Sicily: Immigrants missing after boat capsizes

A wooden boat packed with illegal immigrants capsized in rough seas off Lampedusa, a tiny Sicilian island, Italian officials said Friday. Twelve bodies were found and dozens more passengers were missing.

At least 11 people were saved, but rescuers feared that time was running out for the others. As many as 60 people were on board when the boat flipped over Thursday evening, said Lampedusa Mayor Salvatore Martello.

Navy boats, planes and helicopters scanned the rough waters between North Africa and Lampedusa island late Friday, more than 22 hours after the boat capsized.

“We are near the time limit,” said Giuseppe Zaccaria, a port official in Palermo, the regional capital of Sicily. “It would be unlikely to find someone alive now, but not impossible.”

Survivors said they had left from Turkey about a week ago after paying smugglers $4,000 a head, port official Zaccaria said.

Space: Super-cold fridge installed on telescope

Shuttle Columbia’s astronauts completed five days of repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope Friday, installing a high-tech, super-cold refrigerator in hopes of reviving a comatose camera.

It was the fifth and final spacewalk of the mission, described by NASA as the most challenging service call ever made to the 12-year-old telescope.

Spacewalkers John Grunsfeld and Richard Linnehan connected the 310-pound refrigerator to an infrared camera that has not worked for the past three years. They also hung a large radiator to the outside of the telescope and hooked up cables and plumbing that are part of the $21 million cooling system.

The system passed initial tests, but astronomers will not know for at least a month if the repairs will allow the camera to peer back into the dark, dusty regions of the universe and resume its study of young star clusters, exploding stars and planetary atmospheres.

Washington: U.S. evicts tenant from ex-embassy

It looked like a yard sale at Iran’s former embassy Friday after U.S. marshals evicted a woman who had been living there and piled her mattresses, dresser drawers and office furniture onto the sidewalk.

Ruth Shofield had leased the three-story mansion since 1995 as headquarters for her nonprofit religious organization. The State Department said she stopped paying rent regularly about four years ago and owes the government more than $750,000.

The State Department sued Shofield in 1999. A federal judge ruled in its favor last November, ordering Shofield to leave and pay rent. She didn’t, and the judge ordered the U.S. Marshals Service last week to enforce his judgment.

Shofield admits her organization, the Prince of Peace Embassy, has had problems paying rent. Iran officially owns the mission, although the United States severed diplomatic recognition and froze Iran’s assets in April 1980.