1. Italian ship disaster

    A cruise ship with more than 4,000 on board capsized* off Italy’s west coast on Saturday. The captain of the luxury 114,500-ton ship was held in jail accused of multiple manslaughter*, causing a shipwreck* and abandoning ship, Italian police said.

The captain faced accusations from authorities and passengers that he abandoned ship before everyone was safely evacuated. Six bodies have now been recovered, while 16 people are missing.

    2. Taliban leader

    The leader of the Pakistani Taliban, the militant* movement that poses the gravest security threat to the country, is believed to have been killed by a U.S. strike, Pakistan intelligence officials said on Sunday.

The officials said they intercepted* wireless radio chatter between Taliban fighters detailing how Hakimullah Mehsud was killed while traveling to a meeting in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.

    3. Russian spacecraft

    A Russian space probe* on a mission to a moon of Mars has come down in flames, showering fragments* into the south Pacific west of Chile’s coast, officials said.

    The US$170 million craft was one of the heaviest and most toxic* pieces of space junk* ever to crash to Earth, but space officials and experts said the risks posed by its crash were minimal because the toxic rocket fuel on board and most of the craft’s structure would burn up in the atmosphere high above the ground anyway.

    4. Cargo boat attacked

    Unidentified attackers fired on a Chinese cargo boat on the Mekong River in Laos, police in China said on Sunday, less than two months after China began joint patrols* to protect shipping.

    Shots were fired at the Chinese ship Sheng Tai 11 on Saturday evening, but none of the crew were wounded, the Ministry of Public Security said on its Web site.

    5. Gunmen storm police building

    Gunmen wearing explosive* belts stormed an anti-terrorism police building in the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday after one suicide* bomber blew himself up outside, police officials said.

    At least five people were killed and six more wounded in the initial suicide bomb blast.

    6. Killed nuclear scientist

    Iran said on Saturday it had evidence Washington was behind the latest killing of one of its nuclear scientists, state television reported, at a time when tensions over the country’s nuclear program have escalated* to their highest level ever.

    7. S. Korean ship sinks

    A South Korean cargo ship was rocked by an explosion off the country’s west coast on Sunday, leaving five people dead and six others missing, officials said.

    The unexplained explosion tore apart the front of the ship and left the 4,198-ton vessel half-submerged*, coast guard officials said.

    8. Presidential race

    U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman dropped out of the White House race on Monday and endorsed* front-runner Mitt Romney, a senior campaign official said.

    Huntsman’s campaign never took off. Conservative Republicans mistrusted him for working for Democratic President Barack Obama as U.S. ambassador to China. (SD-Agencies)