World Briefs

06-12-2009 |

Panama Star RECIFE, Brazil – Bad weather hindered the search for debris and bodies Thursday from the crash of Air France Flight 447, according to a senior Brazilian official who said there is little chance of finding all the victims.

As storms bore down on the crash zone off Brazil, a French submarine searched the depths of the Atlantic Ocean for the black boxes.

LONDON – A female nursery worker has appeared in a British court to face charges of sexually assaulting and disseminating indecent images of children.

Members of the public spat and jeered at 39-year-old Vanessa George at her first court appearance Thursday in Plymouth. George is charged with sexually assaulting children under the age of 13.

MORELIA, Mexico – Gunmen tossed a fragmentation grenade and fired on a crowded taco stand Thursday in the central Mexican city of Uruapan, killing a police officer and a 15-year-old boy. Four others were injured.

A spokesman from the state prosecutor's office in Michoacan state, where Uruapan is located, said the policeman was shot while eating with a fellow officer.

AMSTERDAM – The Anne Frank House museum says it will put the teenage Holocaust victim's diaries and other writings on permanent display to commemorate what would have been her 80th birthday on June 12, 1929. Frank died in a concentration camp at 15.

Until now her posthumously published diaries and other works have been kept in an archive at the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation. Some have previously been displayed at the museum.

BAGHDAD – Three American contractors detained during an investigation into the slaying of another American have been ordered released, but two others remain in custody on drug charges, the Iraqi government said Thursday.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, correcting an earlier statement, said only one of the men had been released as of late Thursday because of bureaucratic delays involving the other two. He said earlier that all three had been freed.

STOCKHOLM – Swedish sports car maker Koenigsegg is to buy Saab Automobile from US giant General Motors with support from Norwegian investors, a broadcaster reported on Thursday. The buyers have signed a letter of intention to buy Saab, Swedish television station SVT reported on its website, citing anonymous sources and naming Koenigsegg. It said negotiations to wrap up the deal would last months.