Moon to obscure sun in partial solar eclipse

Moon to obscure sunin partial solar eclipse
LOS ANGELES -- A dazzling solar eclipse will be on display across a broad swath of the western United States, Mexico, Canada and Asia on Monday, with as much as 99 percent of the sun obscured by the moon.
One of the best U.S. views will be in San Diego where as much as three-fourths of the sun will be hidden.
Other sections of the country will get a less dramatic sight. In Chicago, only one-fifth of the sun's surface will be blocked. The Eastern Seaboard will miss the eclipse entirely because it will occur after sunset there.
The early evening event is called an annular, or ring-shaped, eclipse. Because the moon will be farther from the Earth than during total eclipses, it will only partially cover the distant sun. It will be the last eclipse visible from the United States until 2005.
In places such as the tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, the moon will darken all but only the glowing rim of the sun for about a minute, said Fred Espenak, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration astrophysicist and eclipse expert. The eclipse will begin at 5:13 p.m. PDT, with best viewing time around 6:20.
Bomb explodes on busin Indonesia, killing 4
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A bomb exploded inside a bus packed with commuters in central Indonesia, killing four people and injuring 17, law enforcement officials said today.
The explosion occurred Wednesday afternoon as the bus carrying 25 people was headed toward Poso, the district capital of Central Sulawesi, a province with a history of violence between Muslims and Christians.
Because of the region's remoteness, it took time for the news to reach Jakarta. A sprawling nation of about 17,000 islands, Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago; Poso is about 1,000 miles northeast of the capital.
Police said they were inspecting the badly damaged bus today but could not say who was behind the bombing. They said they were looking for three unidentified passengers who got off the bus before the blast.
Victims -- some of them injured seriously -- were rushed to a local hospital.
Indonesian National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar, who was on a visit to the island of Lombok, urged residents in Central Sulawesi to remain calm despite the blast.
WWII battle anniversary
MIDWAY ATOLL -- Veterans, military officials and historians arrived on this remote atoll to mark the 60th anniversary of a fierce three-day battle that turned the tide in favor of U.S. forces in the Pacific during World War II.
Relatives and friends of veterans placed flower leis on a memorial monument Wednesday while a 21-gun salute and the playing of taps sounded amid the atoll's resident population of thousands of seafaring birds.
"We humbly honor those sailors and Marines who made the ultimate sacrifice for our great nation 60 years ago," said Rear Adm. Anthony L. Winns of the Pearl Harbor-based U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Between June 4-6, 1942, American dive bombers and fighter pilots fended off the Japanese naval fleet's attempt to gain Midway as an outpost. After Midway, the crippled Japanese fleet withdrew, never again to gain the offensive.
Police arrest suspectin gruesome murder
NEW YORK -- A murder suspect in England who reportedly chopped up his victim and cooked some of the body parts was arrested in Central Park after two female tourists spotted him lounging on a bench.
The unidentified tourists had seen a picture of Richard Markham in the newspaper and became startled when they saw him Wednesday, police said.
After they notified police, an officer approached the suspect and asked him for his name.
"He just said, 'Richard Markham,' at which point he lifted his shirt and showed me a tattoo that said, 'Made in England,"' officer Francisco Alvarez said.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Markham was carrying copies of the Daily News and New York Post, both of which featured pictures of him and stories describing his tattoo and flight to New York.
Police say Markham, 27, fled England after slaying Tristian Lovelock, 25, whose severed head was discovered Friday by a man walking his dog at a park southwest of London.