Weather alert as divers continue Italy cruise search

GIGLIO ISLAND, Italy (AFP) ― Divers combed the wreck of an Italian liner for a sixth day on Thursday, as leaked phone transcripts showed a ship’s officer misleading coast guards about the scale of the disaster.The unidentified officer insisted that there had only been “a blackout” on board some 40 minutes after the giant Costa Concordia crashed into rocks off the picturesque Tuscan island of Giglio on Friday and lurched on to its side.Eleven bodies have so far been recovered, with officials sayi

Jan. 20, 2012

Iraq vet charged with California homeless killings

A US Iraq veteran was charged Tuesday over the deaths of four homeless people in California, police said, adding that the alleged serial killer had selected more victims before he was arrested.Itzcoatl Ocampo, 23, of Yorba Linda, was caught on Friday after witnesses chased him from the scene of the

Jan. 20, 2012

5 unemployed Moroccans set selves on fire

RABAT, Morocco (AP) _ Five unemployed Moroccan men set themselves on fire in the capital Rabat as part of widespread demonstrations in the country over the lack of jobs, especially for university graduates, a rights activist said Thursday. Three were burned badly enough to be hospitalized.Self-immol

Jan. 20, 2012

Battle for control of Asia’s seas goes underwater

YOKOSUKA, Japan (AP) -- It’s getting a bit more crowded under the sea in Asia, where Andrew Peterson commands one of the world’s mightiest weapons: a $2 billion nuclear submarine with unrivaled stealth and missiles that can devastate targets hundreds of miles (kilometers) away.Super high-tech submarines like Cmdr. Peterson’s USS Oklahoma City have long been the envy of navies all over the globe -- and a key component of U.S. military strategy.“We really have no peer,” Peterson told the Associate

Jan. 19, 2012

U.S. burns off last chemical weapons

STOCKTON, Utah (AP) ― The U.S. Army has destroyed about 90 percent of its aging chemical weapons after it wraps up work this week in Utah, where it has kept its largest stockpile ― a witches’ brew of toxins, blister and blood agents that accumulated through the Cold War.The Army’s Deseret Chemical Depot in Utah’s west desert burned its last hard weapons in a 1,500-degree (815 degrees Celsius) furnace on Wednesday ― projectiles that contained mustard agent, which can produce painful skin blisters

Jan. 19, 2012

Moon mineral found for the first time on Earth in Australia

A mineral brought back to Earth by the first men on the Moon and long thought to be unique to the lunar surface has been found in Australian rocks more than one billion years old, scientists said Thursday.Named after Apollo 11’s 1969 landing site at the Sea of Tranquility, tranquillityite was one of

Jan. 19, 2012

Afghan President condemns child abuse by British soldiers

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday condemned allegations of child abuse by two British soldiers in Afghanistan, calling it an "immoral" action by the troops.The London-based Sun newspaper reported that two British soldiers had been arrested after they allegedly encouraged an Afghan boy and a

Jan. 19, 2012

Japan to set reactor lifespan at 60 yrs despite Fukushima

 TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will allow nuclear reactors to operate for up to 60 years in revised regulations on power plant operators even as it looks to shift gradually away from atomic power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.The move on Wednesday, which marks the first time Japan will set a

Jan. 18, 2012

Schools close, flights canceled as storm nears NW

SEATTLE (AP) — Schools preemptively closed, crews salted down streets and more than two dozen flights into two Pacific Northwest cities were canceled as the region prepared for a potentially major snowstorm on Wednesday.Forecasts called for about 3 to 5 inches of snow in the Seattle metropolit

Jan. 18, 2012

Singapore P.M. says Obama earns less than him, but has perks

SINGAPORE (AFP) ― Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Tuesday he may earn more than the U.S. president but Barack Obama has much better perks such as free travel on Air Force One and holidays in Camp David.Mounting a vigorous defense of the high salaries of Singapore ministers, Lee said the city-state cannot emulate the lower pay structures of bigger countries like the United States or Britain.Lee’s ruling People’s Action Party has been on the defensive since general elections in May l

Jan. 18, 2012

Mubarak trial sums up divisions within Egypt

CAIRO (AP) ― Hosni Mubarak, on trial for his life, is ferried to court by helicopter from a presidential hospital suite. His sons and co-defendants swagger in wearing designer track suits and no handcuffs. His security chief is treated with near reverence by police in the courtroom.For activists in Egypt, the scenes only deepen their feeling that the authoritarian system the ousted president oversaw remains largely in place, almost a year since the 18-day uprising that toppled him.When Mubarak’s

Jan. 18, 2012

Spain’s dictator-hunting judge tried

MADRID (AFP) ― A Spanish judge who gained international attention by pursuing former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet went on trial himself Tuesday, accused of abuse of power in an illegal wiretapping case.Judge Baltasar Garzon appeared in the Supreme Court in Madrid in one of three cases which his defenders say are politically motivated bids to stop him prosecuting crimes dating from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.Garzon, 56, is alleged to have ordered illegal wiretaps in a corruption ca

Jan. 18, 2012

Husband saves his wife’s life by giving up only life jacket

TOULOUSE, France (AFP) ― The widow of a Frenchman who died on the Costa Concordia luxury liner gave a chilling account Monday of how her husband sacrificed his life by giving her the only life jacket they had.“I owe my life to my husband,” said Nicole Servel, 61, whose husband Francis was one of at least six people to die when the luxury liner ran aground off the Italian coast on Friday night. “He said to me ‘jump, jump’. And as I don’t know how to swim, he gave me his life jacket. I was hesitan

Jan. 18, 2012

Smoke bomb thrown over White House fence

WASHINGTON, Jan 17, 2012 (AFP) - Protestors linked to the "Occupy" movement apparently threw a smoke bomb over the White House fence on Tuesday, capping a day of protests in Washington, the Secret Service said.No arrests were made after demonstrators from the Occupy DC group marched on the White Hou

Jan. 18, 2012

Asia awaits lunar year ‘dragon baby’ boom

SINGAPORE (AFP) -- A black maternity dress accentuates the football-size bulge in Cassandra Cheong’s abdomen, proudly proclaiming her status as an imminent mother of a “dragon baby.”Cheong, 26, has been carrying her daughter for 38 weeks and is due to give birth after Jan. 23, the start of the Year of the Dragon which comes every 12 years in the Chinese almanac and traditionally triggers a baby boom in Asia.“Of course I am happy,” a smiling Cheong told AFP after emerging from her gynecologist’s

Jan. 17, 2012