1. Quake increases nuclear concerns

    Iran plans to build more nuclear power reactors* in an earthquake-prone coastal area, Iranian media said on April 10, a day after an earthquake struck the region near its only existing plant.

    Gulf officials and experts asked Iran to come clean about its nuclear program, amid growing concerns fueled* by the earthquake near the Bushehr nuclear power station.

    The 6.3-magnitude quake hit 89 kilometers southeast of the port of Bushehr, killing 37 people and injuring more than 900. The nuclear power station was unaffected.

    2. 14 wounded in college stabbing attack

    A 20-year-old student went on a stabbing attack at a Texas community college in the United States on April 9, wounding at least 14 people.

    The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that Dylan Quick had been planning the attack at the Lone Star College System’s campus in Cypress for some time and had fantasies of stabbing people to death since he was in elementary school.

    3. Cambodia fights bird-flu surge

    The H5N1 bird flu has killed eight people so far this year in Cambodia, including six children. More than 13,000 chickens also have died from the highly contagious* illness.

    So far the kingdom has not recorded any human cases of H7N9, and is focused on fighting the more common H5N1 virus. The current outbreak* is Cambodia’s worst ever, accounting for nearly a third of its 27 human fatalities from H5N1 since the virus emerged in the kingdom in 2005.

    4. FBI probes recording of hardball talks

    Campaign aides* to U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell proposed using actress Ashley Judd’s past bouts with extreme sadness against her if she decided to challenge him in his reelection bid next year, U.S. media revealed last week.

    Mother Jones magazine released a recording of McConell’s statements on April 9, along with an article about a private meeting in which the aides discussed opposition research into potential Democratic challengers. The FBI is looking into how the recording was made after the McConnell campaign accused opponents of engaging in “Watergate-era tactics*.”

    5. Father of IVF Robert Edwards dies

    Robert Edwards, a British Nobel Prize-winning scientist known as the father of in-vitro fertilization* (IVF) for pioneering the development of “test tube babies,” died on April 10 at 87 after a long illness, his university said.

    Edwards, who won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2010, started developing IVF in the 1950s. The first so-called test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in 1978 as a result of Edwards’ research.

    6. Maduro wins close election

    Hugo Chavez’s successor*, Nicolas Maduro, won a razor-thin* victory in Sunday’s special presidential election in Venezuela, electoral officials announced.

    His challenger, Henrique Capriles, declared that he wouldn’t accept the results and called for a full recount.

    Maduro’s close victory came after a campaign in which the winner promised to carry on Chavez’s socialist revolution while Capriles’ main message was that Chavez’s 14-year regime put Venezuela on the road to ruin.

    7. Palestinian PM Fayyad quits

    Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad quit on Saturday after months of tension with President Mahmoud Abbas.

    Abbas, who has been unhappy with Fayyad’s handling of the cash-strapped* government, accepted the resignation and asked Fayyad to stay on as caretaker until a new government is formed.

    Fayyad, a Texas-educated former World Bank official, is credited with helping create institutions in the occupied West Bank, which would be needed if the Palestinians were to gain independence from Israeli occupation.(SD-Agencies)