HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — One mistake by a clumsy crane operator caused a 10-hour blackout over about a third of Vietnam, exposing the fragility of the nation's power grid.

LONDON (Reuters) - British baby and maternity products retailer Mothercare reported a better than expected rise in full-year profits on Thursday, but also revealed a slow pace of recovery at the group's core UK business. Mothercare's UK division, which accounts for 40 percent of group sales and is competing with a growing number of online retailers and supermarkets, made a loss of 21.7 million pounds for the year, after a 24.7 million pounds loss a year earlier. ...

BANGKOK (AP) — Japanese stocks plummeted Thursday after a spike in government bond yields and unexpectedly weak Chinese manufacturing spooked investors sitting atop months of massive gains in share prices. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo nosedived 7.3 percent to close at 14,483.98, its worst drop since the 2011 tsunami.

NORTH WEBSTER, Ind. (AP) — A school bus slammed into the back of another one, setting off a chain-reaction crash involving four buses in northern Indiana, leaving about 50 middle and high students with non-serious injuries and one driver seriously injured.

PARIS (Reuters) - Areva said on Thursday that 13 staff had been injured in an attack at its Somair mine near Arlit in northern Niger. The French nuclear reactor maker condemned what it called a "despicable attack" and said it was working closely with the Niger and French forces.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian authorities detained three anti-government figures, charged a student activist with sedition and seized hundreds of opposition newspapers Thursday, raising political tensions after recent national elections triggered claims of fraud.

By Andrei Khalip LISBON (Reuters) - President Anibal Cavaco Silva thanked Portugal's patron saint for a long-delayed approval of Lisbon's bailout review last week, but the head of state could claim a share of the credit for himself. The conservative president's role has grown far beyond his figurehead status in the past few weeks. With the president on his side, Prime Minister Passos Coelho appears immune to opposition calls for an early election, despite a teetering coalition, record-low popularity in opinion polls and protests and strikes promised for late May and June. ...

DENVER (AP) — Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper's decision to block the execution of convicted killer Nathan Dunlap for as long as he is governor infuriated victims' relatives and drew quick criticism from Republicans ahead of the 2014 election.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - Five people were killed and more than 50 wounded in overnight clashes in Tripoli between Lebanese gunmen backing rival factions in Syria's civil war, doctors and security sources said on Thursday. Tripoli has suffered sporadic sectarian violence since the Sunni Muslim-led uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad broke out in March 2011, but after a night of mortar, grenade and machinegun fire, residents said this was the fiercest so far. ...

By Jonny Hogg GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Rebels in eastern Congo announced a ceasefire on Thursday in fighting with government troops hours before a visit to the conflict-plagued zone by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. "We've decided to announce this ceasefire to allow His Excellency Ban Ki-moon to visit Goma as he promised," Amani Kabasha, political spokesman for the M23 rebel group, told Reuters following several days of clashes in the east near Goma on the Democratic Republic of Congo's border with Rwanda. ...

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — The defects and errors that led to the world's deadliest garment-industry accident extend from the swampy ground the doomed Rana Plaza was built on, to "extremely poor quality" construction materials, to the massive, vibrating equipment operating when the eight-story building collapsed, a committee appointed by Bangladesh's government concluded.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — In the new film "Behind the Candelabra," veteran entertainer Debbie Reynolds has just three major scenes to flesh out one of the most complicated figures in piano-playing showman Liberace's life: his loving but sometimes manipulative mother Frances.

(Reuters) - Booker Group Plc, Britain's biggest cash-and-carry wholesaler, reported a 13 percent rise in full-year profit, helped by demand from small retailers and growing online sales. Booker, which runs over 170 branches supplying caterers, convenience stores, grocers, restaurants and pubs, has defied the downturn in the UK cash and carry market and managed to grow sales, as Britons increasingly shop at local convenience stores instead of supermarkets. The company said trading in the first seven weeks of the current financial year was ahead of last year. ...

NEW YORK (AP) — A company that promised sightseer tours to the Bronx that included a New York City "ghetto" has stopped the bus rides under fire from an outraged neighborhood.

By Peroshni Govender JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African government report released on Wednesday implicated President Jacob Zuma in a scandal over a plane chartered by rich friends of his which landed at a military base without proper permission. The presidency and Zuma's ruling African National Congress (ANC) have denied demanding landing permission for the flight carrying nearly 200 guests for a wedding. But a diplomatic protocol chief Bruce Koloane said he acted "under pressure from No. 1", a direct reference to Zuma, the report said. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — House lawmakers are ready to pass legislation that links student loan rates to the financial markets in spite of a veto threat from President Barack Obama.

BANGKOK (AP) — The price of oil fell below $94 per barrel Thursday after a private survey showed manufacturing activity in China falling to its lowest level in seven months, a sign that the recovery in the world's No. 2 economy is fading.

MOORE, Okla. (AP) — Nine-year-old Sydney Angle was "everywhere at once" when she was out on the softball field. Kyle Davis, 8, was nicknamed "The Wall" because of his size and presence on the soccer field. JaNae Hornsby, also 9, was the life of the party.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three days of congressional hearings about the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative political groups have lawmakers looking for ways to widen an investigation that has so far been largely contained within the tax collection agency.

By Maria Golovnina and Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Reuters) - A British soldier was hacked to death by two men shouting Islamic slogans in a south London street, in what Prime Minister David Cameron said appeared to be a terrorist attack. A dramatic clip filmed by an onlooker just minutes after the killing showed a man with hands covered in blood, brandishing a bloodied meat cleaver and a knife. "We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. ...