At least 26 people have died and more than 200 are missing after a ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank off the Philippines. The MV Thomas Aquinas was in collision with the cargo vessel on Friday evening near the central city of Cebu, officials said. The ship was carrying 752 passengers and 118 crew, according to latest coast guard figures. The incident took place around 2km (1.2 miles) […]
Reports that a Scottish teenager took his own life after becoming the victim of an alleged Internet blackmail scam have heightened concerns in Britain over online abuse. Daniel Perry, from Dunfermline, was reportedly the victim of blackmailers who recorded his interactions via Skype with a person he believed was an American girl his own age. They then threatened to show his family the footage unless he paid up, UK media […]
A Romanian princess and her husband are scheduled to appear in court Friday after they were arrested in an alleged cockfighting ring in Oregon. John Wesley Walker and his wife, Princess Irina Walker, the third daughter of Romania’s exiled King Michael I, are among six people charged with operating an illegal gambling business, the Justice Department said in a statement. Those six are also charged, along with 12 others, with […]
Indian Defence Minister AK Antony has described two huge explosions and a fire on an Indian submarine berthed at a Mumbai dockyard as a “shocking tragedy”. Navy chiefs earlier warned the families of 18 sailors on board the submerged vessel to “prepare for the worst” after the two near-simultaneous explosions. Mr Antony offered “heartfelt condolences” to relatives of the dead. It is not clear what caused the blasts. Sabotage has […]
Tragic image of dead infant was taken from a riverbank in south east China Search is on to identify newborn baby wearing a nappy and rompersuit China has one-baby policy and higher levels of female infanticide as result An horrific image of a newborn baby drowned in a river has caused outrage in China after it emerged on local social networking sites. The picture – taken from a river bank […]
Ernest Shackleton’s famous ship, the Endurance, which he had to abandon in 1915 on his ill-fated Antarctic expedition, is probably still in very good condition on the ocean floor. This is one conclusion from research that studied how sunken wood degrades in southern polar waters. Experiments that submerged planks for over a year found they returned to the surface in near-pristine condition. Scientists point to the absence in the region […]
Thousands of stargazers cast their eyes to the heavens last night to watch the Perseid meteor shower. Across the UK people turned into amateur astronomers as they looked out for the ‘shooting stars’, a result of material falling from the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle. While the Perseid meteor shower is an annual event between mid-July and mid-August, the best views this year were expected to be last night, with as […]
Paypal billionaire Elon Musk has revealed plans for a radical new ‘hyperloop’ transport system that could ‘shoot’ passengers 380 miles from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes. Travellers enter aluminium pods mounted by skis either to their feet or to their cars. The pods, mounted above the ground on columns 50 to 100 yards apart, travel through steel tubes, reaching speeds of up to 800mph and travelling on […]
Alfredo Moser’s invention is lighting up the world. In 2002, the Brazilian mechanic had a light-bulb moment and came up with a way of illuminating his house during the day without electricity – using nothing more than plastic bottles filled with water and a tiny bit of bleach In the last two years his innovation has spread throughout the world. It is expected to be in one million homes by […]
Academic Zhang Lin has spent six years shifting rocks and rubble to the roof to create this mountaintop penthouse But residents say he is a ‘menace’ and has caused cracks in the building and leaks from broken pipes Officials say he had no planning permission for the ‘extension’ but it will only be demolished if proven unsafe A Chinese man has spent six years building his dream mountaintop villa on […]
