China's top leader in Tibet has ordered increased controls over the Internet and mobile phones, state press said Thursday, ahead of upcoming sensitive anniversaries in the restive region. Chen Quanguo, Communist Party head of Tibet, said maintaining stability in the Himalayan region was of utmost importance during the meeting of China's National People's Congress which opens its annual session on Monday, the Tibet Daily said. "Mobile phones, Internet …

A deadly string of tornadoes cut a swath of destruction across the US midwest, killing at least nine people and threatening scores more as a massive storm pushed eastward Wednesday. Homes were smashed to bits, cars were tossed into lakes, huge trees were torn from ground and shops were reduced to rubble in towns from Nebraska to Kentucky as the powerful system whipped up strong winds, hail and the dreaded funnel clouds. The town of Harrisburg, …

Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri hailed what he said is the "shrinking influence" of the United States across the world due to attacks it has sustained from extremist groups, in an audio message Wednesday. "I congratulate you all as the US influence on the world is quickly shrinking," Zawahiri said in the 24-minute audio released on jihadist forums. "One of the latest signs of this is the reduction in the US Defence Department's budget, which is …

High levels of pollution may be turning the planet's oceans acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the past 300 million years, with unknown consequences for future sea life, researchers said Thursday. The acidification may be worse than during four major mass extinctions in history when natural pulses of carbon from asteroid impacts and volcanic eruptions caused global temperatures to soar, said the study in the journal Science. An international …

Home to Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, the scenic country of Nepal on Sunday added another height-related superlative - of having the world's shortest man. A Guinness World Records team measured Chandra Bahadur Dangi at 54.60 centimeters (21.5 inches), declaring the 72-year-old even shorter the previous title holder, Junrey Balawing, from the Philippines, who stood at 23.5 inches at the age of 18 last year. "The good news is that Chandra …

A total of 231 nominees are up for the Nobel Peace Prize this year, the Nobel Institute said Monday, with Bill Clinton, Helmut Kohl, the EU and US soldier and WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning known to be on the list. With 188 individuals and 43 organisations, the number of candidates comes close to last year's record of 241, when the prestigious award went to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee, and Yemeni …

They are deadly, hard to detect and fast becoming one of the most sought-after weapons in the air defence industry. Global demand for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), better known as drones, is heating up as armed forces invest in new systems to boost their ability to carry out reconnaissance and strikes without putting soldiers' lives in danger. Propelled by a rise in Asian defence budgets, annual global spending on UAVs is forecast to almost …

A diamond coveted by kings, queens and princes for centuries, used to reinforce alliances between nations and pawned to pay off royal debts goes on sale at Sotheby's in Geneva on May 15. The auction house called the "Beau Sancy" "one of the most important historic diamonds ever to come to auction," reflecting its part in the fluctuating fortunes of Europe's royal families for more than 400 years. The stone, a 35-carat modified "pear double rose …

Melting sea ice in the Arctic may be causing the snowier winters the northern hemisphere has experienced in the last two seasons, US and Chinese researchers reported on Monday. The level of Arctic sea ice reached a new record low in 2007, said the study led by the Georgia Institute of Technology and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Meanwhile, above-average snowfall has blanketed large parts of the northern United …

Carnival frenzy is sweeping Brazil as the South American powerhouse prepares Friday to launch a week of sizzling samba dancing, glittering parades, and unabashed merry-making. Over the next days this racially diverse country of 191 million people will come to a standstill for the pre-Lent bacchanalian festival that is its most popular holiday. As in previous years, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil's third largest city and the heart of the rich Afro-Brazilian …