Passenger train derails in India, killing at least 13

A passenger train derailed in western India on Sunday, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than 100, an official said.

The engine and four coaches jumped the tracks near Roha station, 70 miles south of Mumbai, said police officer Ankush Shinde.

The rescuers used gas cutters to open the derailed coaches to reach those trapped inside. Big cranes were deployed to remove these coaches from the rail track, Shinde said.

Two of the derailed coaches tilted on one side and one overturned, said railway spokesman Anil Kumar Saxena.

The rescue operation was continuing and the death toll was expected to rise, Shinde said.

Saxena said that 123 injured passengers, some of them in serious condition, were taken to a hospital.

The cause of the derailment was not immediately known. Rail authorities ordered an investigation into the accident, Saxena said.

Train movement in the area was suspended as the derailed coaches and the rescue operation blocked an adjacent track as well.

Railway accidents are common in India, which has one of the world's largest train networks and serves 20 million passengers a day. Most accidents are blamed on poor maintenance and human error.

Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, held in Mexico, said he never intended to leave US

A Marine veteran jailed in Mexico on weapons charges for allegedly bringing guns across the border said he never intended to leave the country but missed an exit when heading to meet friends in a border town.

Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, 25, said he was headed to dinner in San Ysidro on March 31 when he mistakenly wound up at a border crossing point in Tijuana, U-T San Diego reported Sunday.

"I was going to call them after I drove off the exit, but I never got off the exit, I blew right past it," he told the newspaper in an interview from jail. "I wasn't paying attention, thinking I had way farther to go. I ended up in Mexico with no way to turn around."

He said Mexican authorities found three guns inside the truck he had recently driven from Florida to make a new start in San Diego. He was jailed, and is now being held in Tijuana's La Mesa Penitentiary without bail.

Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter last week wrote a letter asking Secretary of State John Kerry to secure Tahmooressi's release. State Department officials said they were aware of an arrest of a U.S. citizen in Mexico, but they do not comment on arrests of private individuals without the person's permission.

Similar cases have occurred before. In 2008, an active-duty Army soldier was jailed in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, for driving into Mexico with guns, knives and ammunition. In 1999, a Marine was detained in Tijuana for two weeks after driving into Mexico with guns, the newspaper reported.

If Tahmooressi is convicted, he faces six to 21 years in a Mexican prison, his lawyers said, adding that alternatively the case could be dropped if the Mexican attorney general's office in Mexico City requests dismissal.

Tahmooressi served four years in the Marines, including two tours in Afghanistan. He says he was honorably discharged in November 2012.

After he was jailed, Tahmooressi tried to escape by climbing over a gate and heading up onto a roof, and then onto another one. He gave up when a guard opened fire, but the incident earned him the nickname "Spider-Man."

He later grabbed a light bulb and stabbed himself in the neck. He was taken to the hospital and given stiches.

He said he longs for his family and friends and has been receiving visits from an English-speaking Christian chaplain.

"I put my faith in God that he will take care of me," he said. "It was just a big mistake, and I hope that the people here will realize that and that the judge will realize that."

2 Chinese sailors dead, 6 missing after sinking, official says

Two Chinese sailors died and six are believed to be missing after their boat sank in the Pacific Ocean, an official at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base said Sunday.

Maj. Sarah Schwennesen said that a Venezuelan fishing boat reported finding 11 sailors floating in a raft Friday afternoon.

She said the Venezuelan crew said four sailors were badly burned. Two later died of their injuries.

Airmen from the 563rd Rescue Group parachuted into the water Saturday afternoon and used inflatable boats to reach the Venezuelan vessel, which is 1,100 nautical miles west of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Schwennesen said. They treated the injured sailors Saturday and into Sunday morning.

The rescuers treated the sailors, who will be hoisted, along with the U.S. airmen, onto three helicopters Sunday and flown to Cabo San Lucas. The injured pair will then be taken in a different aircraft to a burn unit in San Diego, accompanied by the airmen giving them care.

The distance required to reach the sailors has been the most challenging, Schwennesen said. Because of an estimated six-hour flight that included flying over miles of ocean, a refueling aircraft was dispatched from the Arizona Air National Guard in Phoenix.

"The assistance of refueling by the 161st out of Phoenix was critical in providing faster care," Schwennesen said. "They could refuel over the Pacific Ocean rather than fly down to Mexico first."

The Venezuelan boat had sent out a request for help around 5 p.m. Friday, and it was received by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center.

British police plan dig around resort area where Madeleine McCann was last seen

British police have reportedly told the parents of missing girl Madeleine McCann that they intend to launch extensive digs in and around the resort area where the 3-year-old was staying with her parents when she was abducted in 2007. 

The Daily Mirror reported that a team of forensic officers will use radar equipment to search for clues to the whereabouts of Madeleine.

A source close to Kate and Gerry McCann told the paper that police were not acting on a specific tip, but were rather conducting their own digs to search for evidence the Portuguese authorities may have missed.

The investigation into Madeleine's disappearance has been marked by tension between the Metropolitan Police and Portuguese investigators. The Mirror reported that the Metropolitan Police have requested access to files and evidence from the original investigation by local authorities for months. 

There have also been a number of leads regarding possible suspects that have not panned out. Over the weekend, the Mirror reported that British detectives are currently investigating a suspected pedophile ring believed to be active in the Algarve region of Portugal at the time of Madeleine's disappearance. The paper reported that authorities are trying to identify someone responsible for 18 break-ins at Algarve villas between 2004 and 2010. At least nine of those break-ins reportedly involved sexual assaults against British girls as young as ten. 

Saturday marked the seventh anniversary of the disappearance of Madeleine, whose 11th birthday would have been celebrated May 12. Her parents, who were initially investigated as suspects by Portuguese authorities, have publicly maintained that their daughter is still alive and have pressed British police to conduct their own investigation of the disappearance. 

Magnitude 6.0 quake jolts Tokyo, 17 reported injured

A strong earthquake jolted Tokyo early Monday, rattling windows and nerves though there were no initial reports of major damage. The national broadcaster NHK, citing local authorities, said 17 people were reported injured, some of them from falls as the quake struck.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake at 5:18 a.m. local time (4:18 p.m. ET Sunday) had a magnitude of 6.0 and was centered 99 miles under the seabed near Izu Oshima island south of Tokyo.

The quake was felt across a wide area of Japan, with the strongest shaking registered in central Tokyo, the agency reported. Tokyo Fire Department reported that four people were injured, but details were not immediately available.

The national broadcaster NHK said it was the strongest quake felt in the Japanese capital since the aftershocks of a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 off the northeastern coast that left more than 18,500 people dead or missing.

There were no reports of damage or other abnormalities from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, which was crippled in the 2011 disasters, leading to the closures of all Japan's nuclear reactors for safety checks.

At least 4 dead as Ukraine mounts offensive in Slovyansk, Odessa

Ukrainian forces were entrenched in deadly gun battles Monday against pro-Russian fighters in the eastern town of Slovyansk, and the government sent an elite national guard unit to the southern port city of Odessa, in the latest attempt to restore Kiev's control over the increasingly unstable region. 

In Slovyansk, witnesses heard gunfire and several explosions as government troops faced off against some 800 pro-Russian insurgents, the Associated Press reported. The rebels are armed with large-caliber weapons and mortars.

Violence in several areas around the city caused injuries on both sides. A pro-Russia militia spokesman in Slovyansk said an unspecified number of people had been killed and wounded in the clashes, including a 20-year-old woman killed by a stray bullet. Ukraine's interim interior minister, Arsen Avakhov reported four officers were killed and 30 were wounded in the fighting.

An Mi-24 Ukrainian helicopter under heavy machine gun fire was shot down over Slavyansk and crashed into a river Monday, Sky News reported. The Ukrainian defense ministry said the two pilots survived the crash and fled to a nearby camp, but their conditions were unknown.  

Pro-Russian rebels have shot down at least three other helicopters in the last week in eastern Ukraine.

Sky News reporter Stuart Ramsay-- who saw the chopper come down—said it was picking up soldiers at the time of the crash. "The fighting was very intense this morning. It was described as an ambush but we understand it was part of the Ukraine government's attempts to take out a ring of checkpoints," Ramsay said.

Earlier Monday, the BBC, citing the Russian Interfax news agency, reported that government forces had taken control of a TV tower and forced the insurgents to retreat deeper inside Slovyansk. Reuters reported that heavy gunfire could be heard closer to the center of town than in recent days, while at least two armored vehicles controlled by separatists were seen retreating. 

The fresh fighting comes one day after army troops cut off the main road into Slovyansk as part of what the government has described as "anti-terror" operations meant to retake government buildings captured by insurgents in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea in March.

Ukraine’s ongoing crisis has polarized the nation of 46 million. Some citizens in western regions want to create closer ties to Europe and the West, while other Russian speakers in the east want to remain with Russia.

In recent weeks, anti-government forces have stormed and seized government buildings and police stations in a dozen eastern Ukrainian cities.  Authorities in Kiev -- who blame Russia for backing the insurgents -- have up to now been largely powerless to react. And since Russia has kept tens of thousands of troops along Ukraine's eastern border -- and annexed its key Black Sea peninsula of Crimea last month -- Ukraine's central government fears Russia could try to invade and grab more territory.

Popular opinion has apparently been galvanized against the interim government by Friday's violence in the Black Sea port of Odessa, in which at least 46 people were killed. Most of the dead were pro-Russia activists who barricaded themselves in the city's trade union building, which was set on fire by pro-Kiev demonstrators outside.

The actions of the security force in Odessa drew condemnation from Ukraine interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who vowed that he would order an independent investigation into the conduct of the police. However, a BBC reporter who spoke to residents of the towns around Slovyansk said that she had been told that what happened in Odessa "cannot be forgiven."

Events threatened to further spiral out of the Kiev government's control Sunday, when pro-Russia protesters attacked the main police station in Odessa and freed 67 people who had been arrested in relation to Friday's violence. Late Sunday, thousands of pro-Ukraine protesters marched through the city to the regional police headquarters and the trade union building, singing Ukraine's national anthem.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement Monday that it was sending an elite national guard unit from Kiev to re-establish control in the city, and said 42 of those arrested during the rioting were being sent to another region for investigation.  

Russia, which the international community has accused of promoting the unrest, has vociferously condemned Ukraine's recent security operations in the east.

In another sign of how fraught the situation has become, Reuters reported Monday that Ukraine's largest bank, Privatbank, had temporarily closed branches in the eastern cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. 

"In the current circumstances we cannot and do not have the right to make people go to work in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where armed people break into bank branches and seize security vans in the towns,'' Privatbank said in a statement obtained by Reuters. The bank's co-owner, Igor Kolomoisky, reportedly enraged pro-Russian fighters by reportedly pledging gifts of $10,000 per "saboteur" arrested by Ukrainian troops. 

Also late Sunday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier began a push to hold a second round of talks in Geneva in the hope of stopping the violence. 

Steinmeier told Germany's ARD television late Sunday all parties must push for a return to the accord reached in Switzerland last month encouraging all sides to lay down arms.

Steinmeier said new talks are needed in the wake of recent violence to produce a "clear conclusion as to how this conflict can be brought to a halt."

He said he has been pushing for the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Steinmeier called anew for an expanded OSCE role, saying its observers had provided "highly important" information.

Strong earthquake shakes northern Thailand, Myanmar

A strong earthquake shook northern Thailand and Myanmar on Monday evening, smashing windows, cracking walls and roads and damaging Buddhist temples. No casualties were reported.

The airport in Chiang Rai, a northern Thai city near the epicenter of the 6.3-magnitude temblor, evacuated people from its terminal, where display signs and pieces of the ceiling fell. There was no damage to the runway or flight disruptions, airport General Manager Damrong Klongakara said.

A well-known temple in the city, the all-white Wat Rongkhun, was closed due to safety concerns after the earthquake.

"The spire of the main building came off and the tiles on the roof fell off," Chalermchai Kositpiphat, the artist who designed the temple, told Nation TV. "I still don't know how we can sleep tonight. ... It was shaking the whole time and then aftershocks followed four to five times. It will bring more damages each time an aftershock happens, I'm afraid.

"The murals are also damaged because the pillars were shaken badly," Chalermchai said. "I don't know how many years it will take me to fix it. ... It was tumbling like the earth was going to explode."

The head of a Buddha statue fell at the Udomwaree Temple in Chiang Rai, according to monk Phra Pathompong. A residential building at the temple also had exterior cracks and ceiling damage, and residents reported only minor damage in their homes, he said.

In Chiang Rai's Phan district, one road was split by multiple cracks, the worst a waist-high gash about the length of three vehicles.

People ran down stairs in office buildings in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, and severe shaking also was felt in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-largest city. Window curtains briefly swayed in the Thai capital, Bangkok.

No casualties have been reported and damage was reported only to roads and buildings, said Anusorn Kaewkangwan, deputy director-general at the Interior Ministry.

Thailand's Meteorological Department said the quake was 6.3 magnitude. The U.S. Geological Survey measured it at 6.0 and said the epicenter was 6 miles south of Mae Lao and 17 miles southwest of Chiang Rai. Its depth was a relatively shallow 4.6 miles. Shallow quakes are generally felt more widely.

Southeast Asia is seismically active and quakes are often felt in surrounding nations. Thailand has several faults, though in recent times quakes centered in the country have been less severe than those in other Southeast Asian nations such as Myanmar and Indonesia.

The 9.1-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra island on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered an Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 8,000 people in Thailand's coastal areas, among its overall death toll of 240,000.

The last quake in Thailand approaching a similar size to Monday's was one of 5.1 magnitude on Dec. 13, 2006, in the northern province of Chiang Mai.

US aid indirectly helps Hamas, under deal with Palestinian Authority

Those conditions have been met by the PA, but Hamas, under whose control Gaza has continued to be a launching pad for cross-border missile attacks into Israel and a safe haven for Islamic Jihad and even Al Qaeda, steadfastly refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and is reportedly pressuring the PA to cease security co-operation with Israel in the West Bank. Zanotti’s report, however, highlights a clause that might leave wiggle room for the PA to avoid losing U.S. support.

“It is unclear whether a consensus government of the type anticipated under various Fatah-Hamas agreements since 2011 would come under the legal definition of a “power-sharing PA government that includes Hamas as a member” or a government over which Hamas exercises “undue influence.” It is also unclear whether it would come under the legal definition of a “Hamas controlled” PA government, and thus trigger the additional conditions on U.S. aid cited above.”

The emerging bond between the PA and Hamas has Western diplomats concerned and Israel outraged. Today, PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal met face-to-face in Doha, Qatar, for the first time in 16 months, in a further sign of the warming relationship between the two parties. AFP reported a Palestinian official as saying, "The meeting was positive, with both leaders expressing a serious willingness to turn over a new leaf based on national partnership.”

In his recent interview with Fox News just a day after the new PA-Hamas rapprochement was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- whose refusal to release the final batch of convicted Palestinian terrorists from Israeli custody was blamed by the Palestinians for finally derailing the peace talks -- was scathing in his criticism of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

"It's a blow to Israel; it's a blow to peace," Netanyahu said. "It's a terrible blow to the Palestinian people, because they must choose... whether they want to go forward or go backward. Yesterday, with the pact with Hamas, the Palestinian people... took a huge step backward, away from peace, away from a good future for themselves."

Jonathan Schanzer, author of the recently published book, State of Failure: Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas and the Unmaking of the Palestinian State, told Fox News.com a power-sharing deal between the two factions, if reached, would warrant a move by the U.S. to cut aid. Kerry has not commented on whether the U.S. agrees.

“Proponents of the recent reconciliation process insist that the next step is a technocratic government that would include figures approved by Hamas and Fatah," he said. "But they insist that this is not grounds for cutting aid -- that only an elected national unity government would prompt such a cut. The integration of Hamas and PA security forces would destroy this argument. Until the integration of these forces, U.S. funds are not used to aid Hamas. However, the moment this happens, it is grounds for a full cut in assistance.” 

Abd al-Salam Siyam, secretary-general of the Hamas cabinet in Gaza, announced Sunday in a carefully worded official statement that the security officers would be deployed in Gaza for an “interim period” as a step toward the unity agreement between the two Palestinian factions. Reports suggest that many of the 3,000 PA men heading to Gaza had previously been involved in security in the territory prior to the election of Hamas in 2006 and the subsequent internal blood-letting and mass murders that followed Gaza’s lurch toward a radical Islamic regime.

“Reconciliation is positive in the sense that it would solve the problem of identifying the interlocutor on the Palestinian side” Schanzer suggests. “But it is virtually impossible to imagine peace between the Palestinians and Israelis when Hamas is involved. In other words, Fatah’s embrace of Hamas may lead to national unity, [but] it portends poorly for peace.” 

Video shows Islamic extremist threatening to sell abducted Nigerian schoolgirls

An Islamic extremist leader has threatened to sell the 276 teenage girls his terror group abducted from a school in northeast Nigeria three weeks ago.

In a videotape screened by the Associated Press Monday, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for the April 15 kidnappings for the first time. He also threatened to attack more schools and take additional girls.

"I abducted your girls," said the leader of Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sinful."

He described the girls as "slaves" and said "By Allah, I will sell them in the marketplace." The hour-long video starts with fighters lofting automatic rifles and shooting in the air as they chant "Allahu akbar!" or "God is great."

The Pentagon said Monday it had not received any request to assist in the search for the teenage girls. But Secretary of State John Kerry did vow Saturday that the U.S. would help Nigerian officials locate the schoolgirls in whatever way it can.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney also said Monday that the U.S. provides general counterterrorism assistance to Nigeria.

“This is an outrage and a tragedy and we are doing what we can to assist the Nigerian government to support its efforts to find and free the young women who were abducted,” Carney said.

It was unclear if the new video was made before or after reports emerged last week that some of the girls have been forced to marry their abductors -- who paid a nominal bride price of $12 -- and that others have been carried into neighboring Cameroon and Chad. Those reports could not be verified.

In the video, Shekau also says the students "will remain slaves with us." That appears a reference to the ancient jihadi custom of enslaving women captured in a holy war, who then can be used as sex slaves.

"They are slaves and I will sell them because I have the market to sell them," he said, speaking in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria.

The video was reviewed by The Associated Press and both the face and the voice of the leader of Boko Haram were recognizable.

Shekau brushed off warnings that the abductions could be an international crime, saying in English, as if to reach his accusers in the international community: "What do you know about human rights? You're just claiming human rights (abuses), but you don't know what it is."

An intermediary who has said Boko Haram is ready to negotiate ransoms for the girls also said two of the girls have died of snakebite and about 20 are ill. He said Christians among the girls have been forced to convert to Islam. The man, an Islamic scholar, spoke on condition of anonymity because his position is sensitive.

Nigeria's police have said more than 300 girls-- ages 16 through 18--  were abducted. Of that number, 276 remain in captivity and 53 escaped.

The failure to rescue the girls is a massive embarrassment to Nigeria's government and the military, already confronted by mounting criticism over its apparent inability to curb the 5-year-old Islamic uprising despite having draconian powers through an 11-month state of emergency in three northeastern states.

Protesters all over Nigeria expressed anger, many saying President Goodluck Jonathan is not doing enough to rescue the girls. Jonathan, who is from the predominantly Christian south of Nigeria, has been accused of insensitivity to the plight of people in the north, who are mainly Muslims.

First lady Patience Jonathan fueled frustration Monday when a leader of a protest march said she ordered the arrests of two protest leaders, expressed doubts there was any kidnapping and accused the protest leaders of belonging to Boko Haram.

It was unclear what authority Mrs. Jonathan would have to give such orders, since there is no office of first lady in the Nigerian constitution.

Ayo Adewuyi, spokesman for the first lady, said he was unaware of any arrests. "The first lady did not order the arrest of anybody, and I'm sure of that," he told the AP..

But Saratu Angus Ndirpaya of Chibok town said State Security Service agents drove her and protest leader Naomi Mutah Nyadar to a police station Monday after an all-night meeting at the presidential villa in Abuja, the capital. She said police immediately released her but that Nyadar remains in detention.

Monday afternoon, police said she had been returned home. A statement denied she was detained, saying she was "invited ... (to) an interactive and fact-finding interview. "

Ndirpaya said Mrs. Jonathan accused them of fabricating the abductions. "She told so many lies, that we just wanted the government of Nigeria to have a bad name, that we did not want to support her husband's rule," she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

She said other women at the meeting, allies of Mrs. Jonathan including officials of the government and the ruling party, cheered and chanted "yes, yes," when Mrs. Jonathan accused them of belonging to Boko Haram. "They said we are Boko Haram, and that Mrs. Nyadar is a member of Boko Haram." She said Nyadar and herself do not have daughters among those abducted, but are supporting the mothers of kidnapped daughters.

Mrs. Jonathan said the women "had no right to protest," especially Nyadar, whom she identified as the deputy director of the National Directorate of Employment. Jonathan said Nyadar should resign her government post, Ndirpaya said.

In a report on the meeting, Daily Trust newspaper quoted Mrs. Jonathan as ordering all Nigerian women to stop protesting, and threatening "should anything happen to them during protests, they should blame themselves."

On Sunday night, Jonathan said his administration is doing everything possible. On Friday he created a presidential committee to go to the affected Borno state to work with the community on a strategy to get the girls free.

Heavily armed gunmen believed to Boko Haram raided a Cameroonian police unit near the Nigerian border early Monday, killing an officer on duty and freeing one of their detained comrades, authorities there said.

Ukraine PM blames security forces for not stopping Odessa violence as Kiev claims advances in east

Ukraine's interim Prime Minister placed blame for an outbreak of violence that left 42 people dead in the city of Odessa at the feet of the country's security services Sunday. 

Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the BBC that the Kiev government would allow a "full, comprehensive, and independent investigation" into Friday's clashes in the Black Sea port. The violence began with street fighting between two sides in which at least three people were reported killed by gunfire, then turned into a grisly conflagration when government opponents took refuge in a building that caught fire after protesters threw firebombs inside.

"I personally blame the security service and law enforcement office for doing nothing to stop this crackdown," Yatsenyuk told the BBC. However, the Prime Minister also said protesters were also to blame for "provoking the unrest," and accused Russia and the protesters of orchestrating "really war ... to eliminate Ukraine and eliminate Ukranian independence."

Yatsenyuk's comments came as his government claimed that troops had made advances against positions held by pro-Russian rebels in the eastern part of Ukraine.  Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a statement on his Facebook page that a new assault to reclaim control over the town of Kramatorsk by the National Guard and armed forces began at dawn on Sunday. The government also claimed that its forces had reclaimed a television tower in the town. 

The city saw a standoff Saturday that culminated in insurgents setting buses alight to ward off attacks. Russian state television has reported 10 deaths, including two among government forces, during clashes in Kramatorsk so far. Those figures could not be independently confirmed.

At least 12 government armored personnel carriers were spotted driving through the town Saturday, although they appeared to have returned to their base at a military airfield on the edge of the city by day's end.

 Efforts to counteract the insurgency have focused mostly on the nearby town of Slovyansk; authorities are currently seeking to form a security cordon around that city. A BBC correspondent reported that Ukrainian forces were attempting to gain control of some of the smaller towns near Slovyansk. Residents reportedly expect Ukrainian troops to storm the town. 

The blockade has already resulted in a spate of panic-buying in the city with long lines forming outside grocery stores.

Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly claimed victories in capturing checkpoints surrounding the city, although such boasts have often proven overstated.

Government buildings have been seized by pro-Russian forces in more than a dozen or so cities and town across eastern Ukraine.

Andriy Parubiy, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said an "anti-terrorist operation" will be carried out in towns beyond Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, according to Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Traffic around the Donetsk region, where the insurgency is strongest, has been impeded by a proliferation barricades manned by men armed variously with sticks, automatic rifles and handguns.

The goals of the insurgency are ostensibly geared toward pushing for broad powers of autonomy. Russia, which the international community has accused of promoting the unrest, has vociferously condemned recent Ukrainian security operations in the east.

The self-styled Donetsk People's Republic says it plans to hold a referendum on autonomy by May 11, but with less than a week remaining, little visible effort has been to make that vote happen.

Despite the ongoing unrest, Yatsenyyuk said Kiev hadn't "entirely lost the control ... much will depend on the local population, whether they support peace and security. 

Elections are scheduled to take place May 25 in Ukraine. Yatsenyuk has led the interim government since former Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych was deposed in February.

Korean company donates used PCs to PH schools

A South Korean company has donated 50 used computers to several schools in the Philippines.

Six schools in the Philippines received the desktop computers from TSIS. The computers were used by TSIS engineers for three years.

"Our engineers need high specifications (for the computers). Three-year-old computers are old for them but they are still good for ordinary users. The second-hand ones are still good enough so we try to find the proper organization that will benefit from these old computers," TSIS chief executive officer Ted Kang.

Kang said the company believes students should have same opportunities when it comes to education. This is why they chose to donate the computers to schools in the Philippines.

"Nowadays, the quality of education is not just about books anymore. Students need to be connected to the world. If they are isolated they will be behind," he said.

Prelate asks gov’t to stop ‘sex tourism’ in Palawan

A Catholic bishop is calling on the government to act on the rising “sex tourism” in Palawan, one of the country’s most popular summer destinations for both local and foreign tourists.

Puerto Princesa Bishop Pedro Arigo, in an article posted on the website of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said Palawan faces an increasingly serious child exploitation and sex tourism problem despite the generally positive impact of the tourism industry.

The bishop urged the authorities to show their determination to crack down on sex tourism, which he said was showing an alarming trend in the area.

“Let’s keep eco-tourism as what it is and not by adding immoral and malice practices,” Arigo said.

He called on government agencies to be more vigilant and address the growing problem. According to him, this is not a problem in Palawan only, but in the whole country.

“As much as possible, especially here in Palawan where ecotourism is very popular, let’s keep tourism wholesome, healthy and clean,” Arigo said.

Chris Brown to stay in jail for at least another week

Brown was led into the courtroom in Los Angeles in handcuffs on Thursday, having been transported from Washington DC for the short hearing with Superior Court Judge James R Brandlin.

The singer could face a number of punishments, including more jail time, if a judge decides he did violate the terms of his probation by getting arrested after a man was punched in October outside a hotel in Washington DC.

Judge Brandlin had ordered Brown into rehab in December for anger management treatment, after revoking his probation.

Afghan Landslide Survivor Says Second Slip Buried Helpers

A survivor of the disastrous landslide that buried a village in Afghanistan told Saturday that the rock movement sounded like “a huge explosion.”

Haji Faizullah said he was in the doomed village of Aabe Barik to attend a wedding along with about 500 other guests when more than one third of the homes were buried.

“It is the most frightening thing I have ever seen,” he told NBC News by telephone from the scene. “I am still in shock.”

Rescuers and volunteers armed with shovels were picking through the mud but hope of rescuing any of the estimated 2,000 villagers missing “has now disappeared,” a senior U.N. official said.

Fazullah said the Friday’s landslip happened as he was preparing for lunch at around 11 a.m. local time (2.30 a.m. ET) ahead of the wedding.

“We heard the sound of a huge explosion that shook everything very badly,” he said. “I was thrown off my feet. Then I realized a part of the mountain had slid down.”

“I was thrown aside and managed to run up the hills. People from nearby homes rushed to the scene to help – and within 15 minutes another part of the hill slid onto the same part of the village, burying all those who had come to help.”

Students and teacher suspended after PORN is accidentally shown in class from tutor's laptop

Two students have been suspended after their teacher is believed to have accidentally shown pornography on a classroom projector.

The children, at a high school in Kansas City, were suspended after they shared a picture one of them took during the class.

The image, which was on the teacher's personal laptop, shows a "naked woman in a compromising position", according to KCTV .

The mother of one of the students, said her daughter came home crying.

She explained that her daughter sent the picture to her boyfriend who then sent it to another friend and it was then posted on Facebook.

As a result, the girl and her boyfriend were suspended.

The mother said: "When she came home from school she was crying her eyes out, unable to speak about what had happened. It was very upsetting that this is happening when our kids are in school, when they are supposed to be learning."

The other mother said: "I believe my son got in trouble because the school was trying to hide something".

The teacher, who has worked at the school since 2002, was put on paid leave while the incident is investigated.

Odessa police call for calm after 42 people die in protest clash

The police chief in Odessa is calling on residents of the Ukrainian port city to remain calm in the wake of violence between government supporters and opponents that left at least 42 people dead.

The deaths came Friday in a clash that started with street fighting then turned into a conflagration when government opponents took shelter in a building that then caught on fire, reportedly because of firebombs thrown through the windows.

The local office of the emergencies ministry said Saturday that 36 bodies were discovered inside the building. Before the fire, police said at least three people were killed by gunfire. The Interior Ministry on Saturday said the total casualty toll was 42, but did not give a breakdown.

North Korea releases list of US 'human rights abuses'

North Korea is pushing back against a United Nations report on its human rights violations with a report of its own -- one that lists "human rights abuses" in the U.S.

The official Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday released a news article titled "News Analysis on Poor Human Rights Records in U.S.," which discusses racial discrimination, unemployment and poverty, The Washington Post reported.

The article refers to the U.S. as "the world's worst human right abuser and tundra of a human being's rights to existence" and makes the following points:

"Under the citizenship act, racialism is getting more severe in the U.S. The gaps between the minorities and the whites are very wide in the exercise of such rights to work and elect."

"The U.S. true colors as a kingdom of racial discrimination was fully revealed by last year's case that the Florida Court gave a verdict of not guilty to a white policeman who shot to death an innocent black boy."

"That's why 52 percent of the Americans have said that racism still exists in the country while 46 percent contended that all sorts of discrimination would be everlasting."

"The U.S. is a living hell as elementary rights to existence are ruthlessly violated."

North Korea previously accused the U.S. of  orchestrating the U.N. commission's February report that it committed crimes against humanity, calling the findings and recommendations  "extremely dangerous" political provocations.

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry found evidence of an array of crimes, including "extermination," crimes against humanity against starving populations and a widespread campaign of abductions of individuals in South Korea and Japan. 

The three-member panel recommended that the U.N. Security Council refer its findings to the International Criminal Court, which is unlikely to happen given likely opposition among permanent council members that have veto power to prevent the move.

Police in India arrest 22 for arson, helping insurgents kill 29 Muslim villagers

Police in India arrested 22 people after separatist rebels went on a rampage, burning homes and killing 29 Muslims in the worst outbreak of ethnic violence in the remote northeastern region in two years, officials said Saturday.

The arrests came after authorities called in the army to restore order in Assam state and imposed an indefinite curfew in the wake of the killings blamed on the rebels from the Bodo tribe, who have long accused Muslim residents of sneaking into India illegally from neighboring Bangladesh.

A state minister for border areas, Siddique Ahmed, said after visiting the violence-hit areas that his government and the ruling Congress party failed to protect the victims, who included at least eight women and as many children.

"Even 2-year-old children who could barely walk have been shot dead. I have never witnessed such scenes in my life," he told reporters.

Police said they arrested 22 people who allegedly burned homes or provided shelter to the insurgents, according to regional police inspector general L. R. Bishnoi. He gave no other details.

He said the rebels belong to a faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, which has been fighting for a separate homeland for the ethnic Bodo people for decades. The Bodos are an indigenous tribe in Assam, making up 10 percent of the state's 33 million people.

However, the rebel faction in an email to reporters Saturday denied the charge and blamed the killings on the state government.

The violence came at a time of heightened security during India's general election, with the voting taking place over six weeks. Tensions have been high since a Bodo lawmaker in India's Parliament criticized Muslims for not voting for the Bodo candidate, said Lafikul Islam Ahmed, leader of a Muslim youth organization called the All Bodoland Muslim Students' Union.

Local television reports showed hundreds of Muslim villagers fleeing their homes with belongings on pushcarts or in their hands. Most were headed to nearby Dubri district, which is near the border with Bangladesh. Nearly 400 people have fled so far, Bishnoi said.

In 2012, weekslong violence between Bodo people and Muslims killed as many as 100 people in the same area.

Police said that in the third and most recent attack on Friday evening, militants entered a village in the western Baksa district and set at least 40 Muslim homes ablaze before opening fire. Assam's additional director general of police R.M. Singh said 11 bodies, all of them shot to death, were recovered from the attack.

Another seven bodies were recovered Saturday, Bishnoi said.

The first attack took place in the same district late Thursday night when at least eight rebels opened fire on a group of villagers sitting in a courtyard. Four people were killed and two others were wounded, police said. The second attack happened around midnight in Kokrajhar district when more than 20 armed men, their faces covered with black hoods, broke open the doors of two homes and sprayed them with bullets, killing seven people, witnesses said.

Crying inconsolably, 28-year-old Mohammed Sheikh Ali said his mother, wife and daughter were killed in the attack.

"I will curse myself forever because I failed to save them," Ali said in a telephone interview from a hospital where he was waiting for doctors to complete the autopsies on his family. "I am left all alone in this world. ... I want justice."

Dozens of rebel groups have been fighting the government and sometimes each other for years in seven states in northeast India. They demand greater regional autonomy or independent homelands for the indigenous groups they represent.

The rebels accuse the federal government of exploiting the region's rich mineral resources but neglecting the local people.

At least 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in Assam state alone in the last three decades.

Police get extra 48 hours to question Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams

BELFAST, Northern Ireland –  Northern Ireland police received an extra 48 hours Friday to question Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams about an Irish Republican Army killing of a Belfast widow, a development that has infuriated his Irish nationalist party and raised questions about the stability of the province's Catholic-Protestant government.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland confirmed in a statement its detectives received permission at a closed-door hearing with a judge to detain Adams for up to two more days.

Had the request been refused, Adams would have had to be charged or released by Friday night, two days after his arrest as a suspect in the 1972 abduction, slaying and secret burial of Jean McConville, a Belfast mother of 10. The new deadline is Sunday night, although this too could be extended with judicial permission.

The unexpectedly long detention of Adams left senior party colleagues seething. Sinn Fein warned it could end its support for law and order in Northern Ireland -- a key peacemaking commitment that enabled the creation of Northern Ireland's unity government seven years ago -- if Adams is charged.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein official who governs Northern Ireland alongside British Protestant politicians, said his party would review its 2007 vote to recognize the legitimacy of Northern Ireland's police if Adams isn't freed without charge. Protestants required that commitment before agreeing to cooperate with Sinn Fein.

McGuinness, who like Adams reputedly was an IRA commander for three decades, said Sinn Fein would "continue to support the reformers within policing" if Adams was freed.

"Or the situation will not work out in the way we believe that it should. If it doesn't, we will have to review that situation," he said.

Moderate politicians criticized Sinn Fein for making unreasonable threats.

The justice minister in Northern Ireland's five-party government, David Ford, told journalists outside the police station where Adams is being held that detectives were just doing their jobs in investigating one of the most heinous crimes of the four-decade conflict. Without specifying any of his government colleagues, Ford said some were seeking to promote instability.

"I have seen no evidence, in the four years that I have been minister, of policing being operated on a political basis. I have certainly seen plenty of evidence of politicians from different backgrounds seeking to interfere in policing," said Ford, who leads Alliance, the only party actively seeking support from both the Irish Catholic and British Protestant side of the divide. It receives few votes.

Were Sinn Fein to withdraw support from law and order, it would offer a green light to today's still-active IRA factions to increase attacks on police. It also would risk the Protestant side's withdrawal from the power-sharing government and force the Northern Ireland Assembly to be dissolved for an emergency election.

Adams, who as Sinn Fein chief since 1983 is Europe's longest-serving party leader, denies any role in the IRA. But former members who spoke on tape to a Boston College-commissioned research project say he was the outlawed group's Belfast commander in 1972 and ordered the killing and secret burial of McConville, a widow whom the IRA branded a British Army spy.

McConville's eldest daughter, who has led a two-decade campaign for the truth, says she's praying for a murder charge -- and is prepared to name publicly those IRA members she believes stormed into their home on the day of her mother's abduction. Her other siblings say they're too afraid to take this step because it could inspire IRA attacks on themselves or their children.

"What are they going to do to me? They have done so much to me in the last 42 years. Are they going to come and put a bullet in my head? Well, they know where I live," Helen McKendry said.

The underground army killed nearly 1,800 people -- including scores of Catholic civilians and IRA members branded spies and informers -- before calling a 1997 cease-fire so Sinn Fein could pursue peace with Britain and Northern Ireland's Protestant majority.

Two decades ago, Adams initially insisted in brief face-to-face meetings with McKendry that the IRA wasn't involved, but pledged to look into it. Finally in 1999, the IRA admitted responsibility for the slayings of nine long-vanished civilians and IRA members, including McConville, and offered to pinpoint her unmarked grave on a beach 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Belfast in the Republic of Ireland.

That effort failed despite extensive digging. Then in 2003, a dog walker stumbled across her skeletal remains, with its bullet-shattered skull, protruding from a bluff above a different beach.

The police investigation of the McConville killing has accelerated since detectives last year received a potential treasure trove of taped interviews with IRA veterans recorded for a Boston College oral history project. Subjects agreed to speak candidly about their IRA careers on condition the audiotapes would remain under lock and key until their deaths. But the Northern Ireland police sued for access to all of them after one interviewee, Brendan Hughes, died and his accusations against Adams were published and broadcast in 2010.

Boston College successfully fought to limit the handover to 11 interviews from around a half-dozen IRA figures that explicitly mention the McConville killing. It isn't known whether any others back Hughes' central accusation that Adams ordered McConville's body dumped in an unmarked grave rather than put on public display in Belfast, as other IRA leaders wanted.

While Sinn Fein has protested that Adams' arrest is politically biased, Northern Ireland's main newspaper wrote Friday that it suggested the opposite: that the police are unwilling to treat any politician as untouchable.

"The wheels of justice in his case must grind at exactly the same speed as those of anyone else questioned about a crime," the Belfast Telegraph wrote in its lead editorial.

"We have an independent police force and an independent prosecution service and we must trust them to act justly and according to the evidence before them," it said. "That is how a mature democracy treats its citizens, unlike the kangaroo court that sentenced Mrs. McConville to death."

Iran bans WhatsApp because of link to 'American Zionist' Mark Zuckerberg

The Iranian regime has banned access to the WhatsApp messaging site, a popular site for many to communicate both inside and outside the country, stating that a Jewish “American Zionist” owns the site.

The announcement came some two months after Facebook bought the company for a stunning $19 billion, and a regime official connected the move directly to the founder of Facebook.

"The reason for this is the assumption of WhatsApp by the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is an American Zionist," Abdolsamad Khorramabadi, head of the country's Committee on Internet Crimes, stated.

One Iranian blogger told FoxNews.com the regime in Tehran is terrified of the power of social media.

“The Revolutionary Guard sees these social sites as a major threat because there’s an appeal for young people and the government worries about the exchange of information,” said the blogger, who asked not to be identified. “(Supreme Leader) Khamenei and his cronies, caught on to the power and potential of these sites after the (Green Revolution) uprisings.”

Facebook officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Since the June 2009 post-election uprisings in Iran, protesters facing violent retaliation by government forces turned to the Internet and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as blogging sites, as effective and safer ways to voice political dissent.

Soon after, rumors began about the government cutting the Internet altogether and replacing it with a Halal Net, or Islamically permissible Intranet that would only allow access to government-approved sites.

Now, the buzz inside the country is that applications such as Viber, Tango, Instagram and Facebook could be banned next.

Censorship official Khoramabadi said while there are no current plans or orders to block these sites, they may be added in the future.

Late last year, there was media stir about the government’s decision to block access to another popular chatting site called WeChat.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard, began tracing Internet activity in the aftermath of the 2009 Green Revolution and in 2011, police forces formed the Iranian Cyber Police, or FATA solely to counter Internet crimes.

The committee overseeing criminal Internet activity now has 13 members including six officials from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani`s cabinet.

Ironically, Rouhani, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and many other regime officials have become active on Twitter and Facebook and communicate globally through these platforms.

Over the last few years, Iranians have become accustomed to accessing mainstream social and information sites through third-party proxies in order to circumvent restrictions and avoid government surveillance.

In October of 2012, Iran’s cyber police arrested 35-year-old Sattar Beheshti, a blogger, for crimes “against national security on social networks and Facebook.”

Beheshti had openly criticized the government online. He was found dead less than a month later in his prison cell and is believed to have been tortured to death, the government denied that was the case.

Russian separatists down 2 choppers, fighting spreads to Odessa as Ukraine teeters

Pro-Russian separatists shot down two helicopters in a key eastern Ukrainian city, and fighting in the port city of Odessa triggered a fire that killed dozens, as the embattled nation moved closer to the brink of civil war.

Interim Ukraine President Oleksandr Turchynov said "many" pro-Russia rebels have been killed, injured and arrested in a major offensive to regain control of Slavyansk, though it was not clear if the Kiev-backed forces had succeeded. Russia reacted angrily to the offensive by Ukrainian security forces, calling for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council after a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin warned it "effectively destroyed the last hope for the implementation of the Geneva agreements."

In the Black Sea port city of Odessa, Ukraine's third-largest city, a fire that broke out in a trade union building amid clashes killed 31. Fighting there represented another ominous milestone in the conflict that threatens to become a full-blown civil war, as Odessa holds huge historic significance for Russians and Ukrainians alike.

A Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman told Fox News that two Ukrainian helicopters were shot down and two of their crewmembers were killed and several Ukrainian soldiers were injured in the fighting around Slovyansk.

Residents of the city of 130,000 in the divided province of Donetsk were warned to stay indoors as a Ukrainian "anti-terrorist operation" was mounted. Two Mi24 helicopters were taken down with mobile surface-to-air missiles, killing two military officers and injuring others, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry website. Another army helicopter, an Mi8, was damaged but no one was hurt, it said.

The Ukrainian Security Service said its forces were fighting "highly skilled foreign military men" in Slovyansk. The clash seemed to counter Russia's claims that the city is under control of civilians who took up arms.

Stella Khorosheva, a spokeswoman for the pro-Russian militants, said one of their men was killed and another injured. She offered no further details.

A Reuters photographer said he saw a military helicopter open fire on the outskirts of the town and a reporter heard gunfire. Pro-Russia forces told Reuters they were under attack and that at least one helicopter had been shot down. 

Vyacheslav Ponomarev, the insurgency-appointed mayor of Slovyansk, told Fox News that three Ukrainian helicopters had been shot down. He said that one pilot was killed and another had ran away from the scene. 

The Ukrainian interior minister, Arsen Avakov, said on his official Facebook page that government troops met fierce resistance, but had managed to take control of nine checkpoints on roads around Slovyansk. 

The official spokesman for the military wing of the pro-Russian forces, who will give only his first name, Vladislav, said fighting had broken out at several points around the city. He said government armored vehicles were seen on roads leading into Slovyansk and claimed that Ukrainian troops had made incursions into the city itself.  

By nightfall, Ukrainian troops and armored personnel carriers blocked all major roads into Slovyansk, and the central part of the city remained in the hands of pro-Russia gunmen, according to Associated Press journalists inside. Most shops were closed, and the few that were open were crowded with customers stocking up on supplies. 

It appeared to be the first major assault against the insurgents, who have seized police stations and other government buildings in about a dozen cities in southeastern Ukraine.

The armed element of the insurgency focused on Slovyansk, a city 100 miles west of Russia in which seven European military observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe remain held by pro-Russia gunmen.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman said the Kremlin had sent an envoy to Ukraine's southeast to negotiate the release of foreign military observers who were captured by pro-Russian militia in Slovyansk.

In comments to Russian news agencies, Peskov did not specify where Vladimir Lukin was sent to but said the Kremlin has not been able to get in touch with him since Ukraine launched the offensive.

Moscow has consistently denounced Ukrainian security forces' largely ineffectual operation against the eastern insurgents and warned they should not commit violence against civilians.

In a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday, Putin said the removal of military units was the "main thing," but it was unclear if that could be construed as an outright demand.

“Putin emphasized that it was imperative today to withdraw all military units from the southeastern regions, stop the violence and immediately launch a broad national dialogue as part of the constitutional reform process involving all regions and political forces,” the Russian government said in a statement, according to The New York Times.

Oleksandr Turchynov's conscription order marked a turnaround for the country, which last year announced plans to end military conscription in favor of an all-volunteer force. His order did not specify where conscript-bolstered forces could be deployed. The renewal of military conscription affects only men 18 to 25 years old.

Earlier in the week, the acting president said police and security forces had been effectively "helpless" against insurgents in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the heart of the unrest, and that efforts should be focused on preventing the instability from spreading to other parts of the country.

Gunmen attack security headquarters in Benghazi killing 9 police, soldiers

Gunmen attacked a security forces headquarters in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi early Friday, killing nine people and wounding 24, authorities said, blaming an Islamic extremist group allegedly behind the attack of a U.S. diplomatic post there.

A security official said the attack started when dozens of gunmen opened fire with machine guns and mortars. The onslaught lasted for an hour, with the fighting heard miles away.

Libyan commandos later arrived and fought the attackers, though the official said they suffered heavy casualties. A statement issued by the interim government and read by Cabinet spokesman Ahmed al-Amin put the death toll at nine people. Milad al-Zowi, a commando spokesman, said the dead were six army commandos and three police officers. Al-Zowe said that three soldiers and a police officer were missing after the battle.

A local hospital official said some of the slain troops were badly butchered, with some corpses burned.

The official said his hospital treated 24 people wounded in the fighting, with most suffering gunshot wounds to the chest and the abdomen. Some were in critical condition, he said.

The government said a number of militants were killed, while others were wounded and arrested. The statement did not elaborate.

Attackers likely tried to get their hands on a car loaded with weapons and ammunition that the security forces had confiscated the previous night, authorities added.  A security official at the Benghazi headquarters, Gamal al-Amami, said the driver of the vehicle belonged to the Libya Shield militia.

The hospital official and security official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

The government's statement blamed Ansar al-Shariah, a hard-line Islamist militia, for Friday's attack, along with other "criminal groups."

The government condemned the attack and said they will not accept "the presence of armed and illegal terrorist groups."

Ansar al-Shariah is blamed for the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans on Sept. 11, 2012.

In January, the U.S. State Department designated the two branches of the Ansar al-Shariah in Libya and a third branch in Tunisia as foreign terrorist organizations.

Benghazi, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising that led to the downfall of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, has witnessed a series of attacks, targeted killings and bombings, mostly striking soldiers and police officers who served under the ousted ruler.

Libya has seen a severe deterioration in security and the government has depended on unruly militias in the absence of a strong police force or a unified military.

On Tuesday, a car bomb exploded in front of a military compound in Benghazi, killing two soldiers and wounding two. Later Friday, a car bomb killed a soldier driving his vehicle in Benghazi, officials said.

UN panel on torture to put unlikely guest on hot seat: the Vatican

The United Nations Committee against Torture, which requires nations to come before the panel and defend their human rights records, will put an unlikely subject on its hot seat next week when it calls in the Vatican.

The UN panel, which includes representatives from China, the U.S. and eight other nations, will meet in Geneva and call the Vatican to account for its record on torture and inhumane punishment in a procedure to be aired live on the Internet beginning Monday. It's standard procedure for all 155 nations that signed on to the committee's convention to submit a report and come before the panel, and the Vatican is both a nation-state and a signatory. Cyprus, Lithuania, Guinea, Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Thailand and Uruguay are also scheduled to appear beginning next week.

“The Holy See initiated the procedure by submitting their written report,” Felice Gaer, the U.S. representative and a vice-chair of the committee, told FoxNews.com.

At past sessions, nations that carry out or condone practices universally recognized as inhumane have been forced to defend their records. The Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, has called for the committee to grill the Vatican regarding longstanding allegations of sexual abuse among clergy, contending failures in the Holy See’s response to the scandal amounts to a violation of the convention.

Newly arrived virus spread by mosquitoes is rapidly gaining foothold across the Caribbean

A recently arrived mosquito-borne virus that causes an abrupt onset of high fever and intense joint pain is rapidly gaining a foothold in many spots of the Caribbean, health experts said Thursday.

There are currently more than 4,000 confirmed cases of the fast-spreading chikungunya virus in the Caribbean, most of them in the French Caribbean islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe and St. Martin. Another 31,000 suspected cases have been reported across the region of scattered islands.

The often painful illness most commonly found in Asia and Africa was first detected in December in tiny St. Martin. It was the first time that local transmission of chikungunya had been reported in the Americas. Since then, it has spread to nearly a dozen other islands and French Guiana, an overseas department of France on the north shoulder of South America.

It is rarely fatal and most chikungunya patients rebound within a week, but some people experience joint pain for months to years. There is no vaccine and it is spread by the pervasive Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits dengue fever, a similar but often more serious illness with a deadly hemorrhagic form.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is closely monitoring the uncontrolled spread of the new vector-borne virus in the Caribbean and has been advising travelers about how best to protect themselves, such as applying mosquito repellant and sleeping in screened rooms. It is also closely watching for any signs of chikungunya in the U.S.

"To help prepare the United States for possible introduction of the virus, CDC has been working with state health departments to increase awareness about chikungunya and to facilitate diagnostic testing and early detection of any U.S. cases," said Dr. Erin Staples, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC.

Dozens of injuries reported in South Korean subway accident

A subway train hit another train stopped at a station in South Korea's capital on Friday, causing minor injuries for scores of people, a city official said.

Yonhap news agency reported that the moving train ran into the back of a train that had stopped because of mechanical problems. The agency reported that a failure in the moving train's automatic distance control system may have been responsible, but that officials were still investigating.

Local media also reported long delays in officials providing instructions to passengers about what to do. That could strike a nerve in South Korea, where the captain in an April 16 ferry sinking that killed hundreds of people has been condemned for waiting 30 minutes to issue an evacuation order as the ship sank.

About 170 people said they felt pain after the accident Friday and 32 were taken to a nearby hospital, but there were no serious injuries, the city official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to talk to the media on the matter. Another official later said it wasn't clear how many were taken to the hospital.

Hospital officials also said there were no serious injuries.

The accident comes as South Koreans are criticizing the government for lax safety practices that many feel contributed to the ferry sinking, which left more than 300 people, mostly high school students, dead or missing.