Turkey

Students trapped in rubble after strong earthquake

A strong earthquake rocked eastern Turkey, toppling a school dormitory and trapping up to 200 students under debris, a municipal official said. At least 30 people were confirmed dead elsewhere in the region.

Some 50 children were rescued from the wreckage of the dormitory in Bingol, 430 miles east of Ankara, said Sevket Turan, an official with Bingol municipal government. Crews were working to rescue up to 200 primary and middle school students still buried under the school, he said.

The magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck the region around 3:30 a.m. today (7:30 p.m. CDT Wednesday) and was centered just outside Bingol.

Bingol Mayor Feyzullah Karaaslan said he feared the death toll could rise dramatically.

Florida

Worms survive shuttle crash

Hundreds of worms from a science experiment aboard the space shuttle Columbia have been found alive in the wreckage, NASA said Wednesday.

The worms, known as C. elegans, were found in debris in Texas several weeks ago. Technicians sorting through the debris at Kennedy Space Center in Florida didn’t open the containers of worms and dead moss cells until this week.

All seven astronauts were killed when the shuttle disintegrated over Texas on Feb. 1. Columbia contained almost 60 scientific investigations.

The worms, which are about the size of the tip of a pencil, were part of an experiment testing a new synthetic nutrient solution. The worms, which have a life cycle of between seven and 10 days, were four or five generations removed from the original worms placed on Columbia in January.

Puerto Rico

U.S. Navy leaves Vieques

Islanders celebrated as the U.S. Navy withdrew on Wednesday from its disputed Vieques bombing range, while activists called for the land to revert to local owners.

The Navy handed over 15,000 acres of land on the eastern end of Vieques to the U.S. Department of the Interior.

After an extensive cleanup, the property will become a wildlife refuge administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

But activists say that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service risks being perceived as another intruder.

“These lands are ours,” said Ismael Guadalupe, who has protested for years to oust the Navy from Vieques. “We don’t recognize the right of the Fish and Wildlife Service to administer the land.”