Emily's edge tears into the Yucatan
MIAMI, July 18 (UPI) -- Hurricane Emily's edge battered the Yucatan Monday, ripping up trees and knocking out power, while its eye was still 400 miles east of La Pesca, Mexico.
Emily was moving west-northwest at near 15 mph, the National Hurricane Center in Miami reported at 11 p.m. EDT, while the storm gathered strength.
The eye of the storm was still 400 miles east-southeast of Brownsville, Texas.
The Mexican resort city of Playa del Carmen was among the hardest hit, El Universal reported. Cancun, the area's largest tourist draw, was forced to close its airport and many businesses.
On Sunday, Mexican authorities ordered some 130,000 tourists in Cancun and surrounding beaches to evacuate, and the state oil company Pemex also began evacuating 15,000 workers from 63 oil rigs off the Mexican coast.
The National Hurricane Center's long-range forecast said Emily is most likely to approach Mexico's mainland near the Texas border by late Tuesday.
Meanwhile, coastal communities in southern Texas and northern Mexico waited Monday to see where Hurricane Emily would hit next after moving back to the Gulf of Mexico.
Eric Rudolph gets double life sentence
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., July 18 (UPI) -- Eric Rudolph, still justifying his crimes, was sentenced to two life terms Monday for a deadly 1998 bombing at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala.
The blast killed a police officer guarding the New Woman All Woman Clinic and maimed a nurse. The judge also ordered more than $1 million in restitution to his victims.
"No matter how he tries to justify his actions and glorify himself, he is a terrorist," Felicia Sanderson, the officer's widow, said after the sentencing, CNN reported. "He is a murderer."
Rudolph defended his actions before U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith, saying that officer Robert Sanderson was a victim of abortion.
The 38-year-old Rudolph faces another sentencing in federal court in Georgia for the lethal bombing in an Atlanta park during the 1996 Olympics and bombs at another abortion clinic and a gay nightclub. In those two bombings, he left second bombs set to detonate to injure or kill emergency workers responding to the first explosion.
Prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain that spared Rudolph the death penalty in return for information on five caches of explosives. Rudolph was a fugitive for five years before being captured in 2003.
Bush agrees to help India on nuclear power
WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- President Bush said Monday his administration will work with India on the development of nuclear power.
The president, after meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, pledged to ask Congress to end sanctions that prevent cooperation.
"Cleaner energy resources, including nuclear power, are vital for the future of both our economies," Bush said. "We have begun a bilateral energy dialogue to find ways to work together in this important area."
While Bush said that relations between the two countries "have never been better," he stopped short of endorsing India's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
Bush and Singh also agreed to cooperate on space exploration and other high technology areas.
India has been a nuclear power since 1974 when it conducted its first atomic test.
U.S. ships terror suspect to Spain
MADRID, July 18 (UPI) -- U.S. authorities Monday extradited a suspected militant Islamist from the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Spain to face terror charges.
The Moroccan-born Lahcen Ikassrien is wanted in Spain for allegedly aiding the Sept. 11 hijackers, El Pais newspaper reported in its online edition.
Spain recently concluded a months-long trial of two dozen suspected of helping the hijackers prepare to fly planes in the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Last week the lead suspect in the case was beaten in prison by fellow prisoners and had to be hospitalized.
Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas -- the lead suspect in the trial of 24 men accused of aiding the Sept. 11 hijackers -- was treated for injuries following the severe beating.
Yarkas maintained his innocence, as did several other defendants in the trial's closing statements earlier this month. Authorities accuse him of having ties to Ikassrien and three other suspects wanted in Spain that have been detained in Cuba.
Mandela celebrates 87th birthday
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, July 18 (UPI) -- Former South African President Nelson Mandela celebrated his 87th birthday at his family home in Qunu in Eastern Cape province.
In honor of his birthday, a torch was lighted in Mandela's former prison cell on Robben Island, near Cape Town.
The torch will be carried across South Africa to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, the BBC reported. The torch then will be used to light candles on a birthday cake for Mandela at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg on Saturday.
A series of comic-style books will be launched next month to educate young people about the life and times of the former president. The books look at Mandela's role in the transition of South Africa from white minority rule to democracy and the fight against AIDS, which took the life of his son, Makgatho, earlier this year.
