In Brief Hurricane strengthens

ORANJESTAD – Hurricane Felix has rapidly strengthened into a dangerous Category 5 storm – the highest level – and churns through the Caribbean Sea on a path toward Central America, where forecasters say it could make landfall as a ‘potentially catastrophic’ storm.

Army hunts fugitives MOHAMMARA – Soldiers searched through devastated buildings and scorched bushes along the Mediterranean coastline in northern Lebanon, hunting for fugitives a day after the army crushed the remnants of a militant group and ended a three-month siege at a Palestinian refugee camp. Palestinians fire rocket SDEROT – A Palestinian rocket landed in a courtyard next to a crowded daycare centre in this southern Israeli town, sending panicked mothers scrambling to take their screaming toddlers to safety.No children were hurt.New Japanese minister resigns TOKYO – Japan’s agriculture minister has resigned over misuse of farm subsidies, shaming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s scandal-scarred government as it struggles to recover from a humiliating electoral defeat.North Korea cleared SEOUL – The United States has decided to remove North Korea from a list of terrorism-sponsoring states and lift sanctions against the communist country, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said.Jamaica holdS polls KINGSTON – Voters concerned about sky-high crime and a weak economy that forces many to seek work abroad will decide whether to oust Jamaica’s first woman prime minister along with a party that has held power for nearly 20 years.Polls show a tight race between Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller’s People’s National Party and the main opposition Jamaica Labour Party.Bushmen arrested Cape Town – Botswana police yesterday arrested six Bushmen for hunting on their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, says the organisation Survival International.This was despite a ruling by the country’s high court last year that Bushmen had the right to live in the reserve, and the Botswana government was obliged to issue them with hunting permits, it said in a statement.Nampa-APPalestinians fire rocket SDEROT – A Palestinian rocket landed in a courtyard next to a crowded daycare centre in this southern Israeli town, sending panicked mothers scrambling to take their screaming toddlers to safety.No children were hurt. New Japanese minister resigns TOKYO – Japan’s agriculture minister has resigned over misuse of farm subsidies, shaming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s scandal-scarred government as it struggles to recover from a humiliating electoral defeat. North Korea cleared SEOUL – The United States has decided to remove North Korea from a list of terrorism-sponsoring states and lift sanctions against the communist country, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said. Jamaica holdS polls KINGSTON – Voters concerned about sky-high crime and a weak economy that forces many to seek work abroad will decide whether to oust Jamaica’s first woman prime minister along with a party that has held power for nearly 20 years.Polls show a tight race between Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller’s People’s National Party and the main opposition Jamaica Labour Party. Bushmen arrested Cape Town – Botswana police yesterday arrested six Bushmen for hunting on their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, says the organisation Survival International.This was despite a ruling by the country’s high court last year that Bushmen had the right to live in the reserve, and the Botswana government was obliged to issue them with hunting permits, it said in a statement.Nampa-AP