ITALY EARTHQUAKE: A powerful early morning earthquake has rocked central Italy, killing at least 50 people, including five children. Officials say the death toll is likely to rise significantly. Thousands of people have been left homeless.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi canceled a trip to Russia to
go to the stricken region. He has declared a state of emergency,
freeing up federal funds to deal with the crisis.
Italy's Civil Protection Department says the quake was centered near
the medieval town of L'Aquila, east of Rome, in the mountainous Abruzzo
region.
OBAMA-EUROPE: U.S. President Barack Obama is in Turkey as part of an effort to improve ties between the U.S. and the Muslim world.The visit Monday is the last stop of his first European trip as president.
Mr. Obama is meeting with Turkish President Abdullah Gul (in Ankara) where
he is expected to discuss the need for Washington and Ankara to
cooperate on terrorism, Afghanistan, Iran and Mideast peace.
The U.S. president will also meet Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
visit the Turkish parliament and address the general assembly Monday.
NOKOR MISSILE: The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting Sunday,
but failed to agree on how to respond to North Korea's rocket launch.
After the three-hour session, the Council's president, Mexican
Ambassador Claude Heller, told reporters that members agreed to hold
more consultations on an appropriate response.
Diplomats say the Council was unified in its deep concern about the
launch, but could not immediately agree on the form of a response.
After the session, U.N. ambassadors for Japan and the United States
said they favored a Security Council resolution condemning the launch.
China and Russia called for less severe action.
INDONESIA-MILITASRY PLANE: The Indonesian air force said Monday that 24 people are feared dead
after a training aircraft crashed at an air base in West Java.
And air force spokesman said the Dutch-made Fokker F-27 was making a
landing when it crashed and burst into flames in the city of Bandung,
southeast of the capital of Jakarta.
Officials said the cause of the crash is unknown.
US-SHOOTING: U.S. authorities have released the list of 13 people shot to death by a Vietnamese-born man at an immigration center in Binghamton, (in the northeastern state of) New York last week. The authorities said four of the victims were from China and the rest came from Brazil, Haiti, Iraq, the Philippines, the United States and Vietnam. Broome County District Attorney Gerald Molled told a news conference Sunday the shooting occurred so quickly that nothing could have saved lives, not even a faster police response. Jiverly Wong, a U.S. citizen who had taken classes at the center, entered the building Friday morning and started shooting.
