Jetairfly flight 208 was flying from Cancún International Airport on the Caribbean coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula when a male passenger suffered a medical emergency. "The crews and passenger-nurses who were called upon administered medical care," said Hans Vanhaelemeesch, a spokesman for the Belgian airline.

Less than 30 minutes after the pilot declared a medical emergency, the Boeing 767-300 made an emergency landing at Shannon Airport in Ireland. "At the airport a doctor determined the death of the passenger," Vanhaelemeesch said. "The deceased passenger was traveling with his spouse. The cause of death is heart failure."

The remaining 252 passengers waited several hours before they were able to resume their flight to the Belgian capital of Brussels. "The unfortunate incident resulted in a 6-hour delay at Brussels," the spokesman added. "The management and staff of Jetairfly and Jetair express their condolences to the family of the deceased."

The nationality of the deceased was not released.

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The suspect, identified only as Sergey Martynov, is believed to have begun a series of violent crimes in 2005 and moved through more than 10 regions of Russia before he was finally caught by authorities in 2010. He has been charged with intentional infliction of a grave injury, hooliganism, murder of two or more persons, and violent sexual actions.

"The investigators have established circumstances of 8 murders committed by Martynov," said Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia's Investigative Committee. "[The] absolute majority of Martynov's victims were women, as well as two minor girls, against one of which Martynov had committed violent sexual actions and inflicted grave injuries to another."

Martynov was previously convicted of raping and murdering a woman in 1992 and served nearly 14 years in prison before he was released in 2005. He was placed on a wanted list shortly after his release for attacking a young girl in Kemerovo, a city in Kemerovo Oblast, but was able to evade police for years.

"Acting daringly and cynically, he didn't try to conceal evidence and even left letters at crime scenes, [and he] expertly hid from law enforcement officials until [he] was caught in 2010," said Markin. "The investigators have collected enough evidence and the case is forwarded for the bill of particulars to be approved and then will be sent in the court to be considered on merits."

Russian investigators had not publicly disclosed the serial killings before Wednesday.

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The attack happened when an unmanned U.S. drone fired two missiles at a suspected militant compound in the Tabai area near Miranshah, the main town in Pakistan's North Waziristan near the border with Afghanistan. Locals said most of the house was destroyed by the airstrike.

Pakistani intelligence officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the U.S. operation killed at least four suspected militants, but their nationalities and affiliation were not immediately known. There were unconfirmed reports that several people were also injured in the attack.

On April 30, Pakistan's foreign ministry summoned U.S. Political Councilor Jonathan Pratt to protest a U.S. drone strike in North Waziristan. The drone strike a day earlier targeted an abandoned high school for girls in Miranshah, killing four suspected militants and injuring three others. It was not possible to independently verify the figures.

Pakistani officials have repeatedly described the U.S. drone attacks as illegal. Pakistani President Asif Zardari has also stated the need to establish alternative security operations to the drone strikes, but U.S. officials have indicated that they will continue to carry out U.S. drone strikes to take out militants.

Few details about casualties from the strikes are usually available, but allegations of civilian casualties regularly spark protests in Pakistan. According to the Washington-based think tank New America Foundation, as many as 2,680 individuals were killed as a result of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan between 2004 and early 2012.

In January, U.S. President Barack Obama, for the first time during his presidency, publicly acknowledged that U.S. drones regularly strike suspected militants along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He confirmed that many of these strikes are carried out in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects in tough terrain.

The U.S. considers the Pakistan-Afghan border to be the most dangerous place on Earth. The area is known to be a stronghold of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani Network, which is one of the top terrorist organizations and threats to U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

But controversy has surrounded the drone strikes as local residents and officials have blamed them for killing innocent civilians and motivating young men to join the Taliban. Details about the alleged militants are usually not provided, and the U.S. government does not comment on the strikes.

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The accident occurred on Tuesday afternoon when the bus was returning from the town of Badrinath in Uttarakhand state after the pilgrims completed their Char Dham pilgrimage. It happened near the town of Byasi, about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the city of Rishikesh, which is located in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Police said the driver of the private tour bus lost control of his vehicle after being hit by a truck, causing it to roll down steep, rocky terrain before plunging into the Alaknanda River, which is one of the two headstreams of the Ganges. "Our rescue workers worked several hours to rescue the passengers," a district police official said.

At least 24 bodies were pulled from the river as of Wednesday, but it was not known if any passengers remained missing because officials provided conflicting numbers for the total number of people on board the bus. Eighteen people were rushed to area hospitals for treatment, and several of them were believed to be in a serious or critical condition.

The driver of the bus had managed to jump out of the bus before it plunged into the fast-flowing river, police said.

India, the world's second most populous nation, is often the scene of deadly road accidents, many of which are attributed to reckless driving, aging vehicles and overloading. In new figures released in 2010, India overtook China to top the world in road fatalities.

According to India's National Crime Records Bureau, approximately 120,000 people are killed in road accidents in India each year. Deaths as the result of road accidents account for up to 40 percent of the country's deaths due to unnatural causes.

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U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Crocker, 62, informed the Afghan government, U.S. Mission Afghanistan, and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on Tuesday that he intends to depart his post for health reasons in mid-summer, following the Kabul and Tokyo conferences.

"Ambassador Crocker's tenure has been marked by enormous achievements," said Nuland, who refused to give specific details about the health reasons which prompted the veteran envoy to step down a year earlier than planned. "He wanted to make it clear that this should not in any way be seen as a lessening of his personal commitment and our national commitment, obviously, to Afghanistan," she said. "I think his heart will always be a little bit in Afghanistan."

Deputy U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham, who is also a former ambassador to Israel and deputy UN envoy, is seen as a potential successor to replace Crocker. "Ambassador Cunningham is going to steer the ship in the interim," Nuland said. "With regard to who the White House may nominate for the Senate's advice and consent, I obviously don't have anything for you on that."

Crocker, who has served as ambassador to Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon in the past, came out of retirement in July 2011 following a personal request from U.S. President Barack Obama. "The President is enormously grateful for that, for Ambassador Crocker's hugely valuable service to this country and his long career in Afghanistan, in Iraq and previous posts," White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday.

Carney added: "[Crocker] has done an extraordinary job in this current post, and he has been a key part of the implementation of the President's strategy in Afghanistan. That strategy will continue, obviously. The leadership team is strong, and the President looks forward to the further implementation of his strategy, as we just discussed over the weekend at the NATO summit."

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A mother and her three children were found deceased at their house in the northeastern area of Salem, the capital of Oregon, at around 5:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday morning. They were discovered after a neighbor called 911 to report smoke coming from the residence, which is located in the 2800 block of Fisher Road Northeast.

"As firefighters were attending to the fire in the residence, they located the three young children and the woman and removed them from the house," said Lieutenant Dave Okada, a spokesman for the Salem Police Department. "Evidence located at the scene indicated that the victims died as a result of homicidal violence and firefighters requested the Salem Police Department respond."

Okada said an initial investigation led detectives to identify the husband of the woman, who is also the father of the deceased children, as a person of interest. He was later found deceased in a vehicle near Cottage Grove, a city about 78 miles (126 kilometers) south of Salem, in what appeared to be a suicide.

Meanwhile, detectives are also investigating the death of a man whose body was found beside the roadway on Fisher Road Northeast, just several hundred meters (yards) from the house where the mother and children were killed. Police said the body was discovered by a delivery driver who notified police at 4:23 a.m. local time.

Okada said detectives are treating the family deaths as a domestic-related murder-suicide situation. It is unclear how the sixth victim died, or if he is related to the murder-suicide case, but the scene was being treated as a separate investigation as of late Tuesday.

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The incident occurred in Karachi when a group of gunmen opened fire during a political rally in which protesters demanded a separate Mohajir province. Among the twelve people confirmed killed were three women. In addition, around 35 others were reported injured, including two policemen.

The rally was announced by the Awami Tehrik and the City Alliance, an alliance of various political groups including the PML-N, People’s Aman Committee and others. The protest began peacefully but when the group approached Jodia Bazaar, the group of unidentified gunmen attacked, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) South Range Shaukat Ali Shah told the Geo TV.

The gun battle quickly escalated to clashes among rival groups, resulting in several shops and dozens of vehicles being set on fire in parts of Karachi, including in Jodia Bazaar, Napier Road and Denso Hall. Police said at least 40 vehicles, including a bus, 13 cars and 26 motorcycles, were torched, in addition to six shops.

Political parties have long fought for the control of Karachi, the country's largest city and considered its financial center.

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The Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 3:44 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, becoming the first commercially developed and built spacecraft to launch to the ISS. It is an accomplishment which had only been achieved by a handful of governments in the past.

After the launch, the vehicle's first stage performed nominally before separating from the second stage. The second stage successfully delivered the Dragon spacecraft into its intended orbit. This marks the third consecutive successful Falcon 9 launch and the fifth straight launch success for SpaceX.

The Dragon capsule will conduct a series of checkout procedures to test and prove its systems, including the capability to rendezvous and berth with the ISS. The spacecraft is scheduled to perform a flyby of the space station at a distance of about 1.5 mile (2.4 kilometers) on Thursday to validate the operation of sensors and flight systems necessary for a safe rendezvous and approach.

"We had most of the company gathered around SpaceX Mission Control. They are seeing the fruits of their labor and wondering if it is going to work," SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk said at a press conference after the launch. "There is so much hope riding on that rocket. When it worked, and Dragon worked, and the solar arrays deployed, people saw their handiwork in space operating as it should. There was tremendous elation. For us it is like winning the Super Bowl."

Meanwhile, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden saluted the agency's team for the successful launch of Falcon 9. "Today marks the beginning of a new era in exploration; a private company has launched a spacecraft to the International Space Station that will attempt to dock there for the first time," he said.

Following analysis of the flyby by NASA and SpaceX managers, the Dragon capsule will be cleared to rendezvous and berth with the space station on Friday, marking the first time a commercial company has attempted this feat. The Expedition 31 crew, which is on board the ISS, will use the orbiting complex's robotic arm to capture Dragon and install it on the bottom side of the Harmony node.

"This mission heralds the dawn of a new era of space exploration, one in which there is a significant commercial space element," Musk added. "It is like the advent of the Internet in the mid-1990s when commercial companies entered what was originally a government endeavor. That move dramatically accelerated the pace of advancement and made the Internet accessible to the mass market. I think we’re at a similar inflection point for space. I hope and I believe that this mission will be historic in marking that turning point towards a rapid advancement in space transportation technology."

The mission is SpaceX's second demonstration flight under a 2006 Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) agreement with NASA to develop the capability to carry cargo to and from the ISS. Under COTS, which provides investments to stimulate the commercial space industry in America, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences have been working to successfully complete their test flights, hoping to begin delivering regular cargo shipments to the station.

If all goes according to plan, Dragon should leave the ISS on May 31 and return to Earth.

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The accident occurred at around 5 p.m. local time on Monday when a fire broke out at the Mimosa Platinum Mine in Zvishavane, a mining town in the country's Midlands province. The blaze was reportedly caused when the conveyor belt in the main decline ignited, leaving dozens of workers trapped.

"All employees have been accounted for and no injuries have been reported," Aquarius Platinum Limited, which jointly owns the Mimosa Platinum Mine along with Impala Platinum, said in a brief statement. "Initially 75 employees were accommodated in refuge bays due to low visibility. They are now in the process of being moved to the surface."

But although the company's statement said only 75 of its employees were trapped underground, The Herald newspaper reported on Wednesday that at least 178 workers were trapped during the incident. The newspaper said the rescued workers were not injured but looked distraught when they emerged from the mining shaft in small groups.

Aquarius Platinum Limited said it did not yet know the extent of the damage and impact on production as a result of Monday's fire. Zimbabwe is the second largest producer of platinum after South Africa, and the Mimosa mine produced some 104,000 ounces of platinum last year.

The worst mining accident in the history of Zimbabwe happened in June 1972 when a series of gas explosions ripped through the Wankie No. 2 colliery in Hwange, which was at the time part of the unrecognized state of Rhodesia. Eight men were pulled alive from the mine, but 426 others were killed.

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The state-run Xinhua news agency said the accident occurred on Monday afternoon when a mine shaft caved in at a coal mine in Luxi County in China's southwestern province of Yunnan. A group of ten workers were inside to inspect the mine's ventilation facilities when the accident happened.

A local government spokesman told Xinhua that the ten workers were trapped following the collapse, but rescue workers had rescued three of them by 9 a.m. local time on Tuesday. Among the group are the coal mine's manager, a safety inspector and eight workers, although Xinhua did not say who were rescued.

A rescue operation continued throughout Monday and Tuesday, but it is unclear whether any contact has been made with the remaining seven miners. Xinhua, which did not report the incident until late Tuesday, said the mine is owned by Yunnan Dongyan Luxi Coal Mine Industry Co., Ltd.

Safety conditions at mines in China have significantly improved in recent years but they remain among the world's most dangerous with at least 289 fatalities in the first quarter of this year. There were a total of 1,973 fatalities in 2011, 2,433 fatalities in 2010 and 2,631 in 2009, according to official figures.

One of the worst mining accidents in China in recent years happened in November 2009 when 104 workers were killed after several explosions at a coal mine in Heilongjiang province.

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