Two 10-year-old boys and a woman whose bodies were found in northern Mexico were sacrificed to Santa Muerte, the saint of death, investigators say.Figurine of Santa Muerte. (MCT image)The Sonora State Investigative Police announced Friday that eight people have been charged with the killings, CNN reported. Most of the suspects are members of a single family and one is only 15.The bodies were disco

She struggled for a free Myanmar for a quarter-century, much of it spent locked away under house arrest. Now, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate whose nonviolent campaign for democracy at home transformed her into a global icon is on the verge of ascending to public office for the first time. Aung San Suu Kyi (AP-Yonhap News)Aung San Suu Kyi, 66, was elected to parliament Sunday in a historic victory

China is closing a dozen websites, penalizing two popular social media sites and detaining six people for circulating rumors of a coup that rattled Beijing in the midst of its worst high-level political crisis in years.The extensive clampdown, announced late Friday by state media, underscores the authoritarian government's anxieties over a public that is wired to the Internet and eager to discuss

 

Google is teaming with Asia-based hardware makers on a low-priced, 7-inch tablet computer to challenge offerings by Amazon.com and Apple, reports said Thursday. The Sony’sTablet P, which runs on Google Inc.`s Android operating system. (Bloomberg-Yonhap News)Android software backed by the California Internet giant will power hardware built by partners including Samsung and Asustek to compete with i

Three lottery tickets sold in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland hit the world record-breaking $640 million Mega Millions jackpot, lottery officials said Saturday, dashing the get-rich-quick dreams of millions of players across the country.Illinois' winner used a quick pick in which the computer selected the winning numbers on a ticket sold at a convenience store in the small town of Red Bud, near St.

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) ― Queen Elizabeth II’s granddaughter Zara Phillips married England rugby star Mike Tindall on Saturday ― but Britain’s second royal wedding of the year was largely a low-key affair, with only a hint of the glamor and excitement of Prince William’s showstopping nuptials.Phillips, 30, who is 13th in line to the throne but does not use a royal title, and Tindall, 32, were gre

KABUL (AP) ― A senior Defense Ministry official who allegedly leaked secrets that helped the Taliban stage suicide attacks in Kabul has been arrested by the Afghan Intelligence Service ― one of three high profile arrests announced Saturday by the agency.A spokesman said also arrested were a senior Taliban official accused of leading an insurgent propaganda campaign in eastern Afghanistan, and an i

 

 OSLO (AP) ― The anti-Muslim extremist who confessed to a bombing and youth camp massacre that killed 77 people in Norway has told investigators he also considered attacking other targets linked to the government or the prime minister’s Labor Party, police said Saturday.During a 10-hour questioning session on Friday, Anders Behring Breivik asked interrogators how many people he had killed in the J

MADRID (AP) ― Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Friday announced early general elections in November, scheduling the race four months earlier than anticipated to give his Socialist Party a better chance to stay in power amid growing outrage over the nation’s economic woes.Zapatero set the election date for Nov. 20 even though he was not required to call elections until March a

Recent deaths, attacks by militias cast doubts as Baghdad prepares to stand aloneBAGHDAD (AP) ― Frequent bombings, assassinations and a resurgence in violence by Shiite militias have made Iraq more dangerous now than it was just a year ago, a U.S. government watchdog concludes in a report released Saturday.The findings come during what U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart

 

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) ― An assassin struck at the heart of President Hamid Karzai’s political machine in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, killing the mayor of Kandahar with an exploding turban and deepening a power vacuum in the Taliban’s main stronghold.The slaying of Mayor Ghulam Haider Hamidi was the third killing of a Karzai associate in a little more than two weeks. The attacks have jeopa

 

 

RABAT (AFP) ― A military transport plane slammed into a mountainside in bad weather in southern Morocco on Tuesday, killing all 80 people on board, hospital and military sources said.King Mohammed VI announced three days of national mourning following the crash, one of the deadliest in the country’s history.The army said 78 people were killed on the spot after the Hercules C-130 crashed on the edg

 

PRISTINA (AP) ― Kosovo’s Prime Minister has defended an order for his special police to take control of two contested border crossings with Serbia, saying it was “the right decision” despite condemnation from the European Union.Hashim Thaci said the operation in which a member of the police unit died and four others were slightly injured was a “concrete step in establishing the rule of law” in the