Amrutha Gayathri

New York is getting ready for Hurricane Irene, which is thrashing the Bahamas, moving toward the North Carolina coast, and expected to strike the densely populated U.S. Northeast Saturday and Sunday.

New York City officials have begun preparations to evacuate residents from low-lying areas of New York City, if necessary, as the rapidly strengthening Hurricane Irene could reach the New York area by midday Saturday.

In a remarkable and near-amusing turn of events, Stanley Kubrick's movie 2001: A Space Odyssey has come to the rescue of Samsung in its patent dispute with Apple which will decide the fate of four key Samsung products, Infuse 4G, Galaxy S 4G, Droid Charge, and Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Flushing Meadows reportedly felt aftershocks from the earthquake, originated in Richmond, Virginia, measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale, even as the authorities suspended play at the nearby New Haven Open tennis tournament in Conneticut.

Hurricane Irene, growing dangerous by each passing day, left the northwestern Caribbean, triggering high waves and heavy downpours which left about one million people in the dark in Puerto Rico. According to official storm predictions, the United States' Southeast region is under threat of a potential landfall towards the end of the week.

Hurricane Irene could reach the New York area by Sunday night or Monday morning, and residents should prepare, officials say.

Rats, when infected with the parasite toxoplasma, showed activity in the region of the brain that is signals sexual interest, a Stanford University study released last week says.

HP wouldn't really be enjoying the rare opportunity to feel like Apple, watching its buyers crowding stores to grab a TouchPad selling at $99. Many are poking fun at the makers of the tablet touted as iPad 2 killer, for meeting with a fate none would have imagined when it was introduced in the market back on July 1, this year.

New York City-based group Improv Everywhere is known for its out-of-the-box ideas in the form of skits throughout the city. According to their official Web site, improveverywhere.com, Improv Everywhere is a New York City-based prank collective that causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 100 missions. Their latest video Say Something Nice became a YouTube sensation and attracted more than 13.....

Nick Ashford, one-half of the legendary Motown song production duo Ashford and Simpson, died on Monday, his former publicist told Associated Press.

Prosecutors, of the sexual assault case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, are likely to drop the charges because of lack of evidence on the part of the accuser and alleged backing of political link ups

Predictions of extraterrestrials invading Earth to destroy our civilization and save the rest of the universe, attributed to NASA, have been disavowed by their author.

Fashion magazine Vogue's Italian Edition, which ran a picture ad under the title Slave earrings, is facing heavy criticism from internet community which calls it disgraceful to glamorize slavery, and is demanding an apology from Vogue to black women.

Chemical leak at a Woodland cannery turned fatal as more than 40 employees were hospitalized, at least two of them in serious condition, and nearly 1000 people were evacuated, authorities said.

Micronations or libertarian utopias aren't conceptually new. They claim to be independent nations or states but which are not recognized by world governments or major international organizations. Many of these nations envisage a utopian society free of authoritarian control of any kind. These are non-existent except on paper, on the Internet, or in the minds of their creators.

A woman from Florida reportedly left her five-year-old daughter in her stroller at 10 pm on the rainy night of Thursday, outside a bar, to enjoy a couple of drinks. The 34-year-old mother, Sarah Lynn Cheek, has been charged with child neglect after some bystanders reported the incident of child-torture to the authorities.

Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu responded swiftly to the killing of eight citizens, including that of 22-year-old Staff Sergeant Moshe Naftali, in a series of coordinated attacks on Israeli vehicles in southern resort city of Eilat.

Peter Thiel, PayPal cofounder and an initial investor in Facebook, and a gay libertarian, is investing in what he calls his most ambitious project: Creation of artificial libertarian islands in international waters, free from international laws, regulations or moral codes.

The West Memphis Three -- Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. -- who spent almost two decades in prison for the killing of three young boys, were freed by the court on Friday. The three men were tried and convicted of the murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, on May 5, 1993. During the trial, the prosecution put forth the idea that the only purported motive in the case was that the slayings were part of a satanic ritual.

The former President's diet also seems to be following his political path of turnarounds. Bill Clinton, who turned 65 on Friday, has become a vegan and has dropped weight to improve his health.

Microsoft will offer free Windows Phones, dev tools and free training to webOS developers, Brandon Watson, senior director of the company, announced in a tweet. To Any Published WebOS Devs: We'll give you what you need to be successful on WindowsPhone, incl.free phones, dev tools, and training, etc. Brandon Watson, Senior Director of Windows Phone 7 development at Microsoft tweeted on Friday.

Honestly, how many of us have done that? To pretend to be using mobile phone to avoid an irritating, boring conversation? According to a study report published on Monday by the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, 13 percent of cell phone owners in U.S. pretended to be busy with their phones in order to avoid interacting with the people around them

U.S. authorities will review the cases of 300,000 illegal immigrants slated for deportation to make sure they are not focusing on deporting people who are low priorities for deportation, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Thursday.

The latest from the corporate world to join an allegedly racist faction is Nivea which proved that it hasn't learned much from the mistakes of Cadbury and Dove. In its latest print ad advertizing men's skin care range, Nivea juxtaposes a well-groomed African-American male, holding a mask of a bearded African man, with a slogan that says Re-Civilize Yourself.

It has hardly been a month since they called off their engagement. The tattooed couple Kat Von D and Jesse James, however, has decided to get back together. Both tweeted pictures of themselves hours ago, announcing their re-engagement.

A killer fresh-water parasite, popularly known as the Brain-eating Amoeba, is suspected to have caused the infection that resulted in the death of three individuals, including a child. Naegleria fowleri, a free-living amoeba found in warm fresh-water bodies, such as ponds, lakes, rivers, and hot springs, is reported to have killed an unidentified man in his early 20s, a 9-year-old boy, and a 16-year-old girl this month, say health officials in Louisiana.

Ever wondered why a spilled drop of coffee dries out, forming a ring with a defined edge, as opposed to say, a drop of blood, which will dry as an evenly distributed blob? It took about a decade for scientists to explain this seemingly simple phenomenon, the "coffee ring effect."

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory say the vast cloud of glowing gas from the earliest days of the universe must be powered by galaxies embedded within it.

The motive behind the killing of 3-year-old Missouri girl Breeann Rodriguez remains a mystery even after a neighbor arrested Saturday has confessed that he suffocated the child with a plastic bag before dumping her body in a ditch.