Florida executes ex-cop for killing 9 in 1986

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A former police officer who murdered nine people during a 1986 crime spree was executed Tuesday after his attorneys' last-minute appeals were rejected. Manuel Pardo, 56, was pronounced dead at Florida State Prison at 7:47 p.m., about 16 minutes after the lethal injection process began. His attorneys had tried to block the execution by arguing that he was mentally ill, but federal...

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Smugglers Are Literally Shooting Drugs Out Cannons Towards the US

Just when you thought drug running couldn't get more extreme, U.S. border patrol officers find 33 cans of marijuana in the desert near the border that they believe were fired from a cannon in Mexico. Authorities caught wind of the new technique when they received reports of some strange canisters popping up near the Colorado River in southern Arizona recently. Agents arrived at the scene to find the...

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Obama Recognizes Syrian Opposition Group

In a diplomatic shift, President Obama said today his administration now formally recognizes the newly-formed, leading coalition of Syrian rebels who are fighting to topple Syria's embattled President Bashar Assad. "We've made a decision that the Syrian Opposition Coalition is now inclusive enough, is reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population that we consider them the legitimate...

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Mexico: Rivera's plane hit with 'terrible' impact

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The plane carrying Mexican-American music superstar Jenni Rivera plunged almost vertically from more than 28,000 feet and hit the ground in a nose-dive at a speed that may have exceeded 600 miles per hour, Mexico's top transportation official said Tuesday. In the first detailed account of the moments leading up to the crash that killed Rivera and six other people, Secretary of...

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Venezuela VP: Hugo Chavez recovering after surgery

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was recovering in Cuba on Tuesday after an operation targeting an aggressive cancer that has defied multiple treatments and has prompted the socialist leader to name a political successor. Vice President Nicolas Maduro spoke on Venezuelan television after the surgery, saying that "it's been a complex operation." He indicated that the surgery...

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Bomb kills Afghan provincial police chief

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan police say a roadside bombing has killed the police chief of a southern province. A police official in Nimroz province, Obaidullah, says the attack took place on Monday morning in the western province of Herat. Obaidullah, like many Afghans, only goes by one name. He says the vehicle with the chief of Nimroz province struck a bomb while driving back from Herat. The...

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Gov't: Building felled by NZ quake poorly built

SYDNEY (AP) — A six-story office building that collapsed and killed 115 people in New Zealand's devastating earthquake last year was poorly designed by an inexperienced engineer, inadequately constructed and should never have been issued a building permit, a government report said Monday. The Canterbury Television (CTV) building crumbled to the ground during the 6.1-magnitude earthquake that rocked...

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No sign of imminent rocket launch in North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea held off launching a long-range rocket Monday, the first day of a 13-day window during a frigid, snowy stretch of winter weather, a day after announcing it may delay the controversial liftoff. Pyongyang had made a surprise announcement earlier this month that it would launch a rocket mounted with a satellite one morning between Monday and Dec. 22, its second...

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Taliban attack Pakistan police station, kill 6

BANNU, Pakistan (AP) — Taliban militants armed with a rocket, hand grenades and automatic weapons attacked a police station in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing six people, police said. The attack occurred in the city of Bannu, which serves as a gateway to the North Waziristan tribal area, the main sanctuary for Taliban and al-Qaida militants in Pakistan. The city has been hit by repeated...

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Attacks kill Afghan police chief, official

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan provincial police chief and an official in charge of women's affairs were killed in separate attacks Monday — the latest victims of a campaign of targeted killings against government officials. The police chief for Nimroz province was travelling home from neighboring Herat province when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the morning hours, said the chief's...

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