The dramatic shooting was something out of a violent action movie with bullets flying from a black Range Rover at a gray Maserati as the vehicles raced toward a red light on the Las Vegas Strip, the city's main boulevard.Beneath the neon lights, police say, the Maserati ran a red light at a busy intersection and smashed into a taxi that exploded into flames early Thursday, killing the two people inside.Three more cars and a utility truck also collided at a crossroads home to several large casino

World News Feb. 22, 2013

U.N. nuclear inspectors recently counted nearly 200 advanced machines fully or partially installed at Iran's main uranium enrichment site, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported Thursday, confirming diplomats' accounts that Tehran has begun a major upgrade of a program that can be used to make atomic arms.Iran denies it wants such weapons and says it is enriching only to make reactor fuel and for scientific and medical purposes under international law specifically allowing such activiti

World News Feb. 22, 2013

Sales at the country's major discount outlet chains plunged from a year earlier last month with sales of department stores also dropping significantly, the government said Thursday, pointing to worsening consumer sentiments here.The combined sales of the country's three major discount outlet chains fell 24.6 percent from the same period last year in January, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The three outlet chains are Lotte Mart, E-Mart and Homeplus.The ministry attributed such a

Feb. 21, 2013

Sony unveiled a new-generation PlayStation 4 system on Wednesday and laid out its vision for the "future of gaming" in a world rich with mobile gadgets and play streamed from the Internet cloud.At a press event in New York, computer entertainment unit chief Andrew House said PS4 "represents a significant shift from thinking of PlayStation as a box or console to thinking of the PlayStation 4 as a leading place for play."PS4 was designed to get to know players, ideally to the point of being able t

Technology Feb. 21, 2013

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Wednesday that France would not give in to "terrorists" after the kidnapping of seven members of a French family in northern Cameroon.Seeming to exclude the possibility of paying a ransom, Fabius told the National Assembly: "We must do the maximum (to free the hostages) but nothing would be worse than yielding. We will not yield to terrorist groups."The family -- a couple, their children aged five, eight, 10 and 12 and an uncle -- were snatched in northern Ca

World News Feb. 21, 2013

In a disheartening signal to world powers at upcoming Iran talks, Tehran has started installing high-tech machines at its main uranium enrichment site that are capable of accelerating production of reactor fuel and _ with further upgrading _ the core of nuclear warheads, diplomats said Wednesday.Iran already announced last week that it had begun mounting the new enriching centrifuges, but one diplomat said at the time that the announcement was premature with only a “small number” on site and not

World News Feb. 21, 2013

The stock market posted its biggest loss this year on news that Federal Reserve officials suggested the central bank scale back its effort to keep borrowing costs low.Minutes from the Fed's January meeting seemed to catch investors by surprise when they were released at 2 p.m. EST. Several Fed policymakers worried that the bank's program of buying $85 billion of bonds each month could eventually unsettle financial markets or cause the bank to take losses. Even so, most of the Fed officials thoug

World Business Feb. 21, 2013

Scientists have discovered a 200-kilometer-wide impact zone in the Australian outback they believe was caused by a massive asteroid smashing into Earth more than 300 million years ago.Andrew Glikson, a visiting fellow at the Australian National University, said the asteroid measuring 10 to 20 kilometers in diameter was a giant compared to the plunging meteor that exploded above Russia a week ago.While that event set off a shockwave that shattered windows and hurt almost 1,000 people in the Urals

Technology Feb. 20, 2013

North Korea threatened to inflict the "final destruction" of South Korea in a United Nations conference, warning of further measures following its nuclear test earlier this month.During a U.N. Conference on Disarmament meeting held in Geneva on Tuesday, North Korea's diplomat Jon Yong-ryong said, "South Korea's erratic behavior would only herald its final destruction," referring to the North Korean proverb, "a newborn puppy knows no fear of a tiger." His country could take further steps in a fol

North Korea Feb. 20, 2013

About one out of five taxis across the country ceased operations Wednesday in protest of a stalled taxi bill, the government said Wednesday.According to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, 31,730 taxis halted operation in the Seoul metropolitan area, well below the government’s expectation. The strike has not hindered citizens much during the morning rush hour, as only 20.7 percent of taxi drivers nationwide joined the walkout.To minimize citizens’ inconvenience caused by the w

Social Affairs Feb. 20, 2013

Tunisia's prime minister announced his resignation Tuesday following a failed effort to form a technocratic government to see the country out of its political crisis.The resignation is expected to further deepen the country's political instability, which earlier Tuesday prompted an international ratings agency to downgrade the government's credit rating.Tunisians overthrew a dictator in January 2011, sparking the Arab Spring revolutions. A moderate Islamist party, Ennahda, won subsequent electio

World News Feb. 20, 2013

United Airlines said Tuesday it expected to keep its Boeing 787s out of service through March 30, a fresh sign of how long the aircraft could remain grounded worldwide to fix a battery problem.United, the only U.S. airline that operates Boeing's cutting-edge aircraft, said it was scheduling alternate planes through March 30 while its seven 787 Dreamliners remained grounded."We are further adjusting our published flight schedules to show alternate aircraft in place of our six Boeing 787s through

World Business Feb. 20, 2013

President Barack Obama is looking for a new candidate to lead American and allied forces in Europe after his first choice, Marine Gen. John Allen, bowed out Tuesday and announced his intention to retire for what he called personal reasons.The move further clouds the picture for Obama as he repositions key figures on his national security team and in key military leadership roles. The White House is fighting for Senate confirmation of Chuck Hagel as defense secretary; a confirmation vote was stal

World News Feb. 20, 2013