NEW Thomas Boone Pickens IV, a student at Texas Christian University, was rushed to a hospital from his off-campus apartment today. He was soon declared dead. There is no immediate word on cause of death. 'We are deeply saddened by the loss of this member of our community,' a school official said in the statement.

Laurel, 15, who prefers to use only her first name for privacy, posted a picture of the cake and accompanying pun-laden letter on her Ellen DeGeneres fan blog. 'Good morning parents, I'm gay,' she wrote. 'I've wanted to tell you for a long time. I thought doing it this way would be a piece of cake. I hope you still love me. I mean, it's hard not to love someone who baked you a cake.'

UPDATED Brendan Marrocco, (pictured right) the Iraq veteran who lost all four limbs in a roadside bombing in Iraq said today he's looking forward to driving and swimming with new arms after showing off his double-arm transplant to the world today. The 26-year-old New Yorker spoke at a news conference at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was joined by surgeons who performed the arduous and complex 13-hour operation.

Known as post-mortem photography, some of the dearly departed were photographed in their coffin. In others, they were made to look like they were in a deep sleep. Children were often shown in repose on a couch or in a crib, while adults were more commonly posed in chairs.

Connersville police officer Jeff Counceller says that it was a little more than two years ago while on patrol that he discovered this tiny deer curled up on a neighbor's front porch, badly wounded and unable to stand. Unbeknownst to Mr Counceller and his wife at the time, however, was that bringing the animal home with them was illegal according to Indiana's Department of Natural Resources, with the crime punishable by jail.

Surfing legend Garrett McNamara is thought to have beaten his own world record for the biggest wave ever ridden in Nazare, Portugal. The U.S. born surfer has held the record since catching a 78ft tall break at the same spot in 2011. Yesterday bystanders looked on in awe as he successfully navigated a wall of water thought to measure around 100ft.

Rashad Greene, 30, was left alone with his grandmother and 28-year-old ex-girlfriend after Magistrate Tracy Stoner briefly left the Summit County courtroom in Ohio on Friday. On the footage, Greene can be seen becoming increasingly agitated as his ex-girlfriend sits around the other side of the table. He suddenly jumps to his feet and lunges towards her before throwing her to the floor and punching her. He is eventually subdued by a sheriff's deputy's stun gun.

UPDATED The 1913 Liberty Head nickel is one of only five known to exist, and will go to auction in April, in Chicago. It's the coin's back story that adds to its cachet: It was surreptitiously and illegally cast, discovered in a car wreck that killed its owner, declared a fake to its owners, forgotten in a closet for decades and then found to be the real deal.

Private First Class Ted Daniels, 37, says he can no longer watch the video, which has been viewed on YouTube 23million times, because it is too painful to watch. It also got him in trouble with his commanders, who called the dramatic cries for help after he was wounded served as a propaganda victory for the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Susan Kay Archer (left) died on the same stretch of Northern California beach that she walked nearly every day with her boyfriend Sion Tallerico (right) and her dog Trigger. Archer's body was brought to shore after a 45-minute search by boat and helicopter. Sneaker waves are disproportionately large breakers that can appear without warning.

Signs of decline are everywhere in Detroit - crime is rising with the murder rate of one per 1,719 people last year more than 11 times the rate in New York City. The city's budget problems have deepened to such an extent that it could run out of cash in a matter of weeks or months and ultimately be forced into what would be the largest-ever Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy filing in the United States. The move represents the tragic decline of a city that was once the beating heart of America's motor industry (right).

Fu Xuepeng, 30, has been paralysed from the neck down and unable to breathe on his own since a motorcycle accident five years ago. His parents were forced to remove him from hospital because they could no longer afford his care bills. Caring for him at home, they bought a bag valve mask ventilator and have manually pumped lifesaving oxygen into his lungs by hand ever since. Their only break is at night, when a home built DIY ventilator is used - but the high cost of electricity means they cannot use it all day.

Darnell Logan, who was born as a male but lives as a female named Measha, allegedly carried out the vicious attack with the help of two men in Jersey City, New Jersey. He allegedly knocked out the man - whom he knew - outside his apartment before dragging him inside, where he stripped him and stole $600 and a mobile phone. The man called police from the scene the next morning.

Turkish police have released footage of Sarai Sierra (pictured) as she walked through an Istanbul mall the day before she was supposed to catch a flight home.
But she never boarded the flight. Police have revealed she took several excursions out of Turkey during her solo trip, travelling to Amsterdam and Munich, and they are now trying to establish why she took the trips. Her husband, who said he knew about the trips, said his wife had been speaking with a man who was a tour guide in the Netherlands.

The circus performer and six-time Guinness World Record holder Nik Wallenda performed the stunt on Tuesday over U.S. 41 in Sarasota, Florida. The Sarasota City Commission allowed the daredevil to perform the 500ft walk without a tether, wowing the thousands of spectators who had gathered beneath him.

Stanwood Fred Elkus of Lake Elsinore was arrested following the Monday afternoon shooting of Dr Franklin Gilbert and held on $1 million bail. Responding officers found Dr Ronald Gilbert, pictured left, dead from multiple gunshot wounds to the upper torso in a patient examination room on the building's second floor. Dr Gilbert is the founder and chief scientist at Absorption Pharmaceuticals LLC, the makers of a drug called Promescent, which is dedicated to curing premature ejaculation.

Bulgarian drugs lord Zlatomir Ivanov, second right, was shot four times in his legs, arm and stomach on the steps into the building in central Sofia yesterday. The 44-year-old was there to appeal against his eight-year jail sentence, police said. Ivanov and his bodyguard, who was also wounded, were taken to hospital, where the mafia head was due to have surgery. Inset, police comb the scene for clues to the identity of the gunman, who they think was positioned in a building opposite the court.

The terrace at JFK will be located in a $1.2 billion redevelopment of Terminal 4 set to open in May. Another is set to open at Atlanta International this summer. However for those passengers who smoke and were hoping to have one last puff before boarding expect to be disappointed as the areas are strictly no smoking.

With a 49cc engine and top speeds of 40 miles per hour they may not be every petrol-head's idea of a dream ride. But at just 57 inches long, 100 miles to the gallon and still able to fix a six driver inside, they could solve a few commuting problems. Fanatical Bruce Weiner, of Madison, Georgia, has spent the past 15 years fastidiously scouring the world buying up hundreds of the finest microcars.

Nirvana's Nevermind, Blondie's Parallel Lines and the Strokes album Is This It are just some of the iconic album covers that have been given the cat treatment. Even legends Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson have not been spared.

A total of ten endangered pygmy elephants found dead in a forest in the Malaysian state of Sabah, on Borneo, are thought to have been poisoned. The cause of death appears to be poisoning, but it is not yet known whether the elephants were the target of a malicious attack. Wildlife officials rescued one three-month-old elephant calf (main picture) found trying to rouse its dead mother in the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve.