SYDNEY – A powerful earthquake has rattled the South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea, and a local tsunami is possible. The U.S. Geological Survey says the 7.2-magnitude quake struck Thursday about 150 kilometers (94 miles) southwest of the town of Panguna on Bougainville Island. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center …

KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan judge has postponed issuing verdicts for the 19 police officers charged over the mob killing of a woman in Kabul. Safiullah Mojadedi said Sunday that more time is need to complete the investigation into the officers, who are charged with failing to prevent the March …

TIRANA, Albania – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is visiting Albania to discuss increasing economic ties with the small Balkan nation, heading a delegation of about 100 businessmen as he arrived in the capital for meetings with Albanian government officials. Turkey is one of Albania’s main trading partners and investors. …

JOHANNESBURG – The remains of an American pilot who died in a plane crash in Cameroon last year are still in the cockpit even though villagers discovered the wreckage of his anti-poaching aircraft more than a month ago, officials and the pilot’s family said. The discovery of pilot Bill Fitzpatrick …

SAN FRANCISCO – A California lawyer with an idea that has been called offensive, outrageous, reprehensible and illegal is putting the century-old process that gives citizens the right to make laws at the ballot box to its latest test. The state attorney general, Kamala Harris, took the unusual step on …

RALEIGH, N.C. – Shoppers at a Harris Teeter supermarket in North Carolina’s capital city have gotten a very big break on their bills. WRAL in Raleigh reports (http://bit.ly/1En8IhS) the cash registers at the chain’s Cameron Village store crashed on Friday. The station quoted a store manager as saying his team …

FIRE ISLAND, N.Y. – A search was underway for a missing tugboat crew member after three others were rescued Saturday when their boat sank in icy and stormy waters about a mile off Fire Island on New York’s Long Island, authorities said. One of the crew members managed to make …

DETROIT – A woman’s frozen body has been found inside a freezer at a vacant apartment on Detroit’s east side. Detroit police officer Jennifer Moreno says 36th District Court officers found the body during an eviction about 10:45 a.m. Tuesday. Moreno says the officers found the body in the freezer …

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – A Pennsylvania man who gained notoriety with the 2003 discovery of at least five bodies in his yard is set to stand trial in two of the deaths. Hugo Selenski was charged nine years ago with strangling a pharmacist and the pharmacist’s girlfriend and burying their bodies …

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Former national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told jurors she was stunned to learn that a classified mission to thwart Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions had been leaked to the news media. That leak is now the subject of a criminal trial in federal court in Alexandria. Prosecutors believe …