Another Cold War unlikely, Russian ambassador says

Another Cold War unlikely, Russian ambassador says

UNITED NATIONS — Russia’s U.N. ambassador said Tuesday he doesn’t think Russia’s recognition of two separatist regions in Georgia will lead to a new Cold War, although he predicted a difficult period ahead in relations with the West.

Vitaly Churkin said Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s attack on South Ossetia created a “new reality” that negated U.N. resolutions guaranteeing the territorial integrity of Georgia.

Moscow’s announcement earlier Tuesday that it was recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia drew strong criticism from Georgia, the United States and the European Union. But Churkin said he didn’t think it would revive the Cold War between the former communist-controlled Soviet Union and the capitalist West.

Headless bodies found

TIJUANA, Mexico — Three decapitated bodies were found Tuesday in an empty lot on the eastern outskirts of Tijuana, the Mexican attorney general’s office said.

The killings were the latest in a wave of mostly drug-related violence that has swept Mexico, much of it near the U.S. border. Drug cartels have turned to decapitating their victims as a way to intimidate rivals. Officials said the bodies had messages written on their backs in permanent marker.

Early election possible

TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday he might call an early election, a move that would head off opposition efforts to topple his minority government.

Harper’s Conservatives have a tenuous hold on power, and all three opposition parties have said or suggested they’ll try to bring his government down with a no-confidence vote soon.

Harper seems bent on having the election now, with analysts saying his chances of winning are greater sooner than later.

To do so, however, Harper will have to maneuver around a law he helped enact after he came to power in 2006, a law that sets a fixed date for an election in October 2009.

Court gives Mattel $100M

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A federal jury awarded Mattel Inc. $100 million in damages Tuesday in a federal copyright lawsuit that pitted the house of Barbie against MGA Entertainment Inc., the maker of the saucy Bratz dolls.

MGA and its chief executive officer, Isaac Larian, were told to pay a total of $90 million in three causes of action related to Mattel’s employment contract with designer Carter Bryant, who developed the Bratz concept.

The jury also ordered MGA, Larian and subsidiary MGA Hong Kong to pay a total of $10 million for copyright infringement.

Wildfires throughout West

BOISE, Idaho — In air still thick with the smell of smoke, authorities and residents of a Boise subdivision assessed the damage Tuesday after a wind-whipped wildfire burned several homes. Officials tried to determine whether the blaze killed a Boise State University professor whose body was found in a damaged house.

Firefighters discovered the body of Mary Ellen Ryder in one of the nearly 20 homes destroyed or damaged in the blaze. The professor of English and linguistics had been scheduled to teach her first class of the semester Tuesday.

A wildfire burning between Cody, Wyo., and Yellowstone National Park has forced the evacuation of a guest ranch.

In Southern California, a brush fire burned at least 75 acres of state park land near a subdivision, threatening several homes in the hills of Agoura and forcing officials to close lanes on a highway due to heavy smoke Tuesday.

Associated Press