SAN JOSE (AFP) ― A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck Costa Rica’s Pacific coast Wednesday, killing two people, briefly knocking out power and phone lines, and triggering tsunami warnings, authorities said.Trees fell, rooftops were damaged and roads split by the quake near the epicenter in the coastal province of Guanacaste. People rushed into the streets 150 kilometers away in the capital San Jose.Authorities said around 20 people were injured in the quake.A Red Cross spokesman said a man

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (AP) ― Democrats turned Wednesday to a hero of the past, Bill Clinton, to boost the shaky re-election prospects of Barack Obama, with the popular former president from the prosperous 1990s assuring economically strapped Americans that better days lay ahead if they keep Obama in the White House. Clinton’s nationally televised speech was the highlight of the second day of the three-day Democratic National Convention, which formally launches Obama into what is expected to

A 6-year-old New Jersey boy died saving the life of his sister who was being sexually assaulted by an intruder in the children‘s home, a prosecutor said. The throat of first-grader Dominick Andujar was slashed when he came to the aid of his 12-year-old sister, the Camden Courier-Post reported Wednesday.“The 6-year-old saved her life,” Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk said. “He came to her assistance while she was being assaulted, and as a result of that she was able to get out of the house.

Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention was written at the 12th grade reading level, U.S. researchers say. A review by Smart Politics, a non-partisan political news site authored and founded by Dr. Eric Ostermeier of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, found Obama’s speech had the highest reading level among the wives of recent presidential nominees. The first lady’s speech Tuesda

Police who broke into a locked home in Japan after neighbors complained of a foul smell found three partially mummified and almost naked bodies, a spokesman said Tuesday.The bodies, which were partly decomposed and partly desiccated, were wearing only underwear in the living room of the two-storey house in Namerikawa, 250 kilometers (160 miles) northwest of Tokyo.The dead were believed to be Shoichi Osaki, a 78-year-old pensioner who owned the house, his 45-year-old daughter and mentally handica

As the head of the world’s second-most important central bank, Mario Draghi has influence over the global economy that few other officials do. Along with the ECB’s executive board, Draghi is responsible for setting the monetary policy of the 17-member eurozone. The stated focus of this policy is price stability. In the ECB’s view, this means medium-term inflation of just less than 2 percent.The ECB, as with other central banks, can contract the money supply, usually done at times of high inflati

Michelle Obama says change takes time, urges another termCHARLOTTE, North Carolina (AP) ― Democrats launched President Barack Obama on his uncertain bid for re-election as they opened their national convention Tuesday. They looked to help Obama recapture the hearts of Americans once drawn to his message of hope and change, but now weary after years of economic weakness and political squabbles.The nationally televised, three-day convention puts Democrats in the spotlight, allowing them to depict

LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― Michelle Obama suggested Tuesday that someone like Oprah Winfrey could deliver a better warm-up for her husband than Clint Eastwood did in his bizarre turn for his Republican rival Mitt Romney.The U.S. first lady, speaking hours before her own address to the Democratic National Convention, also reacted positively to the suggestion of George Clooney.“He’s cute,” she told E! News when asked about the Hollywood A-lister in an interview aired a few hours before her speech in Char

  The image is not related to the story. (123rf)A 15-month-old boy who spent days with his mother's body in a Melbourne suburb was "very clingy" when police found him Wednesday, an officer said. Investigators believe the mother died late Monday in the home in Yarraville where she lived with her son, The Age reported. A passerby noticed her body through a window Wednesday. Police launched a homicid