News

Colombian maritime authorities searched Sunday for an Italian chef believed to have gone overboard from a U.S. cruise ship off Colombia’s Caribbean coast, officials and the man’s family said.

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Going bananas for a cola A long tailed macaque monkey gulps down cola at the Lopburi, Thailand, Monkey Festival on Sunday. The annual festival, in its 21st year, was started by businessmen as a way of showing appreciation for the monkeys and the tourism they attract.

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There were different accounts about when and where Angelo Faliva, 31, was last seen as the Princess Cruises’ “Coral Princess” sailed from Aruba to Cartagena, Colombia, between Nov. 25 and 26.

Princess Cruises spokeswoman Julie Benson said Faliva was last seen on a deck at about 8:30 a.m. Thursday, when he spoke with another crew member as the ship neared Cartagena.

His family, however, said they had been told that he had unexpectedly walked out of the ship’s galley at about 8:15 p.m. the night before, while he was working the dinner shift, and never returned and hadn’t been seen since.

BAGHDAD

Saddam still lives on TV

Turning on their TVs during the long holiday weekend, Iraqis were greeted by a familiar if unexpected face from their brutal past: Saddam Hussein.

The late Iraqi dictator is lauded on a mysterious satellite channel that began broadcasting on the Islamic calendar’s anniversary of his 2006 execution.

No one seems to know who is bankrolling the so-called Saddam Channel, although the Iraqi government suspects it’s Baathists whose political party Saddam once led. The Associated Press tracked down a man in Damascus, Syria named Mohammed Jarboua, who claimed to be its chairman.

SALT LAKE CITY

Third hearing for abductor

For the third time since his arrest in 2003, a court will hold a competency hearing for the man charged in the 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart.

The 10-day hearing for Brian David Mitchell begins Monday in Utah’s U.S. District Court.

U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball will ultimately decide whether the 56-year-old former street preacher is competent to stand trial.

It’s unclear how long Kimball will take to issue a ruling. His decision will determine how the case will proceed — toward a trial if Mitchell is competent or an effort to restore Mitchell’s competency if he is not.

The hearing will be Mitchell’s first in federal court, but it’s a replay of state court proceedings where Mitchell was twice deemed incompetent for trial.

NEW YORK

Couple may face charges

Two senators said Sunday that authorities should pursue criminal charges against the Virginia couple who crashed last week’s state dinner at the White House.

“You’ve got to send a strong deterrent that people just don’t do this kind of thing,” Democrat Evan Bayh of Indiana said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Republican Jon Kyl of Arizona agreed, saying, “If it’s a federal crime to lie to a federal agent, and these people didn’t tell the truth about their invitation, then they should be in some way brought to justice here, again, as an example to others not to do it.”

According to authorities, Michaele and Tareq Salahi were allowed into the White House dinner Tuesday night even though they were not on the guest list. The Secret Service has apologized for the breakdown in security, and an investigation into possible criminal behavior is ongoing.

The couple are peddling their story to broadcast networks for hundreds of thousands of dollars, a television executive says.

Casey Margenau, a friend of the Salahis, appeared Saturday on Fox News Channel’s “Geraldo at Large” and said, “I understand that they spent Friday with the Secret Service and they have been cooperating.”