THE TENSION: The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 10 May

It's the end of the world as we know it...

Nature's fury made life miserable Wednesday from one end of the nation to the other, with people forced out of their homes by wildfires near both coasts and the Canadian border and by major flooding in the Midwest, according to The Associated Press.

A new study by NASA scientists suggests that greenhouse-gas warming may raise average summer temperatures in the eastern United States nearly 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the 2080s.

The research found that eastern U.S. summer daily high temperatures that currently average in the low-to-mid-80s (degrees Fahrenheit) will most likely soar into the low-to-mid-90s during typical summers by the 2080s. In extreme seasons – when precipitation falls infrequently – July and August daily high temperatures could average between 100 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit in cities such as Chicago, Washington, and Atlanta.

The Associated Press reports a thief covered his face with a pair of blue women's underwear and used a pistol-shaped cigarette lighter in a botched robbery of a convenience store, police said. "I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried," State Police Sgt. T.C. Kearns told The Journal in Martinsburg, VA.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, yesterday posted its worst monthly sales figures since its records began in 1980.

The Guardian reports the company said same store sales fell 3.5% in April on the same month a year ago. Same store sales measure the performance of stores that have been open for at least 12 months.

Federal revenue collections hit an all-time high in April, contributing to a further improvement in the budget deficit for the year, reports The Associated Press and The Washington Post.

A 10-year-old boy is guilty of beating a homeless Army veteran two months ago, a judge ruled Thursday as the child was in court shackled and wearing an oversized white jumpsuit, according to The Associated Press.

Prosecutors say the boy, another 10-year-old and Jeremy Woods, 17, ganged up on John D'Amico, 58, as he and a friend walked through a Daytona Beach neighborhood on March 27. The older man was beaten and stoned with a concrete block.

The Associated Press reports thin people may be fat inside.

"Being thin doesn't automatically mean you're not fat," said Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create "fat maps" showing where people store fat.

ABC News Online reports a search team continues to look for a rocket carrying ashes of the actor James Doohan, who played Scotty on Star Trek, almost two weeks after it hurtled to the edge of space from New Mexico.

A spokeswoman for Houston-based Space Services Inc, which organised the "memorial spaceflight," says the telephone-pole sized rocket descended by parachute into a rugged area that a search team has repeatedly failed to reach.