Reventador volcano spews lava near Ecuador capital

Lava was rising anew in the crater of Ecuador's Reventador volcano on Monday, a day after bursts of ash forced temporary closure of the capital's airport.

Geophysics Institute technician Patricio Ramon said explosion rocked the 11,686-foot (3,562-meter) volcano and lava poured its flanks on Sunday. Officials suspended flights into Quito's airport for three hours as a precaution.

Heightened activity at Reventador could threaten a highway and two oil pipelines, Ramon said. Both lines were operating normally on Monday.

The volcano …

Sport-loving rector to retire after decade in village

The Rev Christopher Hare, the rector of Timsbury and Pristonsince 2001 and the Rural Dean of the Midsomer Norton Deanery, hasannounced that he will be retiring in May.

Mr Hare, who moved to Timsbury after a period as non-stipendarypriest in Saltford, said it had been a very difficult decision tomake because of the warm welcome he and his family had been given.

He said: "It has been a privilege to have been part of so manypeople's lives and I hope that I have helped them through times ofboth joy and sorrow.

"I have been delighted to walk with people on their journey offaith and I have been greatly encouraged by the growth of the familyservice and the …

Report: GIs Shot Iraqi Several Times

SAN ANTONIO - A soldier charged with premeditated murder in the death of an Iraqi shot the man several times with a rifle before ordering a subordinate to do the same, according to an Army document filed in the case.

Sgt. 1st Class Trey A. Corrales of San Antonio and Spc. Christopher P. Shore of Winder, Ga., are charged with one count of murder in the death, which the U.S. military has said happened June 23 near Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk.

A one-paragraph document, called a "charge sheet" in the military, states that Corrales fired multiple rounds before directing Shore "to then shoot the detainee," according to a report in Sunday's editions of the San Antonio …

Robots with fins, tails demonstrate evolution

Robots wag their tail fins and bob along like bathtub toys in a pool at a Vassar College lab. Their actions are dictated by microprocessors housed in round plastic containers, the sort you'd store soup in.

It hardly looks like it, but the two swimming robots were set loose in the little pool to study evolution, acting out predator-prey encounters from roughly 540 million years ago.

The prey robot, dubbed Preyro, can simulate evolution.

This is not like robot evolution in the "Terminator" movie sense of machines turning on their human masters. Instead, Vassar biology and cognitive science professor John Long and his students can make changes …

Russian police raise heat on ex-mayor of Moscow

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's Interior Ministry on Friday threatened the former Moscow mayor with reprisals if he fails to show up for questioning as part of a probe into an alleged $430 million bank fraud.

The warning to Yuri Luzhkov, who lost his job a year ago after 18 years in office, follows his stinging attacks on the Kremlin. Luzhkov described the probe as a political punishment for his criticism of President Dmitry Medvedev, and said he would return from abroad to prove his innocence.

"It's a political order," Luzhkov said, according to the Interfax news agency. "If I refused to come, I would have given arguments to my opponents. But I wouldn't give them that …

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NYT writer David Carr exposes self in memoir, The Night of the Gun

Hang around journalism long enough, and you're bound to run across a merciless editor more than willing to send you out to seek the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of some desperate and depraved human tragedy. But it's unlikely even the most fiendish newsroom sadist would ever dare to assign what New York Times columnist David Carr has ruth- lessly imposed upon himself. Carr, in what has to be acknowl- edged as a brilliant stroke of innovative memoir, voluntarily assumed the task of gathering the dirt on one of the most de- spicable, lowlife jour- nalists to …

Utah settles lawsuit over motorist jolted with Taser; man to receive $40,000

A motorist who became an Internet celebrity after video of him being stunned with a Taser by state trooper appeared on YouTube will receive $40,000 (euro26,076) in a lawsuit settlement with the state, the Utah attorney general's office said Monday.

Jared Massey claimed in civil lawsuit filed in January that his civil rights were violated because Utah Highway Patrolman Jon Gardner fired his Taser before stating he was under arrest. The confrontation was widely viewed on the Internet after Massey obtained a copy of a video taken by the cruiser's dashboard camera.

The video has been viewed on YouTube at least 1.7 million times and shows Gardner drawing his …