Hurricane sweeps into Baja peninsula

Puerto San Carlos, Mexico

Hurricane Norbert swept across Mexico's southern Baja California peninsula on Saturday with torrential rains and screaming winds, forcing scores of people to flee flooded homes.

Before weakening from a Category 2 hurricane, with winds of up to 100 mph, to a Category 1 hurricane, it passed about 70 miles southeast of Loreto, a small town popular with tourists in Baja's east coast and well north of the resort-dotted Los Cabos area on the southern tip of the peninsula.

A hurricane warning was in place along the mainland coast from Topolobampo north to the port town of Guaymas, and the storm's remnants were expected eventually to dump rain on waterlogged West Texas.

Meanwhile, a weakening Tropical Storm Odile hugged the southwest coast of Mexico. Mudslides and fallen trees blocked roads, and 150 homes were under 13 feet of water in El Paraiso, a small town north of Acapulco, officials said.

Mogadishu, Somalia

Another ship seized off Somalia

Armed pirates hijacked a massive tanker as world powers on Saturday headed toward the Somali coast to end a two-week standoff aboard a ship laden with tanks and weapons, officials said.

The latest ship to be seized, a Greek vessel flying a Panamanian flag, was traveling from Southeast Asia to Europe, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy-reporting center in Kuala Lumpur. Pirates who have been holding the Ukrainian MV Faina for two weeks have threatened to destroy the vessel unless a ransom is paid. Six U.S. warships are surrounding the Faina, and a Russian frigate was heading toward the scene, raising the stakes for a possible commando-style raid on the ship.

Lima, Peru

Scandal forces Cabinet shake-up

President Alan Garcia announced Saturday that he has appointed a leftist governor to become Peru's chief Cabinet minister, a day after the minister's predecessor resigned along with 16 colleagues amid a brewing oil-kickbacks scandal.

Longtime politician and veterinarian Yehude Simon, 61, will replace outgoing Cabinet chief Jorge del Castillo in the position, Garcia said.

The scandal began with the release of audiotapes on which two members of Garcia's APRA political party allegedly discussed kickbacks for steering government contracts to Norwegian oil company Discover Petroleum.

Also

Israel unrest: Two Arab-owned apartments were set ablaze in the Israeli town of Acre amid clashes between Jews and Arabs, police said Saturday. Rioting in Acre — one of only a few mixed Arab-Jewish towns in Israel — erupted on Wednesday, during observances of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

Chechnya earthquake: A magnitude-5.3 earthquake hit Chechnya and other parts of Russia's North Caucasus on Saturday, killing at least 12 people and damaging scores of hospitals, schools and other buildings, emergency officials said. The quake was centered northeast of the Chechen capital, Grozny.

Caribbean quake: A magnitude-6.1 earthquake jolted people awake Saturday in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and nearby Puerto Rico, the strongest earthquake there in 20 years, according to Christa von Hillebrandt, of the University of Puerto Rico. The worst temblor ever recorded in Puerto Rico, a magnitude-7.3 quake, killed 118 people exactly 90 years ago.

Russian missile: Russian officials say a submarine-launched ballistic missile has made a record flight, hitting a target in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for the first time, as part of naval exercises in the northern Barents Sea.

The Associated Press