Earthquakes shake California, Oklahoma

Earthquakes shake California, Oklahoma

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 3.2 rattled part of the San Francisco Bay area.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at 2:52 p.m. Saturday about three miles southeast of downtown Berkeley. A police dispatcher said police hadn’t received any reports of damage or injuries.

Also Saturday, a moderate earthquake in central Oklahoma knocked pictures off walls and woke people and pets as it shook an area that stretched into Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Texas.

The U.S. Geological Survey said on its website Saturday that a 4.7-magnitude earthquake struck at 2:12 a.m., with an epicenter about six miles north of Prague in Lincoln County. That’s about 50 miles east of Oklahoma City and 75 miles southwest of Tulsa.

A 3.4-magnitude aftershock was reported at 2:27 a.m. from the same location, as well as a 2.7-magnitude aftershock at 2:44 a.m.

American who joined rebels returns to US

LINTHICUM, Md.

An American writer who went missing in Libya for months returned to the United States on Saturday night, telling reporters he went to the Middle Eastern nation to participate in the uprising against dictator Moammar Gadhafi and was on a reconnaissance mission when he was captured.

Matthew VanDyke was met by dozens of friends and relatives and members of the media when he arrived at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

Earlier this year, the 32-year-old VanDyke was working in Baltimore on a book and film about a motorcycle trip across the Middle East and southeast Asia when he decided to witness the uprising in Libya.

Greek official struggles to end political deadlock

ATHENS, Greece

Greece’s prime minister struggled Saturday to form a temporary coalition government in the near-bankrupt country, extending a political deadlock threatening billions in international rescue funds.

In an impassioned plea to parliament late Friday, George Papandreou agreed to step aside as premier if necessary to help hammer out a coalition, offering to include the conservative opposition party — a possibility swiftly rejected by its leader.

Papandreou said a new coalition government would need four months to secure the new $179 billion rescue agreement and demonstrate the country’s commitment to remaining in the eurozone.

A little pot is trouble in NYC: 50K busts a year

NEW YORK

As the nation’s biggest city deals with threats of terrorism and a variety of violent crimes, carrying a little bit of marijuana is still a big deal.

There are more arrests for low-level pot possession in New York City — about 50,000 a year — than any other crime, accounting for about one of every seven cases that turn up in criminal courts.

It’s a phenomenon that has persisted despite more leniency toward marijuana use — the state loosened its marijuana-possession laws more than 30 years ago.

Critics say the deluge has been driven in part by the New York Police Department’s strategy of stopping people and frisking those whom police say meet crime suspects’ descriptions. More than a half a million people, mostly black and Hispanic men, were stopped last year — unfair targets, critics say. About 10 percent of stops result in arrests.

At least 69 dead in Nigeria sect attacks

LAGOS, Nigeria

Residents fearfully left their homes Saturday to bury their dead in northeast Nigeria after a series of coordinated attacks that killed at least 69 people and left a new police headquarters in ruins, government offices burned and symbols of state power destroyed.

A radical Muslim sect known locally as Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks in Borno and Yobe states, with the worst damage done in and around the city of Damaturu. The group also promised to continue its bloody sectarian fight against Nigeria’s weak central government, with residents nervously moving through empty streets, waiting for the next attack.

Associated Press