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Two U.S. economists win Nobel Prize

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Two U.S. economists will share the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics for their analysis of economic governance, the Nobel Foundation said Monday.

The organization of cooperation in economic governance by Elinor Ostrom demonstrated how common property can be managed successfully by associations, the foundation said in a release. Oliver E. Williamson developed a theory where business firms serve as structures for conflict resolution.

The foundation said Ostrom's and Williamson's contributions "have advanced economic governance research from the fringe to the forefront of scientific attention."

Ostrom, a U.S. citizen and the first woman to win the economics prize, is the Arthur F. Bentley professor of political science and professor at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. She also is founding Director of the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz.

Williamson, a U.S. citizen, is Edgar F. Kaiser professor emeritus of business, economics and law and professor of the graduate school at the University of California in Berkeley, Calif.

Visa exit monitoring system need cited

DALLAS, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- The case of a Jordanian teen accused of terrorism in Dallas shows the United States still has no reliable way to follow up on expired visas, experts say.

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, who was in the United States on an expired tourist visa, has been charged with plotting to blow up a Dallas skyscraper. The case demonstrates that eight years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States still has no dependable system to verify whether foreign visitors have left, The New York Times reported Monday.

Immigration officials say about 40 percent of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States entered on legal visas and overstayed. Smadi's case has renewed interest in a universal electronic exit monitoring system, the newspaper said.

Much of the more than $1 billion funneled to immigration authorities since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has been used to beef up monitoring of foreigners when they arrive, but there is still no follow-up system to keep track of departures, the Times said.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has reportedly indicated he would attempt to apply federal stimulus funding to the building of an exit monitoring system.

Two blasts kill scores in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Two explosions in Pakistan Monday killed at least 69 people and injured scores of others in the latest of a string of attacks in the country, officials said.

In the Shangla district in the volatile Swat Valley, officials said at least 29 people were killed and 45 were injured in an explosion targeting a military vehicle at a security forces checkpoint, CNN reported.

In the North-West Frontier province, officials said a suicide car bomber attacked a military vehicle in a crowded market, killing at least 40 people and wounding dozens more, The New York Times reported.

The explosion occurred at the Alpuri market, adjacent to a police station and a mosque, claimed six soldiers and four new members of a community police force, officials said.

Militants attacked the army headquarters in Rawalpindi Saturday, killing 11 military personnel and three civilians, the Pakistani military's press office said. Nine militants died in the attack.

Thirty-nine hostages were freed Sunday after being held by five militants.

India tests nuclear-capable missiles

BALASORE, India, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Indian military sources said Monday they have successfully test-fired two nuclear-capable 'Prithvi-II' surface-to-surface missiles.

The missiles, which have a range of 217 miles, were fired from India's test range at Chandipur, about 10 miles from Balasore in the eastern state of Orissa, the Press Trust of India quoted unnamed military sources as saying.

The news agency said the missiles were tracked by radars and telemetry stations, and the launch was supervised by scientists of the country's Defense Research Development Organization.

Six sentenced to death for Xinjiang riots

BEIJING, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Six of seven men convicted of murder and other crimes in the ethnic riots in Urumqi were sentenced to death Monday during a hearing, Chinese official said.

Another defendant was sentenced to life in prison after admitting to charges of murder and robbery, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported. He also helped police in their investigation.

The seven defendants were convicted of murder; some also were convicted of arson or robbery, court officials said.

The seven were the first to be sentenced for the July rioting, in which 197 people died and more than 1,600 were injured in Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

Two earthquakes strike Indonesia

JAKARTA, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Two earthquakes struck Indonesia Monday -- a 5-magnitude earthquake in North Sulawesi and a 5.1-magnitude quake in Java, weather officials reported.

The 5-magnitude temblor rocked the Melonguane area in North Sulawesi, about 86 miles northeast of Tahuna, 199 miles northeast of Bitung, 211 miles northeast of Manado in North Sulawesi and 223 miles northwest of Ternate in North Maluku, Antara reported.

The earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 struck Cilacap in central Java, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said.

The epicenter was about 85 miles southwest of Tasikmalaya in West Java, the weather agency said.

Neither earthquake triggered tsunami warnings, weather officials said.