New York

Man throws son to death, jumps

A man involved in a custody dispute who was supposed to turn his 3-year-old son over to the boy's mother on Sunday instead threw the child off the roof of a 52-story Manhattan apartment building before jumping to his death, police said. Officers responding to an emergency call reporting two jumpers from the building on the Upper West Side around noon Sunday found Dmitriy Kanarikov, 35, of Brooklyn, and the boy on the lower rooftops of two separate nearby buildings. The man was pronounced dead at the scene and his son, Kirill Kanarikov, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, police said.

South Sudan

Copters carry out Americans

American citizens were evacuated from a contested area of South Sudan after a local rebel commander provided assurances that there would be no interference, Western officials said. The evacuation, which involved about 15 Americans, was carried out by helicopters from the U.N. compound in Bor, in Jonglei state, which was surrounded by 2,000 armed youths. The evacuations came as rebels in South Sudan took control of the capital of Unity, a northern oil-producing state, the government said. Since last week, hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced by fighting.

Bangladesh

Factory owners charged in fatal fire

The owners and managers of a garment factory have been charged in connection with a fire that killed 112 people in Bangladesh last year. Investigators submitted the charges of culpable homicide against the owners, Delawar Hossain and his wife, Mahmuda Akter, and 11 managers of the Tazreen Fashin factory. The case is the first time the authorities have sought to ­prosecute factory owners in Bangladesh's garment industry.

Egypt

Three activists sentenced for rally

Three activists who played leading roles in the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak were convicted of participating in protests and sentenced in Cairo to three years in prison. Ahmed Maher, Mohamed Adel and Ahmed Douma were also each ordered to pay more than $7,000 in fines. The sentencing appeared to confirm fears among rights advocates that Egypt's interim government is expanding its campaign against dissidents to include non-Islamist opposition groups. Many of the more liberal and secular prodemocracy ­activists had aligned with the military to eject President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from power in July. But since then, their protests, too, have been suppressed.

Israel

Bus emptied before bomb goes off

A bomb exploded on a bus in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv minutes after the passengers were asked to get off, preventing casualties. Police said that ­initial evidence pointed to an attempted terrorist attack, presumably by Palestinian militants, the first of this kind in just over a year. Bus driver Michael Yoger said passengers had noticed a large bag that had been left on a seat. When nobody claimed it, one of the passengers looked inside and saw wires, Yoger told the Israeli news media. About 10 minutes later, he said, there was an explosion. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Yemen

Al-Qaida apologizes for attack

In a rare public apology, the militant leader of Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen has said that one of his fighters disobeyed orders and attacked a hospital attached to the Defense Ministry during a December assault that killed 52 people. Qassim al-Rimi said in a video that the attackers were warned in advance not to enter the hospital there.

NEWS SERVICES