U.N. and Haitian authorities say an overloaded ferry has sunk off the Caribbean country's southern coast, killing at least 11 people.U.N. peacekeeping mission spokesman David Wimhurst says most of the 100 people aboard the crowded ferry were able to swim to safety. The boat sank after taking on water about 150 yards (150 meters) from shore late Saturday. more >>
Search crews combed debris-strewn fields for possible tornado victims Sunday as residents picked through the remains of homes demolished by storms that smashed through the Plains and South, killing at least 21 people in three states. At least 14 people died in the sparsely populated countryside of southwestern Missouri, and searchers feared more bodies would be found. At least six people were killed in the fading mining town of Picher, Okla., and at least one person died in storms in Georgia. more >>
Serbia's pro-Western president declared victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections - a stunning upset over ultranationalists who tried to exploit anger over Kosovo's independence. But his rivals vowed to fight on, and it was unclear if he could stave off their challenge. "This is a great day for Serbia," Boris Tadic proclaimed after an independent monitoring group that carried out a parallel vote count nationwide said his bloc won 39 percent - about 10 percent more than the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party. more >>
Former Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said Sunday that he thinks Barack Obama will be the party's presidential nominee and that Hillary Rodham Clinton must be careful not to damage the party's prospects in November as she continues her campaign. "I know how hard it is to get up and go out there every day, speak to the media, speak to crowds, when people are urging you to get out of the race. I mean, it's a very hard place to be in. But she's shown a lot of strength about that," said Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who exited the race in January. more >>
The main parties that participated in early parliamentary elections in Serbia on Sunday: - SERBIAN RADICAL PARTY: Far-right party that ruled with former strongman Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s. Leader Vojislav Seselj is on trial at the Netherlands-based U.N. war crimes tribunal. The Radicals still advocate forming a Greater Serbia and have pledged never to hand over the remaining Serb war crimes fugitives. They want to scrap Serbia's efforts to join the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia. more >>
Lebanon hung between fears of all-out war and hopes of political compromise Sunday as government supporters and opponents battled with rockets and machine guns in the mountains overlooking the capital. The fighting saw the collapse of pro-government forces in the Aley region, a stronghold of anti-Syrian Druse leader Walid Jumblatt. more >>
There is a legend that the ancient Maya possessed 13 crystal skulls which, when united, hold the power of saving the Earth - a tale so strange and fantastic that it inspired the latest Indiana Jones movie. Experts dismiss the hundreds of existing crystal skulls as fakes that were probably made by colorful antiquities traders in the 19th century. But Mayan priests worship the skulls, even today, and real-life skull hunters still search for them. more >>
Sudan severed ties with Chad Sunday, accusing its neighbor of backing a rebel assault on the capital and raising the possibility of new border clashes that could worsen Darfur's humanitarian crisis. A curfew was lifted in Sudan's capital but residents hunkered inside and security remained tight a day after the government repulsed an unprecedented assault on Khartoum by Darfur rebels. more >>
A minivan crossed an interstate median, flipped and was hit by another vehicle in western Pennsylvania, killing six of seven people on board, state police said Sunday. After the van came to rest, it was hit by an oncoming car, whose driver was treated at a hospital and released shortly after the Interstate 90 wreck on Saturday, said state police Cpl. Kevin Havern. more >>
President Bush spent months joking about being a father of the bride, but on Sunday he was downright wistful about giving his daughter Jenna away to her longtime beau. "Our little girl, Jenna, married a really good guy, Henry Hager," Bush said, standing next Mrs. Bush at an airport in Waco where he boarded Air Force One for his flight back to Washington. "The wedding was spectacular. It's just - it's all we could have hoped for." more >>
Families claiming that a mercury-based preservative in vaccines triggers autism will challenge mainstream medicine Monday as they take their case to a federal court. They seek vindication and financial redress from a government fund that helps people injured by shots. more >>
The Bush administration has told Israeli and Palestinian leaders they will need to show progress in their secret talks soon, or risk a potentially fatal erosion in public support for a process now in its sixth month without any obvious successes. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice passed that message during meetings with both sides a little more than a week ago, Arab, U.S. and other Western diplomats said. Rice was reacting mainly to the increasingly pessimistic Palestinian assessments of the talks, but she warned that confidence was fragile among Israelis, too. more >>
Hillary Rodham Clinton toured the birthplace of Mother's Day in rural West Virginia, offering Democrats a subtle reminder Sunday that her fading candidacy remains strong among women and blue-collar, white voters. That loyal base is expected to carry Clinton to a sizable victory in the primary on Tuesday, though it won't do much to close the gap between her and Barack Obama, her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. Clinton's lingering candidacy highlights not just her strengths but also how difficult it has been for Obama to make inroads among some key Democratic constituencies. more >>
Documents that Colombia says it recovered from a slain guerrilla leader give the clearest indication yet that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sought to arm and finance insurgents across the border. The documents - more than a dozen internal rebel messages - detail several years of close cooperation between top officials in Venezuela's government and military and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, including the construction of rebel training facilities on Venezuelan soil. more >>
