Rare solar eclipse crosses Asia

Rare solar eclipse crosses Asia

TOKYO

Millions across Asia watched today as a rare “ring of fire” eclipse crossed their skies.

The annular solar eclipse, in which the moon passes in front of the sun leaving only a golden ring around its edges, was visible to wide areas across the continent this morning. It moved across the Pacific and also was seen in parts of the western United States late Sunday afternoon.

In Japan, “eclipse tours” were arranged at schools and parks, on pleasure boats and even private airplanes. Similar events were held in China and Taiwan as well.

Donors slow to back Romney’s campaign

WASHINGTON

Donors who backed Republican rivals of presidential candidate Mitt Romney appear to be slow coming to his aid.

Romney raised more than $40 million last month as he solidified his chances of being the GOP nominee. Yet an Associated Press review of new financial data finds only a handful of his recent contributions came from donors to his former primary challengers.

Among the tens of thousands of donors who wrote checks for former candidates like Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum, roughly 500 contributed last month to Romney’s White House run.

Romney began raising money last month with the Republican Party as he looks to unseat President Barack Obama in November. He has been courting the conservative base of his party with media appearances and speeches.

Lockerbie bomber dies of cancer

TRIPOLI, Libya

He was the embodiment of one of modern Libya’s darkest chapters — a man synonymous with horrifying scenes of wreckage, broken families and a plane that fell out of the sky a generation ago. His name, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was little known compared to the single word that his deeds represented: Lockerbie.

Seven months after his patron dictator Moammar Gadhafi was slain in a revolution that began a new chapter for his homeland, al-Megrahi died Sunday of cancer, leaving behind countless unanswered questions about the midair attack in 1988 that blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland. All 259 people on board — mostly Americans — and 11 on the ground were killed.

“I am an innocent man,” al-Megrahi insisted, most recently in his final interview in December, in the final stages of prostate cancer. “I am about to die, and I ask now to be left in peace with my family.”

Tropical Storm Alberto hovers off the SC coast

COLUMBIA, S.C.

Tropical Storm Alberto hovered off the South Carolina and Georgia coasts on Sunday, canceling tourist cruises, producing showers along the coast and serving as a reminder that the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season is just around the corner.

The first storm of the season that officially begins June 1 was not expected to approach landfall on the Carolinas’ coast, but it had prompted a tropical storm watch and forecasters warned that it could produce high winds, heavy surf, rip currents and scattered rain across the region.

“It’s making the closest approach to the coastline now, so the impacts shouldn’t be much different than what we are already seeing,” said Jonathan Lamb, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston, S.C.

The storm was expected to turn northeast sometime today.

Associated Press