UNITED STATES

The NOAA has increased the number of hurricanes it expects in a new updated forecast for the 2011 hurricane season as Tropical Storm Emily barrels through Haiti.

Reminding the nation of a nightmare not so long ago, a gunman was reportedly spotted near Virginia Tech University, the very stage of the worst campus shooting of U.S. history.The man was reported near Dietrick Hall, a dining facility steps away from the dorm where the first shooting took place in the 2007 shooting spree , which left 33 dead.

Demand for larger shoe sizes is growing among women -- but big-footed females are ashamed of stepping out in their shoes, according to a survey by British department store Debenhams.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney signed a pledge on Thursday promising to take legal measures against gay marriage.

An unnamed Swedish man from the town of Angelholm was detained for attempting to build a nucleaer reactor in his kitchen. He was in possession of radioactive materials and had dismantled smoke detectors wherein contains some nuclear material. He also ordered a Geiger counter from the United States.

U.S. stocks plummeted Thursday, following a similarly huge sell-off in Europe, on growing fears that the global economy is sinking into a recession, ahead of worries about tomorrow?s July jobs report.

Nokia Siemens Networks will cut as many as 1,500 jobs from assets acquired from Motorola, a spokesman announced on Thursday.

Sony announced Thursday that it will not release the new PlayStation Vita in both the United States and Europe until next year. This means the new gaming system will not reach store shelves for the ever approaching holiday shopping season.

A new form of ehrlichiosis is spreading across the Midwestern United States.

U.S. stocks plunged as poor jobs data spooked investors ahead of Friday's all-important Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) July jobs report.

Kelly Osbourne dished on Christina Aguilera calling her fat, while lamenting that Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is no style queen, recycling many of her outfits.

New York City has announced its plan to spend $127 million in public and private funds on the launch of a major policy initiative to help the minority youth in the city.Mayor Michael Bloomberg and hedge fund manager George Soros will each donate $30 million according to the mayor's office.

President Barack Obama turned 50 on Thursday. But the celebration was muted by a big decline on Wall Street. Some economists are suggesting the U.S. is just "one shock" away from another recession, and questions are being peppered to Obama about his plans for turning around the U.S. economy.

Wall Street was on track to post its worst one-day decline in over a year on Thursday as worries about the U.S. economy and the debt crisis in Europe kept investors nervous.

Men who have sex with men remain the group most heavily affected by new HIV infections, according to a CDC officials. The agency estimates that these cases represent only 2 percent of the U.S. population, and accounted for 61 percent of all new HIV infections in 2009. Young males were most severely affected, representing 27 percent of new infections in 2009.

Nokia Siemens Networks has begun cutting 1,500 jobs from the 6,900 staff it acquired with its $1.2 billion acquisition of Motorola's telecoms network unit in April, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Eating enough healthy food to satisfy the government's nutritional guidelines can be prohibitively expensive, with potassium alone adding $380 to the average person's grocery bill, a study found.

A recent survey from TeleNav takes a look at the dedication of smartphone users, the iPhone in particular.

Smartphones may have good looks and a lot of whiz-bang features, but this week they just have a bad reputation.

Germany has joined the fray to challenge the Facebook facial recognition feature on privacy concerns.

The Bank of New York Mellon announced Thursday that it will start charging large customers a small fee for taking their deposits. Starting August 8, clients with $50 million or more will be charged 0.13 percentage points for balances 110 percent above their average balance.