China has toppled America to become the biggest economy in the world, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund. The White House seemed caught flat-footed by the news, crowing on Wednesday about America's relative economic strength in comparison with the rest of the world. The US has been the global leader since it overtook Britain in 1872, but has now lost its status as top dog. The latest IMF figures show the Chinese economy is worth $17.61 trillion compared with $17.4 trillion for the U.S.

Police said that Vonderrit Myers Jr. (pictured left with his mother) first opened fire on the unidentified 32-year-old officer in Shaw, Missouri, which is less than 10 miles from Ferguson, where Brown was shot dead on August 9. Gunfire broke out after the officer, who was working for a private security firm, saw Myers and two others and approached them - causing them to flee. Myers and the officer got into a scuffle and the teen shot at the officer three times before he returned fire, killing him, police said. After the death, people gathered in the street to protest (pictured).

Ed and Paula Kassig, of Indiana, reached out to ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, to plead for the life of their son, Abdul-Rahman Kassig, whose name was Peter before converting to Islam. The 26-year-old was captured by ISIS militants on October 1, 2013 while doing humanitarian work in eastern Syria.

Amanda Brewer (right), 25, an art teacher and shark enthusiast from New Jersey, took the dramatic snapshot (left) showing a great white with its razor-sharp teeth on full display with her GoPro camera in Mossel Bay off Seal Island. Brewer traveled to South Africa this summer to volunteer as a data collector for the animal conservation organization White Shark Africa.  

Amanda Bynes was seen chain smoking, pulling up her shirt and even taking off her bra on the busy streets of New York City moments before allegedly shoplifting earlier today. TMZ claims the troubled 28-year-old actress was 'caught by security' at Barneys New York on Madison Avenue after she left the store with a $200 hat she did not pay for. Even though staff at the luxury department store were said to have called police, the What A Girl Wants star was not taken into custody and was let go after being questioned.

PIERS MORGAN: If you're President of the United States, and therefore unofficial Leader of the Free World, then your most important job every day is to make everyone feel calm and secure even as chaos reigns. POTUS is supposed to be a global figurehead for stability. That's why when George W Bush was told about the second World Trade Center attack while sitting in a classroom full of kids, he didn't jump up and race out of the room. He remained sitting, determined not to exude fear or panic in front of the cameras. It's what Presidents have to do.

Jane Fonda (left) blamed her manic depressive mother Frances (right) for her parents break-up and it had a profound impact on her self-esteem, and her attitude towards men in later life. Frances had nine abortions before Jane was born and committed suicide. She went over the edge when her husband, Jane's father, asked to marry his 20-year-old mistress.

American audiences were left awestruck at the Igorrote tribe and were dared to get as close to the 'savages' as possible, who were locked in a village in Luna Park. The tribespeople wore tattoos to denote the number of heads they had taken (headhunting axes bottom right), and celebrated victories by eating dogs. But the behavior of Dr Truman Hunt (top right) - who brought them to America and took the Filipino tribespeople's money and their dignity - has left many wondering who was 'civilized' and who was the savage.

Previously unseen pictures reveal the preparations in the hours leading up to the US nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atomic bombings of the two cities in Japan were conducted by the US during the final stages of World War Two in August 1945. A uranium gun-type atomic bomb, code-named 'Little Boy' (pictured left) was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6. This was followed by a plutonium implosion-type bomb, called 'Fat Man' on Nagasaki on August 9 (a man signs his name on the completed bomb, bottom right and it is loaded in to a pit, top right). To this day, the bombings remain history's only acts of nuclear warfare.

Kevin Davis, (right) from Corpus Christi, Texas, was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of 50-year-old Kimberly Hill (left) on Wednesday. During the trial, prosecutors played a taped confession of Davis confessing to the murder on March 26. Davis admitted to investigators he had choked his mother with a cord and stabbed her in the head before finally killing her with a hammer.

According to court filings, police reviewed emails exchanged between Mary Gilles and the teenager and say several refer to her possibly carrying his child. Mary Gilles, pictured left and right, was arrested Monday afternoon at her home in Austin on suspicion of third-degree criminal sexual conduct while working at Pacelli High School, pictured inset.

Her good looks have made her successful, says HELENA FRITH POWELL who doesn't understand Keira Knightley (inset) saying her pretty face holds her back. The actress claims she doesn't get cast in certain roles because she is too good looking.

The case of the 13-year-old girl declared brain dead does not seem to be coming to a close any time soon, with experts still disagreeing nearly 10 months after a coroner declared her dead. Paul Fisher, a Stanford University pediatric neurologist, told a California judge Monday that he sees no evidence that Jahi McMath is alive 10 months after a coroner signed her death certificate. Jahi was declared brain dead on Dec. 12 after she went into cardiac arrest following surgery to treat sleep apnea.

The haunted house in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, uses actors, noises and spooky lighting - though it's almost always pitch black - in the experience that takes between 10 and 15 minutes. While it's more subtle in its approach to inducing fear, with more of a what you don't know could hurt you-style thriller scare than blood and gore, the reactions are still priceless. 

A Colorado city is promising to revise its swimsuit rules after a Muslim woman was turned away from its recreation center pool for wearing an Islamic dress over a shirt and pants. Saba Ali said that she offered to just wear the shirt and pants to swim on Sunday but was denied. Commerce City spokeswoman Michelle Halstead says street clothes aren't allowed in the pool because they can increase the likelihood of contamination and waterborne illness.

A Las Vegas magician is going out of his way to help one very deserving man in need. Rob Anderson filmed a video (above) earlier this month where he approached homeless veteran Alan McCracken (inset), shockingly tearing up the man's sign asking for help, but then somehow producing wads of cash for the man, a U.S. Army veteran who served for six years before an honorable discharge. And now, he wants to do more. 

When an everyday object breaks, you could spend time and money fixing it, or save both by doing a botch-job with whatever comes to hand, as these DIY disasters show. From a cigarette being used as a birthday candle, to an electric heater standing in for an oven, these pictures show what happens when broken objects fall into the hands of the chronically lazy.

Paolo Ballesteros, 31, from the Philippines, uses make-up, wigs and coloured contact lenses to painstakingly recreate famous female features before posting them online for his 360,000 Instagram followers to enjoy. Angelina Jolie and Mariah Carey are his favourite stars to impersonate.

New York is the city that never sleeps, but it appears Brooklyn is the borough with the most night owls - not Manhattan. That's according to a study of sleeping patterns across the U.S., which reveals what time different counties go to bed. By monitoring the patterns of more than a million people, detailed maps showing how long people sleep for have been created. The visualizations were created by Principal Data Scientist Dr Brian Wilt from San Francisco for Jawbone.

Sunbathing on a beautiful sandy beach in the Caribbean, most holidaymakers want to hear nothing but the sound of a gentle sea breeze and waves lapping on the shore... not the deafening roar of a commercial airliner flying mere feet above their head. So Maho Beach on the idyllic island of Sint Maarten would be most people's idea of a vacation nightmare... unless you're an enthusiastic plane spotter. The island's Princess Juliana International Airport is just a stone's throw away from the beach, and with one of the world's shortest runways, planes are forced to come into land at a nail-bitingly low altitude.

These pictures show how the home town of the world's most notorious graffiti artist is now awash with colourful guerilla art - dubbed the 'Banksy effect' by experts. While graffiti has traditionally been seen as a menace by local authorities and often as an indication of an area's decline, the streets of Bristol have been filled over the past few years with an array of street art from those inspired by the elusive artist. In just five years, the attitude of both politicians appears to have changed completely – from seeing Banksy’s work (pictured inset) as vandalism to now viewing it as a huge cultural and economic benefit to the city. Bristol's assistant Mayor for the Arts, Councillor Simon Cook, said: 'There's no doubt that Banksy has had an enormous impact on both the art scene and day-to-day life in Bristol.' Pictured clockwise: A large mural on the side of a pub; street art in Bristol city centre as part of a community project; a mural on the side of a house in St Paul's; artwork by Spanish artist Aryz.

Retired Army Sergeant Noah Galloway, 33 will be the first reader to ever appear on the cover of Men's Health magazine after winning the publication's 'Ultimate Men's Health Guy' contest

These adorable pictures, taken by a tour guide in the Masai Mara National Reserve, in Kenya, show the calf tentatively taking its first steps just 30 minutes after being born. Two other giraffes guarded the mother during the brief labour, which ended with the baby falling about six feet on to the savanna floor. Andreas Knausenberger, who took the stunning photos, watched as the giraffe bent down to lick its calf clean before it tried to get to its feet for the first time.

It's not just other vehicles on the road that motorcyclists have to be wary of, but flying objects too It may be commonplace for a biker to end up being hit by bugs and flies as they speed along, but this man had a larger object coming his way. In footage captured by the unnamed man's friend Michael Garcia - who was wearing a head cam - it reveals the moment a number plate comes loose from the motorbike in front - and lodges itself in the front of his vehicle.

This month, an Australian film crew was filming in southern Ethiopia when they stumbled upon Ataye Eligidagne, 20, who has the largest lip disc in the world. The hardened clay disc is 59.5 cm in circumference and 19.5 cm in diameter. In recent times the Ethiopian government has taken measures to ban the discs, but it remains a prominent tradition amongst the Surma woman of the lower Omo Rover valley in Ethipoia.