World/Nation
Iran nuclear talks push past deadline
LAUSANNE, Switzerland - With stubborn disputes unresolved, nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers went past a self-imposed deadline and into overtime as negotiators renewed efforts to hammer out the outline of an agreement.
Enough progress had been made to warrant the extension past midnight Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said, although there still were "several difficult issues" to bridge.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who had planned to leave the talks Tuesday, was remaining. And an Iranian negotiator said his team could stay "as long as necessary" to clear the remaining hurdles.
The decision came after six days of marathon efforts to reach a preliminary understanding by midnight Tuesday, drawing in foreign ministers from all seven nations at the table - Iran, the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.
After more than a decade of diplomatic efforts to limit Tehran's nuclear advances, the present talks already had been extended twice, demonstrating the difficulties of reaching an agreement that meets the demands of both sides.
Co-pilot told school he had episode of 'severe depression'
FRANKFURT, Germany - Lufthansa knew the co-pilot of the passenger plane that crashed in the French Alps last week had suffered from an episode of "severe depression" before he finished his flight training with the German airline.
The airline said Tuesday it has found emails that Andreas Lubitz sent to the Lufthansa flight school in 2009 when he resumed his training in Bremen after an interruption of several months.
In them, he informed the school that he had suffered a "previous episode of severe depression," which had since subsided.
The airline said Lubitz subsequently passed all medical checks and that it has provided the documents to prosecutors. It declined to make any further comment.
French authorities say voice recordings indicate Lubitz, 27, locked the other pilot from the cockpit and deliberately crashed the Airbus A320 in the French Alps on March 24. All 150 people aboard Flight 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf died.
New Jersey lottery missing financial targets
WASHINGTON - When Chris Christie privatized the management of New Jersey's lottery two years ago, he said its new overseers would "modernize and maximize" the games.
Instead, a lottery once ranked among the nation's top performers is now lagging for the second straight year, trailing its state income targets by $64 million seven months into the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, the company running it has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire lobbyists and a public relations firm with close ties to the governor.
New Jersey lawmakers anticipated receiving nearly $1.04 billion in income from the lottery this year, a number reduced to just $955 million in a revised budget released this month. Having collected an estimated $510 million seven months into this fiscal year, the lottery is not on track to meet even its lowered expectations.
The shortfalls could mean budget cuts to programs directly funded by the lottery system - such as after-school care, programs for veterans and education for the deaf - should the lottery's fortunes not improve.
The lottery's woes are one piece of New Jersey's fiscal troubles, which include transportation funding shortfalls and underfunded state pensions. At a state assembly budget hearing earlier this week, state Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff blamed the lottery's underperformance on industry-wide trends and a shortage of big jackpots in multi-state games such as Powerball to drive sales.
Nigeria's president concedes defeat to Buhari
ABUJA, Nigeria - Amid anger over an Islamic insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives, Nigerians threw out the incumbent and elected a 72-year-old former military dictator Tuesday in a historic transfer of power following the nation's most hotly contested election ever.
President Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to former Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, paving the way for an unprecedented peaceful transfer of power in Africa's most populous nation.
"Nobody's ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian," Jonathan said in a statement in which he congratulated his successor on his victory. "I promised the country free and fair elections. I have kept my word."
It will be the first time in Nigeria's history that an opposition party has democratically taken control of the country from the ruling party - considered a sign of the West African nation's maturing young democracy. Jonathan's party has governed since decades of military dictatorship ended in 1999.
Celebrations erupted throughout Buhari's strongholds in northern Nigeria and around his campaign headquarters in Abuja. Cars honked and people waved brooms in the air - a symbol of Buhari's campaign promise to sweep out Nigeria's endemic corruption.
- The Associated Press