Syrian president told to stop the violence

Syrian president told to stop the violence

beirut

The U.N. chief demanded Sunday that Syria’s president stop killing his own people and said the “old order” of one-man rule and family dynasties is over in the Middle East on a day when activists said 27 people died.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, delivering the keynote address at a conference in Beirut on democracy in the Arab world, said the revolutions of the Arab Spring show people will no longer accept tyranny.

“Today, I say again to President [Bashar] Assad of Syria: Stop the violence. Stop killing your people,” Ban said. Ban has been highly critical of the Assad government’s deadly crackdown on civilian protesters since the killings began.

Tanker arrives at iced-in AK town

nome, alaska

Crews worked to build a path Sunday over a half-mile of Bering Sea ice for the final leg of a Russian tanker’s mission to deliver fuel to a town isolated amid one of the most severe Alaska winters in decades.

The tanker was moored roughly a half-mile from Nome’s harbor after a Coast Guard cutter cleared a path for it through hundreds of miles of a slow journey stalled by thick ice and strong ocean currents.

The tanker got into position Saturday night, and ice disturbed by its journey had to freeze again so workers could create some sort of roadway to lay a hose that will transfer 1.3 million gallons of fuel from the tanker to the harbor in Nome.

On Sunday, workers walked around the vessel and checked the ice to make sure it was safe to lay the hose.

Russian spacecraft crashes near Chile

moscow

A Russian space probe designed to boost the nation’s pride on a bold mission to a moon of Mars came down in flames Sunday, showering fragments into the south Pacific west of Chile’s coast, officials said.

Pieces from the Phobos-Ground, which had become stuck in Earth’s orbit, landed in water 775 miles west of Wellington Island in Chile’s south, the Russian military Air and Space Defense Forces said.

Accused man’s dad is homeless himself

yorba linda, calif.

The father of the man suspected of killing homeless men in Southern California is himself homeless and says his son last week showed him a picture of one victim as a warning of the danger of being on the streets.

Refugio Ocampo, 49, also told The Associated Press on Sunday that his son came back a changed man after serving with the Marines in Iraq, expressing disillusionment and becoming ever darker as he struggled to find his way as a civilian.

His 23-year-old son, Itzcoatl Ocampo, was arrested Friday in connection with the killings of four homeless men since late December.

FBI: Help find body

sidney, mont.

The FBI is asking property owners in North Dakota and Montana to check vacant farmsteads for signs of disturbed soil where the agency says a missing Montana teacher might be buried.

Earlier Sunday, authorities released the names of two Parachute, Colo., men being held in a North Dakota jail in connection with the Jan. 7 disappearance of 43-year-old Sherry Arnold of Sidney, Mont. The FBI issued a statement late Sunday saying Arnold’s body might be buried in an area with a line of mature or rotted trees.

Authorities say 47-year-old Lester Vann Waters Jr. and 22-year-old Michael Keith Spell are awaiting extradition to Montana.

Associated Press