Grand Canyon tourist bus crash kills two

KINGMAN, Ariz., Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The crash of a tourist bus on the way to the Grand Canyon killed two people and seriously injured several others near Kingman, Ariz., authorities said.

The tourists were traveling from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon West when the bus left the roadway and rolled several times early Sunday, the Kingman Daily Miner said.

Two of the 11 passengers were declared dead at the scene and others with serious injuries were airlifted to Sunrise Medical Center in Peoria, Ariz.

Other passengers with less serious injuries were taken to Kingman Regional Medical Center by ambulance.

The tourists were all believed to be from foreign countries, authorities said.

The names of the deceased had not been released pending notification of next of kin, Mohave County sheriff's spokeswoman Trish Carter said.

The driver of the bus suffered minor injuries, the Daily Miner reported.

UPI

Man sees Jesus in tree limb

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Oct. 18 (UPI) -- A North Carolina man said he discovered an image of Jesus on a fallen limb from a cherry tree in his yard.

Bill Johnson of Winston-Salem said the limb fell about 10 days ago and his landlord cut it into smaller pieces and stacked them next to a tree. He said he noticed the fragment bearing the purported image of Jesus Christ while he was walking his dog, the Winston-Salem Journal reported Monday.

"I happened to look down there and I said, 'That looks like Jesus,'" he said. "It just amazed me".

Johnson said one end of the log bears an image of a robed Jesus outstretching his hand and the head is near the center, giving the appearance of a halo. He said his wife took a look at the image and came to the same conclusion, adding that the other end of the log bears an image resembling a baby in a crib, also with a halo.

Johnson said he plans to keep the limb.

UPI

Analysis: NATO points finger at Pakistan

(CNN) -- Why is NATO doing this now?

A lot of what has been said is common sense and common knowledge among officials working in the Afghan theater. What is different is it's a growing pressure on Pakistan and its role.

We had the information before about Osama bin Laden being close to Ayman al-Zawahiri, and it's been clear for a while he has not been living in a cave. It is not clear yet why a NATO official is saying this now.

The sense, behind the scenes, is Pakistan is believed to be coming towards the negotiating table and behind the Taliban as it begins to talk to the Afghan government.

Pakistan has its own set of desires for the outcome in Afghanistan -- and they are trying to achieve these demands behinds the scenes, we are led to believe, in association with the U.S. and Afghanistan.

It seems hardly surprising that there would be more pressure on Pakistan to provide what the U.S. and NATO wants, which is Osama bin Laden to be handed over.

CNN

Favre to meet with NFL official over conduct investigation

(CNN) -- Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre will meet this week with an NFL official as part of the league's investigation into allegations that he sent sexually explicit messages to women, an NFL spokesman said Monday.

"It's no secret," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said. "Any time you review a matter like this, you're going to talk to the person involved. What we've said is, 'Yes, we will be interviewing him as part of the process'".

Aiello said the meeting with Favre would not include Commissioner Roger Goodell, but the spokesman would not divulge with whom or where the meeting was to take place. "We don't generally provide these kind of details," Aiello said.

Asked Sunday what he expects to come out of the meeting, Favre said, "I don't expect anything. As I said last week, during the week, tonight, I'm concerned about the next game. I'll let that take its course".

Sunday's news conference came after Favre led the Vikings to a 24-21 victory over the Dallas Cowboys, going 14 for 18 with 119 yards, one touchdown and one turnover.

CNN

Former NFL linebacker Junior Seau injured in drive off cliff

(CNN) -- Former NFL linebacker Junior Seau was being treated at a hospital after he drove his white Cadillac SUV off a cliff Monday and landed on a beach in Carlsbad, California, police said.

He was taken to nearby Scripps La Jolla Hospital for the treatment, authorities said.

Law officers are investigating the cause of the accident, in which Seau was the vehicle's only occupant, police said. Carlsbad is 35 miles north of San Diego, where Seau played most of his career.

Drafted in the first round of the 1990 NFL draft out of the University of Southern California, Seau debuted with the San Diego Chargers, establishing his Hall of Fame credentials as a starring linebacker and Pro Bowl staple.

He left San Diego before the 2003 season to join the Miami Dolphins and spent parts of the last four seasons with the New England Patriots before retiring last January. Seau amassed 1,526 tackles, 56.5 sacks and 18 interceptions in his 20-year career.

Off the gridiron, Seau was the star of "Sports Jobs with Junior Seau," a reality show on the Versus network that followed him as he took on various behind-the-scenes occupations, from a baseball batboy to a bull fighter to a pro hockey equipment manager.

CNN

Sweden rejects WikiLeaks editor's residency request

(CNN) -- WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange's application for permanent residency in Sweden has been rejected, a Swedish Migration Board official told CNN Monday.

His application failed to fulfill all the requirements, Gunilla Wikstrom said. She declined to give further details, citing Swedish confidentiality laws.

He has three weeks to appeal, she said.

Assange's website publishes what it says are leaked secret documents, including 76,000 pages of documents related to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

Additionally, WikiLeaks is expected to publish as early as this week about 400,000 military documents from the Iraq war that were leaked to the site.

Assange faces charges of rape and molestation in Sweden, allegations that came out after the Afghanistan documents were published. It is not clear if the outstanding investigation had any bearing on his residency application.

"There is reason to believe that a crime has been committed," Marianne Ny, Sweden's director of public prosecutions, said in a statement last month. "Considering information available at present, my judgment is that the classification of the crime is rape".

She said more investigation is necessary before she can make a final decision.

An ongoing investigation about a separate charge of molestation will be extended, she added, but the charge will also be escalated to include a sexual component.

The previous molestation charge was equivalent to a non-sexual charge of harassment, but it will now come under the heading of sexual coercion and sexual molestation, which are both crimes, she said.

Assange's lawyer, Leif Silbersky, said last month he and his client were "very surprised" at the decisions.

CNN

U.S. official: Al Qaeda a 'serious threat' in Europe and beyond

(CNN) -- With Europe on high alert for attacks, a U.S. counterterrorism official said that al Qaeda remains a "serious threat" in Europe and beyond.

"They've made clear their intention to attack the United States and our allies," the official said Monday, referring to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a recently formed arm of Osama bin Laden's broader terrorist organization. "The terrorist threat to Europe, unfortunately, remains quite real".

Officials from the United States, Japan and Sweden have warned their citizens about traveling in Europe, citing a rising threat of terrorism. French authorities this month cautioned its citizens about traveling in the United Kingdom, saying British officials believe a terrorist attack there is "highly likely".

On Monday, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said that people all over the world "face a common threat" from "fundamentalists".

"You have the right to live your life, and we have it," Westerwelle said on CNN-IBN during a visit to India, saying some people view open discussions as a "provocation," adding, "I think tolerance is our common value".

On Saturday, according to news reports, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called multiculturalism in that European nation a failure. The government there plans to implement new policies and initiatives as soon as this week to better integrate new immigrants into society, including instituting German language courses and efforts to prevent forced marriages, news agency AFP reported. In London as well as elsewhere, several people connected with large-scale terrorist attacks in Europe in recent years were disaffected immigrants.

CNN

D'oh! Vatican declares Bart and Homer Simpson Catholic

Homer Simpson - perhaps the most profane character and worst father ever to headline a mainstream American television program - is Catholic, the Vatican's official newspaper has declared.

"Few know it, and he does all he can to hide it. But it is true," Luca Possati writes in Sunday's Osservatore Romano.

OK, Homer snores through the Rev. Lovejoy's sermons.

Yes, he relentlessly humiliates his evangelical Christian neighbor Ned Flanders.

But the show is one of the few in American life that takes religion seriously, a Jesuit is arguing - from grace before meals to an (admittedly off-kilter) belief in the afterlife.

The article riffs on the 2005 episode "The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star," in which Homer and Bart flirt with the idea of converting to Catholicism (and Homer makes an outrageous confession).

Homer decides against it with "a cathartic D'oh!," Possati writes. But the Rev. Francesco Occhetta praises the episode - and the series –anyway, Possati writes.

Occhetta wrote about The Simpsons in the most recent edition of Italian Jesuit magazine Civilita Cattolica, Possati says.

Creator Matt Groening's "surreal comedy, pungent satire and sarcasm about the worst taboos of the American Way of Life" opens "anthropological themes that are tied to the meaning and quality of life," he says.

"The moral message? None," the Vatican newspaper concludes. "But a world without easy illusions is a more humane and perhaps more Christian world".

CNN

Iran joins US for meeting on Afghanistan's future

Iran has for the first time taken part in high-level discussions on Afghanistan after the US said it had "no problem" with its participation.

An Iranian representative joined the international "contact group" - which brings together the Afghan government, dozens of countries, Nato, the EU and UN - for the talks in Rome.

It comes amid a renewed push to end the bloody nine-year Afghan conflict.

One senior US diplomat said Iran had "a role to play" in tackling the problems.

"We recognise that Iran, with its long, almost completely open border with Afghanistan and with a huge drug problem... has a role to play in the peaceful settlement of this situation in Afghanistan," Richard Holbrooke - the US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan - told a news conference.

"So for the United States there is no problem with their presence."

He said discussions would not be affected by the "bilateral issues" of Iran's nuclear programme, which Iran says is for purely civilian purposes but the US insists is a cover for creating atomic weapons.

Iran sent its special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Ghanazadeh, reported Associated Press.

BBC News

Report: Ancient ruins worldwide 'on verge of vanishing'

(CNN) -- Twelve historic sites around the world are "on the verge of vanishing" because of mismanagement and neglect, according to a new report.

The report, by San Francisco-based Global Heritage Fund (GHF), identifies nearly 200 heritage sites in developing nations as being at risk, highlighting 12 as being on the verge of irreparable loss and destruction.

Three sites in the Middle East, Iraq's Nineveh, Palestine's Hisham's Palace, and Turkey's Ani, are among those most in danger.

The ruined city of Ani, on the border of Turkey and Armenia, dates back to the 11th century. Once known as "The City of a Thousand Churches," many of its remaining buildings are now on the brink of collapse.

GHF executive director Jeff Morgan told CNN, "Ani is probably one of the top 10 sites in the world, right up there with Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat. It's incredible".

Morgan said Ani has been "caught in a political morass," because of its position on the border of two countries that don't have diplomatic relations.

Nineveh, near Mosul, in northern Iraq, was capital of the Assyrian empire from 705 to 612 B.C.. But Morgan says it is now at risk -- not from the conflict in Iraq, but from lax planning regulations that have led to around 40 percent of the archaeological site being covered by modern development.

Hisham's Palace, in the Palestinian territories, is the remains of a winter palace built by the Islamic Umayyad dynasty. It was destroyed by an earthquake around 747 A.D. and, like Nineveh, is now threatened by urban development.

"There's no expertise there to be able to care of it," said Morgan.

CNN

Xi appointed vice-chairman of Central Military Commission

BEIJING - Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping has been appointed vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The Fifth Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee announced in a communique at the close of the four-day meeting Monday that the CMC was augmented to include Xi as a vice-chairman.

Xi is also member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Born in 1953, Xi has served in a number of positions related to the armed forces and military reserve affairs during his previous tenures at national and local levels.

He was a military officer in active service when he worked as a secretary at the General Office of the Central Military Commission from 1979 to 1982.

He served as the first political commissar and first secretary of the Party committee of people's armed forces department of Zhengding County, Hebei Province, from 1983 to 1985 when he was the secretary of the county's Party committee.

Xi later served as the first secretary of the sub-military area commands' Party committees of Ningde and Fuzhou, both in Fujian Province, from 1988 to 1993.

From 1996 to 1999, he served as the first political commissar of the anti-aircraft artillery reserve division of Fujian provincial military area command, when he was deputy secretary of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee.

In 1999, Xi became vice director of the commission for national defense mobilization of Nanjing Military Area Command and director of Fujian Provincial commission for national defense mobilization, when he was promoted to acting governor of Fujian Province.

After a transfer to Zhejiang Province in 2002, Xi was appointed director of Zhejiang Provincial commission for national defense mobilization.

China Daily

Abdullah, Assad discuss key Mideast issues

RIYADH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah held wide-ranging talks Sunday with Syrian President Bashar Assad which touched a range of bilateral and regional issues with special reference to the fate of the UN probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri, the political void in Iraq and an Arab response to the continued Israeli settlement.

The meeting also discussed ways and means to settle the internal bickering of Palestinian factions, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The talks, which also covered major regional and international issues, were held at the Royal Terminal of the Riyadh Air Base.

“The summit-level talks here on Sunday were focused on how to step up efforts to ease the political crisis in Lebanon over the UN probe," said a Syrian diplomat, adding that the talks also covered many other issues of common concern.

President Assad, he said, was in Riyadh just three days after the visit of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Lebanon, where the Iranian leader pledged support for Hezbollah. The visit of the Iranian president raised many questions at the regional political and diplomatic levels.

On arrival at Riyadh Air Base on Sunday evening, Assad was received by King Abdullah and senior Saudi officials. The Syrian president was accompanied by Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem. This is Assad's second trip to the Kingdom this year which is indicative of the progressively growing relations between Riyadh and Damascus.

Asked about the details of the talks, the Syrian diplomat said that King Abdullah and Assad discussed "all new developments in the Arab and Islamic world, while they also reviewed their positions on different issues".

Arab News

Protests in China worry Japanese companies

GUANGZHOU, China, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Escalating protests in China over Japan's claim to the Senkaku Islands has prompted Japanese firms to warn their employees in China to remain cautious.

Toyota Motor Corp. urged its 14 Japanese workers in Guangzhou to take precautions. Nissan Motor Co. said its 40 Japanese employees in Zhengzhou, China, were safe, Yomiuri Shimbun reported Monday.

The Sydney Morning Herald said thousands of Chinese protesters have demonstrated in various cities and that Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan "strongly requested that Japanese companies (in China) be protected".

Some Chinese tourist companies have stopped marketing trips to Japan, Yomiuri Shimbun said.

In China, protesters have called for a boycott of Japanese goods to protest Japanese detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain and crew.

The captain was charged with intentionally running his boat into a Japanese coast guard vessel near the Senkaku Islands, which Japan controls but China claims.

UPI

U.S.-Japan scrap security declaration plan

TOKYO, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The United States and Japan, disputing the relocation of the Marine Corps base in Okinawa, scrapped plans on a new joint security declaration, officials said.

A planned declaration would have marked the 50th anniversary of the signing of the revised Japan-U.S. Security Treaty while freshening the bilateral alliance by renewing the 1996 Japan-U.S. Joint Declaration on Security, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Monday.

While confirming an agreement to abandon the planned declaration, the U.S. and Japanese governments still are considering a statement "of lesser significance" on certain security matters when U.S. President Obama visits Japan next month, sources told the Japanese newspaper.

Leaders of both nations were trying to recast the 1996 joint security declaration into one of increased deterrence by both countries, including defense-related information security, missile defense, space development and disaster prevention, sources told the newspaper. However, the consultations were stymied over the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station air base's functions in Okinawa.

A decision on where to locate the base has been delayed until after Obama visits, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

UPI

Sweden denies residence to WikiLeaks boss

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Sweden has denied a residence permit to the founder the whistle-blower Web site WikiLeaks, the government said Monday.

Julian Assange, an Australian citizen, applied for a residence and work permit in August to gain status as the legally responsible publisher of his site, the news agency TT reported.

WikiLeaks has servers in Sweden and the move would have given its sources better protection under the country's press freedom laws.

"We have made the decision to reject his application. He has received the notice today by e-mail," Gunilla Wikstrom of the National Migration Board told the Aftonbladet newspaper Monday.

She would not reveal the reason or confirm whether Assange was still in the country.

Assange visited Sweden during the summer and applied for a residence permit, but he was accused of rape and molestation.

The allegations from two women led a prosecutor to issue an arrest warrant, but her boss abruptly withdrew it. The decision was appealed and the case was reopened by another prosecutor.

Assange has admitted meeting both women, who their lawyer said are Swedish and between the ages of 25 and 35. Assange is still under investigation, but has not been barred from leaving Sweden.

CNN

Bieber involved in laser-tag dust-up

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- British Columbia police are investigating an incident involving teen pop star Justin Bieber and a 12-year-old boy, who was hurt at a laser-tag center.

The Postmedia News reported the 16-year-old singer was escorted out of the Planet Lazer Entertainment Centre in Richmond after the younger boy was injured during a weekend laser-tag game.

Because of the boys's ages, police spokeswoman Annie Linteau would not release their identities, but she confirmed the younger boy sustained "an injury that did not require medical care".

"There is an active investigation. We are in the process of interviewing a number of people that saw what might have happened," Linteau told the Postmedia.

UPI

Facebook apps reveal users' information

NEW YORK, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Popular Facebook applications like FarmVille and FrontierVille are feeding users' data to marketers, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook "app" users, even those who set their profiles to the strictest privacy settings. The practice breaks Facebook's rules and raises new questions about its ability to keep identifiable information secure.

An industry has arisen of companies that build databases on people to track them online, the Journal reported.

A Facebook spokesman Sunday said it is taking steps to "dramatically limit" exposure of personal information.

"A Facebook user ID may be inadvertently shared by a user's Internet browser or by an application," the spokesman said, but that "does not permit access to anyone's private information on Facebook". He added that the company will introduce technology to contain the problem.

"Apps" are pieces of software that let Facebook's 500 million users play games or share common interests with one another. The Journal found all of the 10 most popular apps were transmitting users' IDs to outside companies.

UPI