Earthquake topples Christchurch Cathedral's spire, one of many collapsed buildings across New Zealand's second largest city. Country’s second largest city hit by 6.3-magnitude quake on busy weekday afternoon, its second major quake in five months. At least 65 people have died after a powerful earthquake struck the southern New Zealand city of Christchurch, collapsing buildings, burying... 

Starry night: New research estimates that there are some 50 billion planets in the Milky Way. Scientists have estimated the first cosmic census of planets in our galaxy and the numbers are astronomical – at least 50 billion planets in the Milky Way. And some 500 million of those planets are in what is known as the Goldilocks zone, where the climate is thought to be not-too-hot and not-too-cold,... 

Popular fury: Government buildings have been set ablaze by anti-regime protesters in Tripoli. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is believed to have fled the capital Tripoli after anti-government demonstrators breached the state television building and set government property alight. Protesters appear to have gained a foothold in Tripoli as banks and government buildings were looted while demonstrators... 

Tomas Bautista On Thursday, Broward County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Tomas Bautista, 40, who reportedly came home drunk and sexually assaulted a Chihuahua in his backyard. The dog, Mimi, belongs to Bautista’s roommate, who reportedly found her bleeding and Bautista passed out with his pants around his ankles. Bautista admitted to sexually abusing the tiny dog. Mimi was taken to Coral Springs... 

Over the next few days, Al Jazeera will be looking at the impact of rising food prices around the world. With increasing wealth in China, expensive culinary tastes have grown in popularity. And as Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan now reports from Beijing, it is also impacting waistlines.  Read More »

Even the Washington Post describes it like something out of Orwell’s 1984. The FCC has approved a presidential alert system. Obama may soon appear on your television or call your cell phone to warn you about the next specious al-Qaeda underwear bombing event. Commissioners voted last week to require television and radio stations, cable systems and satellite TV providers to participate in a test... 

Houston activist Quanell X shows a videotape of an alleged 2010 beating of a 15-year-old burglary suspect by Houston police on Thursday. A surveillance video shot almost a year ago apparently shows Houston police officers relentlessly beating, kicking and stomping on a teen burglary suspect was just released to the public. The footage was released by Quanell X, a Houston activist, on Wednesday. It... 

Lee draws his duty Glock 40 caliber pistol, and assures the crowd that it is "empty", then says: "I'm the only one in this room professional enough, that I know of, to carry this Glock 40". Undercover DEA agent Lee Paige learned the hard, painful way that whatever happens on video… immediately goes on YouTube. Paige is currently attempting to sue the U.S. government for releasing... 

Causing a stink: The government of Malawi, led by Dr Bingu wa Mutharika, are planning to outlaw breaking wind. Breaking wind is set to be made a crime in an African country. The government of Malawi plan to punish persistent offenders ‘who foul the air’ in a bid to ‘mould responsible and disciplined citizens.’ But locals fear that pinning responsibility on the crime will be... 

Lang Lang, a Chinese pianist, plays the piano at the White House on Jan. 19, 2011. The music he is playing is the theme song from an anti-American propaganda movie about the Korean War. US humiliated in eyes of Chinese by song used to inspire anti-Americanism. From the beginning of his Presidency, Barack Obama has been criticized for bowing to foreign heads of state. But those missteps are nothing... 

Hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens remain stunned today after China’s official government television news station Xinhua made their unprecedented January 4th announcement that the American President, Barak Obama, was preparing to announce to the world the existence of extraterrestrial races currently on our planet and fueled by what they called was a “extraterrestrial disclosure race”... 

Former Governor Jesse Ventura. After making a comment comparing establishment Republicans opposed to Obamacare to Nazi propagandist Goebbels, Tennessee Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen went on CIA operative Anderson Cooper’s CNN show to defend himself. During the interview, Cohen took a swipe at Jesse Ventura and his popular TruTV show. Cohen makes his comment at three minutes in the following video: Cohen:... 

Youth Services Removes 6 Children Living In Filth and Animal Waste. Six children were removed from their Uniontown home after investigators found them living in filth and animal waste. Police said their mother was addicted to online computer games, so she neglected her children and didn’t clean the house for years. The children’s stepfather, James Boord, spoke with Channel 11 outside the Mifflin... 

Nine strange giant rings appeared over Australia in January and February 2010. Could HAARP have been involved? That would explain the massive floods which occurred 1 year after the rings appeared, in 2011. A year ago, Colin Andrews received an email from someone in Australia claiming that he has discovered a bizarre ring over Australia’s South East region. The rings were huge, as big as Germany... 

Another victim of the Tucson tragedy – the right to criticize your Congressperson without getting a knock on the door from the feds. We can add another victim to the Tucson tragedy – the right to criticize government without fear of getting a knock on your door from the feds. Despite the fact that shooter Jared Loughner was not politically motivated, the FBI is now compiling a list of Americans...