3 killed in southern Australia helicopter crash (AP)

SYDNEY – Three people were killed in a helicopter crash in southern Australia, police said Friday, with a prominent Australian journalist believed to be among the dead.

Australian Broadcasting Corp. said three members of its news crew, including veteran journalist Paul Lockyer, are believed to have died when their chopper crashed Thursday in a remote part of South Australia state.

Lockyer, cameraman John Bean and pilot Gary Ticehurst were working in the area on a story about Lake Eyre, a massive Outback lake, the ABC said.

South Australia police confirmed three people were killed in the accident and said they were investigating the cause of the crash.

A tour guide who had chatted with those on board shortly before they took off saw a large fireball in the distance soon after the helicopter departed, Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Smith said.

The crash site is surrounded by water and boggy land, making access to the area difficult, Smith said. The remoteness of the region was also making it tough to get in touch with investigators on the scene, he said.

"We are not expecting to have any positive news, any positive identification or the full extent of the detail for some time," Smith told reporters in Adelaide.

Lockyer was an award-winning journalist whose career spanned more than 40 years and included assignments in Washington and Asia.

Ticehurst was a well-known media pilot who worked for the ABC for more than 25 years. Bean, a Brisbane-based cameraman, was a 20-year veteran of the ABC who worked throughout Australia, the Pacific and in Washington.

"This has been the longest of nights and we fear it will be the saddest of days," ABC managing director Mark Scott said.

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Yemen says army beating militants in southern city (Reuters)

ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) – Yemeni authorities said government forces made progress on Monday in efforts to dislodge Islamist militants holding the southern city of Zinjibar.

"The army is besieging the remnants of the terrorists and is on the verge of completely cleansing Zinjibar," the local provincial governor, Saleh Hussein al-Zuari, said in comments on the Yemeni defense ministry's 26 September website.

It was not possible to verify his statement. No comment was available from the armed Islamist group in the city.

A military spokesman said troops had killed 17 militants as of Monday -- five more than the figure given on Sunday, the first day of the offensive in Zinjibar. Five soldiers had died and 21 were wounded, the military added.

Last month's seizure of Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, caused thousands to flee and raised fears that militants with ties to al Qaeda were gaining ground as veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh resisted pressure from his U.S. and Saudi allies to stand down in favor of a transition to democracy.

Saleh has been in a Saudi hospital since being wounded in an attack on his palace on June 3, but he retains power.

Saleh's opponents say his forces handed over Zinjibar to the militants in order to bolster his argument that his departure would lead to an Islamist takeover of the poor Arab state.

(Reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf; writing by Sami Aboudi; editing by Alastair Macdonald)

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Michelle Obama to visit southern Africa

Michelle Obama will visit South Africa and Botswana during the weeklong trip that starts Monday.Michelle Obama's first stop will be in Pretoria to meet South African President Jacob Zuma The first lady will highlight the benefits of education and wellness to youth She will also visit Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was detained for almost 27 years

(CNN) -- First lady Michelle Obama's official trip to southern Africa this week will focus on youth leadership and education and will include meetings with key figures in the anti-apartheid struggle.

Obama will make stops in South Africa and Botswana during the weeklong visit that starts Monday.

She will highlight the benefits of education and wellness and urge youth in the continent to be part of the national dialogue, according to the White House.

"The trip is a continuation of Mrs. Obama's work to engage young people, especially girls and young women, at home and abroad," the White House said.

The first lady's first stop will be in Pretoria, where she will meet with South African President Jacob Zuma.

Before heading to Johannesburg and Cape Town, she will take a tour of an apartheid museum with Nelson Mandela's wife, Graca Machel.

She will also visit Robben Island, where Mandela was held for the majority of the 27 years he was in detention for fighting apartheid.

The schedule released by the White House did not mention a meeting with the 92-year-old former president.

The latter part of the trip includes a meeting with Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and a visit to Soweto and the site of the 2010 World Cup.

Her visit to neighboring Botswana will include a tribute to girls overcoming hurdles to success.

In addition to visits with top leaders, she will also attend a series of public events, meet embassy officials and take part in community service projects in both countries.

After a safari, she will depart from the Botswana capital of Gaborone on Sunday.

Her visit marks the second to sub-Saharan Africa by a member of the Obama family since the president took office more than two years ago.

President Barack Obama went to Ghana in 2009. The first lady made similar trips to Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, India, Mexico and the United Kingdom. She will be accompanied by her mother, Marian Robinson, and two daughters, Sasha and Malia.

CNN

9 bodies discovered in southern Mexico (AP)

MORELIA, Mexico – Mexican authorities said Saturday the bodies of nine victims of suspected drug violence have turned up in the western state of Michoacan.

The state prosecutor's office said in a statement that authorities found eight bodies in three different areas of the port city of Lazaro Cardenas. Three of the cadavers had been dumped in front of the state public security agency.

Another body was found in the state capital of Morelia.

Several of the still unidentified bodies were discovered with messages from a group calling itself the Knights Templar and claiming responsibility for the killings.

The violence is apparently due to a rupture in the La Familia crime organization after the gang's leader, Nazario Moreno, was killed in a shootout with police Dec. 9.

One of the messages, staked to a man's body with an ice pick, read: "This will happen to everyone who supports Chango Mendez."

Jesus Mendez, also known as "El Chango," or "The Monkey," is a suspected leader of the La Familia cartel.

Messages from the Knights Templar first began appearing in March, with the group claiming that it would replace La Familia. Messages left on bodies or hung in public areas are commonly used by drug gangs to threaten rivals, to deny responsibility for crimes or to send messages to authorities.

The name alludes to a Christian order of knights founded in 1118 in Jerusalem to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land after the First Crusade.

On Friday, unidentified criminals set fire to automobiles and buses to block a highway in Michoacan following a shootout with Mexican troops.

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Storms blast southern Michigan, leave many without power

(CNN) -- Severe storms pounded south-central Michigan Sunday, knocking out power to more than 100,000 customers and cutting a path of destruction through the city of Battle Creek, officials said.

"The storms hit our business corridor and residential area the hardest," said Mike McKenzie, Battle Creek's emergency services director. "There are numerous trees on houses and cars, widespread power outages and a lot of businesses damaged."

The severe weather hit Battle Creek late Sunday afternoon, kicking up winds in excess of 80 mph, according to McKenzie, who said no major injuries had been reported.

In Calhoun County, where Battle Creek is located, some 29,000 customers of Consumers Power were without electricity late Sunday, company spokesman Jay Jacobs said. Throughout the states, 104,000 customers of the utility were without power.

Severe weather also raked the Chicago area, forcing the cancellation of 450 flights, according to a media official at O'Hare International Airport.

CNN's Rick Martin and Greg Morrison contributed to this report

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Syrian troops take mosque in southern city, kill 4

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian army troops backed by tanks and helicopters on Saturday took a prominent mosque that had been controlled by residents in a besieged southern city, killing four people, a witness said.

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In this citizen journalism image acquired by the AP, Syrians gather after Friday prayers during an anti-government protest in the coastal city of Banias, Syria.

AP

In this citizen journalism image acquired by the AP, Syrians gather after Friday prayers during an anti-government protest in the coastal city of Banias, Syria.

The operation in the town of Daraa came a day after President Bashar Assad unleashed deadly force to crack down on a months-old revolt, killing at least 65 people, mostly in the border town.

Daraa resident Abdullah Abazeid said the assault on the mosque lasted 90 minutes, during which troops fired tank shells and heavy machine guns. Three helicopters took part in the operation, dropping paratroopers onto the mosque itself, he said.

The Omari mosque, in the city's Roman-era old town, had been occupied by residents of Daraa.

Daraa is the heart of a six-week-old uprising and has been under siege since Monday, when the government first sent in tanks to crush the demonstrations.

Among the dead was Osama Ahmad, the son of the mosque's imam, Sheik Ahmad Sayasna, according to Abazeid. The other three were a woman and her two daughters who were killed when a tank shell hit their home near the mosque, he said.

In another development in the Daraa region, 138 members of Assad's ruling Baath Party resigned Saturday to protest the crackdown. Lists of those who resigned, with their party rank, identity card numbers and signatures, were sent to The Associated Press by activists.

It was not possible to independently verify the authenticity of the lists of the low-ranking members. Earlier this week, another 200 mostly low-level Baath party members in the Daraa province resigned over the deadly crackdown.

In the early hours of the morning, military reinforcements poured into Daraa, including 20 armored personnel carriers, four tanks, and a military ambulance, a resident of the city told the AP.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said 65 people were killed Friday. with 36 of the deaths in the Daraa province, 27 in the central Homs region, one in Latakia and another in the Damascus countryside.

In all, 535 civilians have been killed since the uprising began in mid-March, he said.

An activist said authorities have asked families of some of those killed Friday to hold small funerals attended by family members only. Similar orders were given last week, but most people did not abide by them, the activist added.

The move appeared to be an attempt by authorities to avoid more bloodshed, with funerals in the past weeks turned into demonstrations.

Ammar Qurabi, who heads the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, said authorities were forcing families of the dead to sign documents saying their loved ones were killed by "armed groups."

He added that about 100 people from the Homs region are missing in what could mean they were killed, detained or wounded.

Daraa has been without electricity, water and telephones since Monday, with residents fleeing across the border. The uprising began in Daraa, sparked by the arrest of teenagers who wrote anti-regime graffiti on a wall.

Sporadic gunfire was heard in the city Saturday, mainly from the central area, another Daraa witness said.

He said for the past week, troops had been allowing women to go out to buy bread, but on Saturday they were stopped.

In the coastal city of Banias, a resident said armed forces had withdrawn from the city center after taking up positions there earlier in the month.

The witnesses' accounts could not be independently verified. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal.

Syria has banned nearly all foreign media and restricted access to trouble spots, making it almost impossible to verify the dramatic events shaking one of the most authoritarian regimes in the Arab world.

Large demonstrations were reported Friday in the capital of Damascus, the central city of Homs, the coastal cities of Banias and Latakia, the northern cities of Raqqa and Hama, and the northeastern town of Qamishli near the Turkish border.

Syrian TV said Friday that military and police forces came under attack by "armed terrorists" in Daraa and Homs, killing four soldiers and three police officers. Two soldiers were captured but were later rescued by the army, state TV said. The station also said one of its cameramen was injured in Latakia by an armed gang.

The Obama administration imposed financial penalties on three top Syrian officials, including Assad's brother, Maher, as well as Syria's intelligence agency and Iran's Revolutionary Guard over the crackdown.

Meanwhile, diplomats say the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency is setting the stage for potential U.N. Security Council action on Syria as it prepares a report assessing that a Syrian target bombed by Israeli warplanes in 2007 was likely a secretly built nuclear reactor meant to produce plutonium.

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Southern tornado outbreak nation's deadliest in 86 years

Death toll from South's latest tornado outbreak climbs to 340Deadliest single day from tornadoes was in 1925 when 747 people diedAlabama death toll rises to at least 252Funerals for University of Alabama students killed by storms start this weekend

(CNN) -- As emergency responders continued to tally the dead on Saturday, surviving family members and friends prepared to bury loved ones who perished in what has become the second deadliest single-day tornado outbreak in U.S. history.

Among the victims for whom memorial services are planned in the coming days are three students of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The area has emerged as the focal point for the Wednesday disaster that swept through six southern states and killed 340 people.

According to the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, at least 45 people people died during the storms in Tuscaloosa County, more than in any of the other five southern states that recorded deaths from Wednesday's violent weather.

By early Saturday morning, emergency management officials tallied 252 deaths in Alabama, 34 in Tennessee, 33 in Mississippi, 15 in Georgia, 5 in Virginia and 1 in Arkansas.

Since 1680, there has been only one other date in U.S. history on which more people died during a severe weather outbreak, according to weather experts.

On March 18, 1925, a severe storm system swept across seven states killing 747 people, according to the National Weather Service.

President Barack Obama visited Tuscaloosa on Friday. His motorcade passed street after street of homes reduced to splinters, crushed and flipped cars, and widespread debris on the way to his first stop to visit with families affected by the storms.

"I've got to say I've never seen devastation like this," Obama told reporters.

University of Alabama graduate student Arefeen Shamsuzzoha had a similar reaction after he toured much of the city on Friday taking photographs of the damage.

"The trees are completely stripped of all of their branches," Shamsuzzoha told CNN Saturday morning. "The ones that are standing just look like sticks rising from the ground."

Hundreds of people are unaccounted for in Tuscaloosa, though not all have been officially reported missing.

The University of Alabama student newspaper, The Crimson White, began tallying e-mails from students who were searching for missing friends. Within hours, the newspaper had received 68 e-mails from worried students.

Those who survived the disaster thanked God or simple luck.

Gar and Nettie Blume, husband and wife attorneys, were leaving the office Wednesday evening when the storms struck.

"We felt the pressure and heard the window implode," Gar Blume told CNN. "And the next thing we knew we had debris falling on us."

Added Nettie Blume, "We were just really lucky that the one place the roof fell off and didn't have something covering (us) was where we were. Everywhere else we would have been buried and waiting ... or dead."

Terry Nicholson, a nearby resident, pulled the Blumes out of the rubble. The only reason he survived -- and his house was still standing -- was divine intervention, he said.

"Everything was laid down and we were still standing," Nicholson said.. "It had to be my God."

CNN's Sarah Hoye contributed to this report.

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More than 40 killed in Southern storms

said Mosley, 54.

In Richmond, Va., a tornado touched down Saturday night at the switchyard of the Surry Power Station nuclear plant, cut off electricity and triggered a shutdown of two reactors, Dominion Virginia Power, which operates the station, said in a statement.

There was no danger, the facility said.

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Southern California Republican Allegedly Sent Offensive Email to Obama

Associated Press

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LOS ANGELES -- A Southern California Republican Party official was under fire Saturday after allegations she sent an email that included an altered photo depicting President Barack Obama as an ape.

An e-mail reportedly sent by party central committee member Marilyn Davenport shows an image, posed like a family portrait, of chimpanzee parents and child, with Obama's face artificially superimposed on the child. Text beneath the photo reads, "Now you know why no birth certificate."

Davenport, when reached by The Associated Press, said she would provide a written statement with her response, but several hours later she had not issued one.

The alternative newspaper OC Weekly first reported the story, and was told by Davenport that the e-mail was "just an Internet joke." She also asked the Weekly, "You're not going to make a big deal about this are you?"

Republican Party of Orange County Chairman Scott Baugh told The Associated Press on Saturday that he wants an ethics investigation into the incident.

"It's just highly inappropriate, it's a despicable message, it drips with racism and I think she should step down from the committee," said Baugh.

Baugh said it could be several days before it's known whether the ethics committee will agree to investigate Davenport.

At the very least, Baugh said, Davenport should be apologizing for what she's done rather than attacking whoever leaked the email to media, referring to an email Davenport sent after the story broke calling on "the coward" who leaked the email to come forward.

Davenport, a tea party activist, represents the 72nd Assembly District in Orange County on the central committee.

She represents Brea, Placentia, Fullerton and portions of other Orange County cities to the county committee tasked with fundraising, campaigning and debating policy for the Republican Party.

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Congresswoman Feigns Southern Accent to Deride Tea Party Lawmakers

Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif. , speaks to supporters on Friday, Oct. 15, 2010, outside the Old Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif. (AP)

A Democratic congresswoman, frustrated with her interactions with a new class of Tea Party-backed conservative lawmakers, mocked them this week by talking in a Southern accent and referring to them as "Moe," during an interview on nationally syndicated radio show.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., told liberal host Stephanie Miller that every time she tries approaching one of the 87 freshman lawmakers in an effort to build relationships, they're always complaining about something being unconstitutional.

"Everything to them is unconstitutional," she said. "It's unconstitutional, it's unconstitutional, it's unconstitutional."

Miller said she doesn't know how Sanchez starts a conversation with some of them.

"Sanchez, can I see your papers? I don't believe you're a congresswoman. Let's see your birth certificate," she said.

The congresswoman, who represents Anaheim and other parts of Orange County, laughed and said she knows how to get along with people. Then she used a mock Southern accent to describe how conversations with them play out.

"Hey what's your name? 'My name is M-o-e,'" Sanchez said, feigning a Southern drawl that drew howls of laughter from Miller and her co-host. "Ok Moe. Moe-ster, how you doing baby? What are we going to do today? What's your interest? What can we work on together?"

"'Well, it's unconstitutional," she said, using her faux Southern accent.

Sanchez's spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

This isn't the first time Sanchez has played identity politics. During her re-election campaign last fall against Vietnamese challenger Van Tran, she came under heavy criticism for telling a Spanish-language TV station that the "Vietnamese" were trying to take her seat.

"The Vietnamese and the Republicans are, with an intensity, trying to take away this seat -- this seat that we have done so much for our community

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Drought hits southern U.S. pretty hard

"This is the driest winter we've had since the late 1960s," says John Nielsen-Gammon, the Texas state climatologist. "It's in the top five historically, back to 1895."

More than half of Texas' winter wheat crop has been rated as "poor" to "very poor," because of the drought and a few episodes of extreme cold, he says.

"Dry weather continues to take its toll on wheat," said Jerry Warren, extension agent for Callahan County, Texas. "We'll need rain soon to salvage any wheat for grain."

National Weather Service meteorologist Victor Murphy agrees: "This could end up being one of the more devastating droughts, agriculturally speaking and for wildfires, if we don't start getting normal to above-normal rainfall before June."

Fires add to woes Normally, winter is the dry season in Texas, Nielsen-Gammon says, but it's usually not this dry. Much of West Texas has received less than an inch of precipitation over the past six months (where an average would be 3-5 inches), and he reports there are places along the Texas-Mexico border that haven't seen any rain at all since September.

"Many drought indicators in east-central Texas have reached the 'exceptional' drought level," the Drought Monitor reports. "If rain does not materialize soon, intensification of the current drought is likely."

Wildfires have also been a concern this winter and early spring in Texas.

The extreme dryness during the past several months and an abundance of vegetation that grew during a wet winter and early spring in 2010 have combined to create an active 2011 wildfire season, Nielsen-Gammon reports.

So far this year, Texas Forest Service has suppressed 605 fires burning 70,000 acres. That's compared with 149 fires burning 5,221 acres at this time last year. Nearly 180 of Texas' 254 counties have burn bans, which prohibits outdoor burning of any sort.

In Oklahoma, the 120-day span from late November to late March was the driest such period on record for central and southwestern Oklahoma, according to data from the Oklahoma Mesonet, a network of weather stations. "Some reports from western Oklahoma indicate the need for emergency assistance for livestock water will soon occur if the dry conditions persist for much longer," notes Oklahoma's assistant state climatologist Gary McManus in an online drought report.

Fuchs says that the lack of moisture has affected the winter wheat crops in Oklahoma and also Kansas.

Blame it on La Niña In Florida, the South Florida Water Management reported last week that the area is in the midst of its driest dry season (winter) in about 80 years.

The water level of Lake Okeechobee — which supplies water to millions of people in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties in Florida — was recently reported at 11.59 feet, says Susan Sylvester, the director of operations control for the water management district. The average level at this time of year is 14.25 feet.

Rain in the past week has helped slightly in Florida. "We got a shot in the arm with the rainfall, but it doesn't get us out of the drought," Sylvester says.

The southern dryness this winter can be blamed on the La Niña climate pattern, a periodic cooling of Pacific Ocean water that affects weather patterns worldwide. Southern states almost always have a winter with less precipitation during a La Niña winter.

"This was a fairly strong La Niña event," Fuchs says. "One of the strongest on record" — and it's expected to continue through the spring and into the early summer.

However, on the good side, Fuchs says the California situation has improved a great deal because of a very wet March, with near-record rain and snows for much of the state. Gov. Jerry Brown declared the state's drought over last week.

"With the way water is harvested in California, stored in reservoirs and shipped all over the state, this last month played a big part in eliminating any dryness in the region," Fuchs says.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Strong quake hits off southern Indonesia

By AP

Motorists evacuate their homes after a tsunami warning was issued following a magnitude-6.7 earthquake in Java, Indonesia on Monday.

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Motorists evacuate their homes after a tsunami warning was issued following a magnitude-6.7 earthquake in Java, Indonesia on Monday.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the 6.7-magnitude quake, which struck shortly after 3 a.m. Monday.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the temblor was centered nearly 200 miles off southern Java, just 15 miles beneath the ocean floor.

Thousands of people in the town of Cilacap poured into the streets and ran to high ground, many gathering in mosques, witnesses told El Shinta radio.

Ninety minutes later, when the threat of a tsunami had passed, they were told to go home.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

A magnitude 9.1 quake and subsequent tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen nations, nearly three-quarters of them in western Indonesia.

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