NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- A 15-year-old boy was arrested in Newport Beach, Calif., on suspicion of pointing a laser at a commercial jet and a police helicopter.Authorities said the teenager, a Las Vegas resident, was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly pointed a laser he received as a gift at a SkyWest Airlines plane and a Newport Beach police helicopter that was sent to investigate the incident, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.The arrest was the ... [full story]

SEATTLE -- A King's County Sheriff's report outlines an alleged confession in the shooting death of six family members Christmas Eve.Court documents allege Michele Anderson and boyfriend Joseph McEnroe killed six members of the Anderson family Christmas Eve over issues involving money and family conflict, the Seattle Times said Friday.The probable-cause report said Anderson and McEnroe confessed to the killing of Anderson's parents, brother, sister-in-law and a niece and nephew.The Times cited an unidentified source ... [full story]

DALLAS -- A U.S. transportation agency closed a Dallas bus company following a fatal crash and alleged repeated violations of drive-time regulations.The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said Dallas's Tornado Bus Co. is an "imminent hazard" and accused the company of permitting its employees to drive longer than regulations permit, The Dallas Morning News said Friday.A Tornado bus driving from Chicago to Dallas on Nov. 25 crossed the median and crashed into a pickup truck ... [full story]

UNITED NATIONS -- The anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International in Sri Lanka said there is no explanation for more than $500 million in missing tsunami relief funds.The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Networks released a statement Friday saying Transparency International Sri Lanka has "no precise evidence to explain the missing sum of (nearly $535 million)."TISL said there is a gap in the amount distributed by aid agencies and the ... [full story]

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. -- Officials said that cemetery photos and ominous letters left at neighbors of Bolingbrook, Ill., missing woman Stacy Peterson were a hoax."It was somebody who had been following the case too closely -- he was very emotionally involved and had a belief of what happened to Stacy," family spokeswoman Pam Bosco told the Chicago Tribune. "It wasn't a valid lead."Two neighbors found dozens of color photos of graves strewn on a driveway and ... [full story]

LONDON -- British Conservatives said teachers there are quitting schools at double rates in the 1990s."I fear that a combination of classroom bureaucracy, government micro-management and poor discipline in too many schools has encouraged a drift away from teaching," Shadow Children's Secretary Michael Gove told The Times of London.Some 95,500 people left teaching jobs from 2000-2005, compared to 40,600 in the previous five years, the paper said.Others say such figures are misleading and politically motivated ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Air Force -- the federal government's biggest energy consumer -- is testing a cheaper, cleaner-burning, more-domestic synthetic fuel blend.The Air Force successfully flew its first transcontinental flight with the fuel last week, when a C-17 Globemaster II traveled from Washington state to New Jersey using a 50-50 blend of traditional JP-8 fuel and synthetic fuel from natural gas and liquid, The Christian Science Monitor said."We're making sure the Air Force is ... [full story]

MOSCOW -- The Russian deputy foreign minister said Thursday his country is helping Iran strengthen its air defenses.Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said in response to a request for a comment on Iran's announcement that it is buying advanced S-300 air defense missile systems from Russia that he didn't have concrete information on the sale but confirmed that Russia is working with Iran to strengthen Tehran's air defenses, RIA Novosti reported Thursday."I know we ... [full story]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Protests, some violent, erupted Thursday in many Pakistani cities after the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi.The BBC reported Bhutto supporters thronged the Rawalpindi hospital where their leader was declared dead. Some of them wept while others became enraged and resorted to throwing stones at cars and breaking windows.In Karachi, a number of cars were reportedly set on fire. Shots were also reportedly fired. The city is capital of ... [full story]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Benazir Bhutto, who rose to become prime minister twice in Pakistan, was assassinated Thursday as she campaigned to contest scheduled elections Jan. 8.The 54-year-old Harvard-educated scion of a prosperous family from Pakistan's Sindh province had returned to her country only in October from her long self-imposed exile after corruption charges against her were dropped by the government of President Pervez Musharraf.Bhutto, whose father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto also was the country's prime minister, ... [full story]