A meteor streaking across the sky in Northern California Sunday caused a sonic boom heard by a number of people, the National Weather Service said.Meteorologist Craig Shoemaker said the loud bang heard across a wide area of the Sierra Nevada mountains originated with the Lyrid meteor shower, an annual phenomenon caused by debris from Comet Thatcher, which passes Earth every year.The event occurred

An Australian court sentenced a Sydney man to six months in jail for posting nude photos of his ex-girlfriend on his Facebook page.Ravshan Usminov, 20, admitted he plastered six revealing pictures for all of his "friends" to see in order to get back at the young woman for dumping him.The Sunday Age said Sunday that Usminov's mortified ex called police in October after he refused to remove the imag

.SANFORD, Florida (AP) ― All eyes remain on the Florida jail where the man charged with murdering 17-year-old Trayvon Martin is awaiting release on bail, and it could be several days before he leaves.George Zimmerman’s attorney was still working Sunday to secure the money for bail and a safe place for the 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer to stay. But residents in Sanford, where Martin was killed, don’t expect a ruckus once Zimmerman is released.City commissioners haven’t received calls f

WASHINGTON (AP) ― President Barack Obama’s re-election effort enjoyed a huge financial advantage over Republican rival Mitt Romney last month, outraising the former Massachusetts governor by millions of dollars.A nasty primary battle between Romney and his Republican challengers for the party’s nomination took a financial toll on his presidential campaign, which raised $12.6 million in March and left Romney with about $10 million in the bank by month’s end.Romney has all but secured his party’s

BENTIU, South Sudan (AFP) ― South Sudan’s army said on Sunday it had completed its pullout from an oil field seized from Sudan, ending a deadly standoff which forced thousands of civilians to flee.South Sudanese officials said the withdrawal from Heglig had been ordered to avert a return to all-out war, but they accused Khartoum of air strikes against the departing troops.The South seized Sudan’s most important oil field Heglig on April 10, claiming Khartoum was using it as a base to attack the

JUBA (AFP) ― South Sudanese forces were pulling out from Sudan’s main Heglig oil field on Saturday, an official said, as U.S. President Barack Obama called on both states to resume talks.“Our troops are still withdrawing; it will take three days,” Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin told AFP.“We are responding to the request of the U.N. Security Council and others, as a member of the U.N. and the African Union.”Sudanese army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad told AFP on Saturday afternoon:

MANAMA (AFP) ― Bahrain’s opposition reported the first death in protests timed for Sunday’s controversial Grand Prix as a security lockdown was imposed around the Sakhir Formula One circuit and the king said he is committed to reform.The body of Salah Abbas Habib, 36, was found in Shakhura village, where security forces had “attacked peaceful protesters, brutally beating some of them with various tools and weapons,” said Al-Wefaq, the Gulf state’s largest Shiite opposition bloc.It charged that “

REYKJAVIK (AFP) ― Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao wrapped up a visit to Iceland on Saturday, the first stage in a four-nation European tour, after concluding an accord on cooperation in the oil-rich Arctic region.A geologist by training, Wen visited the Hellisheidarvirkjun geothermal plant on a volcanic ridge near Reykjavik on Saturday, accompanied by Icelandic Foreign Minister Ossur Skarphedinsson.China and Iceland have a partnership, through the Orka Energy and Sinopec companies, to develop geother