World/Nation Briefs September 7, 2012
Costa Rica escapes serious damage in quake
CANGREJAL, Costa Rica - The bulletins were terrifying: a powerful earthquake had struck off the coast of this Central American country, spawning a tsunami warning and bringing fears of widespread catastrophe.
But Costa Rica suffered remarkably little damage from Wednesday's magnitude-7.6 quake - a few blocked highways, some collapsed houses and one death, of a heart attack caused by fright. Officials credited the relatively deep location of the quake and building codes that Costa Rican officials call as strict as those in California and Japan.
The quake was 25 miles below the surface. Tremors that occur deep underground tend to be less damaging, but their shaking can be felt over a wider area.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 38 miles from the town of Liberia and 87 miles west of the capital, San Jose. The area is a seismically active zone where the Cocos tectonic plate dives beneath the Caribbean plate.
Quite a fewtopics avoidedin Charlotte
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -
They are the missing pages of a convention story line, ideas and initiatives once prominently featured in President Barack Obama's agenda.
Climate change. Economic stimulus. The massive bank bailout known as TARP. The stimulus and the bailout remain politically poisonous while regulatory remedies for climate change have receded as a priority in a poor economy.
All three were central elements of either Obama's last campaign or his first years in office. But at the Democratic National Convention, they barely rate a mention, even as they complement or undergird some of the president's top policy goals: shoring up the economy, reversing a financial crisis and achieving energy independence.
Former police officer convicted of murdering wife
JOLIET, Ill. - Drew Peterson - the crass former Illinois police officer who gained notoriety after his much-younger wife vanished in 2007 - was convicted Thursday of murdering a previous wife in a potentially precedent-setting case centered on secondhand hearsay statements.
Peterson, 58, sat stoically looking straight ahead and did not react as the judge announced jurors had found him guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Her relatives gasped, then fell into each other's arms and cried.
Illinois has no death penalty, and Peterson now faces a maximum 60-year prison term when sentenced Nov. 26.
Both relief and excitement showed on the faces of Savio's family members as they stepped out of the crowded courtroom. Her sister, Susan Doman, threw herself into the arms of her husband.
Cops: Man removed from jet victim of hoax
PHILADELPHIA - A man flying home to Texas to celebrate his 29th birthday instead spent Thursday as the unwitting victim of a midair explosives hoax that forced the plane's return to Philadelphia and him being escorted off at gunpoint, only to end up getting arrested in Texas on outstanding warrants.
The initial scare was determined to be a hoax after authorities searched the Dallas-bound US Airways jet and questioned the man, who did nothing wrong and was the victim of "a pretty nasty trick," Philadelphia police Chief Inspector Joseph Sullivan said. Police said they were acting on a tip they received that morning.
Officials would not name the man, but Philadelphia resident Christopher Shell identified himself in a phone call with The Associated Press as the passenger removed from the plane.
- The Associated Press