Doctor says vendor may have been in rubble 27 days
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The tale seems dubious: that a rice vendor survived 27 days trapped under the rubble of a flea market following Haiti's devastating earthquake. Skeptical health workers said no one could live that long without water and the last confirmed survivor found was a 16-year-old girl removed from rubble 15 days after the Jan. 12 quake. The only sources for the story were the two Haitian men who showed up at a clinic carrying the vendor, dehydrated and malnourished with rail-thin legs.
Iran rewards Basij militia with political clout
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — During an Iranian government meeting late last month, a top adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brought a proposal to expand the political voice of a group more known for its street muscle: the civilian militia corps called the Basij. The motion passed easily, according to pro-government Web sites.
Officials: Afghan avalanches kill 157 people
KABUL (AP) — At least 157 people have been killed in a series of avalanches that blocked a mountain pass north of Kabul, trapping hundreds more in their snowbound vehicles, Afghan officials said Wednesday. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said rescuers have recovered the 157 bodies from the Salang Pass, a key road that connects the Afghan capital with the north, over the past two days.
Political supporters clash in streets of Sri Lanka
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Government supporters hurled stones at thousands of opposition activists demonstrating against the arrest of their defeated presidential candidate in Sri Lanka's capital Wednesday. Clashes began outside the country's Supreme Court, where opposition supporters gathered to protest the arrest of former army chief Sarath Fonseka, who was taken into custody by military police Monday on sedition charges.
China jails young man for joining political party
BEIJING (AP) — A 20-year-old factory worker who joined a banned political party because he was unhappy with one-party rule in China was sentenced to jail for 18 months Wednesday, his mother said. A court in southern China's boomtown city of Shenzhen found Xue Mingkai guilty of subversion of state power because he joined the U.S.-based China Democracy Party last April, Xue's mother Wang Shuqing said.
Arrested Tijuana cops were hailed as models
TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — Just a few weeks ago, the two officers were lauded as part of a new breed of honest cop, elevated to become key players in a drive to overhaul one of Mexico's most notorious police forces. Now Francisco Ortega and Juan Carlos Espinoza are among five Tijuana police officers under arrest in a crackdown on a drug gang that has beheaded rivals then hung their mutilated corpses from freeway bridges or dissolved them in vats of caustic soda.
Toyota starts fixing Priuses recalled in Japan
TOKYO (AP) — Prius owners in Japan are rushing to dealers for repairs a day after Toyota's president announced a global recall for a glitch in the car's antilock brake system. Instead of screwdrivers and wrenches, mechanics are fixing the problem with a laptop-like device that rewrites problem programming for the brakes.
Myanmar court sentences US man to 3 years' prison
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A Myanmar court ordered a U.S. citizen Wednesday to serve three years in prison for entering the military-ruled country with forged documents and undeclared foreign currency. Nyi Nyi Aung, who was born in Myanmar and has campaigned for democracy in the country from abroad, faced a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison on a variety of charges that his lawyers argued should not apply to foreigners.
Suspect on trial in Indonesia hotel bombings
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An alleged Islamist militant being tried on charges of harboring terrorists behind deadly twin hotel bombings in the Indonesian capital claimed Wednesday that he had helped craft a plot to assassinate the president. Amir Abdillah appeared in South Jakarta District Court on charges of violating Indonesia's anti-terrorism law, including concealing information and harboring terrorists linked with the July 17, 2009 attacks at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta. The bombings, which killed seven and wounded more than 50, ended a four-year lull in terrorism in the Muslim-majority country.
UN envoy in North Korea to spur nuke talks
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A senior U.N. envoy pressed ahead Wednesday with international efforts to get North Korea back into nuclear disarmament talks, during the world body's first high-level visit to the reclusive state in nearly six years. In Beijing, top nuclear negotiators from North Korea and China were to meet again Wednesday, a day after discussing how to restart the six-nation nuclear talks aimed at ridding Pyongyang of its atomic weapons program in return for aid, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
