STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images(ROME) -- Teams searching the crippled Costa Concordia cruise liner have found another eight bodies, more than a month after the ship capsized off the coast of Italy.
Italian officials had previously put the number of those killed at 32, though only 17 bodies had been recovered, according to the BBC.
The ship struck a patch of rocks on the night of Jan. 13, causing a large gash in the ship’s exterior. The vessel took on water as the ship’s passengers and crew raced to escape, some of them jumping in the water in hopes of swimming to shore.
The ship’s captain and a number of other crew members are currently being investigated for their respective roles in the disaster.
JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images(LONDON) -- For almost three weeks, Syria’s central city of Homs has been pounded by shelling from the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, leaving hundreds dead, according to opposition activists. Judging from a video clip posted online, one weapons analyst says Assad’s forces are using the biggest mortars in the world.
The video was first flagged in the Christian Science Monitor, which was told by a Human Rights Watch official that the regime forces are using the Russian-made 240mm “Tulip.” In the clip, two men are standing in rubble holding up the fanned tails of the exploded ordnance.
Peter Falstead of Jane’s Defence Weekly says the tail fins look, “very much like the tail fins from SM-240,” also known as the “Tulip Tree” developed by the Soviets in the 1970s. Today it is the largest mortar system used by any military in the world, and the Syrian army is believed to have up to 10 in service.
“If you wanted to strike at rebel-held positions in a built-up area to which you had no line of sight, and you had no regard whatsoever for the killing of innocent civilians, then I guess the SM-240 would be a weapon of choice,” Falstead told ABC News.
Few of the self-propelled SM-240s -- also known as the M-1975 -- remain in service, Jane’s says, due to its short range and slow firing (around one shell per minute). All-told, the system weighs 60,000 pounds, its range is between 2,600 and 5,900 feet, and it can fire shells weighing between 300 and 500 pounds.
By comparison, Falstead says the largest mortars used by the U.S. Army are 120mm, noting that they do have howitzers of a larger caliber.
JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty Images(BUENOS AIRES, Argentina) -- At least 49 people were killed and another 600 injured when a packed commuter train crashed into a retaining wall at the terminal in Argentina’s capital city at the height of rush hour Wednesday morning.
The crash at the Once train station in Buenos Aires happened around 8:30 a.m. local time when the train, carrying approximately 1,200 passengers, reportedly had braking problems and crashed into a barrier. The train is said to have been traveling from anywhere between 12 to 20 miles per hour at the time of the accident.
"There are people still trapped, people alive," Argentina’s transportation secretary J.P. Schiavi told reporters Wednesday, according to the BBC.
The first two cars -- and the passengers in them -- took the brunt of the crash. Traditionally, commuters pack the first few cars and move up as the train approaches its final stop, so as to get a head start in exiting the approaching station.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(KABUL, Afghanistan) -- Several anti-American protests sprung up across Afghanistan Wednesday in response to the inadvertent burning of Korans and other religious materials by coalition forces there.
The books were mistakenly thrown out with the trash at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul and were on a burn pile Monday night before Afghan laborers intervened around 11:00 p.m., according to NATO and Afghan officials.
Upon hearing the news, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside of Bagram and on the outskirts of Kabul Tuesday morning. The protests continued the following day, growing in intensity and size.
In Jalalabad, demonstrations began in two different locations on Wednesday. After the situation became a little heated, police opened fire and, according to health officials, one person was killed and eight others were injured.
Over in Kabul, people gathered in front of U.S. base Camp Phoenix started burning tires and tried to burn public assets before the Afghan National Police arrived and got the situation under control. One person died and 10 got hurt, according to officials from the Ministry of Public Health.
Protests were also reported in the provinces of Laghman and Parwan.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul tweeted on Wednesday, "The Embassy is on lockdown; all travel suspended. Please, everyone, be safe out there."
Camp Phoenix and all other U.S. installations in Kabul were also placed on lockdown.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has formed a commission to investigate the matter and has asked parliament for a special meeting on Thursday to discuss the incident.?
Dave M. Benett/Getty Images(PARIS) -- A U.S. and a French journalist were killed in the central Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday, the 19th day of intense shelling by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad bent on quashing a growing opposition.
The deaths of American Marie Colvin and Frechman Remi Ochlik were confirmed by French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe. They come less than a week after New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid died in northern Syria from an apparent asthma attack and a day after well-known Syrian opposition journalist Rami al-Sayed died in Homs.
A Long Island native, Colvin wrote for the British Sunday Times. Like Shadid, she was considered one of the best foreign correspondents in the world, covering global conflicts for decades. Ochlik was a freelance photographer who recently won a 2012 World Press Photo prize for a photo from the Libyan revolution.
In a statement, the editor of the Sunday Times called Colvin an "extraordinary figure."
"She believed profoundly that reporting could curtail the excesses of brutal regimes and make the international community take notice," John Witherow wrote. "Above all, as we saw in her powerful report last weekend, her thoughts were with the victims of violence."
Colvin and Ochlik were in a house in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, the district hit hardest by what residents have described as almost three weeks of relentless shelling that has left hundreds dead. Video posted to YouTube purported to show their bodies in a house destroyed by tank shelling.
Activists say 10 Syrians were also killed and three other journalists were injured, including Colvin's photographer Paul Conroy, who the Times believes is "not too seriously hurt."
Colvin filed a report for the BBC on Tuesday, saying Baba Amr and its residents are besieged.
"It's absolutely sickening," she said. "The Syrians will not let them out, and are shelling all the civilian areas. There's just shells, rockets and tank fire pouring into civilian areas of this city. It is just unrelenting."
Colvin lost an eye from a shrapnel wound in Sri Lanka in 2001, an injury that she said "is worth it" in a 2010 speech on the dangers of conflict reporting.
"Covering a war means going to places torn by chaos, destruction, and death...and trying to bear witness," she said at a memorial for fallen journalists. Someone has to go there and see what is happening. You can't get that information without going to places where people are being shot at, and others are shooting at you."?
NASA(WASHINGTON) -- A NASA probe caught a solar eclipse Tuesday. Though we earthlings could not see it, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory traveling 22,000 miles overhead was in the right place at the right time.
The moon’s odd motion -- seeming to come in from the top of the picture and then skittering off to the right -- is created by the relative motion of the moon and the satellite. The moon orbits about 240,000 miles from Earth, circling us once every 29 days, while SDO is in a geosynchronous orbit, circling us once every 24 hours. Put their motions together and it gets complicated.
If you want to be pedantic, what SDO saw was really a transit instead of an eclipse. While the moon appeared to pass over the face of the sun, the word eclipse is often reserved for when that’s seen from Earth. The next eclipse visible from down here (mostly over the Pacific, but ending at dusk over the southwestern U.S.) will be May 20, and it will be an unusual annular eclipse -- the moon, whose orbit is not quite circular, will be far enough away that even when standing in the right place, the sun will appear to form a bright ring around the moon’s disc.
After a period of relative quiet, the Sun is becoming more active this year, with more sunspots and charged gas, or plasma, being hurtled out into space. But in truth, it’s never quiet. SDO, which has been keeping watch for two years, has returned pictures showing a 30-hour period on the sun’s surface Feb. 7-8, and the video has gone viral online.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(EL PASO, Texas) -- A mother pushing her child in a stroller in downtown El Paso, Texas, was struck by an errant bullet fired during a shootout between Mexican police and carjacking suspects just across the border in violence-ridden Ciudad Juarez, according to El Paso police officials.
Forty-eight-year-old Maria Romero has been treated and released from El Paso's University Medical Center, but authorities continue to investigate the rare cross-border shooting. Her child was unharmed.
Romero, a Mexican citizen, is a legal U.S. immigrant and did not even hear the bursts of assault rifle fire across the border, according to a statement by the El Paso police department.
ALEXA STANKOVIC/AFP/Getty Images(BELGRADE, Serbia) -- The Arctic cold is over for now, but that does not mean the Balkans are out of the woods yet. In fact, if the weather gets too warm too fast, the troubles may only be beginning.
Already hundreds of boats and barges have been crushed by cascading ice on the Danube River, and fears are growing that a thaw accompanied by spring rains will cause massive flooding and even landslides. The snow through much of the region is still five times its normal depth.
"We've got a situation that could be problematic," Aleksandar Prodanovic, flood control expert in Serbia told ABC News. "You have to take into consideration March and April rain as well as couple of weeks of winter left."
When a freeze gripped Europe in the end of January and first half of February, a thick layer of ice was formed on the Danube -- in some places as thich as 18 inches. Ship traffic was halted in many areas of Europe's busy waterways.
But now, with temperatures climbing, the ice has begun breaking up around the Serb capital of Belgrade, and damage has already been significant.
In Belgrade, huge ice chunks crashed into hundreds of anchored boats and swept away a number of barges. A couple of Belgrade's most popular floating restaurants have sunk. Now the U.N. is warning that parts of central and eastern Europe, until recently paralyzed by heavy snow, could face another catastrophe.
Margareta Wahlstroem, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative for disaster risk reduction, said in a statement in Geneva that there are warning signs that, "destructive floods will add to the loss of life and economic assets" as temperatures rise. In addition to the flood warnings, Serbian emergency officials warned of a risk of landslides in some 2,300 locations, where the heaviest snow has fallen in the lowlands.
In neighboring Bosnia, emergency crews are preparing for a fresh battle with winter when rivers overflow with snowmelt. Bosnians are also being warned of the danger of possible landslides and citizens are asked to contribute to the country's recovery by removing snow around their homes and trying to control of melting water.
ABC News(NEW YORK) -- An alleged Iranian hit squad used $27 portable radios to hide at least five bombs that Israeli and American authorities say they intended to use against Israeli targets in Bangkok, Thailand.
Exclusive photos of one undetonated bomb, obtained by ABC News, show the inside of the radio packed with tiny ball bearings and six magnets. Bomb experts say the magnets indicate the bomb was designed to be stuck to the side of a vehicle.
A surveillance photo of one of the alleged hit squad members, identified as an Iranian national named Saeid Moradi, shows him holding a radio in each hand.
According to authorities, a bomb exploded in the Bangkok house where Moradi and two other Iranians had been staying. After the blast, Moradi attempted to hail a cab. When the driver refused to pick him up, he allegedly threw a grenade, injuring four bystanders.
When police approached, Moradi allegedly threw another grenade, but lost both of his legs when it bounced back and exploded near him, according to Thai authorities. He was arrested following the incident and remains in custody in Thailand.
After the attack, police say they discovered two unexploded bombs in the house where Moradi and the other Iranians had been staying, including the one shown in the photos.
The authorities in Bangkok say they recovered more than a pound of white military explosive from one unexploded bomb that they said was to be detonated with an M26 hand grenade fuse. The photos show a pin that when pulled, authorities said, would trigger an explosion about four and a half seconds after it was pulled.
Israeli authorities and U.S. bomb experts say the bomb in the photos is strikingly similar to those used in other attacks last week in the republic of Georgia and India. "While there are small differences," said one U.S. expert, "they appear to be factory made."
Multiple authorities told ABC News the devices were either slipped through airport security or were smuggled in a diplomatic pouch, which are not screened by security.
A magnetic bomb was discovered attached to the car of an Israeli diplomat in Tbilisi, Georgia and a similar device was believed responsible for the attack in New Delhi, which injured the wife of an Israeli diplomat, her driver and two passing motorists.
Iran has denied any connection with the arrests in Bangkok or to the other attacks.
Yoram Cohen, the head of Israeli's internal security service, Shin Bet, told an audience at a closed forum in Tel Aviv recently that Iran is trying to hit Israeli targets because of what it believes are Israeli attacks that have killed at least five scientists in its nuclear program.
What concerns authorities in the U.S. is that should Israel go to war with Iran, Israeli and Jewish targets in the U.S. could be hit by similar bombs in a terror campaign. ?
SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images(KABUL, Afghanistan) -- Afghanistan's president wants his government to start direct talks with the Taliban in an effort to end the 10-year-long war that appears to have reached a stalemate.
In a statement issued by his office Tuesday, Hamid Karzai said, "In order to realize the objectives of the peace process, I invite the leadership of the Taliban to engage in direct talks with the Afghan government."
Since Karzai's administration was installed seven years ago, the Taliban has refused to negotiate with the Afghan government, vowing to take back the country after its regime was deposed following the October 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
At the moment, officials from the Taliban -- the al-Qaeda linked group responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. and allied troops, and which sheltered Osama bin Laden during the planning and execution of the 9/11 attacks -- have set up an office in Qatar to communicate with the Obama administration. The two sides are reportedly working on a prisoner swap that would be a precursor to more serious talks about a peace process to end the long conflict.
Karzai made the announcement after conferring with President Obama by phone, who welcomed the news, according to State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
However, in order for discussions with the Taliban to get underway, Karzai must first gain the cooperation of Pakistan, where militia leaders have taken refuge since being ousted a decade ago.?
JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Over the past 11 months, the Obama administration hasn't done much more than deliver harsh statements about the situation in Syria where thousands have died as President Bashar al-Assad attempts to hold onto his autocratic regime.
With the situation getting worse as of late, the White House seems to be softening its stance on not providing assistance to pro-reform dissidents, who've endured most of the casualties through the violent crackdown perpetrated by Syrian forces.
The administration had hoped international condemnation and sanctions against al-Bashar's regime would convince him to stop the aggression, which the Syrian leader has blamed on "saboteurs."
But with al-Assad digging in his heels and vowing to crush his enemies, the White House hinted Tuesday that it would no longer be opposed to arming rebels who've faced daunting odds against a much better equipped Syrian army and security force.
Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters, "We don't want to take actions that would contribute to the further militarization of Syria because that could take the country down a dangerous path. But we don't rule out additional measures if the international community should wait too long and not take the kind of action that needs to be taken."
These "additional measures" could include a military component that would be added to humanitarian and political aid that will be discussed at a major international conference this week.?
The danger, critics say, is who would end up with those weapons. In Libya, al-Qeada-linked extremists boasted they had easy access to anti-aircraft missiles and other powerful weapons and gear left abandoned in the chaos after the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi.
The Arab world's first female Nobel peace laureate, Tawakkul Karman, flashes victory sign and shows her ink-stained thumb after casting her vote outside a polling station in Sana'a. GAMAL NOMAN/AFP/Getty Images(SANA'A, Yemen) -- Yemenis took to the polls Tuesday to elect Ali Abdullah Saleh’s successor, officially making Saleh the fourth Arab leader to be ousted in the Arab Spring. But there was only one candidate on the ballot: Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Still, the “election” was less about the poll itself than getting Saleh out of office after 33 years in power. U.S.-backed Hadi, who has been vice president since 1994, will be elected to a two-year transitional term during which time he has promised to restructure the armed forces, fight al Qaeda and implement political and economic reforms.
“I say farewell to the authority,” read a statement from Saleh on state TV on Monday. “I remain with you a citizen loyal to his homeland, his people and his nation as you have known me through thick and thin…I will perform my duty and my role in serving the country and its just causes…”
Anselm Gibbs/ABC News(PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad) -- An experience like no other: that's how some describe the annual carnival celebrations in Trinidad and Tobago.
"It's out of this world," said New Yorker Helen Alexander-Roc, who is in Trinidad specifically for carnival.
"It's colorful, the excitement, the people are all friendly," she told ABC News, when asked what drew her to the event.
The 2012 installment of carnival is little different from previous years: costume-clad men and women make their way through the streets dancing, jumping, and waving to the sound of soca music blaring from sound systems set up on tractor trailers.
Trinidad and Tobago's national instrument, the steel-pan, is also a prominent fixture in the celebrations, as dozens of steel-pan bands can be seen and heard throughout the street parade.
Fuschia pink, royal blue and lime green were some of the popular colors of costumes worn by people taking part in this year's parade, with costumes mainly in the form of bikinis for women, and shorts for the guys.
Those in costumes paraded under intense sunshine and clear skies, with the aroma of Trinidadian dishes like roti and pelau filling the air.
Every year in Trinidad and Tobago, the two days immediately preceding Ash Wednesday -- the day which marks the beginning of Lent for Christians -- are the days when the entire Caribbean nation shuts down for two consecutive days of partying in streets all across the nation. Those two pre-Lenten days are known as Carnival Monday and Tuesday.
Parade participants are part of different masquerade groups, better known as mas bands, with most bands providing their members with costumes, music, food and open-bar service, all for one price, for the two days of carnival.
And what's a party without drinks? In Trinidad and Tobago the legal drinking age is 18, and it's legal to walk through the streets with alcohol in plain sight.
"Oh my God, greatest show, period," said Trinidadian Karen Brathwaite, who was a member of the "Dream Team" masquerade band.
Brathwaite's description of carnival mirrors the nickname given to the festival -- "The Greatest Show on Earth." And in true patriotic form, Brathwaite urged people from around the world to come experience it for themselves.
"You're jumping for two days. Nowhere else in the world you get to jump for two days on the road," said Brathwaite, 23.
The 90-degree heat may have been a bit much for Peter Evenesan, of Norway, but it wasn't enough to keep him away; this year marks the fifth time he has been to carnival.
"I like it very much," Evenesan said, speaking to ABC News on the streets of Port of Spain, the capital of the twin island Caribbean republic.
"Carnival for them out there is something they never will forget, they will enjoy it," Evenesan said, when asked how he would describe the annual carnival celebrations to someone who has never been to Trinidad and Tobago for the festivities.
Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said some 200,000 people from all over the world have come to Trinidad and Tobago this year for carnival. The festival brings with it benefits for the local business community; local officials say that all hotels and establishments that provide accommodation are filled to capacity.
Carnival celebrations officially began Monday at 4 a.m. and wrap at midnight on Carnival Tuesday, with what is known as "last lap" -- the last hurrah until carnival comes around again the following year.
File photo. Hemera/Thinkstock(COPENHAGEN) -- What does a man do when caught red-eyed staring at a woman’s cleavage? And what does a man do when that woman is not his wife, the president of a nation, but the wife of a prince? And how does a man respond when his indecent exposure is caught on camera and broadcast to the world?
Those are all questions now facing Pentti Arajarvi, the “first gentleman” of Finland, married to Finnish president Tarja Halonen.
Arajarvi, 63, was seated next to Princess Mary of Denmark, wife of the Crown Prince of Denmark, at a dinner he attended in Copenhagen with his wife last month.
At some point during the dinner, Arajarvi became more enthralled with his 23-years-his-junior seatmate than the meal or the program itself, and began to stare at the princess’s chest.
Arajarvi’s fixed gaze was not only busted by the princess in an awkward moment, his ogling was also caught on camera, the footage of which was released to the world by The Sun newspaper this week.
The video shows Arajarvi abruptly lifting his gaze at the moment the princess spots his eyes and adjusts her dress.
To make matters worse, the dinner the two were attending was hosted by Princess Mary’s mother-in-law, the queen of Denmark.
Though local media reaction to Arajarvi’s has been unforgiving, the Sun gives him one possible out, writing, “In his defense, he may have simply been admiring Princess Mary’s necklace.”
Arajarvi’s wife, Halonen, is the first female to hold office of president in Finland.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(BAGRAM, Afghanistan) -- Troops on the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan have inadvertently burned Qurans and other religious materials, triggering angry protests and fears of even larger demonstrations as news of the burning spreads.
The books were mistakenly thrown out with the trash at Bagram Air Field and were on a burn pile Monday night before Afghan laborers intervened around 11:00 p.m., according to NATO and Afghan officials.
The workers doused the flames with their jackets and mineral water before marching out of Bagram in a fury, carrying with them the charred remains, according to Sabir Safar, secretary of the provincial council of Parwan, the province where Bagram is located.
By Tuesday morning, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside of Bagram and on the outskirts of Kabul. Some shot into the air, some threw rocks at the Bagram gate, and others yelled, "Die, die foreigners." More troubling, many of them were the same people who work with foreign troops inside the base.
At one point, apparently worried that the base would be stormed, guards at the base fired rubber bullets into the crowd, according to the military.
NATO officials scrambled furiously to contain the fallout, tweeting and emailing reporters not long after the first protests began. Gen. John Allen, the commander of all foreign forces in Afghanistan, released a statement, then a video statement, followed by an interview to NATO television. In his and all of NATO officials' communication on Tuesday, each emphasized that the burning was unintentional.
"Those materials were inadvertently given to troops for disposition and that disposition was to burn the materials. It was not a decision that was made because they were religious materials," Allen told NATO TV. "It was not a decision that was made with respect to the faith of Islam . It was a mistake, it was an error. The moment we found out about it we immediately stopped and we intervened."
Allen launched an investigation and promised to take steps that the same incident would not be repeated.
"This is not who we are. These are very, very isolated incidents," Allen said. "We've been dying alongside the Afghans for a long time because we believe in them, we believe in their country, we want to have every opportunity to give them a bright future."
