Bodies of 21 Babies Found Dumped in Chinese River

Bodies of 21 babies have been discovered in plastic bags in a river in eastern China and authorites suspect they were dumped there by local hospitals, state media reported Tuesday.

An initial investigation showed that eight of the 21 babies wore identification tags on their feet tracing them back to Jining Medical College Hospital in Shandong province, the according to the People's Daily Web site. The other 13 were unidentified.

Three of the eight were admitted to the hospital in critical condition, the report said.

South Korea's president ordered the military on alert Tuesday for any moves by rival North Korea after the defense minister said last week's explosion that sank a South Korean ship may have been caused by a North Korean mine.

The blast ripped the 1,200-ton ship apart last Friday night during a routine patrol near Baengnyeong Island near the tense maritime border west of the divided Korean peninsula. Fifty-eight crew members, including the captain, were plucked to safety; 46 are missing, with dim prospects for their survival.

A 53-year-old diver who lost consciousness during the underwater mission to locate the missing crewmen died Tuesday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. A second diver was being treated for injuries, officials said.

A prominent southeast Arizona rancher likely was killed by an illegal immigrant, but there's no evidence to suggest there was any confrontation that led to the shooting, authorities said Monday.

The body of Robert Krentz, 58, was located before midnight Saturday on his 35,000-acre ranch about 35 miles northeast of Douglas after his brother reported that he had lost radio contact with Krentz earlier in the day. . . .

Investigators said Krentz apparently came upon one person when he was shot. Krentz was heard telling his brother "illegal alien" on the radio earlier Saturday, and the area of the killing is a known smuggling corridor, according to authorities.

While Krentz was still in his vehicle, mortally wounded, he managed to drive the ATV away from the scene at a high rate of speed before becoming unconscious. The ATV still had its lights on and the engine running when authorities found it.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's hometown of Searchlight, Nev., served as kickoff site Saturday for the latest Tea Party Express tour -- and apparently Reid's supporters weren't too happy about it.

The conservative Tea Party activists were there to protest the policies of Reid and other Democratic leaders, and Reid supporters staged their own protest, with some allegedly throwing eggs at a Tea Party Express bus.

Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart said he witnessed the egg-throwing while speaking with some of the Reid supporters, though a video of the scene is inconclusive.

Breitbart's story was backed up by Levi Russell, a Tea Party Express spokesman.

Hot Zone

An outbreak of pneumonic plague in Ziketan, a town in China's northwest Qinghai province, has "prompted authorities to lock down [the] town where about a dozen people were infected with the highly contagious deadly lung disease" (FNC). Thus far, two men have died.

"A new strain of the virus that causes AIDS was discovered in a woman from the African nation of Cameroon, [which] differs from the three known strains of [HIV] and appears to be closely related to a form of simian virus recently discovered in wild gorillas . . . 'highlight[ing] the continuing need to watch closely for the emergence for new HIV variants, particularly in western central Africa,' said the researchers. . . . How widespread this strain is remains to be determined. Researches said it could be circulating unnoticed in Cameroon or elsewhere. The virus' rapid replication indicates that it is adapted to human cells, the researchers reported. . . . A separate paper . . . reports that people with genital herpes remain at increased risk of HIV infection even after the herpes sores have healed and the skin appears normal" (FNC).