Around the world
MUSLIMS: Libya and Iran urged fellow Muslims to work together, strengthening their religion to meet the challenge of what they say is Islam's common foe: the West. "The enemy wants to sow discord" among Muslims, Libyan Prime Minister Abu-Zeid Omar Durdah said. "The Islamic countries should muster all their resources and show solidarity . . . to eliminate these problems." The governments of Egypt and Algeria have accused Iran of training and financing Islamic radicals operating in their countries.
COLLAPSE: The death toll from last week's collapse of a 12-story luxury condominium in Malaysia has risen to 25 with the recovery of five bodies on Saturday. Officials estimate 50 people were in the building when it was knocked over by a landslide caused by heavy monsoon rains.
INDICTMENT: Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's government formally indicted her brother, Murtaza Bhutto, with conspiracy to wage war against Pakistan Saturday. Murtaza Bhutto could face a death sentence if found guilty. The charges have created a serious rift between the prime minister and her mother, Nusrat Bhutto, who came to court with her son.
Across the nation
TOWN: Carvers, a 70-acre speck in the central Nevada desert, found a buyer. At least for part of it. A Colorado mining company wants the town's small restaurant-bar-casino, a convenience store that also serves as Western Union and U-Haul truck rental outlets, a laundry, a car wash and 13 acres.
TREASURE: A lost treasure ship whose sinking in 1784 played a minor role in the early history of the United States has been discovered in 300 feet of water about 50 miles off Louisiana and part of the cargo has been recovered, the finders reported last week. The vessel, El Cazador, or the Hunter, had been sent by Spain from its port in New Orleans to pick up Mexican coins for its holdings in the north, with the aim of stabilizing their currency. The wreckage was discovered by accident in August when a modern fishing vessel snagged its net on an underwater obstruction. The raised net dropped hundreds of coins onto the fishing vessel's deck, all of them minted in Mexico City and most of them dated 1783.
SPILL: A Long Island volunteer firefighter masquerading as Santa Claus in East Patchogue, N.Y., fell off the top of his fire truck Saturday and suffered a possible concussion. Long Island police said Harry Lagrega, 18, was sitting on top of the fire truck when it made a sharp left turn at 10 a.m. Lagrega apparently lost his balance and toppled to the pavement.
In Washington
U.S. TROOPS: The Army is sending 150 combat engineers on a monthlong mission to a remote area of Colombia to show support for a government besieged by cocaine cartels. Elements of the 46th Engineering Battalion from Fort Rucker, Ala., will leave for Colombia immediately after Christmas and will stay in the country through January, a Pentagon spokesman said Saturday.