NEW DELHI (AFP) -- A massive power cut blacked out a vast swathe of northern India Monday, leaving an estimated 300 million people without power in the worst outage in more than a decade, officials said.Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the entire northern grid collapsed for six hours shortly after 2:00 a.m., causing chaos in nine states including the capital New Delhi.The cut severely disrupted transport networks, including trains and metro services, while traffic light systems also went d

HYDERABAD, India (AFP) -- At least 32 people were killed Monday when a fire ripped through a coach on an express train as it carried sleeping passengers to the southern Indian city of Chennai, officials said.The accident, on a long-distance service from New Delhi, occurred in the early hours of the morning near the town of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh state with an electrical short-circuit seen as the most likely cause.“Thirty-two (bodies) have been pulled out from the coach,” Madhusudan Sarma, a s

TRIPOLI (AFP) ― Libya’s General National Congress, which will become the first elected body to rule the oil-rich nation after Moamer Gadhafi’s ouster, is due to take power early August, an official said Sunday.“August 8 is expected to be the date on which power is transferred from the National Transitional Council to the General National Congress,” said Othman Ben Sassi, a member of the outgoing NTC.Ben Sassi said the handover would be marked by a “symbolic ceremony” and that the 200-seat congre

JERUSALEM (AFP) ― White House hopeful Mitt Romney Sunday held top-level talks in Israel over Iran’s nuclear ambitions but quickly drew fire from the Palestinians for endorsing Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state.“We must lead the effort to prevent Iran from building and possessing nuclear weapons capability,” the Republican challenger said in a speech given on a rooftop overlooking Jerusalem’s Old City in which he laid out key foreign policy issues facing Israel.“We should employ any an

A New York mother gave birth to twin boys on two different highways before making it to the hospital, officials said.Siobhan and Bryan Anderson were making their way to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset around 7 a.m. Saturday after Siobhan‘s water broke, Newsday, Melville, N.Y., reported.Siobhan’s contractions intensified on the road and she asked Bryan to pull over on the Southern State Parkway, the report said.“I‘m going to deliver,” she told him.Bryan called 911 and state trooper R

The New York Times, which famously insists on the accuracy of its reports, was red faced Sunday after being fooled by a hoax online editorial posted under the name of ex-boss Bill Keller.The editorial, titled "WikiLeaks, a Post Postscript," was purportedly published over the weekend by the Times and in every way appears to be the real thing from Keller, who until last September was the paper's exe

BUCHAREST (AFP) ― Romanians went to the polls Sunday to decide whether to impeach their president Traian Basescu, bringing to a head weeks of political warring that has mired the young democracy in crisis.Polling stations opened at 0400 GMT. Around 18.3 million people are eligible to vote, including large diasporas in Spain and Italy.The opening hours have been extended and a number of additional polling stations have been set up along the Black Sea coast to facilitate voting for holidaymakers a

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Republican Party presidential candidate Mitt Romney‘s support for Israel will likely earn him a warm welcome from Israeli leaders when he meets with them Sunday -- and a frosty reception from Palestinians, who fear he would do little to advance their statehood dreams.Romney, who hopes to defeat Democratic President Barak Obama in the November general election, touched down in Tel Aviv on Saturday night as part of a three-nation foreign tour that includes Britain and Poland. He

Authorities in Russia said a man falsely claimed to be in love with a woman so he could steal her money to raise funds for his infant son's medical treatment.The Voronezh Region Interior Ministry Department said the 25-year-old man persuaded a 24-year-old woman to cancel her wedding to another man and allow him to move into her apartment, RIA Novosti reported Friday."The woman fully trusted her pa