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AMPATUAN, Philippines – Officials found 11 more bodies Wednesday at the site of an attack on an election caravan in the south, bringing the death toll in the massacre to 57, and police said they are investigating a member of a powerful clan allied with the president’s administration.
The dead from Monday’s massacre included the wife and two sisters of gubernatorial candidate Ismael Mangudadatu and 18 Filipino journalists accompanying the caravan.
Police identified the prime suspect as Andal Ampatuan Jr., a scion of the powerful Ampatuan clan led by the former provincial governor.
The clan, which has ruled the province unopposed for eight years, helped President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her allies win the 2004 presidential and 2007 senatorial elections by delivering crucial votes.
Thanksgiving travel plummeted 25 percent between 2007 and 2008, and many of those habits seem to be sticking this year. The number of people traveling is likely to increase only about 1.4 percent, according to an AAA prediction based on a survey of 1,300 households.
About 38 million domestic travelers are expected to go somewhere this holiday – a far cry from the roughly 58 million who made holiday journeys in 2005 when the economy was better.
The U.S. Navy plans to give away the retired aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy for a museum or memorial.
The ship is currently docked in Philadelphia with other retired warships.
The Navy says the deadline for submitting initial applications is Jan. 22. Bidders have to be a government or non-profit group that pledges to use the ship as a museum or memorial. The winner gets the ship for free but will be responsible for moving the 1,050-foot vessel from Philadelphia to its new home.
Pakistan charged seven men in last year’s Mumbai attacks Wednesday, its first indictment in a case being monitored by India and the United States to see whether Islamabad makes good on promises to bring those responsible to justice.
Despite a crackdown in the months after the attacks, analysts say Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group blamed for the three-day assault on the financial center that killed 166 people, remains active and largely untouched by Pakistani authorities.
The Mumbai attacks halted a slow-moving peace process between Pakistan and India aimed at resolving their core dispute over Kahsmir, which they both claim. India says Pakistan must crack down on militants before talks can resume.
The prison chief being tried for running a torture center for the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia was following orders and did nothing that scores of colleagues didn’t also do, his lawyer said Wednesday, seeking to rebut popular calls for his client to receive the maximum possible punishment.
Prosecutors in Cambodia’s first genocide trial are asking for a 40-year sentence, which would likely lock up 67-year-old Kaing Guek Eav for life, but which some of his victims say would still not be harsh enough.
In total, 1.7 million Cambodians died because of radical communist policies of the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime and their French-educated leader, the late Pol Pot. Four other senior leaders are in custody and expected to face trial in the next year.
The heaviest rain to hit Islam’s annual hajj pilgrimage in years soaked the faithful and flooded the road to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, snarling traffic as millions of Muslims headed for the holy sites. The downpours add an extra hazard on top of intense concerns about the spread of swine flu.
Pilgrims in white robes holding umbrellas, some wearing masks for fear of the flu, circled the black cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca during the opening rite for the hajj.
But the shrine – Islam’s holiest site – and the nearby, rain-soaked streets did not see the usual massive, pushing crowds, because many tried to stay inside nearby hotels or were caught in the traffic jams heading into the city.
Mecca and the nearby Red Sea coastal city of Jiddah often see heavy rain during winter, and Wednesday’s were unusually strong. Jiddah was swamped with 2.76 inches, more than it gets in a year on average, according to weather officials.
