More than 40 feared dead in India bridge collapse

More than 40 people are feared dead after a bridge collapsed while under construction in western India, police said Saturday as hope faded for finding survivors.

Rescuers had recovered the bodies of 12 workers from the site in Rajasthan state by Saturday, and they feared that the 30 others still missing could be dead, said Rajeev Dasot, the area’s inspector general of police.

Hundreds of workers were clearing debris from the site of the bridge being built across the Chambal River near the town of Kota, 170 miles (270 kilometers) west of Jaipur, the state capital.

The workers could take another three days to clear all the debris, Dasot said

Five people were hospitalized after the accident late Thursday, but their injuries were not life-threatening, he said.

Police were investigating the cause of the accident and have arrested two project managers on charges of culpable homicide, he said.

They work for South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering and Gammon India. The two companies were jointly building the bridge, Dasot told The Associated Press.

They face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

10 people killed, 2 injured in Malaysian bus crash

A police offer says 10 people have been killed and two injured after a bus skidded off a highway and crashed in northern Malaysia.

The bus spun out of control early Saturday in northern Perak state and slammed into a metal barrier that tore through the lower tier of the double-decker vehicle.

A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the press, says the cause of the accident was not immediately known.

The bus was heading from central Selangor state to the northernmost state of Perlis bordering Thailand.

Malaysia has a high-quality highway system with a speed limit of 70 miles (110 kilometers) per hour. But speeding is common and many drivers often do not follow safety procedures.

Suspect identified in kidnapping of Phoenix girl

PHOENIX – When Phoenix police officer Mike Burns pulled near a brown pickup he suspected the two people inside were a kidnapper and his 5-year-old victim. When the truck raced off, he was sure.

“There was no doubt in my mind,” Burns told reporters on Saturday, several hours after the little girl was rescued. “If he disappears, we may not get her back.”

Determined not to let the truck out of his sight, the patrolman set out on a Christmas night car chase through the streets of north Phoenix that ended after 10 minutes in the arrest of 45-year-old Larry Jon Ladwig.

The frightened girl was taken to a police facility that aids young victims of crime, where it was determined she had been molested. The girl was treated and is back home with her family, police Sgt. Andy Hill said Saturday.

Ladwig was booked into jail on charges of kidnapping, sexual molestation of a child, aggravated assault of a police officer and felony flight. It’s unclear whether Ladwig has a lawyer, and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request to interview him.

Hill said statistics show that if police don’t recover children abducted by strangers within the first several hours, “chances are slim of recovering them alive.”

“We really did have a Christmas miracle,” he said.

The girl was rescued at about 9:30 p.m. Friday, more than seven hours after police allege that Ladwig kidnapped her while she was playing outside a Phoenix apartment building.

The Associated Press is not reporting the girl’s name because she may be the victim of a sex crime. The AP had named the girl after her abduction and an Amber alert was issued.

When Burns’ spotted Ladwig’s pickup, he alerted the force. Officers put spike strips across the road several blocks away that punctured Ladwig’s tires, causing him to crash on the roadside.

Ladwig took off on foot but was caught and arrested a block away after a brief struggle during which Hill said he punched an officer in the face.

“It makes you feel good,” Burns said of his part in the girl’s rescue. “It takes a while to soak in.”

Police received the call that the girl had been taken at about 2:15 p.m. An Amber Alert was issued, and authorities began combing the area on foot, by car and with helicopters.

Hill said the child had been playing in a common area at the apartment complex with her two sisters, ages 7 and 9, when a man parked his brown pickup in a nearby parking lot and walked over to them carrying a camera.

He said the man violently pulled down the 7-year-old’s pants, took a photo of her, then grabbed the 5-year-old and threw her into the truck through a window.

“That’s pretty doggone violent,” Hill said. “He’s a weapon himself … (The girl) has got a lot to go through now. She’s not unscarred from this, obviously in a number of ways. She’s got a long road ahead of her.”

After the kidnapping, the 5-year-old’s older sister pounded for help on the door of a neighbor, who called police.

The three sisters live with an aunt, who has legal custody of them, Hill said. The girls’ parents live separately out of state.

First Jesus-era house discovered in Nazareth

Just in time for Christmas, archaeologists on Monday unveiled what may have been the home of one of Jesus’ childhood neighbors. The humble dwelling is the first dating to the era of Jesus to be discovered in Nazareth, then a hamlet of around 50 impoverished Jewish families where Jesus spent his boyhood.

Archaeologists and present-day residents of Nazareth imagined Jesus as a youngster, playing with other children in the isolated village, not far from the spot where the Archangel Gabriel revealed to Mary that she would give birth to the boy.

Today the ornate Basilica of the Annunciation marks that spot, and Nazareth is the largest Arab city in northern Israel, with about 65,000 residents. Muslims now outnumber Christians two to one in the noisy, crowded city.

The archaeological find shows how different it was 2000 years ago: There were no Christians or Muslims, the Jewish Temple stood in Jerusalem and tiny Nazareth stood near a battleground between Roman rulers and Jewish guerrillas.

The Jews of Nazareth dug camouflaged grottos to hide from Roman invaders, said archaeologist Yardena Alexandre, excavations director at the Israel Antiquities Authority. But the hamlet was so far off the beaten path that the caves were apparently not needed, she said.

Based on clay and chalk shards found at the site, the dwelling appeared to house a “simple Jewish family,” Alexandre added, as workers carefully chipped away at mud with small pickaxes to reveal stone walls.

“This may well have been a place that Jesus and his contemporaries were familiar with,” Alexandre said. A young Jesus may have played around the house with his cousins and friends. “It’s a logical suggestion.”

The discovery so close to Christmas pleased local Christians.

“They say if the people do not speak, the stones will speak,” said the Rev. Jack Karam of the nearby basilica.

Archaeologist Stephen Pfann, president of the University of The Holy Land, noted: “It’s the only witness that we have from that area that shows us what the walls and floors were like inside Nazareth in the first century.” Pfann was not involved in the dig.

Alexandre said workers uncovered the first signs of the dwelling last summer, but it became clear only this month that it was a structure from the days of Jesus.

Alexandre’s team found remains of a wall, a hideout, a courtyard and a water system that appeared to collect water from the roof and supply it to the home. The discovery was made when builders dug up the courtyard of a former convent to make room for a new Christian center, just yards from the Basilica.

It is not clear how big the dwelling is. Alexandre’s team has uncovered about 900 square feet of the house, but it may have been for an extended family and could be much larger, she said.

Archaeologists also found a camouflaged entry way into a grotto, which Alexandre believes was used by Jews to hide from Roman soldiers who were battling Jewish rebels for control of the area.

The grotto could have hidden around six people for a few hours, she said.

However, Roman soldiers did not end up battling Nazareth’s Jews because the hamlet had little strategic value. The Roman army was more interested in larger towns and strategic hilltop communities, she said.

Alexandre said similar camouflaged grottos were found in other ancient Jewish communities of the lower Galilee, such as the nearby biblical village of Cana, which did witness battles between Jews and Romans.

Archaeologists also found clay and chalk vessels likely used by Galilean Jews of the time. The scientists concluded a Jewish family lived there because of the chalk, which Jews used to ensure the ritual purity of the food and water kept inside the vessels.

The shards also date back to the time of Jesus, which includes the late Hellenic, early Roman period that ranges from around 100 B.C. to the first century, Alexandre said. The determination was made by comparing the findings to shards and remains typical of that period found in other parts of the Galilee, she said.

The absence of any remains of glass vessels or imported products suggested the people who lived in the dwelling were simple, but Alexandre said the remains did not indicate whether they were traders or farmers.

The only other artifacts from the time of Jesus found in the Nazareth area are ancient burial caves that provided a rough idea of the village’s population at the time, Alexandre said.

Work is now taking place to clear newer ruins built above the dwelling, which will be preserved. The dwelling will become part of a new international Christian center being built close to the site and funded by a French Roman Catholic group, said Marc Hodara of the Chemin Neuf Community overseeing construction.

Alexandre said limited space and population density makes it unlikely that archaeologists can carry out further excavations in the area, leaving this dwelling to tell the story of what Jesus’ boyhood home may have looked like.

The discovery at “this time, this period, is very interesting, especially as a Christian,” Karam said. “For me it is a great gift.”

mom of killed boy violated adoption rules

The mother of a 5-year-old Paterson boy accidentally shot to death by his 6-year-old brother last weekend violated adoption rules by not telling officials her adult son _ who authorities say owned the gun _ had moved back into her house, according to a report by the state’s child services agency.

The gun in Sunday night’s shooting belonged to 23-year-old Jalik Jones, police have said. Jones, a convicted felon, was charged this week with reckless manslaughter and weapons violations for allegedly owning the illegally bought .380-caliber handgun that he kept in a bedroom he shared with 5-year-old Daron Mayes.

Daron and his 6-year-old brother were watching television Sunday when they found the gun, police said. It fired once, hitting Daron in the back of the head, and he died a short time later at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson.

According to a report the state’s Department of Children and Families released this week, Daron’s mother, identified in news reports as Margaret Mayes, finalized the adoption of Daron and two other children at the end of October. They joined two of Mayes’ biological children in the home.

The report faults Mayes for not telling the Division of Youth and Family Services that Jones had moved back into the house, saying she “placed Daron and her other minor children at risk after violating her adoption agreement by not notifying DYFS another adult had moved in the home prior to Daron’s adoption finalization.”

Since the shooting, Mayes’ other four children have been placed with a relative, according to the report. They include two girls aged 3 and 9, the 6-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy.

Kate Bernyk, a spokeswoman for DYFS, said Thursday that prospective adoptive parents are required to list any other adults that live in their home so that the agency can interview them and conduct a background check.

Jones served about five months in state prison for theft this year and was released in July. It was not known when he moved into Mayes’ house.

Bernyk said that because the adoption was finalized, Mayes has the same rights as a biological parent. She said even though the state removed the children after the shooting, DYFS would make try to have the children placed back in the home.

“Our goal is always reunification,” she said.

Police have not charged Mayes. Several phone numbers listed under her name in Paterson were disconnected Thursday. It was not known if Jones had retained an attorney, and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office did not return a phone message Thursday seeking comment.

Authorities have said Jones was not home at the time of the shooting.

NJ mom charged with murder in son’s beating death

A New Jersey woman has been charged in the fatal beating of her 21-month-old son.

Tia Welles, a 23-year-old Willingboro resident, was being held in the county jail on $750,000 cash bail after being arrested Thursday morning on a murder charge.

Prosecutors say Collins Bulluck Jr. was found unresponsive in Welles’ home on Sept. 10 and died the next day at Cooper University Medical Center in Camden. An autopsy determined that the child was beaten to death, but further details were not disclosed.

A prosecutor’s office spokesman did not immediately return a telephone message asking if Welles had retained a lawyer. She is scheduled for a first court appearance on Monday.

Flight terror suspect Abdulmutallab charged with trying to blow up jet

MI5 probes ‘London link’ as US prosecutors claim former UK student boarded Flight 253 with device strapped to leg

A former London student has been charged with attempting to blow up a transatlantic airliner carrying 278 passengers on Christmas Day.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, was charged in hospital late last night with attempting to destroy the aircraft during its final approach to Detroit airport, the US justice department said.

American prosecutors claim that Abdulmutallab, who finished an engineering course at University College London last year, had a device attached to his body when he boarded the plane in Amsterdam on Christmas Eve. He passed through the airport in transit after flying from Lagos.

Extra security measures have been brought in for passengers flying from British airports to the US. Travellers can carry only one piece of hand luggage, including duty-free items, face a pat-down body search before boarding planes and will have to remain in their seats for the final hour before arrival in the US.

Air Canada said its passengers would not be allowed access to carry-on baggage or to have any items on their laps during the last hour of the flight. British Airways advised passengers flying to the US to arrive at check-in with plenty of time to spare. Travellers to other destinations would not be affected.

Abdulmutallab, the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, is alleged to have set off the device as the flight approached Detroit airport. The device caused a fire that burned Abdulmutallab’s legs.

A preliminary FBI investigation found that the device contained an explosive known as PETN, or pentaerythritol. Agents recovered what appeared to be the remnants of a syringe found near Abdulmutallab’s seat, which is thought to have been part of the device.

“Had this alleged plot to destroy an airplane been successful, scores of innocent people would have been killed or injured,” said the US attorney general, Eric Holder. “We will continue to investigate this matter vigorously, and we will use all measures available to our government to ensure that anyone responsible for this attempted attack is brought to justice.”

Abdulmutallab had been living in a mansion block in Mansfield Road, close to Oxford Street, London, while studying mechanical engineering between 2005 and last year. The block was cordoned off by police today.

Abdulmutallab was barred from returning to Britain when he tried to obtain another student visa, this time using a bogus college, Whitehall sources said. But he was not on the US no-fly list.

According to an affidavit, interviews with the passengers and crew of Northwest Airlines flight 253 revealed that before the incident Abdulmutallab went to the aircraft’s bathroom for approximately 20 minutes. When he returned to his seat, he said he had an upset stomach and pulled a blanket over himself.

Passengers then heard what were described as popping noises similar to the sound of firecrackers. Some reported seeing Abdulmutallab’s trouser leg and the inner wall of the aircraft on fire. He was overpowered by passengers and crew who used blankets and fire extinguishers to put out the flames.

The charges were read to Abdulmutallab in hospital, where he appeared in a medical gown and wheelchair. There will be a hearing on Monday at a federal court in Detroit, and bail will not be considered until a separate hearing on 8 January.

Citing US officials, the Wall Street Journal said the Nigerian told investigators that al-Qaida operatives in Yemen had given him the device and told him how to detonate it.

Nigeria’s This Day newspaper cited family members as saying that the suspect’s father, Umaru Mutallab, the retired chairman of First Bank in Nigeria, has been uncomfortable with his son’s “extreme religious views” and had reported him to the US embassy and Nigerian security agencies six months ago.

The US government created a record on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab last month in the intelligence community’s central repository of information for known and suspected international terrorists, but there was not enough negative data to place him on a no-fly list, a US official said.

Jennifer Allen, 41, said passengers boarding the same flight in Amsterdam on Saturday were frisked and that she was asked to remove a ball of tissue from a pocket. “It was a thorough pat-down. It wasn’t a quick rub,” she said.

The Dutch counterterrorism agency, NCTb, said Abdulmutallab had boarded a KLM flight from Lagos to Amsterdam, and passed through a security checkpoint while in transit at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

Gordon Brown said the British government would take “whatever action was necessary” to protect airline passengers. Security sources said the police and MI5 were diverting extra staff and resources to the investigation as a matter of priority to establish the significance of the “London link”.

Israel promises tough response to attacks

JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister warned on Sunday that Israel would retaliate “forcefully” against any attacks, and congratulated the military for gunning down three Palestinian militants he held responsible for killing a Jewish settler.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Cabinet ministers from his Likud Party on Sunday that one of the militants had been freed from an Israeli prison – highlighting the risks of the prisoner swap deal Israel is negotiating with Gaza militants in a bid to free a long-held Israeli soldier.

“We want to free captives, but at the same time, we want to minimize the risk to our civilians,” he said, according to a meeting participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because the session was closed.

He later told his Cabinet he would fly on Tuesday to Egypt, which has mediated the swap talks along with Germany, to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Israel has forwarded its response to the latest proposed swap deal to Gaza’s Islamic Hamas rulers, who have not yet responded.

“At this point there is no deal, and it’s not clear there will be a deal,” Netanyahu said.

Critics have faulted Netanyahu for considering releasing as many as 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Sgt. Gilad Schalit, who was seized Hamas-linked by militants in a cross-border attack in June 2006 and taken to the Gaza Strip.

West Bank settlers have criticized him for removing some of the hundreds of roadblocks the Israeli military had maintained in the West Bank. The dismantling of the roadblocks was meant to ease the movement of Palestinian people and goods in the territory, but settlers say it gave militants a license to strike last week.

Netanyahu’s vow to go after attackers was his first public comment on the shooting death of the Israeli settler in the West Bank last week.

Israel will “continue to act forcefully against any attack on Israeli citizens and any shooting of rockets or missiles at Israel,” he said at the start of the weekly Cabinet session.

Early Saturday, Israeli forces carried out a pre-dawn raid in the northern West Bank that killed three men it accused of killing the settler.

The Israeli army said Sunday that ballistic evidence showed a weapon confiscated in Saturday’s raid was used to kill the Israeli settler. It gave no further details.

India outrage over girl molestation sentence

Outrage is growing in India over a six-month jail sentence handed out to a former senior police officer convicted for molesting a 14-year-old girl.

Ruchika Girhotra complained in 1990 that she was assaulted by SPS Rathore.

After Mr Rathore used his influence to harass the Girhotra family, Ruchika committed suicide three years later.

Earlier this week, a court found Mr Rathore guilty, but Ruchika’s family and activists say he has got away with a “very light punishment”.

Mr Rathore sentenced in jail for six months and ordered to pay a fine of 1,000 rupees ($20).

He is currently on bail and has said he would appeal against the order.

‘Living in fear’

“This six-month punishment is not enough, it has hurt us, what kind of justice is this?” Ruchika’s father Subhas Chander Girhotra asked reporters in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh on Thursday.

“We want exemplary punishment for him so that Indian children can be safe in future. My daughter is dead, but at least no other girl should meet the same fate,” he said, sobbing.

“All these years, we have stayed underground due to harassment. We would got knocks in the middle of the night. He was the director general of police – who could we turn to for help?

“We are still living in fear.”

Television footage, showing a laughing and unrepentant Mr Rathore following the court order, has angered many civil rights groups.

Campaigners say he should be tried for “abetment of suicide” which carries a much longer jail sentence.

Analysts say Ruchika’s case is a classic example of misuse of official power by a police officer who used his influence and contacts to escape punishment for nearly two decades for his crime.

Ruchika was a budding tennis player when she was assaulted by Mr Rathore, a senior police officer and president of Haryana state Lawn Tennis Association.

After her family lodged a complaint with the Haryana chief minister, the state police chief RR Singh was asked to investigate the case.

In his report, Mr Singh said there was credible evidence in the allegations and ordered the police to file a case against Mr Rathore.

This was just the beginning of nightmares for Girhotra family as Mr Rathore used his influence to harass them.

She was thrown out of school for “late fee payment” and her 14-year-old brother Ashu was falsely charged with theft several times until the Punjab and Haryana high court intervened and ordered an end to his harassment.

Unable to deal with the trauma, Ruchika committed suicide in December 1993 and her family went into hiding.

In 1997, the case was handed over to the federal police, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which concluded Mr Rathore was guilty and formally pressed charges in court in 2000.

In the meantime, Mr Rathore was promoted to the head of Haryana police.

In a case that took 19 years to reach a conclusion, Ruchika’s family and friends say they are disappointed by the verdict and will continue campaigning to get justice.

A candle-lit march will be held in Delhi on Thursday in a bid to mobilise support for their campaign.

Aradhana’s father, Anand Prakash, says, “We will see to it that justice is done.”

Study blames two genes for aggressive brain cancer

Scientists have discovered two genes that appear responsible for one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer.

Glioblastoma multiforme rapidly invades the normal brain, producing inoperable tumours, but scientists have not understood why it is so aggressive.

The latest study, by a Columbia University team, published in Nature, pinpoints two genes.

The researchers say that the findings raise hopes of developing a treatment for the cancer.

The genes – C/EPB and Stat3 – are active in about 60% of glioblastoma patients.

They appear to work in tandem to turn on many other genes that make brain cells cancerous.

Patients in the study whose tumours showed evidence of both genes being active died within 140 weeks of diagnosis.

In contrast, half of patients without activity from these genes were alive after that time.

Master controls

Lead researcher Dr Antonio Iavarone described the two genes as the disease’s master control knobs.

He said: “When simultaneously activated, they work together to turn on hundreds of other genes that transform brain cells into highly aggressive, migratory cells.

“The finding means that suppressing both genes simultaneously, using a combination of drugs, may be a powerful therapeutic approach for these patients, for whom no satisfactory treatment exists.”

When the researchers silenced both genes in human glioblastoma cells, it completely blocked their ability to form tumours when injected in a mouse.

The Columbia team is now attempting to develop drugs they hope will achieve the same effect.

Using state-of-the-art techniques, they effectively mapped out the comprehensive and highly complex network of molecular interactions driving the behaviour of glioblastoma cells.

Dr Iavarone said: “The identification of C/EPB and Stat3 came as a complete surprise to us, since these genes had never been implicated before in brain cancer

“From a therapeutic perspective, it means we are no longer wasting time developing drugs against minor actors in brain cancer – we can now attack the major players.”

Nell Barrie, science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: “This research is exciting, as it sheds light on the key changes that drive cells in the brain to become glioblastoma cells.

“By finding out exactly how healthy cells turn into cancer cells, scientists hope to find clues for preventing or reversing the process.

“The technique used in this study should help scientists to understand these changes in other types of cancer, leading to new and more personalised treatment approaches in the future.”

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