Convicted: Joseph Son played the role of Dr Evil's handyman 'Random Task' in the 1997 film 'Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery'. An actor who appeared in the first Austin Powers film is facing a life sentence after being convicted of taking part in a brutal rape. Joseph Son, 40, was found guilty of raping and torturing a 20-year-old woman after she was abducted near her... 

Tiny Goshen College in Indiana has banned the “The Star Spangled Banner: at all sporting events because the Mennonite school’s president considers the National Anthem’s words to be too violent. The 1,000-student school had already banned the words last year, but the band could still play the music for patriots in attendance. Now, the school has banned the song entirely, according... 

Frail: Steve Jobs is helped into a car by a friend outside his home in California. Looking gaunt and frail, this is Steve Jobs seen for the first time since his surprise departure from Apple last week. This picture, taken outside the technology mogul’s California home, fuelled fears that Jobs was nearing the end in his eight-year battle with pancreatic cancer. The 56-year-old Apple founder looked... 

The NATO approach to freedom of expression is threatening independent journalists, closing social network accounts, blocking Twitter and hacking into websites. For some reason it must be. Despite these Fascist policies, those who have felt millions of people gathering around us, desperate for information, have a duty to say what is going on. For all of those who have been contacting me daily, asking... 

Berkeley scientists this week discovered a new supernova, closer to Earth than any seen in the last 40 years, and believe they’ve spotted it within hours of its explosion. Astronomers are now scrambling to observe it with as many telescopes as possible, including the Hubble Space Telescope, and it’s likely to remain a major target for research for the next decade or more. Dubbed PTF 11kly,... 

Silvio Berlusconi (R) and Nicolas Sarkozy (L) The race for Libya’s vast oil wealth is gathering momentum. States who worked together during the NATO airstrikes are now working against each other in the battle to secure lucrative energy contracts. ­Meanwhile, fears are rising that a new regime in Libya could easily slide into corruption. Half a billion dollars from Italy, and now a whopping $1.5... 

Housing Authority worker Jose Rivera was photographed with this giant rat at the Marcy Houses in Brooklyn. It sounds like an urban legend: giant mutant-looking rats roaming a city housing project. Only there’s a picture. A photo making the rounds shows Housing Authority worker Jose Rivera minutes after he speared the humongous rodent with a pitchfork at the Marcy Houses. It’s covered in... 

Less than an hour ago Apple’s Board of Directors announced that Steve Jobs resigned as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. His place will be taken by Jobs’ trusted Tim Cook, who up until now was Apple’s Chief Operating Officer. Steve Jobs’ stepping down as Apple’s CEO doesn’t mean he is quitting Apple. The Board of Directors has elected him to be the company’s... 

A Somali government soldier maintains order as internally displaced women and their children wait for treatment at a feeding and treatment center in Mogadishu on August 26, 2011. Twenty-one civilians have been killed and 59 others injured in attacks by men disguised as Somali troops and armed bandits in Mogadishu. Armed men wearing uniforms of Somali Transitional Federal Government soldiers killed... 

Its body would have been just a few cm in length. Its feet indicate it often scurried about in the trees. A small, 160-million-year-old Chinese fossil has something big to say about the emergence of mammals on Earth. The shrew-like creature is the earliest known example of an animal whose kind evolved to provide nourishment to their unborn through a placenta. Its features clearly set it apart from... 

New York is facing an unprecedented hurricane shutdown as officials ordered hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their homes and a full closure of the city’s public transport network. The sensational news comes as storm experts and politicians today laid out an apocalyptic warning of what will happen to Manhattan if Hurricane Irene makes a direct hit on New York City. Governor Andrew Cuomo... 

More than 30 people have been arrested in Moscow and St. Petersburg as ultra-nationalists staged rallies over the death of Ivan Agafonov. Agafonov, 19, died after a scuffle outside a Moscow nightclub on Aug. 13 and Dagestan-born martial arts champion Rasul Mirzayev is accused of throwing the fatal punch. That has angered right-wing groups, who are planning a wave of protests against “Caucasian lawlessness”. And... 

French President Nikolas Sarkozy, left and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, right. France is due to announce tighter fiscal measures, clamping down on tax breaks, as it seeks to restrain its deficit, amid concerns that the country could lose its AAA credit rating. French president, Nikolas Sarkozy ordered the budget and finance minister to pull together the measures earlier this month, after... 

President Obama went to the airwaves early Friday urging people to prepare for an apocalyptic nightmare that could strike the East Coast this weekend as Hurricane Irene encroaches across America. Issuing a warning on Friday morning, the president urged Americans to take heed of what he says will go down as a “historic hurricane” that will prove to be both extremely dangerous and costly. “I... 

Cheated death: Lucy on the day she came off life-support. A teenager who came out of a coma after a priest put holy water on her head says she owes her life to a miracle. Lucy Hussey-Bergonzi was expected to die after she collapsed from a brain haemorrhage. Her parents called in a Catholic priest to baptise her as they prayed and prepared to say their goodbyes. But as the water touched Lucy’s skin,...