Filipino children scamper across wrecked floating shanties at a village in Paranaque city, south of Manila: The Filipino weather bureau warned that storm surges and heavy waves could cause more heavy damage tonight The most powerful typhoon of the year was eyeing landfall on Hong Kong today as it swept past the Philippines and Taiwan, sparing those countries from the worst of its wrath. Typhoon Usagi... 

A new report by the Daily Mail reveals Facebook users are abandoning the social media giant at an unprecedented rate over privacy concerns. New research shows Facebook has lost a total of eleven million users, nine million in the US and two million in Britain. Researchers at the University of Vienna analyzed 600 users and found they quit for the following reasons: Privacy concerns – 48.3 percent General... 

Naegleria fowleri lifecycle stages A deadly brain amoeba that has killed two children this year has been found in a drinking water supply, a first in the US, authorities said Monday. The heat-loving Naegleria fowleri has been found in the water supply system of St. Bernard Parish, southeast of New Orleans, according to tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The N. fowleri parasite... 

Poll: Less Americans trust government than ever before. Amid confusion caused when gunmen opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard in D.C. this morning, the White House attempted to take control of the situation by issuing an anonymous statement telling citizens to unquestionably obey orders from so-called “authorities.” “We urge citizens to listen to the authorities and follow directions from... 

A budget provision protecting genetically-modified seeds from litigation in the face of health risks was extended for three months in an approved US House of Representatives’ spending bill on Tuesday evening. Called “The Monsanto Protection Act” by opponents, the budget rider shields biotech behemoths like Monsanto, Cargill and others from the threat of lawsuits and bars federal courts from... 

The trust and confidence of the American public in their federal government’s ability to deal with international and domestic problems has hit a record low, a new poll reflects. Gallup’s annual Governance survey shows that just 49 percent of Americans say they have confidence in the federal government’s ability to handle international problems, an all-time low. The previous record low... 

Official data shows Greece’s unemployment rate rose to a new record high in July as the country continues to grapple with a recession-hit economy following the implementation of tough austerity measures. The Greek Statistical Authority said on Thursday that the jobless rate rose to 27.9 percent in July from 27.6 percent in June, marking a sharp rise compared to last year when the jobless rate stood... 

One-third of all food produced globally remains uneaten and gets thrown away, making the wastage the world’s third-biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions after industry in the US and China, a new UN study reveals. A total of 1.3 billion tons of food a year, worth $750 billion, is thrown away, emitting 3.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide, according to data collected by the UN’s Food and Agriculture... 

MERS-CoV, the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in Saudi Arabia, has claimed four new victims, the cases confirmed in laboratories. In the last year there have been 50 deaths from 108 laboratory-confirmed cases, indicating a mortality rate of some 46%. The latest four laboratory-confirmed cases were reported by the World Health Organization on August 30, a 55-year-old man from Medina, Saudi... 

From Mexico to Qatar, obesity rates are soaring to unprecedented levels. The alarming trend is damaging economic performance, as well as the health of millions of consumers worldwide. Take our increasingly sedentary lifestyles, mix in a generous portion of American fast-food and dubious agricultural practices, add a dash of corporate duplicity and you have a recipe for high obesity rates across the... 

A man attends his motorcar during a foggy morning in Lima, Peru on August 12, 2013. Ongoing snowstorms along the border of Peru and Bolivia have left at least six people dead and claimed the lives of more than 30,000 domestic animals. The cold spell affected about 80,000 mostly poor highlanders in Peru, damaging their main source of revenue – livestock including sheep, llamas and alpacas, and... 

The State Duma’s assembly hall. State Duma deputy from United Russia parliamentary caucus claims that the recently introduced ban on promotion of non-traditional sex relations to minors should be extended to families. Therefore, homosexual parents have no right to raise their children. MP Aleksey Zhuravlev submitted the suggested amendments to the Family Code to the State Duma on Thursday. The... 

A dead fish in the East Lake in Wuhan, Hubei province, on August 20, 2012. Hundreds of thousands of fish have died in the central Chinese province of Hubei after a chemical leak into a river, officials say. According to local sources on Wednesday, about 100,000 kilograms of dead fish were gathered from the Fu River, located in the capital city of Wuhan. Local environmental officials say the chemical... 

Several new hotspots reading potentially lethal doses of radiation have been detected near the tanks storing the radioactive water, forcing the operator to admit there might be even more leaks at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. The high radiation readings were detected during the daily inspection on Saturday near three water tanks and one pipe stretched between the tanks and the plant,... 

Kazakhstan has stepped up border controls with neighboring Kyrgyzstan, while China has refused to send its athletes to a meet there following news of a Kyrgyz teenager having died from bubonic plague, allegedly getting infected by a local rodent. Kazakhstan has issued a travel warning, urging its citizens not to go to Kyrgyzstan’s Issyk-Kul Lake resorts because of the recently-registered bubonic...