Obama, under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, declared a national emergency on Wednesday in order to give the U.S. Treasury Department the authority to target individuals and entities which it deems to pose a threat to Yemen's peace, security, or stability.

"The order does not target the entire country of Yemen or its government, but rather targets those who threaten the peace, security, or stability of Yemen, including by obstructing the implementation of the agreement of November 23, 2011, between the Government of Yemen and those in opposition to it, which provides for a peaceful transition of power that meets the legitimate demands and aspirations of the Yemeni people for change, or by obstructing the political process in Yemen," Obama said in a message to Congress.

After signing a political agreement brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) last year, embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh handed over presidential powers to his deputy in November 2011. A national unity government, led by Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi, was sworn in a month later in an effort to restore peace and democracy in Yemen. The ruling party and opposition parties evenly divided the 34 ministries.

Under the new powers, the U.S. Treasury Department is allowed to freeze U.S.-based assets of anyone it believes is acting "directly or indirectly" against the political transition. It also allows sanctions against political and military leaders of an entity which has engaged in acts that threatens Yemen's stability or the political transition.

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New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said the closure of its Stockholm embassy will be accompanied by other measures, including moving into less expensive accommodation, that will save the government about $10 million per year among its diplomatic posts in Europe.

"New Zealand enjoys an excellent relationship with Sweden and with its Scandinavian neighbors, but in today's world it is not always necessary to have a diplomatic presence to maintain such a relationship," McCully said. "Sweden does not have an embassy in New Zealand and I am confident that we can manage the relationship through an accreditation."

The Stockholm embassy was opened by the Labour government of Helen Clark in 2008 but was downsized just months later by the new and current government of Prime Minister John Key, who leads the National Party. "The move is part of a series of decisions that will enable the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to meet the government's expectations of a $24 million efficiency dividend and then manage within a flatline budget for the next two years," McCully added.

New Zealand currently has 29 embassies around the world, including its post in New Zealand.

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The death of Fuentes came as a surprise to many as he was believed to be in a generally good health condition and was not believed to be suffering from any illness. The cause of death was not immediately released, but some Mexican news organizations said Fuentes had been checked into a hospital on Monday evening after suffering heart problems.

The famed author died at Mexico City's Hospital Angeles del Pedregal.

Considered the father of the modern novel in Mexico, Fuentes was born to Mexican parents in Panama on November 11, 1928, but moved to Mexico City at the age of 16 before becoming a nationalized citizen. His work is known to be one of the most influential in Latin America and in Spanish-language literature, although he never received the Nobel Prize.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, through his Twitter account, expressed sadness following Fuentes' death. "I deeply lament the death of our dear and admired Carlos Fuentes, universal Mexican writer. Rest in Peace," he wrote on his verified Twitter account.

Mexican Interior Secretary Alejandro Poiré Romero also expressed his condolences on behalf of the Mexican government. "The death of Carlos Fuentes is a great loss for our country. His thought and work are essential to understand the history of our country and the world," the Interior Ministry said in a statement, urging everyone to keep reading his work.

Some of Fuentes' most important works include 'The Most Transparent Region' (1958), 'Aura' (1962), 'The Death of Artemio Cruz' (1962), and 'The Old Gringo' (1985), which was made into a film starring Jane Fonda and Gregory Peck.

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The attack happened at around 11:15 a.m. local time when a car bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying Londoño on Calle 74 near Caracas Avenue in the northern area of Colombia's capital Bogota. The blast seriously damaged nearby vehicles, including the armored vehicle which Londoño was in.

Police said two people were killed in the blast, including Londoño's driver and a police lieutenant, while at least 25 others were injured and rushed to the nearby Clínica del Country. Three of them were seriously injured, but most of the victims had been discharged from the hospital later on Tuesday.

Among those injured was Londoño, who could be seen exiting his vehicle with blood stains on his chest as he was guarded by a bodyguard armed with a gun. The former interior and justice minister did not sustain serious injuries, but he was visibly stunned when he exited the damaged vehicle.

Bogota Police Commander General Luis Eduardo Martinez said there was 'convincing evidence' that the attack was carried out by rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, commonly known as FARC. "Police are analyzing video from security cameras in the area to try to identify the perpetrators of the attack," a police spokesperson said.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos strongly condemned the attack and visited Londoño at Clínica del Country. "I ask you today, the Colombian people, that we unite against terrorism," he said. "Terrorism has done much harm to our country and caused a lot of damage. Although we are eliminating it, we have not eliminated it altogether, and this is proof of that, but we will be moving to eliminate it completely from the face of our country."

Earlier on Tuesday morning, at around 5 a.m. local time, a group of soldiers noticed a suspicious vehicle which had been abandoned in the Eduardo Santos neighborhood of Bogota. The bomb squad arrived and successfully dismantled an explosive device inside, which is believed to have targeted a nearby police station. One suspect was arrested.

FARC, which is dedicated to the violent overthrow of Colombia's democratically-elected government, was formed in 1964 and is structured as a military organization, with approximately 10,000 armed guerillas organized into seven "blocs," 68 numbered "Fronts", nine named "Fronts," and four urban "militias." The group is present in 24 of the 32 departments of the South American country.

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The European Union Naval Force Somalia (EUNAVFOR) said the operation was conducted from the air with the support of the United Nations (UN) and the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, which is the internationally recognized government of Somalia. No forces went ashore.

The multinational force said the "focused, precise and proportionate" action was aimed to disrupt known pirate supplies on the shore. "We believe this action by the EU Naval Force will further increase the pressure on, and disrupt pirates’ efforts to get out to sea to attack merchant shipping and dhows," said EUNAVFOR Commander Rear Admiral Duncan Potts.

Potts emphasized to local residents and fishermen in the region that the military action is only targeting known pirate supplies. "The EU Naval Force action against pirate supplies on the shoreline is merely an extension of the disruption actions carried out against pirate ships at sea," he said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the air assault, which is the first of its kind by EUNAVFOR. Somali pirates have attacked merchant ships up to 1,750 miles (2,816 kilometers) off the Somali coast in recent years, hijacking them and keeping its crews hostage until a ransom is paid.

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The Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on at around 9:01 a.m. Baikonur time on Tuesday, or 10:01 p.m. CDT Monday. The spacecraft is scheduled to dock to the Poisk module of the station at 11:39 p.m. on Wednesday.

Aboard are NASA Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba, Russian Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin, who will join Expedition 31 Commander Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Flight Engineers Don Pettit of NASA and André Kuipers of the European Space Agency, who have been aboard the orbiting laboratory since December 23, 2011.

Upon arrival, Acaba, Padalka and Revin will become members of the Expedition 31 crew, restoring the station's crew complement to six and continuing scientific research aboard the station. They are scheduled to work together for about two months.

Also on board with the crew was a small "Smokey Bear" plush toy serving as the traditional Soyuz "talisman." Smokey Bear is the U.S. national symbol for wildfire prevention. Acaba said he proposed flying Smokey Bear in an effort to raise awareness for human-caused wildfires.

Late last month, three members of the Expedition 30 crew undocked from the ISS and safely returned to Earth, wrapping up a five-and-a-half-month mission in space. The trio, which arrived at the station on November 16, 2011, spent a total of 165 days in space, 163 of them conducting research on the station.

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Google Street View, which provides panoramic views at street level, is currently available in more than 30 countries around the world. Other countries in the region, such as Norway, Sweden, Finland and parts of Poland, were already available and plans are underway to introduce the service in more countries.

"Driving around in cars last summer, the Street View images have now been taken up by Google Maps," said Google AdWords Community Specialist Karl Pae in a blog post on Tuesday. The images in Estonia were made by geospatial mapping company Regio, which began photographing the country last summer and finished in April.

"We are very excited about launching Street View in Estonia. Street View makes the beautiful streets and locations of that wonderful country available to users all over the world," Google Street View program manager Ulf Spitzer told Internet magazine The Baltic Course. "From now on, all Estonians and also Estonian companies can enjoy the many benefits of the service."

Google Street View has repeatedly raised privacy issues when the service was added in new countries, but Google said it is committed to protect privacy and comply with all local laws. Google will blur the faces of people and license plates to avoid identification, and people will be able to submit complaints if they believe photos are violating people's privacy or violating the law.

Among controversial photos discovered by Internet users on Tuesday was a photo of a naked boy who could be seen leaving a nude beach with a woman near Skulte, northeast of the Estonian capital of Riga. The photo was not blurred and still available on early Wednesday. The addition of new countries to Street View usually results in a series of controversial photos being found by its users.

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Army Technical Officers (ATOs) were called to Enniskillen/St Angelo Airport near the town of Enniskillen in County Fermanagh at around 8 p.m. local time on Monday after a suspicious object was discovered on a plane. The main Enniskillen to Kesh road was closed during the alert.

Airport sources told the BBC that the suspicious object had been confirmed to be a viable explosive device, but police denied those reports on Tuesday morning. "Police wish to say that the object found on a plane at St Angelo Airport last night was not an explosive device," said Lorraine McLearnon, a spokeswoman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

McLearnon said the package was examined at the scene by ATOs who determined it was "nothing untoward." Other details about the object and the incident, which comes amidst a series of security alerts, were not immediately released by authorities.

Late last month, authorities in Northern Ireland defused two powerful car bombs which were blamed on dissident republican paramilitaries who remain violently opposed to a 1998 peace deal which ended most violence in the region. A car bomb found in Newry, not far from the border with the Republic of Ireland, contained some 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of homemade explosives.

Just over 24 hours after the discovery in Newry, police evacuated up to 70 homes after a suspicious object was found under a parked car in a garage in north Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. The device was made safe several hours later, and officials said it would have been a 'real tragedy' if the bomb had exploded.

And earlier this month, ATOs were called to the Ballysillan Presbyterian Church in northern Belfast after someone cutting grass discovered a suspicious device, prompting the evacuation of nearby residents. It turned out to be a pipe bomb which authorities said could have caused fatalities, but it remains unclear if the church was the target and who left it there.

In August 1998, a total of 29 people were killed and more than 300 others were injured when a car bomb exploded in the town of Omagh in Northern Ireland. The attack, carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA) which broke away from the mainstream Provisional IRA, was Northern Ireland's worst terror attack in 30 years.

The peace deal in 1998 brought an end to more than three decades of violence between mainly nationalist Catholics opposed to British rule in Northern Ireland and pro-union Protestants who wanted it to continue. In April 2011, a booby-trap car bomb near Omagh killed Police Constable Ronan Kerr.

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Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) have been following the weather system since early Saturday when it emerged south-southwest of Acapulco, a major sea port on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. It slowly became better organized over the weekend and became a tropical depression on early Monday, before strengthening into a tropical storm hours later.

As of 2 a.m. PDT (0900 GMT) on Tuesday, the center of Aletta was located about 640 miles (1,025 kilometers) south-southwest of Manzanillo, a municipality in the Mexican state of Colima which is also home to the country's busiest port. It is moving toward the west at a speed near 9 miles (15 kilometers) per hour.

Maximum sustained winds of Aletta have increased to near 40 miles (65 kilometers) per hour, with higher gusts, making it a weak tropical storm. Aletta is likely to strengthen throughout Tuesday and Wednesday but should then gradually begin to weaken, becoming a remnant low by the end of the week.

"Intensity guidance continues to indicate only modest strengthening through 24 hours before increasing southwesterly vertical shear begins to impede any further development," said U.S. Navy Hurricane Specialist Dave Roberts. "The official intensity forecast is a compromise of the LGEM (Logistic Growth Equation Model) and SHIPS (Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction Scheme) models, suggesting gradual weakening beyond the 48 hour period and dissipation by day 5."

Little change in motion and forward speed is expected on Tuesday and Wednesday, keeping it far from any land as it continues to move westward. After Wednesday, an approaching mid to upper-level trough from the northwest is expected to slow down Aletta as it weakens back to a tropical depression.

Tropical Storm Aletta is the first tropical cyclone of the 2012 Eastern Pacific hurricane season, which was officially due to start on Tuesday. NOAA's Climate Prediction Center is expected to release a detailed forecast for this year's hurricane seasons later this week.

An average Eastern Pacific hurricane season produces 15 to 16 named storms, with eight to nine becoming hurricanes and four becoming major hurricanes. The Eastern Pacific hurricane season runs from May 15 through November 30, with peak activity from July through September.

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HMAS Glenelg, operating under the control of Australia's Border Protection Command, intercepted the suspected people smuggling vessel northwest of Christmas Island on Monday evening. It happened after the illegal vessel was detected by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

Korena Flanagan, a spokeswoman for Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare, said the vessel was carrying a total of 121 passengers and two crew members on board. "Border Protection Command will now make arrangements for the passengers to be transferred to Christmas Island, where they will undergo initial security, health and identity checks and their reasons for travel will be established," she said.

So far this year, the Australian Navy has intercepted 2,723 irregular maritime arrivals (IMAs), most of them coming from Afghanistan and Iran who use Indonesia as a transit region. As of March 31, a total of 4,197 people are being held in immigration facilities while 1,712 people have been approved for a residence determination to live in the community.

This month alone, authorities have caught nearly 700 asylum seekers who attempted to reach Australia by boat, indicating a sharp increase in the number of new arrivals. On Friday, the Australian Navy intercepted one vessel carrying 99 passengers and two crew members northeast of Christmas Island while another vessel west of Christmas Island was found to be carrying 84 passengers.

Australia's Migration Act 1958 requires people who are not Australian citizens and who are unlawfully in Australia to be detained. This law has been heavily criticized by the United Nations and human rights organizations as many asylum seekers are in detention for months. In 2010, a total of 4,612 irregular maritime arrivals were intercepted by the Australian Navy.

However, the boat journeys made by asylum seekers are not without risk. In December 2010, at least 30 people were killed when a boat carrying more than 90 asylum seekers sank off the coast of Christmas Island. Forty-two people were rescued, while an unknown number of people remain missing.

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