Nation briefs 4/27/06

House OKs legislation to tighten sanctions on Iran

WASHINGTON -- The House on Wednesday approved legislation to tighten sanctions against Iran, rejecting administration arguments that tougher sanctions could be an obstacle to international efforts to prevent the Tehran government from developing nuclear weapons. The bill, said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, sends "a strong message that the United States expects Iran to be a responsible member of the international community." The vote was overwhelming, 397-21 in favor, but there was also a vocal minority in opposition who drew comparisons to a 1998 congressional resolution calling for regime change in Iraq.

Missing N.J. student found dead in landfill

EWING, N.J. -- Searchers at a Pennsylvania landfill found the body of a college student who disappeared more than a month ago, but authorities said Wednesday they don't suspect foul play. John Fiocco Jr., a freshman at The College of New Jersey, was last seen early March 25 when he returned to his campus dormitory after a party. Investigators later found his blood on the dormitory's trash bin, which led them to the landfill in nearby Tullytown, Pa. After more than three weeks of searching, they found the body there Tuesday. Fiocco was identified through dental records, state police and prosecutors said Wednesday.

Oxford English Corpus reaches 1 billion words

LONDON -- A massive language research database responsible for bringing words such as "podcast" and "celebutante" to the pages of the Oxford dictionaries has officially hit a total of 1 billion words, researchers said Wednesday. Drawing on sources such as weblogs, chatrooms, newspapers, magazines and fiction, the Oxford English Corpus spots emerging trends in language usage to help guide lexicographers when composing the most recent editions of dictionaries. The press publishes the Oxford English Dictionary, considered the most comprehensive dictionary of the language, which in its most recent August 2005 edition added words such as "supersize," "wiki" and "retail politics" to its pages. Oxford University Press lexicographer Catherine Soanes said the database is not a collection of 1 billion different words, but of sentences and other examples of the usage and spelling.

Rebels declare 3-month cease-fire in Nepal

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Nepal's communist rebels declared a three-month, unilateral cease-fire Thursday in their violent campaign against the country's monarchist government. A statement from the elusive rebel leader Prachanda said his group's fighters would not be involved in any attacks during the three-month period. On Wednesday, the rebels lifted a weeks-long blockade of highways connecting the major towns and cities in the Himilayan kingdom.

-- From wire reports