AirAsia flight QZ8501: US to send second ship to aid search for debris

The US Navy plans to send a second ship to help search for wreckage from an AirAsia jet that apparently crashed off the Indonesian coast, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The USS Fort Worth, a littoral combat ship, is "prepared to deploy from the region from Singapore," spokesman Rear-Admiral John Kirby told CNN.

"That ship can be ready to sail in a day or two," Kirby said.

Read more here

Police detain Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny at rally

Top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was detained by police on Tuesday after he violated his house arrest to join a protest in Moscow over a guilty verdict against him and his brother in a controversial fraud case.

Two dozen other people were also detained as hundreds gathered in central Moscow after the charismatic 38-year-old opposition leader called on Russians to take to the streets against President Vladimir Putin's regime following Tuesday's court ruling.

The US said it was "troubled" by the Russian court's conviction, calling the move a "disturbing development".

Read more here

Woman shot, killed at Walmart in Idaho by her toddler: Reports

A woman was shot and killed at a Walmart store in northern Idaho on Tuesday and local media reported that the gun went off when her toddler pulled a handgun from her purse and discharged it accidentally.

Local KREM-TV reported that the woman had been shopping with four children when one of them, who was believed to be about two years old, reached into her purse and grabbed the gun.

Read more here

Jennifer Lawrence, Hunger Games stars team up in Ebola video

Jennifer Lawrence says she'd be fine if she got Ebola, in a video that encourages Americans to focus more on West Africans far more likely to die from the dreaded virus.

The Oscar-winning actress teamed up with fellow stars from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 for the nearly two-minute online public service announcement from the Ebola Survival Fund.

The video points out that none of the eight "American patients" treated for Ebola in US hospitals have died - while in some parts of West Africa only two out of every 10 cases survived.

Read more here

Formula One: Jules Bianchi still unconscious, begins therapy

French Formula One driver Jules Bianchi remains unconscious but has begun a programme of rehabilitation therapy, his family said in a statement on Tuesday.

Bianchi, who suffered the most serious F1 race injury since Ayrton Senna died in 1994 when he crashed into a recovery tractor in the wet at the Japanese Grand Prix on Oct 5, was transferred to a hospital in Nice last month.

An International Automobile Federation report said this month that Bianchi did not slow sufficiently under warning flags before crashing.

Read more here