Stirring Mexican volcano closes schools, raises alert

A powerful plume of steam and ash rose from the Popocatepetl volcano in central Mexico on Tuesday, prompting local schools to cancel classes and emergency teams to prepare for evacuations. The volcano's lava dome started to expand on Friday, suggesting fresh magma may be pushing upwards. It spewed red-hot fragments and lightly dusted cars and streets in some small towns in the state of Puebla, television images showed....

UK foreign minister welcomes Chinese probe of British man's death

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said Tuesday that news of a Chinese investigation into the death of a British businessman in China followed repeated British requests for an inquiry. Forty-one-year-old Neil Heywood was found dead in a hotel room in Chongqing, China's biggest metropolis, last November. His death was initially attributed to alcohol poisoning but foul play is now suspected. On April 10, Chinese authorities...

March housing starts fall, new permits surge

Groundbreaking on homes fell unexpectedly in March but permits for future construction rose to their highest level in 3-1/2 years, giving a mixed message for one of the economy's weaker sectors. Housing starts slipped 5.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 654,000 units, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. The long-moribund housing sector has showed signs of an incipient recovery in recent months,...

French Sarkozy denies hawking nuclear reactor to Gaddafi

President Nicolas Sarkozy denied on Tuesday an allegation by the former head of French nuclear group Areva that he had sought to sell a nuclear reactor to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi until mid-2010. "There was never any question of selling a reactor to Mr. Gaddafi," Sarkozy told France Inter radio, a week after Anne Lauvergeon, Areva's chief executive until 2011, made the claim in an interview on the website of...

Johnny Depp Hit With Lawsuit After Bodyguards Tackled Disabled Woman at Concert

An alleged incident involving Johnny Depp's bodyguards and a disabled woman at an Iggy Pop concert back in December 2011 has resulted in a lawsuit against the Hollywood actor. Claiming to have suffered "injuries to the extreme and outrageous humiliation" because of the incident, the woman identified as Jane Doe filed the suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday, April 16. In the court documents, the woman...