China supercomputer world's fastest

A Chinese supercomputer is the fastest in the world, according to survey results announced Monday, comfortably overtaking a US machine which now ranks second.

Tianhe-2, a supercomputer developed by China's National University of Defense Technology, achieved processing speeds of 33.86 petaflops (1000 trillion calculations) per second on a benchmarking test, earning it the number one spot in the Top 500 survey of supercomputers.

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Suspect arrested in US over Obama ricin letter

A letter addressed to President Barack Obama tested positive for ricin, and authorities arrested a suspect, stoking alarm in Washington on Wednesday after an earlier scare over poisoned mail.

The FBI said there was no connection between blasts at the Boston marathon that killed three people on Monday and mailings sent to Obama, Republican Senator Roger Wicker and an unidentified Mississippi justice official.

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Hundreds believed injured in Texas fertilizer plant blast

By Regina Dennis

WEST, Texas (Reuters) - A fiery explosion ripped through a fertilizer plant near Waco, Texas, on Wednesday night and damaged or destroyed numerous buildings including a school and nursing home, and hundreds of people were likely injured in the blast, authorities said.

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Will this Pinay be the next ‘American Idol’?

“Are you Filipino?” Nicki Minaj asked the 17-year-old who had sauntered onto the "American Idol" stage during the Sudden Death elimination round in Last Vegas Wednesday, Feb. 21.

“Yes, ma’am!” replied the teen, who was dressed in a flowy mullet skirt and sky-high heels.

Latonio, a high school student of Anchorage’s East High School, sang Aretha Franklin’s “Ain’t No Way” and received a standing ovation from the judges.

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Obama lauds Filipina 'hero' nurse

Pinoys' overwhelming concern for others even in times of difficulty is again highlighted after U.S. President Barack Obama honored a Filipina nurse Wednesday.

In his State of the Union Address, Obama lauded Menchu Sanchez, a nurse at New York University's Langone Medical Center for helping save the hospital infants during Hurricane Sandy which hit U.S. last year.

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December Completion On USS Guardian Salvage Seen

MANILA, Philippines --- The salvage operation on the stricken minesweeper, USS Guardian, is expected to be completed by December, 2013, according to the United States (US) Department of Defense (DoD).

The DoD also disclosed that recovery efforts for the Guardian, which is now on its third week of being stuck in the Tubbataha reef, costs the US government almost $25 million or more than P1 billion.

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