The bodies of two crew members of the Norwegian cargo ship which sank off the coast of southern Vietnam have been identified as the captain and deputy captain, state media reported today.
	The Thanh Nien (Young People) said the bodies of captain Ronel Acueza Andrin and deputy captain Jerome Maquilang Dincy were brought to southern province of Ba Ria Vung Tau yesterday.
	Their ship, the Bulk Jupiter, sank with 19 Philippino crew members on Friday en route from Malaysia to China, and Vietnamese rescuers aided by commercial ships passing through the area continued to search for the others, according to Vietnamese authorities and the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.
	The ship's chief cook, Angelito Capindo Rojas, is the only known survivor.
	Rojas told officials that he had no idea what happened with the ship.
	"I don't understand why the ship had the accident and sank," he was quoted as saying "I just knew that the ship, which was on its way, suddenly tilted. I just had time to .

Cargo ship sinks off Vietnam, captain confirmed dead

PTI Automatic

British rescue teams searched today for eight missing crew members from a cargo ship that capsized north of Scotland.
	Searchers on two helicopters and four lifeboats were looking for survivors from the bulk carrier Cemfjord, which was carrying cement from Aalborg, Denmark, to Runcorn on England's west coast.
	A passing ferry in the Pentland Firth off Scotland spotted the upturned hull of the Cyprus-flagged ship yesterday.
	The hull sunk below the water today and the 83-meter (272-feet) vessel was no longer visible, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said today.
	Tony Redding, a spokesman for the German shipping company that operated the vessel, said there had been no distress signal from the ship, and that the last communication with the vessel was routine.
	The company said seven of the crew were Polish and one was a Filipino.
	Another cargo ship, a car carrier, ran aground in the Solent between Southampton and the Isle of Wight yesterday.
	Officials said 25 crew members were ...

8 missing after cargo ship capsizes off Scotland

Al-Qaida militants bombed an office of Shiite Houthi rebels south of Yemen's capital today, killing six Houthis and wounding 31, officials said.
	Police said the bombing in Dhamar province, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Sanaa, targeted a local headquarters of the Houthi movement, which has seized a string of Yemeni cities, including the capital.
	One of the dead was a journalist who worked for a Houthi-affiliated television station, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists.
	Houthis have surrounded the area and were preventing people from taking photos.
	Al-Qaida's local affiliate in Yemen claimed responsibility in a statement posted on its Twitter account.
	The Houthis, backed by ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh, are one of the strongest Yemeni factions locked in a bloody power struggle with President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
	They say they are taking on al-Qaida and fighting corruption. Their critics view them as a .

Al-Qaida bombing in Yemen kills at least 6

President Barack Obama is back in Washington after spending two weeks with his family in Hawaii. Obama took an overnight flight on Air Force One back from the island of Oahu, where the Obamas vacation every year.
	Obama was rarely seen in public during the trip and spent his time golfing, on the beach with family or dining in Honolulu's restaurants.
	On his last day, he and his daughters visited Pearl Jam's lead singer, Eddie Vedder.
	Obama's public schedule picks back up Tuesday when he meets with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (PAYN'-yuh nee-EH'-toh).
	Obama also will travel later in the week to Michigan, Arizona and Tennessee as he gears up for his State of the Union address on Jan 20.
	He'll face a Republican-run Congress that convenes Tuesday.

Obama back in Washington after 2-week Hawaii trip

Thousands of city police officers turned their backs today as they watched Mayor Bill de Blasio eulogize an officer shot dead with his partner, repeating a stinging display of scorn for the mayor despite entreaties from the police commissioner not to do so.
	The show of disrespect came outside the funeral home where Officer Wenjian Liu was remembered as an incarnation of the American dream: a man who had immigrated at age 12 from China and devoted himself to helping others in his adopted country.
	The gesture, among officers watching the mayor's speech on a screen, added to tensions between the mayor and rank-and-file police even as he sought to quiet them.
	"As we start a new year, a year we're entering with hearts that are doubly heavy" from the loss of Officer Liu and his partner, Officer Rafael Ramos, de Blasio said.
	"Let us rededicate ourselves to those great New York traditions of mutual understanding and living in harmony. Let us move forward by strengthening the bonds that ...

Mayor eulogizes slain officer as cops outside turn backs

Relatives of Air Asia Flight 8501 crash victims sought strength in prayer today, one week after the disaster killed all 162 people on board, as rough weather again prevented searchers from reaching a large object on the ocean floor believed to be the plane's fuselage.
	Emotionally exhausted family members sang and cried at a tiny chapel in Surabaya, the city where Flight 8501 departed from December 28.
	The Rev Philip Mantofa, who heads the congregation at Mawar Sharon Church -- where more than a quarter of the victims were members -- urged those gathered to find comfort in their faith.
	"If God has called your child, allow me to say this: Your child is not to be pitied," Mantofa said, locking eyes with a grieving father seated in the front row. "Your child is already in God's arms. One day, your family will be reunited in heaven."
	It is not known what caused the Singapore-bound plane to crash into the Java Sea 42 minutes after taking off on what was supposed to be a two-hour ...

Prayers held as weather blocks divers from AirAsia site

Thousands of police officers are paying their respect to a New York Police Department officer shot to death along with his partner as mourners converge from around the US today for a second funeral that stands to test tensions between the city's mayor and police.
	Buddhist monks will lead a Chinese ceremony for Officer Wenjian Liu, followed by a traditional police ceremony with eulogies led by a chaplain. Liu, 32, had served as a policeman for seven years and got married just two months before he was killed with his partner, Officer Rafael Ramos, on Dec 20.
	As Liu's family arrived for his funeral, Police Commissioner William Bratton tweeted: "We will never forget his sacrifice."
	A day earlier, mourners lined up for blocks on a cold, rainy day for Liu's wake.
	"This is a really tragic story," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters following the wake, held just two days after the death of his own father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo.
	"This is really pointless. It had nothing to do with 

Family, officers arrive for 2nd NYPD cop's funeral

Officials say a record number of more than 1.5 million people from around the world visited the grounds of the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 2014.
	The Auschwitz museum said today on its website most visitors came from within Poland, with large numbers of tourists also coming from Britain, the US, Italy and Germany.
	The website didn't say what the previous record was.
	Between 1940 and 1945, about 1.1 million people, mainly Jews but also Poles, Roma and other nationals, were killed in gas chambers or died from forced labor, hunger and disease in the camp operated by Nazi Germans.
	On January 27, ceremonies attended by survivors will mark the 70th anniversary of its liberation by the Soviet army.

1.5 million visitors at Nazi Auschwitz memorial in 2014

A Ukrainian security official says a prominent rebel commander in the separatist eastern region of Luhansk has been killed.
	A website of the separatist Luhansk People's Republic said that Alexander Bednov, head of a battalion called "Batman," was killed Thursday when separatist security forces tried to arrest him. An arrest warrant for Bednov and several other battalion members had been issued by the separatists' prosecutor's office for murder, abduction and other abuses.
	Volodymyr Poleviy, a spokesman for Ukraine's security council, said today that he could confirm Bednov's death, but that he couldn't give further details.
	There have been previous cases of infighting among rebels.
	In May, a battalion of murky origin ousted some rebels from their headquarters in Donetsk, ostensibly angered over a supermarket ransacking.

Ukraine rebel 'Batman' battalion commander killed

An Afghan official says insurgents killed five policemen, including their commander, in the volatile eastern province of Logar, a day after four policemen who were abducted in the same region were found dead.
	Din Mohammad Darwesh, spokesman for the provincial governor, says insurgents ambushed the five men early today in Baraki Barak district, where the Taliban launch frequent attacks on government security forces.
	Insurgents had kidnapped four policemen from neighboring Wardak province yesterday. Their bodies were found near the provincial capital Pul-i-Alam hours later, he said.
	The violence follows the transition of security sovereignty to Afghan forces on January 1 following the 13-year US and NATO-led mission to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban-led insurgency.

Afghan official: Insurgents kill 9 police

Pope Francis named 15 new cardinals today, selecting them from 14 nations, including far-flung corners of the world such as Tonga, New Zealand, Cape Verde and Myanmar, to reflect the diversity of the church and its growth in places like Asia and Africa.
	Other cardinals hail from Ethiopia, Thailand and Vietnam. Another is form Sicily, where the Church in recent decades has been galvanising public rejection of the Mafia.
	Referring to the Vatican, Francis told faithful in St Peter's Square that the churchmen come "from every continent" and "show the indelible tie with the church of Rome to churches in the world."
	In addition to the 15 new cardinals who are under 80 and thus eligible to vote for the next pope, Francis bestowed the honor on five churchmen older than that.
	He said they distinguished themselves for their work in the Vatican bureaucracy, in diplomatic service in giving witness to their love of Christ and God's people. Those included men from Peru and Mozambique.
	Speaking 

Pope picks 15 new cardinals to reflect diversity

Devising a way to one day land astronauts on Mars is a complex problem and NASA scientists think something as simple as a child's toy design may help solve the problem.
	Safely landing a large spacecraft on the Red Planet is just one of many engineering challenges the agency faces as it eyes an ambitious goal of sending humans into deep space later this century.
	At NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, engineers have been working to develop an inflatable heat shield that looks a lot like a super-sized version of a stacking ring of doughnuts that infants play with.
	The engineers believe a lightweight, inflatable heat shield could be deployed to slow the craft to enter a Martian atmosphere much thinner than Earth's.
	Such an inflatable heat shield could help a spacecraft reach the high-altitude southern plains of Mars and other areas that would otherwise be inaccessible under existing technology.
	The experts note that rockets alone can't be used to land a large craft ..

NASA explores inflatable spacecraft technology

Nebraska medical officials say an American health care provider who had high-risk exposure to the Ebola virus while working in Sierra Leone will be observed at a bio containment unit in Omaha.
	Nebraska Medicine says in a statement that the unidentified patient will arrive today afternoon aboard a private air ambulance.
	Phil Smith, medical director of the facility's bio containment unit, says the patient "is not ill and is not contagious." He says officials will take "all appropriate precautions."
	The patient will be observed for possible infection during the 21-day incubation period of the disease, both by monitoring for symptoms and through blood tests.
	Three patients with Ebola have been treated at Nebraska Medicine, which is a clinical partner of the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Officials: US medical worker exposed to Ebola overseas

The US Embassy in Jakarta has issued a warning to Americans about a potential threat against US associated banks and hotels in Indonesia's second-largest city, Surabaya.
	The alert was issued to US citizens yesterday.
	An embassy spokesperson today said there is nothing linking the warning with AirAsia Flight 8501. The plane crashed into the Java Sea a week ago after taking off from Surabaya, killing all 162 passengers and crew on board.
	The US Navy is taking part in an international effort to recover bodies and locate the wreckage.
	Indonesia's national police spokesman Brig. Gen. Agus Riyanto says he's unaware of any terrorism threat against banks and hotels in Surabaya but added that security would be increased.
	Indonesia has seen a spate of deadly attacks by Muslim militants in recent times.

US warns about threat against banks, hotels in Indonesia

President Barack Obama plans new steps to help middle-income Americans, part of a 2015 agenda he hopes can build on the postelection momentum from high-profile moves on immigration and Cuba.
	His approach for the new year appears to look straight past newly emboldened Republicans who take full control of Congress on Tuesday.
	Fresh from a two-week Hawaiian vacation, the president was readying executive actions and legislative proposals to start promoting right away while advisers and speechwriters flesh out the broad themes that Obama wants to emphasis in his State of the Union policy address on January 20.
	It will be his sixth since taking office, but his first before a Congress entirely in Republican hands.
	In a sign of their divergent paths, Obama was heading out of Washington on Wednesday just as the new Congress was settling in.
	He plans stops in Michigan, Arizona and Tennessee aimed at highlighting how his own economic policies were contributing to the country's ...

Obama looks past Republicans in promoting his 2015 agenda

A Norwegian cargo ship with 19 Filipino crew members sank off the coast of southern Vietnam with only one man known to have survived, the owner and officials said today.
	Two bodies have been recovered since the Bulk Jupiter sank on Friday en route from Malaysia to China, and efforts were continuing to find the others, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement issued in Manila.
	The lone survivor was the chief cook on the ship, it said.
	The ship owner, Bergen-based Gearbulk, said the vessel was 287 kilometers off Vietnam with a cargo of bauxite when it sent a distress signal that was picked up by the Japanese coast guard. The Philippine Foreign Affairs said the ship sank off the coast of Vung Tau, which is about 96 kilometers from the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City.
	The rescue operation was hampered yesterday by hazy weather and high waves.
	Vessels from Liberia, Oman, Singapore and China were helping in the search, the Philippine Foreign Affairs .

Ship sinks off Vietnam coast, only 1 rescued from a crew of 19

A judge in the western state of Michoacan has begun homicide proceedings against the founder of a vigilante group and 26 of his followers who were involved in a deadly clash with a rival force in December.
	Hipolito Mora founded a vigilante force to fight drug traffickers in Michoacan which later become part of an official rural police force that received guns, uniforms and pay from the government.
	On December 16, Mora's group had a shootout with a rival rural police force led by Luis Antonio Torres, better known as "Simon the American," that left 11 people dead in the remote mountain town of La Ruana, Michoacan.
	After the shootout, authorities said Mexican military and federal police would assume security responsibilities in several municipalities, replacing the rural police. In late December, both Mora and Torres, along with 35 of their followers, turned themselves in to authorities.
	Judge Maria Consuelo Lopez Ramirez yesterday said there was sufficient evidence against Mora and .

Mexico vigilante founder, 26 others held for deadly clash

Former US Senator Edward W. Brooke, a liberal Republican who became the first black in American history to win popular election to the Senate, died Saturday. He was 95.
	Brooke died of natural causes at his Coral Gables, Florida, home, said Ralph Neas, Brooke's former chief counsel. Brooke was surrounded by his family.
	Brooke was elected to the Senate from Massachusetts in 1966, becoming the first black to sit in that branch from any state since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era and one of nine blacks who have ever served there - including Barack Obama.
	Brooke told The Associated Press he was "thankful to God" that he lived to see Obama's election as the first black U.S. president. And the president was on hand in October 2009 when Brooke was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award Congress has to honor civilians. Obama hailed Brooke as "a man who's spent his life breaking barriers and bridging divides across this country."
	Senate Republican Leader Mitch .

Edward Brooke, 1st black elected US senator, dies

A 7-year-old girl who survived a plane crash in rural Kentucky had trekked about a mile without shoes in near-freezing temperatures in order to find help, a witness has said.
	Bloodied but free of major injuries, the girl knocked on the door of the first home she found that of Larry Wilkins of Kuttawa, Kentucky. He was stunned when he opened the door Friday evening, only to see a young girl bleeding from various injuries and sobbing.
	"I come to the door and there's a little girl, 7 years old, bloody nose, bloody arms, bloody legs, one sock, no shoes, crying," Wilkins, 71, told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday. "She told me that her mom and dad were dead, and she had been in a plane crash, and the plane was upside down."
	Kentucky State Police Sgt. Dean Patterson said Federal Aviation Administration officials have arrived at the scene to try to determine why the small Piper PA-34 crashed as it flew over rural southwestern Kentucky early Friday evening.
	The plane had ...

Girl, 7, survives US plane crash that kills 4 in her family

Former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has announced the formation of a new party about three weeks before a snap national election on January 25.
	Papandreou unveiled the Movement of Democrat Socialists yesterday in front of thousands of supporters.
	Papandreou, the son and grandson of prime ministers, presented himself as a determined reformist against the old "corrupt" system that brought the protracted financial crisis to Greece. He led the PASOK party, founded by his father in 1974, from 2004 to 2012.
	As prime minister from 2009 to 2011, he bore the brunt of the crisis and the onus of signing a bailout deal, which, although it prevented Greece from defaulting, is detested by many because the economy shrank by over a quarter and unemployment soared to record levels.

Former Greek prime minister announces new party

Armed men seized a Mexican journalist and activist from his home in the eastern state of Veracruz, the man's family said today.
	Jorge Sanchez Ordonez said he saw his father Moises Sanchez Cerezo being taken away by men in civilian clothing who arrived in three vehicles yesterday.
	Sanchez Cerezo is the owner of a small-circulation weekly newspaper called Union de Barrial in the municipality of Medellin. The son said he has reported on violence in the city and had received threats.
	He also recently helped form a citizens' "self-defense committee" meant to defend neighborhoods against crime.
	The state attorney general's office declined to give information about the case, but Gov. Javier Duarte told reporters that "all lines of investigation" were being considered. "Our priority is to be able to locate him to return him to his family," the governor said. He referred to Sanchez Cerezo as "a taxi driver and neighborhood activist."
	The Mexican branch of the free-speech group Article 19 .

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