Vietnam asks WHO to help identify killer disease

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Vietnam has asked international health experts to help investigate a mystery illness that has killed 19 people and sickened 171 others in an impoverished district in central Vietnam, an official said Friday.The infection has mostly affected children and young people. It begins with a high fever, loss of appetite and a rash that covers the hands and feet. Patients who are not

April 20, 2012

Southern California teacher fired over porn video

A Southern California science teacher has been fired for performing in a pornographic video.Oxnard School District trustees voted in closed session Wednesday night to fire Stacie Halas, who taught seventh- and eighth-graders at Richard B. Haydock Intermediate School.She had been on paid administrative leave since her appearance on the video surfaced last month. No students are in the video.The vid

April 20, 2012

Pakistan doctors save life of baby with six legs

Doctors in Pakistan say they have successfully operated to save the life of a baby born with six legs due to a rare genetic condition, hospital officials said Thursday.“A team of five experienced doctors have successfully separated the extra legs and limbs from the baby today. He is very much safe and secure,” said Jamal Raza, the director of National Institute of the Child Health in Karachi.Raza

April 20, 2012

China leaders less bullish on global rise: survey

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Despite the confidence of China's public, the Asian power's elite is becoming less certain that the country will surpass the United States as the top global power, a major survey said Thursday.A wide-ranging poll of opinion in the two countries showed that most Chinese and Americans hold positive views of the other nation despite the frequent tensions between the world's two lar

April 20, 2012

India test-fires new nuke-capable misslie

NEW DELHI (AP) ― India announced the successful test launch Thursday of a new nuclear-capable missile that would give it the capability of striking the major Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai for the first time.The Agni-V missile, with a range of 5,000 kilometers, still requires a battery of tests before it can be inducted into India’s arsenal. But officials hailed the successful launch as a major boost to the country’s efforts to counter China’s regional dominance and become a respected wo

April 19, 2012

Canada may take U.S. prisoner

TORONTO (AP) ― Canada said Wednesday that the U.S. wants to send back the last remaining Western detainee at Guantanamo, and the Canadian government must now decide whether to take him.Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is considering repatriating Omar Khadr, the ministry said in a statement. It did not say when a decision was expected, but a U.S. official suggested it could be soon.Khadr, 25, pleaded guilty in 2010 to killing a U.S. soldier and was eligible to return to Canada from Guantanamo Bay

April 19, 2012

Three agents out over Secret Service sex scandal

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Moving swiftly, the Secret Service forced out three agents Wednesday in a prostitution scandal that has embarrassed President Barack Obama. A senior congressman welcomed the move to hold people responsible for the tawdry episode but warned “it’s not over.”The agency announced three agents are leaving the service even as separate U.S. government investigations were under way.The Secret Service did not identify the agents being forced out of the government or eight more it said r

April 19, 2012

Gunman wants freedom or death

OSLO (AP) ― The right-wing fanatic on trial for massacring 77 people in Norway says he wants either freedom or death, calling the country’s prison terms “pathetic” and arguing for the return of capital punishment, which was last used here to execute Nazi collaborators after World War II.In the third day of his terror trial, Anders Behring Breivik was grilled by prosecutors about the anti-Muslim militant group he claims to belong to.He rejected their suggestions that the “Knights Templar” doesn’t

April 19, 2012

Secret Service gives Nugent a call

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Rocker and gun rights champion Ted Nugent says he will meet with the Secret Service on Thursday to explain his raucous remarks about what he called Barack Obama’s “evil, America-hating administration” ― comments some critics interpreted as a threat against the president.“The conclusion will be obvious that I threatened no one,” Nugent told radio interviewer Glenn Beck on Wednesday. Nugent said he’d been contacted by the agency and would cooperate fully even though he found the

April 19, 2012

Lawyer admits to 81-cent theft from 1992

An Australian lawyer admitted in court to stealing 81 cents from a wishing fountain nearly two decades ago.Simon Matters, 38, of Victoria was charged in 1992 with grabbing a handful of change from the wishing fountain in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, when he was 19 years old and he went home after denying the allegations to police, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported Wednesday.However, he recently di

April 19, 2012

world

Secret Service calls Nugent over anti-Obama screed WASHINGTON (AP) — Rocker and gun rights champion Ted Nugent says he will meet with the Secret Service on Thursday to explain his raucous remarks about what he called Barack Obama‘s “evil, America-hating administration” — comments some critics interpreted as a threat against the president.“The conclusion will be obvious that I threatened no one,” Nugent told radio interviewer Glenn Beck on Wednesday. Nugent said he’d been contacted by the agency

April 19, 2012

Thai parliament flashed by pornographic picture

The graphic image of a naked woman caused shockwaves in Thailand's parliament on Wednesday when it flashed across big screens during a legislators' debate.Monitors that had been showing a close-up shots of the parliamentarian addressing the house suddenly flashed a picture of a woman of Asian appearance in a provocative pose.MP Sanong Thepaksornnarong, from Thailand's Bhumjaithai Party, spotted th

April 19, 2012

Girl, 8, made to wear sign as punishment

An Illinois school district sent a letter to parents after a father made his 8-year-old daughter stand outside a school with a sign saying she likes "to steal."Superintendent Mike Brink of High Mount School District 116 said he sent the letter home after Montrail White forced his third-grade daughter to hold a sign reading "I like to steal from others and lie about it" outside of High Mount School

April 19, 2012

Scandal claims jobs of three Secret Service agents

The US Secret Service said Wednesday that three employees will leave their jobs over the sex scandal in a hotel in Colombia which tarnished the elite presidential protection agency's image.Two leading congressmen meanwhile revealed in a letter to Secret Service chief Mark Sullivan obtained by ABC News that agents accused of consorting with prostitutes may have been careless with "sensitive securit

April 19, 2012

Tokyo mega-quake would kill over 9,000: simulation

TOKYO (AFP) - More than 9,600 people would die with nearly 150,000 injured if a mega-quake struck Tokyo, a disaster that would also level large parts of the Japanese capital, a government projection said Wednesday.The frightening simulation was released by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government as Japan slowly rebuilds its northeast coast, which was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 quake in March last yea

April 18, 2012