Nation, world briefs 6/9/2015

Report: Israel built, tested 'dirty bombs'

JERUSALEM -- Israel built and exploded so-called "dirty bombs," explosives laced with nuclear material, to examine how such explosions would affect the country if it were to be attacked by the crude radioactive weapons, the Haaretz daily newspaper reported Monday. Israeli defense officials and scientists refused to comment on the report. However, Israel has what is widely considered to be an extensive nuclear weapons program it never has declared. The Haaretz report, which included photographs, said the project conducted 20 detonations with explosives laced with a radioactive substance. Mini-drones measured radiation levels, and sensors logged the force of the explosions, Haaretz reported. Researchers in the Haaretz report said the Israeli tests were for defensive purposes only.

May was wettest in U.S. records

WASHINGTON -- Last month was the wettest on record for the contiguous United States, according to federal meteorologists. On average, 4.36 inches of rain and snow fell over the Lower 48 in May, sloshing past October 2009, which had been the wettest month in U.S. records, with 4.29 inches. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration records go back to 1895. NOAA climate scientist Jake Crouch said the record was triggered by a stalled pattern of storms that dumped massive amounts of rain in the central U.S. Oklahoma and Texas had been in a five-year drought, and it was washed away in just one month, Crouch said: "It's like one disaster ending a catastrophe." Fourteen states had one of their 10 rainiest Mays on record, all of them west of the Mississippi River and east of California.

Escapees may have had inside help

DANNEMORA, N.Y. -- Investigators questioned prison workers and outside contractors Monday to try to find out who may have helped two killers obtain the power tools they used to break out of a maximum-security institution in an audacious, "Shawshank Redemption"-style escape. The manhunt stretched into a third day, with law officers questioning drivers and searching trunks at checkpoints near the Clinton Correctional Facility in far northern New York, even though authorities said David Sweat and Richard Matt could be anywhere -- perhaps Canada or Mexico.

Turkey's ruling party loses its majority

ISTANBUL -- In normal times, you can't escape President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey. His voice booms from television screens, his hands wave at campaign rallies, and his face smiles from billboards. Yet as Turkey digested the surprise sinking of support for his long-dominant party, Erdogan's only reaction came in a brief written statement Monday appealing for unity -- and acknowledging the sudden need to make new political friends. "Our people's will is above everything else," said Erdogan, conceding the new political landscape "does not allow any party the possibility to govern alone." For the first time since his Justice and Development Party roared into power in 2002, Erdogan may have lost control of his political fate. His party, reduced to 258 seats in a 550-member parliament, has lost its strong majority and faces weeks of talks to form a coalition with opposition forces who will want to bring Erdogan back down to earth.

-- From wire reports