Sweden: Giant fish
STOCKHOLM — First he thought it was a piece of plastic floating near the shoreline. When he got closer, 73-year-old Kurt Ove Eriksson realized the 12-foot serpent-like object was a rare creature from the depths of the ocean.
Marine biologists later determined Eriksson had found a giant oarfish — the world's largest bony fish — last seen in Swedish waters about 130 years ago.
Eriksson handed over the dead fish to The House of the Sea, an aquarium in the nearby town of Lysekil, where marine expert Roger Jansson said it's being kept pending a decision on what to do with it.
Jansson said the giant oarfish can grow up to 36 feet and is believed to live in deep waters. Sightings of the fish are believed to have inspired tales of sea serpents.
Argentina: Facebook
BUENOS AIRES — A judge in the Argentine province of Mendoza has ordered Facebook to shut groups created by minors to organize mass truancy from school.
The order by judge Alfredo Dantiacq Sanchez comes after more than 2,000 adolescents in schools across the province's capital skipped classes and met in a plaza April 30. The mass truancy was organized on a Facebook group.
Iraq: Bomb kills 7
BAGHDAD — A bomb in a parked car ripped through a Sadr City neighborhood Wednesday evening, killing seven young people who had gathered at a nearby cafe to drink tea and play dominoes, Iraqi officials said.
The attack comes just days after a string of shootings and bombings convulsed the country in Iraq's worst violence so far this year. The violence appears designed to stir up sectarian tensions at a time when Iraq still has no new government after inconclusive parliamentary elections and as U.S. troops prepare to go home.
Police and hospital officials said the blast took place near a popular cafe where young people were gathered.
Nepal: Missing hiker
KATMANDU — Police are scouring a remote region in northern Nepal, searching for a Colorado woman who has been missing since last month when she failed to check in after a solo hike in the Himalayan mountains, an official said Wednesday.
Aubrey Sacco, 23, of Greeley, was reported missing by her family. She had arrived in the Langtang area in the northern region of Nepal in April for a trek that was to last just over a week.
Thailand: Square one
BANGKOK — The Thai government suspended its plan to cut water and electricity supplies to anti-government demonstrators camped in a posh central Bangkok neighborhood, heeding pleas from residents and foreign diplomats who live and work there.
But it also withdrew its offer to hold elections in November, bringing Thailand's months-old political crisis back to square one, days after it appeared that a compromise was imminent.