Washington, D.C.

Powell says mushroom cloud in N. Korea not nuclear blast

A huge mushroom cloud that reportedly billowed up from North Korea was not caused by a nuclear explosion, South Korean and U.S. officials said Sunday, but they said the cause was a mystery.

The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that an explosion in North Korea produced a mushroom cloud over 2 miles across Thursday.

“There was no indication that was a nuclear event of any kind,” Secretary of State Colin Powell said of Thursday’s incident. “Exactly what it was, we’re not sure.”

Hong Kong

Polls suggest democracy makes small gains in election

Pro-democracy opposition figures scored a few new seats in Hong Kong’s legislature but fell short of expectations, partial results showed early today, as critics attacked problems with the voting and the counting.

The opposition camp appeared to have won 25 of 60 total seats, up from 22 in the current legislature, according to partial official results and political scientists who analyzed the outcome of the contest.

The pro-democracy side fell far short of a majority, while the pro-Beijing and pro-government rivals did better than expected despite Hong Kong’s dissatisfaction with a recent decision from China ruling out full democracy for now.

Hawaii

World’s largest volcano shows signs of activity

Earthquakes have been rumbling more frequently deep beneath Mauna Loa, suggesting that the world’s largest volcano is getting ready to erupt for the first time in 20 years, scientists said.

“We don’t believe an eruption is right around the corner, but every day that goes by is one day closer to that event,” said Paul Okubo, a seismologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on the Big Island.

Mauna Loa erupted for three weeks in 1984, sending a 16-mile lava flow toward Hilo.

Since July, more than 350 earthquakes have been recorded far beneath the 13,677-foot-high Mauna Loa, said Don Swanson, scientist-in-charge at the observatory.

Washington, D.C.

Rice denies ignoring abuse at Guantanamo Bay

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice on Sunday denied assertions in a new book that she and other top Bush administration officials ignored warnings about the abuse of prisoners at the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

New Yorker writer Seymour Hersh, discussing the book “Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib,” set for release today, said senior military and national security officials received warnings from subordinates in 2002 and 2003.

Rice told CNN’s “Late Edition” that there were “some concerns about conditions of overcrowding. But nothing that suggested, to my recollection, that there were abuses … going on at Guantanamo, and certainly nothing that would suggest the kind of thing that went on in Abu Ghraib,” she said, referring to the infamous Iraqi prison.