LATEST HOT TRENDS

Morehead City NC! NC port closed after containers are punctured -- Officials shut down a North Carolina port and urged people to leave the area Tuesday after nine containers with highly explosive materials were punctured. Morehead City Fire Chief Wes Lail told television station WTVD that the chemical involved is pentaerythritol tetranitrate, a powerful explosive.

Survey: Half of China's moms-to-be have C-sections -- Nearly half of moms-to-be surveyed in China were delivering by cesarean sections, the world's highest rate recorded by the World Health Organization, which warned Tuesday that a boom in unnecessary surgeries is jeopardizing women's health. Rates of C-sections have reached "epidemic proportions" in many countries worldwide, the WHO said in a report surveying nine Asian nations. After reviewing nearly 110,000 births across the region, it found 27 percent of women sampled were giving birth under the knife, partially motivated by hospitals eager to make more money.

Bomb kills Iran nuclear physicist tied toMousavi -- A nuclear physics professor who publicly backed Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in the disputed June presidential election was killed Tuesday when a bomb-rigged motorcycle blew up outside his home. The blast, apparently set off by a remote trigger, left a puzzling mix of clues about why a 50-year-old researcher with no prominent political voice, no published work with military relevance and no declared links to Iran's nuclear program would be targeted.