US: Iran supports Syrian crackdown

US: Iran supports Syrian crackdown

UNITED NATIONS

The United States has evidence of active Iranian support for the Syrian government’s “abhorrent and deplorable” crackdown on peaceful demonstrators, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said late Tuesday.

Syria has banned nearly all foreign media and restricted access to trouble spots since the uprising began, making it almost impossible to verify the dramatic events shaking one of the most authoritarian, anti-Western regimes in the Arab world. Witnesses say the crackdown by President Bashar Assad has intensified since Friday, with the death toll topping 350.

Sony: Credit data risked in outage

LOS ANGELES

Sony Corp. said Tuesday that the credit-card data of PlayStation users around the world may have been stolen in a hack that forced it to shut down its PlayStation Network for the past week, disconnecting 77 million user accounts. Some players brushed off the breach as a common hazard of operating in a connected world, and Sony said some services would be restored in a week. But industry experts said the scale of the breach was staggering and could cost the company billions of dollars.

Record number of Latinos voted in ’10

WASHINGTON

More Latinos than ever voted in the November 2010 election as a relatively young population reached voting age, a fresh sign that the fastest-growing U.S. minority stands as a formidable force in electoral politics.

A study by the Pew Hispanic Center found that 6.6 million Latinos, who mainly pick Democrats, voted in 2010, up from the 5.6 million who voted in the previous contests in 2006. As a share of the electorate, Latinos made up 6.9 percent of the 96 million voters in 2010, up from 5.8 percent of the 96.1 million voters four years earlier. The center released its report Tuesday.

Leaders mark Chernobyl 25th

KIEV, Ukraine

Tough new guidelines could help prevent accidents like the massive Chernobyl meltdown, Russia’s president insisted Tuesday, defending nuclear energy during solemn ceremonies commemorating the 25th anniversary of the worst nuclear accident in history.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych took part in a religious service outside Chernobyl’s damaged No. 4 nuclear reactor, laying the first stone of a monument to cleanup workers and placing bouquets of red roses at another monument to Chernobyl victims.

Floodwaters threaten levees

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo.

Floodwaters threatened earthen levees protecting thousands of homes in the nation’s midsection Tuesday, rising so fast in some places that panicked residents didn’t have time to pile up sandbags. Storms have unleashed more than a foot of rain across the region, and the forecast offered little hope for relief. Another, larger system was brewing along the same path, bringing several more days of rain and the possibility of tornadoes.

Colo. mall-bomb suspect arrested

BOULDER, Colo.

A man suspected of leaving a homemade bomb at a Colorado shopping mall — initially raising concerns about a possible Columbine-inspired plot — was captured Tuesday without a fight outside of a grocery store after he was spotted having coffee.

Federal and local officials allege 65-year-old Earl Albert Moore planted a pipe bomb and propane tanks in the Southwest Plaza Mall in the south Denver suburbs last week. The explosives were found April 20 after a fire in a hallway at the mall’s food court, but they didn’t detonate.

Associated Press