BEIJING – A 3-year-old girl has died after falling from a bouncy castle that was blown into the air in southern China. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the girl was playing in the inflatable castle outside a supermarket when a freak gale blew it away. It quoted Li …

KARACHI, Pakistan – A jail official says the scheduled execution of a Pakistani death-row prisoner whose family says was 14 years old when he was convicted has been stayed for a fourth time. Liaquat Khoso said early Tuesday that the order to stay Shafqat Hussain’s execution was received just hours …

JOHANNESBURG – Trackers on foot and helicopter are searching for a lion, five days after it escaped from a national park in a remote, arid region of South Africa. South African National Parks said in a statement that after a farmer reported that he’d found lion tracks on his land, …

NEW YORK – Demand for new airplanes around the world will continue to soar as millions of people in developing nations take to the skies for the first time. In the next 20 years, global airlines will need 38,050 new airplanes jet manufacturer Boeing said in its annual market forecast. …

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana’s government says it plans to formally ask the United Nations to intervene and help resolve an escalating border dispute with neighboring Venezuela. Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge said in a statement Saturday that it is time for what he called a “judicial settlement.” Venezuela has long claimed …

ROSEAU, Dominica – A Caribbean appeals court on Monday dismissed an attempt to become a lawyer by one of 17 men convicted of murder in a bloody 1983 coup in Grenada that triggered a U.S. invasion. The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court rejected the appeal by former army officer Ewart Layne, …

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaican officials say a mob of adults descended on a high school hurling rocks and setting a minibus on fire a day after one of its students allegedly killed a classmate away from the campus. Police rushed to Maldon High School in St. James parish to chase …

The 2009 Copenhagen climate summit may have failed, but its objectives, and the United Nations’ determination to realize them, are very much alive. Global airline carbon taxes, taxes on shipping, sweeping changes in land use, and an even bigger squeeze on world-wide greenhouse emissions—including tougher U.S. emissions limits and enforcement …

FRESNO, Calif. – A new California state audit found that over 1,000 sex offenders are living in homes licensed to provide foster and child care services. The startling information was uncovered after the audit was requested to investigate how Child Welfare Services handled child deaths in foster care homes. The …

They lurk below the waters just a stone’s throw from the beaches off Cape Cod and the number spotted in recent years has grown. White Sharks — popularly referred to as “great whites” — are seeking seals for dinner and the exploding population is drawing the predators close to shore. …