ROME -- Media mogul Silvio Berlusconi has swept back into power, winning a third term as Italy's prime minister, election results Monday showed.Berlusconi, 71, defeated center-left challenger Walter Veltroni by a wider-than-expected margin, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. Projections showed Berlusconi's coalition winning in the House by 45.9 percent to Veltroni's 39.1 percent, with similar margins in the Senate prompting Veltroni to concede in a phone call to Berlusconi, ANSA said.Berlusconi succeeds Romano Prodi, ... [full story]

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Canada's laws governing car theft and organized crime are being toughened, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Wednesday.He made the announcement in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which has the highest per-capita rate of car thefts in the country, the Winnipeg Free Press reported.Harper said at least 20 percent of vehicles stolen are taken by organized rings that remove vehicle identification numbers, and that many of the altered cars and trucks end up resold elsewhere in ... [full story]

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- A Canadian judge in Vancouver slapped three members of the Hells Angels motorcycle club with jail terms Monday for refusing to testify against another biker.David Giles, 58, was charged with cocaine possession and being part of a criminal organization. However, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Anne MacKenzie was forced to acquit him when the three witnesses appearing by a video link refused to testify, the Vancouver Sun said."Contempt of court strikes ... [full story]

MONTREAL -- A Montreal-area school board is to begin expanded emergency drills this year for nearly 130 other safety threats besides fire.The Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board spent more than $200,000 and two years developing an analysis of about 130 situations that could threaten its schools, board Chairman Steve Bletas told The Gazette newspaper.This year, every classroom will have a detailed manual on safety procedures dealing not only with fires, but bomb threats, armed intruders ... [full story]

JERUSALEM -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visited rocket-pocked Sderot Monday, saying the air assault directed at the southern Israeli city was a crime.Carter, in Israel as part of his Mideast tour, defended his controversial impeding meeting in Damascus, Syria, with Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal, saying it was important "that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to try to induce them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel and cooperate ... [full story]

MOSCOW -- A Russian court Monday charged a lawyer who fled to the United States last year with divulging government secrets.The charges filed in absentia against Boris Kuznetsov stem from a complaint he had filed claiming that the Federal Security Service has illegally tapped the phone of a high-profile client in a bribery case, former Sen. Levon Chakhmakhchyan.Divulging state secrets carries a four-year prison term.The Moscow Times said it was not immediately known if Russia ... [full story]

GUADALAJARA, Mexico -- A Mexican judge in Guadalajara said Monday he will rule within 30 days on whether to try a Canadian woman who has been jailed for two years.Brenda Martin, 51, faces fraud charges in connection with her former employer who is now in a U.S. jail and who has said in a sworn affidavit she had no link to his Internet investment scam.During Monday's brief hearing, Martin broke into tears and was escorted ... [full story]

CROOK COUNTY, Ore. – A 44-year old Madras man, reportedly drinking and arguing with the two women he was camping with in the Ochoco Mountains, was arrested Saturday morning for attempted manslaughter and other crimes after he allegedly drove his pickup over a tent where one of his campmates was sleeping.   The campsite off USFS Road 33, and (inset) Patrick Donaldson - CCSO photos  Patrick Donaldson left the scene in his 1992 Toyota pickup about 6:30 ... [full story]

MADRAS, Ore. – A 51-year old Madras man died Saturday afternoon in a Bend hospital from injuries he received when his motorcycle was struck by a pickup in Madras, Oregon, on Highway 361, police reported.   Wayne Schjoll of Madras died at a Bend, Oregon hospital Saturday after a motorcycle vs. pickup crash on Culver Highway in Madras - OSP photo  According to Oregon State Police (OSP) Sgt. Don Wagner, Wayne Schjoll, 51, of Madras, was riding ... [full story]

BEND, Ore. – A 3-year-old girl died in what appears to be a tragic accident Sunday afternoon while she was playing in the yard of her family’s northwest Bend home and apparently drowned in an unfenced pond, deputies reported. Synde Jensen was playing with her nine-year-old sister about 1:30 p.m., April 13, and was unattended for only 3-5 minutes before her sister found her in the pond at 64357 Schibel Road, Deschutes County Sheriff’s Detective Lt. ... [full story]