Malaysia

Chinese vessel to search ocean floor for jet

The Malaysian government announced Monday night that a Chinese vessel will survey the ocean floor at the last suspected location of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Hydrographic experts from Malaysia, China and Australia met over the weekend in Canberra, Australia, and agreed that an extensive survey of the sea floor would be done by a Chinese Navy vessel. The suspected location lies 550 miles west-northwest of Exmouth, a town on the northwestern corner of Australia.

Syria

Activists: Death toll in Syria's war tops 160,000

The death toll in Syria's three-year civil war has climbed past 160,000, an activist group said, a harrowing figure that reflects the relentless bloodletting in a civil war that appears no closer to being resolved. The grim tally, however, presents only one facet of the suffering that Syrians have endured since the revolt erupted in March 2011. The crisis also has uprooted some 6.5 million people from their homes, forced 2.7 million to flee the country, laid waste to cities and unleashed sectarian hatreds.

New Hampshire

Police official who used racial slur resigns

A police commissioner in Wolfeboro, N.H., who used a racial epithet to refer to President Obama has stepped down. The official, Robert Copeland, 82, admitted to using an epithet after a town resident heard him doing so in March, and published an account of that conversation and a written, unapologetic response from Copeland in a letter to a local newspaper. At the time, Copeland acknowledged that he used the slur but refused to apologize or step down.

Washington, D.C.

Marine will receive Medal of Honor

A retired Marine will receive the Medal of Honor for his ­heroism in Afghanistan, the White House announced. Cpl. William "Kyle" Carpenter, 24, is a Mississippi native who now lives in South Carolina. He was serving with 2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment on Nov. 21, 2010, when he covered a grenade to save the life of his friend, Lance Cpl. Nick Eufrazio, during a firefight with Taliban insurgents, according to the Marine Corps.

news services