  Statistical fluctuations of the light emitted from amplifying random media
are studied theoretically and numerically. The characteristic scales of the
diffusive motion of light lead to Gaussian or power-law (Levy) distributed
fluctuations depending on external control parameters. In the Levy regime, the
output pulse is highly irregular leading to huge deviations from a mean--field
description. Monte Carlo simulations of a simplified model which includes the
population of the medium, demonstrate the two statistical regimes and provide a
comparison with dynamical rate equations. Different statistics of the
fluctuations helps to explain recent experimental observations reported in the
literature.
