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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FRANKLIN, Mich. — Authorities say a teacher accidentally backed her SUV through a window and into her classroom at a suburban Detroit...

By Holly Ramer, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CONCORD, N.H. — Among the 1.5 million condolence letters sent to President John F. Kennedy’s widow after his assassination in 1963 were more than two dozen from Jane Dryden, a dogged and dramatic 11-year-old who churned out a letter a week for six months straight. “I know that you hate the whole state of Texas. I do to,” she wrote to Jacqueline Kennedy from Austin in January 1964. “I wish I lived in Washington, D.C. where maybe I could maybe see you standing on your porch. I am determined to move there as soon as I can. I would feel safer there.” Given the overwhelming volume of mail — 800,000 letters in the first seven weeks alone — most of the...

The Northern Ireland Assembly voted in favour of the devolution of policing and justice powers from Westminster today, despite opposition from the Ulster Unionist Party . The vote underpins the Hillsborough Agreement brokered between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein to stabilise the region's power-sharing government. The Assembly decision followed an acrimonious debate in which the Ulster Unionists resisted pressure to support the move, which will now lead to the creation of a Department of Justice for Northern Ireland after the powers are devolved by...

BERLIN -- The pope's brother said in a newspaper interview published Tuesday that he slapped pupils as punishment after he took over a renowned German boys' choir in the 1960s. He also said he was aware of allegations of physical abuse at an elementary school linked to the choir but did nothing about it. The Rev. Georg Ratzinger said he was completely unaware of allegations of sexual abuse at the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir, part of a string of charges of sex abuse by church employees across Europe in recent days. Responding to accusations that its policies encouraged silence about the problem, the Vatican said that the sexual abuse scandals in Germany and other countries were cause...

LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday honored Britons whose extraordinary actions helped save Jews and other Holocaust victims during World War II, calling them a source of national pride. Brown met two surviving recipients — Nicholas Winton and Denis Avey — at a reception at his Downing Street home, and praised the role of 26 others in saving the lives of those persecuted by the Nazis. Britain has minted a new "Hero of the Holocaust" medal — a silver medallion — after a campaign by Jewish groups and lawmakers to win recognition for the bravery of those involved in the rescues. The 100-year-old Winton organized the rescue of 669 mainly...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's official news agency reports a trial has begun of 12 suspects in the deaths of three anti-government protesters tortured in prison in the postelection turmoil. The IRNA report did not identify any of the suspects, saying the judge has banned reporting details of the trial. In January, a parliamentary probe found a former Tehran prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, responsible for the torture death of the three in Kahrizak detention center in the capital. There has been no word of any action to punish Mortazavi so far and he currently heads a government body tasked with fighting smuggling of goods. Iran's judiciary charged 12 officials at Kahrizak — three of them with...

BEIRUT - Lebanon's political factions held a new round of national talks Tuesday, but Hezbollah made clear beforehand that its own arsenal was not up for discussion. The Shiite militant group maintains a weapons stockpile that is larger than that of the national army. Hezbollah says the arsenal is necessary to confront any Israeli threat. The reconciliation talks were established as part of a deal that ended deadly sectarian clashes in 2008, when Hezbollah fought rival Sunni groups backing the government. Those clashes broke out after the government took a decision to dismantle Hezbollah's private telecommunications network, which the group says is crucial for its survival. Many Lebanese...

AMSTERDAM - China and India have given their qualified approval to the Copenhagen climate accord calling for voluntary limits on greenhouse gas emissions. More than 100 countries had earlier responded to a request to be "associated" with the nonbinding agreement brokered by President Barack Obama at the December climate change summit in the Danish capital. But the delay in replying by the world's two fastest-growing polluters had raised concern the accord could be rendered meaningless, even though India and China were among a small group of nations that negotiated the deal. China's one-sentence note to the U.N. climate change secretariat, dated Tuesday, said it agreed to be listed...

LONDON - Britain opened an inquiry Tuesday into claims that its soldiers murdered and abused civilians in southern Iraq in 2004, some of the most serious allegations made against British forces over the war and occupation of the country. Several Iraqis claim they were abused at a base called Camp Abu Naji in Maysan province after a battle between British troops and insurgents, and their lawyers say there is evidence up to 20 Iraqis may have been tortured and killed by British soldiers there. Four retired police officers have been assigned to interview witnesses and gather evidence for the inquiry, which opened Tuesday with a preliminary session. Full hearings are expected to start later in...

BRASILIA, Brazil - Brazil's president warned Tuesday that U.S.-proposed sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program could lead to war in the Middle East. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in an interview with The Associated Press that sanctions could isolate Iran so much that tensions would spiral out of control. And that, he suggested, might lead to war. "We don't want to repeat in Iran what happened in Iraq," Silva said, a week after rebuffing U.S. Secretary Hillary Clinton's appeal for Brazilian support for a new round of tough sanctions. Iran has accelerated its disputed nuclear program in the face of previous U.N. penalties, but the United States and other...

CIA warns India, Brazil against Al Qaeda Washington: The CIA on Tuesday warned India and Brazil that they face "emerging threats" from Al Qaeda and Taliban, though the terrorist outfits are "on the run" due to extreme pressure exerted on them in Afghanistan and Pakistan....

China, India Sign On To Copenhagen Climate Change Accord, But With Reservations Font size Print E-mail Share AMSTERDAM - China and...

The parents of conjoined twins who have only one heart face an agonising dilemma over their future. Emma and Taylor Bailey, three, are fused from the breastbone down to the belly button, and share a heart and liver. Doctors have told their parents Mandy, 32, and Tor, 34, from Queens Creek, Arizona, the girls will need to be separated in one to two years' time. Dilemma: Emma and Taylor Bailey share a single heart, but must be separated if they are to survive Details of the operation are uncertain, but it is likely to mean both girls will need heart transplants and one will need a liver. Mandy, who is also mum to Paige, 11, Drew, nine, Cole, seven, and Blake, two, said: 'There's a tiny window...

The Pope's older brother has admitted to slapping pupils in the face while he was leader of a renowned choir in Germany which is currently at the centre of a new rash of child abuse allegations rocking the Catholic Church. Georg Ratzinger, who led the Regensburger Domspatzen choir for thirty years until his retirement in 1994, confessed to occasionally hitting his pupils but added that he now regretted using corporal punishment. In an interview with the Bavarian daily newspaper Passauer Neue Presse, the Pope's older brother admitted: "At the start, I also slapped people in the face but I always had a bad conscience." The stark admission will pile pressure on the Catholic Church...

A California highway police officer helped slow a runaway Toyota Prius from 94 mph to a safe stop on Monday after the car's accelerator became stuck on a freeway near San Diego, authorities said said. Prius driver James Sikes said that the incident Monday occurred just two weeks after he had taken the vehicle in to an El Cajon dealership for repairs after receiving a recall notice, but he was turned away. "I gave them my recall...

 

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