MOSCOW (AP) — A vessel with a nine-person crew and 700 tons of gold ore onboard has gone missing in stormy seas off Russia's Pacific Coast.
The ship sent a distress call on Sunday as it was sailing from the coastal town of Neran to Feklistov Island in the Sea of Okhotsk.
The vessel, hired by mining company Polymetal, was carrying 700 tons of gold ore from one deposit to another where it was to be processed. Gold ore is the material from which gold is extracted and contains only a small percentage of the precious metal.
Polymetal's spokesman on Monday would not estimate the value of the cargo.
The company said it has shipped ore via that route before, and there was nothing unusual in shipping it by the sea.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say a security guard at Tom Cruise's Beverly Hills, Calif., mansion used a stun gun on a trespasser who turned out to be an intoxicated neighbor who may have mistakenly entered the property.
Police say 41-year-old Jason Sullivan was shot with a Taser at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday at the home on Calle Vista Drive. He was then treated at a hospital and arrested on suspicion of trespassing.
Police say neither Cruise nor his family were at the home when a guard saw a man climbing a fence to get onto the grounds. A guard shocked the man and held him for police.
It wasn't immediately known if Sullivan has an attorney.
Friends, family members and strangers have helped Tina Curl's grim dream come to fruition-to watch the man who raped and murdered her 9-year-old daughter be strapped to a gurney, fight for his final breath as lethal drugs course through his veins.
Curl, 50, spent months raising money for the trip from New York to South Dakota where she'll get a "front row seat" to watch Donald Moeller be executed. The execution could happen any time between today and Nov. 3.
Dead man walking
"I have waited 22 long years for this," Curl, who has arrived in Sioux Falls, S.D., told ABCNews.com during her fundraising drive. "He watched her die and I am going to watch him die."
Becky O'Connell went to the convenience store to buy candy on May 8, 1990. The following morning, her body was found in a wooded area in Lincoln County, S.D.
An autopsy found Becky had been raped vaginally and anally and died of a cut to the jugular vein of her neck, according to court documents.
Curl and her husband, Dave, who was Becky's stepfather, had lived in South Dakota for five months at the time of the murder. The couple later relocated to Lake Luzerne, N.Y.
"After this she wasn't going to stay in that state," said Rhonda Springer, a longtime friend of Curl who is helping to spearhead the fundraiser to send Tina and Dave Curl to South Dakota to witness the execution.
The Curl family is driving 1,400 miles from their home in New York since Tina Curl said she has a bad heart and is unable to fly.
The couple said they would go if they could raise between $3,000 to $4,000, which they estimated would cover their gas and stay in a motel during the one week time frame when Moeller is scheduled to die.
Tina Curl said she receives a $721 disability check each month that "doesn't even cover the bills." Dave Curl is currently laid off and looking for work.
Although a one week window has been set for Moeller's execution, the actual date of lethal injection is at the warden's discretion, with 48 hours' notice required, Curl said.
"It means everything," she said. "I ain't only doing it for me. I am doing it for Becky."
NINGBO, China (AP) — Thousands of protesters marched through an eastern Chinese city on Sunday, shouting for fellow citizens to join them in demanding that the government halt the expansion of a petrochemical factory because of pollution fears.
The demonstration in Ningbo city in wealthy Zhejiang province is the latest this year over fears of health risks from industrial projects, as Chinese who have seen their living standards improve become more outspoken against environmentally risky projects in their areas.
Such protests are exactly what the Chinese leadership does not want ahead of next month's once-a-decade transition of power, with stability being paramount.
"The government hides information from the people. They are only interested in scoring political points and making money," said one protester, Luo Luan, who works in the insurance industry. "They don't care about destroying the environment or damaging people's lives."
Hundreds of residents headed from a city square toward the offices of the municipal government early Sunday. They were stopped by police at the gate, where they shouted for the release of people reportedly detained a day earlier.
Amid mounting concern over Iran’s nuclear program and violence elsewhere in the region, U.S. Central Command quietly dispatched a Marine fighter jet squadron from San Diego to an undisclosed country in the Middle East, U-T San Diego has learned.
The deployment follows threats by the U.S. and Israel of military strikes if needed to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
NO COMMENT ON MISSION
At the same time, the conflict in Syria is threatening to drag Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan into war, Iraq is beset by renewed violence, and terrorist groups hoping to capitalize on political upheaval in the region covet Syria’s chemical weapons and Libyan arms.
Against this tense geopolitical backdrop, aviation spotters tracked a dozen jets from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 314, an F/A-18 Hornet squadron based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, en route in late September through Europe.
The heavily armed jets — capable of firing 2,000-pound laser-guided bombs, cluster munitions, air-to-air missiles and a six-barrel 20 mm gun — are used for a variety of missions, including ground attack, escort, enemy air defense suppression, reconnaissance and close air support of ground forces.
U.S. Central Command and the Marine command in the region declined to say which country the squadron deployed to or to comment in detail on its mission, citing political and security sensitivities of the host nation and its neighbors.
CAIRO (AP) — The leader of al-Qaida has urged Muslims to kidnap Westerners to exchange for imprisoned jihadists, including a blind cleric serving a life sentence in the United States for a 1993 plot to blow up New York City landmarks.
In an undated two-hour videotape posted this week on militant forums, the Egyptian-born jihadist Ayman al-Zawahri also urged support for Syria's uprising and called for the implementation of Islamic Shariah law in Egypt.
He said that abducting nationals of "countries waging wars on Muslims" is the only way to free "our captives, and Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman," the Egyptian cleric.
"This is the only language which they understand," said al-Zawahri, appearing in his customary white turban and robe. "We will keep on seizing more ... until we free our captives."
There was little clue to his whereabouts from the video, shot against a backdrop of brown curtains.
He periodically releases video and audio statements. Two weeks ago, an audio recording by him urged holy war over an amateur anti-Islam film produced in the United States. He released a video on this year's anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, claiming that his warriors "defeated America in Iraq".
Time for "lone wolf " strike !
Freeing Abdel-Rahman has become a rallying cause for Islamic militants and jihadists. A group named after him has claimed responsibility before for a June assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, which caused no casualties. It caused no casualties, but a bigger attack on Sept. 11 claimed lives of four Americans including the U.S. Ambassador in Libya Chris Stevens.
Relatives and supporters of Abdel-Rahman have been holding a sit-in next to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo for months. Egypt's new Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, under pressure from leading Egyptian jihadists recently released from prison, vowed to push for his release.
