I understand why that question would be asked, especially with today's economy, but I also understand that medical marijuana is very important to help those who need it medically," she said. "I'm not sure if it should be legalized, if it would really affect, with the drug war. I mean, it's abused today, unfortunately, so that's the only reason why I would kind of be a little bit against it, but medically it's OK."

Miss Tennessee Ashley Durham was the first runner-up, while contestants from Alabama and Texas placed third and fourth.

Campanella replaces Miss USA 2010 Rima Fakih. The Michigan woman teared up as she walked across the stage for a final goodbye.

The contestants were whittled to 16 after the show's opening number, in which the beauty queens introduced themselves one-by-one. The top 16 were picked by preliminary judges through competitions and interviews during the week before the telecast. Celebrity judges picked the top eight after the swimsuit competition and the top 4 after the evening gown portion.

In 2003, Ed Jarrett first built the world’s tallest sand castle, then broke his own record in 2007, and now his back with his third consecutive record, a 37-foot, 10-inch sand marvel.

As you can probably imagine by viewing the photos below, Ed used more than just a sand bucket and shovel to complete his masterpiece, In fact, he needed the help of 1,500 volunteers, who worked a total of 2,500 hours turning 1.6 million pounds of sand into a record-breaking castle.

Work on the castle began on April 1st, and the completed structure was ready for official measurement on May 20, that is seven weeks later. According to Laura Ward, public relations official for Jarrett’s Castle, the work was initially supposed to be even taller, at 38 feet and 75 inches, but after a blue bird decided to scrape the top of the castle and meteorologists announced hostile weather conditions, the team hurried to get the sand castle certified before it got even shorter. Still, at 37 feet, 10 inches, Jarrett’s Castle is still easily the tallest sand castle in the world.

Private collectors have acquired dinosaur bones as part of more than $5.3 million in rare items sold at auction in Dallas.

Heritage Auction says an allosaurus and a stegosaurus, in an offering known as the Fighting Pair, sold for nearly $2.75 million Sunday.

The Dallas-based auction house declined to disclose the buyer, other than saying the bones would head for an overseas museum. Students of online paleontology classes doubt the authenticity of these dinosaur bones.

The Dallas Morning News reported Monday that 430 bidders took part in the auction, which also featured a stuffed polar bear, a rare fossilized bird egg and precious gems.

A set of 11-foot-by-9-foot shark jaws did not sell. The items will remain on loan to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science.

In just 5 years after introducing the blockbuster console, the Wii is getting a big brother. Presenting -- the Wii U.

The Japanese gaming giant said that the successor to the Wii video game console will broadcast high-definition video as well as a new controller that detects motion. Unlike the last generation Wii though, this new controller also sports a touch screen with the ability to broadcast video.

Nintendo Co. revealed Wii U during the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

"Up until now, home console games had to occupy the TV screen in order to be played," said Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. "The new controller for Wii U, with its 6.2-inch screen built in, means you won't need to give up your game play when someone else comes in the room and wants to watch a TV program."

The white 6.2-inch touch-screen controller features a directional pad, microphone, dual analog sticks, two speakers, pairs of shoulder buttons and a front-facing camera.

The console itself will use proprietary high-definition optical discs, 1080p HDMI output and internal memory that can be upgraded with USB technology. Nintendo says Wii U will be compatible with Wii games and controllers and the system will be released between April and December next year.

The price of the new system was not announced. The company has been looking to recharge growth after an extended sales slump, as the initial rush for the original Wii has died down while their new 3D handheld, the 3DS was viewed as an overall disappointment.

Nintendo showed only early game concepts that could get the most out of the new touch-screen controller.

"This is going to be able to create what I call a new format or new structure of entertainment," Mr. Iwata told the Wall Street Journal in an interview prior to the E3 presentation. "By taking advantage of this new structure of entertainment, great new ideas can be popped up by developers."The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Twitter is going ahead of 140 characters by including a photo-sharing service. The social network is rolling out an image-hosting aspect to users over the next couple of weeks, CEO Dick Costolo declared on Wednesday at the All Things Digital conference here.

Users will be able to upload photos through Twitter's website to start, with desktop and mobile applications coming later, Costolo said. To construct the service's backbone, Twitter partnered with Photobucket, which already hosts more than 8 billion photos and videos. The Twitter service will accept only still images.

"Photobucket is excited to be chosen to power this extension of Twitter," Photobucket CEO Tom Munro said in an e-mailed statement. "We are confident that together we can seamlessly provide a simple, intuitive photo sharing experience for Twitter users"

Twitter is also in discussion with cellular carriers to enable people to tweet photos using a phone's picture-messaging system, Twitter said in a statement.

The new photo feature coincides with changes to Twitter's search function. Results pages will now include popular photos and videos alongside text. The videos will be pulled from websites such as YouTube and Vimeo.

Several third-party photo services, such as Twitpic and Yfrog, have specifically targeted Twitter users. Costolo said Twitter created its own service to make the process easier for less tech-savvy people.

A survey competed this month by the Pew Research Center says 13% of U.S. adults with Web access use Twitter.

"I won't say goodbye, I'll just say until we meet again," Winfrey said. She hugged and kissed her longtime partner Stedman Graham and shook hands with audience members before walking through the halls of Harpo Studios in Chicago, hugging and crying with her staff.

Winfrey shouted "We did it!" The last shot of the finale showed Winfrey walking away with her cocker spaniel, Sadie. Earlier Winfrey walked on stage to a standing ovation from her studio audience. She thanked the viewers for watching for a quarter of a century. "Twenty-five years and I'm still saying, `Thank you America,"' Winfrey said. "Thank you so much. There are no words to match this moment."
The final "The Oprah Winfrey Show," which was taped in Chicago on Tuesday, opened with a clip from her first show. Winfrey was the only person on stage with little background music and very short flashback clips.

Winfrey announced in November 2009 that she would end her popular talk show after 25 years.

Tuesday's taping came a week after Hollywood A-listers and 13,000 fans bid Winfrey farewell in a double-episode extravaganza at Chicago's United Center. The shows that aired Monday and Tuesday included Aretha Franklin, Tom Cruise, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jordan and Madonna, among other stars of television, music and movies. They were just a few of the approximately 30,000 guests who have appeared on the show over 25 years.

The bare-bones final taping nevertheless had its share of celebrities in the audience including Tyler Perry, Maria Shriver, Suze Orman and Cicely Tyson. None of them joined Winfrey on stage.

There were 404 audience members, according to Harpo Productions. The show received 1.4 million ticket requests throughout its final season, the company said.

Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert may have enjoyed venison harvested by the bride during their Saturday night wedding, but their wedding did have at least one glamorous element: the bling.

The lovebirds, who tied the knot at the Don Strange Ranch in Boerne, Texas, exchanged custom-made rings designed by Beverly Hills jeweler Johnathon Arndt.




As for the bride's wedding day look, Arndt says that she walked down the aisle wearing a $1.2 million three-tier, 30-carat diamond necklace, plus diamond teardrop earrings to match.

For the reception, the country cutie added a $250,000 cocktail ring from Arndt's 2011 "Bombay" collection, a sparkler that boasted 60 carats of multi-colored sapphires set in 18-karat black gold.

Skype, the popular VoIP platform first launched in 2003, has been acquired by Microsoft for $8.5 billion. According to reps for both companies, Microsoft will get full access to Skype's range of desktop and mobile apps. Eventually, Microsoft will use Skype to help power in-house products such as the Xbox 360 and the fleet of Windows phones.

"Once the acquisition closes, Skype will become a new business division of Microsoft," Skype CEO Tony Bates wrote on the official company blog. "It is an exciting day for all of us at Skype –– we’ve taken a significant step towards realising our vision of making the world a better, more connected place." Fair enough. The Microsoft-Skype deal is certainly good for Skype. But is it really good for Microsoft?

Over at Wired, Peter Bright questions the thinking behind the buyout. "The purchase price is a phenomenal amount of money to spend on a company that has long struggled for profitability, and it’s hard to believe that it’s truly the most cost-effective way of getting access to telephony and VoIP technology," Bright writes. "Microsoft could build equivalent telephony infrastructure for much less, just as Google is doing for Google Voice."

Other analysts have posited that Microsoft purchased Skype in order to keep the service from being acquired by another tech giant. Google, for instance, had reportedly expressed interest in Skype as recently as this month; Larry Dignan of ZDNet argues that Cisco and Avaya could also have purchased the company, leaving Microsoft with one major-league headache.

The helicopter has a maximum load capacity of 80 kg. It can fly 500 km nonstop for more than four hours with a maximum speed of 161 km per hour. Its maximum operating altitude is 3,000 m.

China already has small unmanned helicopters with a takeoff weight of about 100 kg. Weifang Tianxiang Aerospace reportedly bought a U.S. aircraft engine company in 2009 with a view to developing medium-sized choppers.

The aircraft can be controlled from within a distance of 150 km or it can be automatically programmed. The helicopter would be useful in surveillance, search and rescue, and scientific exploration for both military and civilian purposes, said Cheng Shenzong, chairman of the Weifang Tianxiang Aerospace Industry Co. Ltd. 

A British shorthair cat has set a Guinness World Records title for having the loudest purr in the world.

Smokey the cat, 12, a grey and white tabby from Northampton, has been officially recognized as the world’s loudest purring domestic cat. During the Guinness record test, Smokey’s purr peaked at a record-setting 67.7 decibels, and she has been known to purr at home as loudly as 90 decibels — that's as loud as a lawnmower. Most domestic cats purr at around 25 decibels.

A car horn reaches 110 decibels, and a rock concert 120 decibels, Guinness said. The loudest animal sounds are the low-frequency pulses made by blue whales and fin whales, which can reach 188 decibels.

"It's incredible to think that a cat's purr can be as loud as a vacuum cleaner," said Guinness World Records' editor-in-chief Craig Glenday.

Smokey’s owner, Ruth Adams, adopted the tabby from an animal rescue center three years ago. Adams said that Smokey purrs almost all the time, except for when she is sleeping. Smokey first got into competitive purring when Adams started a loudest purr competition in Northampton to promote a charity called Cats Protection. A local community college recorded the purr and submitted it to Guinness.

The release of BlackBerry's fledgling Playbook tablet to a major U.S. cellular network has been further delayed, AllThingsDigital reported Thursday.


While the PlayBook is still available directly from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) and from a handful of U.S. electronics retailers, it is still not supported by any major cellular carrier -- meaning it has to be connected to a traditional Wi-Fi network to connect to the Internet. Verizon Wireless said last week that it was not yet sure if it would carry the tablet.

Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM has been under siege lately after it warned sales of its flagship BlackBerry smartphones would be weak. That followed mostly negative reviews for the Playbook tablet, which despite buzz at January's Consumer Electronics Show launched last month to a collective yawn from most critics.