World
Hezbollah steps up Syria battle, Israel threatens more strikes
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Reuters on May 19, 2013, at 9:27 p.m.
AMMAN — Lebanese Hezbollah militants attacked a Syrian rebel-held town alongside Syrian troops Sunday and Israel threatened more attacks on Syria to rein the militia in, highlighting the risks of a wider regional conflict if planned peace talks fail. Activists said it was the fiercest fighting in Syria’s 2-year-old civil ...
Car bombs kill 40 in Turkey near Syrian border
By Mehmet Emin Caliskan, Reuters on May 11, 2013, at 12:24 p.m.
REYHANLI, Turkey — Twin car bombs killed around 40 people and wounded many more in a Turkish town near the Syrian border on Saturday and Turkey said it suspected Syrian involvement. The bombing increased fears that Syria’s civil war was dragging in neighbouring states despite renewed diplomatic moves towards ending ...
Carbon dioxide concentration in atmosphere reaches 3-million-year high
By Alex Morales, Bloomberg on May 10, 2013, at 3:58 p.m.
LONDON — The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surpassed 400 parts per million for the first time since measurements began, breaching a threshold not seen for 3 million years. The main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming averaged 400.03 parts per million at a monitoring station on Hawaii’s ...
Woman survives 17 days in collapsed Bangladesh garment factory where over 1,000 died
By Arun Devnath, Bloomberg on May 10, 2013, at 10:59 a.m.
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Rescuers combing through the debris of the garment-factory building that collapsed in Bangladesh Friday pulled out a woman who survived for 17 days under the rubble, even as the death toll from the disaster reached 1,045. The woman, identified as Reshma, was taken to a military hospital ...
German police arrest alleged former Auschwitz guard Hans Lipschis
STUTTGART, Germany — German police on Monday arrested a suspected former guard at the Auschwitz death camp and Nazi-hunting group Simon Wiesenthal named him as Hans Lipschis. Prosecutors in the southwestern city of Stuttgart did not name the man but said police had arrested a 93-year-old alleged former Auschwitz guard ...
Building explosion shakes central Prague; as many as 40 injured, some still trapped by blast
PRAGUE — An explosion in central Prague on Monday, probably caused by gas, injured as many as 40 people, officials said, and neighbouring buildings – including the National Theatre – had to be evacuated. The explosion, in a building facing the Vltava river just a few dozen yards from the ...
Japan to promote robots for nursing home care
By The Yomiuri Shimbun, on April 29, 2013, at 5:31 a.m.
Starting this fiscal year, the government is providing subsidies covering one-half to two-thirds of research and development costs to firms working on nursing care robots.
Cooke Aquaculture to pay $490,000 after illegal pesticides kill lobsters in Canada
A Canadian firm that is a subsidiary of the largest aquaculture operator in Maine pleaded guilty Friday in a Canadian courtroom to using illegal pesticides that killed hundreds of lobsters a little more than a mile from Maine’s border. Cooke Aquaculture, based in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick, agreed Friday to ...
Harvard debt luminaries: We don’t like austerity as much as you think
By Jason Lange, Reuters on April 26, 2013, at 4:30 p.m.
WASHINGTON — Two academics whose research became an intellectual touchstone for pro-austerity politicians want everyone to know they have been misunderstood. They actually don’t think harsh austerity is such a great idea for an ailing economy. In the political debate over debt since the financial crisis, no body of research ...
Cape Elizabeth High School robotics team finishes among the world’s best
CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine — After earning their way to the robotics world championship for the fourth consecutive year, the Cape Elizabeth High School robotics team came within reach of victory last week. As the only Maine team that qualified for the competition, juniors Anthony Castro and Luke Dvorozniak battled their ...
Swedish modeling scouts try recruiting teens at anorexia clinics
By Alyssa Rosenberg, Slate on April 24, 2013, at 5:14 a.m.
Where else would you search for perilously skinny young women who are unlikely to put on weight?
AP says Twitter hacked after false report of White House explosions
WASHINGTON — Hackers took control of The Associated Press Twitter account on Tuesday and sent a false tweet of two explosions in the White House, which briefly shook U.S. stock markets. AP spokesman Paul Colford told Reuters that the message, which also said President Barack Obama was injured, was “bogus,” ...
Plot to blow up U.S.-Canada rail line thwarted
By Euan Rocha, Reuters on April 22, 2013, at 4:20 p.m.
TORONTO — Canadian police said on Monday they had arrested and charged two men with plotting to derail a Toronto-area passenger train in an operation they say was backed by al-Qaida elements in Iran. “Had this plot been carried out, it would have resulted in innocent people being killed or ...
Boston accusations shock brothers’ former Kyrgyz hometown
By Olga Dzyubenko, Reuters on April 20, 2013, at 12:35 p.m.
TOKMOK, Kyrgyzstan — One trail in the search for clues about why two ethnic Chechen brothers may have carried out the Boston Marathon bombings leads to a sleepy town in Kyrgyzstan where former neighbours recall a quiet family that was never in trouble. Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are remembered as ...
Boston suspect was under FBI surveillance, mother says
By Timothy Heritage, Reuters on April 20, 2013, at 12:24 p.m.
One of the two ethnic Chechens suspected by U.S. officials of being behind the Boston Marathon bombings had been under FBI surveillance for at least three years, his mother said. Zubeidat Tsarnaeva told the English-language Russia Today state television station in a phone interview, a recording of which was obtained ...
Mystery of Chinese bird flu outbreak grows
By Megha Rajagopalan and Kate Kelland, Reuters on April 19, 2013, at 9:51 a.m.
BEIJING and LONDON — Health officials raised further questions on Friday about the source of a new strain of bird flu infecting humans in China after data indicated that more than half of patients had had no contact with poultry. The H7N9 virus has been found in 87 people, mostly ...
Thousands gather for ‘Iron Lady’ Margaret Thatcher’s funeral
By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times on April 17, 2013, at 9:36 a.m.
LONDON — With stately solemnity and military honors, Margaret Thatcher’s body was borne through the streets of the British capital Wednesday morning to a funeral service where hundreds of world leaders, colleagues and friends paid their last respects to this country’s first and only female prime minister. Inside imposing St. ...
Canada’s Liberals go for youth over experience in Trudeau scion
By Randall Palmer, Reuters on April 14, 2013, at 10:32 p.m.
OTTAWA — Canada’s Liberals crowned charismatic rising political star Justin Trudeau as their party leader on Sunday, relying more on hope and a youthful image than on experience and substance to contest seven years of Conservative rule. The 41-year-old son of the swashbuckling former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Justin ...
Venezuelans vote on future of ‘Chavista’ socialism
By Daniel Wallis and Todd Benson, Reuters on April 14, 2013, at 9:27 p.m.
CARACAS — Venezuelans voted on Sunday on whether to honor Hugo Chavez’s dying wish for a longtime loyalist to continue his self-styled socialist revolution or hand power to a young challenger promising business-friendly changes. Acting President Nicolas Maduro led opposition rival Henrique Capriles in most polls heading into the vote, ...
Pope Francis says hypocrisy undermines Church’s credibility
By Steve Scherer, Reuters on April 14, 2013, at 6:27 p.m.
ROME — Pope Francis on Sunday said clergy and Christians must not betray the word of God with their actions or they undermine the credibility of the Catholic Church. Francis, elected a month ago, inherited a Church struggling to restore credibility after a series of scandals, including the sexual abuse ...
Call put out for ground search volunteers in effort to find missing Glenburn teen
More than 500 help with ground search for missing Glenburn teen Nichole Cable
Three indicted in Houlton meth bust, endangering welfare of child
One winning ticket sold in Florida in historic $590.5 million Powerball drawing
Job openings on the rise as Maine slowly climbs back from recession
Jeffrey Nugent says his brother Ted Nugent is wrong on background checks
Funding isn’t everything: Education reform takes innovation, cooperation
Maine protects a woman’s right to choose
Strengthening the schools Maine already has
Emma Libby, 15, overcomes ruling to win Sport-4 race at Speedway 95
Marcus Davis wins mixed martial arts main event at NEF VII
For those who are too fat for Abercrombie and Fitch
Market Basket in Biddeford starts hiring 300 workers
Promise of land brought Theriault family to ‘Acadie’ in 1630s
How do I teach my kids it’s not OK to be bullied, even by family?
Custom guitar played by two members of the Beatles sells for $408,000 at auction