Eight people are feared dead after a fishing boat sank Thursday off New Zealand’s coast.
So far, crews have rescued one survivor and found one body. But poor sea conditions and a long delay before authorities were alerted to the accident has police describing the situation as bleak.
Police say the boat “Easy Rider” was carrying three crew members and six passengers when it capsized near remote Stewart Island. They say one survivor was found about 18 hours later in the frigid sea, clinging to a barrel.
The survivor told police he was …

The Russian opposition says a series of convictions of leading opponents of Vladimir Putin is a warning signal.
Alexei Kozlov, whose wife belongs to a group that helped organise a wave of rallies against Putin in recent months, was found guilty of fraud in a business deal pre-dating the protests, and sentenced to five years in prison.
Supporters in court shouted ‘shame’ as Kozlov was led away. He will serve a maximum of two years having already spent three behind bars over charges of stealing shares.
Last year Kozlov was freed when the …

Kony2012, the video of Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony that’s been viewed more than 100 million times on the Internet, was halted from being shown to his victims in the north of the country after a first screening provoked anger and violence.
African Youth Initiative Network, a Ugandan group that helps support victims of violence from the two-decade rebellion by Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army, organized a public viewing in the town of Lira on March 13 of the video by Invisible Children, a San Diego-based non-profit group. In the video, filmmaker Jason …

GENEVA — The bodies of 28 people who died when a Belgian tour bus crashed in a Swiss tunnel have been identified and are being repatriated.
Swiss police in the canton (state) of Valais said the bodies of the 22 children and six adults, including two bus drivers, were being flown back home on three Belgian military planes and are expected to arrive Friday — a national day of mourning for the victims.
The accident — one of the deadliest highway crashes in Swiss history — claimed the lives of 22 Belgians …

Kabul, Afghanistan — Afghan President Hamid Karzai is set to meet Friday with the families of 16 civilians allegedly killed by a U.S. soldier during a house-to-house rampage.
Karzai’s meeting at the presidential palace in Kabul follows news that he received a report from an investigative team prior to talks with U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
The findings of the report were “clearly on his mind” during his Thursday meeting with Panetta, according to a senior U.S. defense official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity …