Between 2003 and 2004, Marion Le, a Canberra-based lawyer, made regular trips to the remote island of Nauru in the South Pacific. But she wasn't going for a beach holiday. At the time, Nauru was part of the so-called Pacific Solution, Australia's policy of processing and detaining asylum seekers arriving by boat in offshore detention facilities. From 2001 to 2007, thousands of asylum seekers were in offshore detention centers while Australian immigration officials decided their fate. Le, who ...

Investigators don't know if the massive fire at a fuel storage facility near San Juan was deliberately started or was an accident, the agent in charge of the FBI's San Juan office said Monday.Agents from the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were investigating to determine whether the explosion was an act of sabotage or an accident. Seventeen tanks were destroyed by flames and the initial explosion. Puerto Rico's governor, Luis Fortuno, said the main ...

A major earthquake vibrated deep in Indonesia's Banda Sea on Saturday night, but the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center predicted the quake would not be destructive.The officials didn't want their names used because they were not authorized to speak on the record. Obama's action allows Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "to temporarily waive or modify certain requirements" to help health care facilities enact emergency plans to deal with the pandemic. Those requirements are contained in Medicare, Medicaid and state ...

The Rev. Franklin Graham has arrived in North Korea bearing a gift for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the country's official news agency reported Wednesday. Graham handed the present, which was not identified, to a high-ranking official Wednesday to give to Kim, the Korean Central News Agency reported. Graham, the son of the Rev. Billy Graham and the president of Samaritan's Purse, arrived Tuesday in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, KCNA said. On its Web site, Samaritan's Purse said Franklin ...

Two people died and another 19 were injured at a central Arizona resort after spending up to two hours in a "sweatbox," authorities said Friday. About 50 people had spent up to two hours inside the "sweatbox," a dome-like structure covered with tarps and blankets, according to the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office. Hot rocks and water are used to create steam in the enclosed environment. Fire and rescue officials received an emergency call Thursday night from the Angel Valley Resort ...

The Tanzanian national indicted in the 1998 terrorist bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania will not face the possibility of the death penalty, according to a letter issued by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday. Holder's letter directed U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara "not to seek the death penalty" against Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani. CNN obtained the letter from the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Bharara sent his own letter to ...

The United States temporarily closed its government facilities in South Africa on Tuesday after a "possible threat" to its embassy, the U.S. State Department said. "As a precaution, we are closing the embassy for one day and notifying the American community in South Africa to remain vigilant," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. "We are also maintaining close contact with South African authorities on this issue." He had no further details on the "possible threat" to the U.S. Embassy in ...

The U.S. military closed its detention facility in southern Iraq on Thursday after a plane carried the last remaining prisoners to another facility in Baghdad. The United States has been releasing detainees or transferring custody to the Iraqi government, a goal spelled out in the bilateral security agreement negotiated last year between the two nations. Since February, the Americans have released about 750 detainees from its detention facilities and transferred 200 more to Iraqi authorities each month, the military said. ...

The Yemeni government Wednesday defended its efforts to end the practice of young girls marrying, citing last week's death during childbirth of a 12-year-old Yemeni. "Over the years, the government of Yemen has embarked on an awareness campaign to end the practice of young marriages, which has been deeply rooted in the rural cultures of Yemen," said Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman in Washington for the Embassy of the Republic of Yemen, in a written statement. The Yemeni parliament tried in ...

What if a state prison department built an execution chamber and told no one about it? Last April, a group of California legislative policy analysts on a research visit to San Quentin State Prison discovered that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was building just such a room without the requisite prior approval from statehouse lawmakers, who were furious when they found out about it. Welcome to the California state prison system, the country's largest and one of its ...