12/12/12 marked around the world

BEIJING (AP) — China is urging North Korea to release a Chinese fishing boat whose owner says it was seized by gun-toting North Koreans earlier this month and held for ransom, in the latest irritant in relations between the neighboring allies.

DEAR ABBY: I have worked in the field of education for more than 40 years, with the last 25 years serving in adult education, helping students complete their high school equivalency diploma.Big changes are impending worldwide in this very important educational service. Starting in 2014, the cost may go up. Up until two years ago, the classes in our community were free. The testing cost $7.50, which paid for a printed diploma. Since then, the cost has gone up -- first to $25 and then to $35.Now the GED program has been bought by a for-profit organization and the costs will go higher than ever. ...

By Iain Rogers MADRID, May 18 (Reuters) - Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho were sifting through the debris of what the Portuguese coach termed a "disastrous" 2012-13 campaign after Friday's King's Cup final defeat left the world's richest club without a major trophy for the season. The 2-1 reverse to Atletico Madrid at their own Bernabeu stadium meant Mourinho, widely expected to move on at the end of this term, finished a season without significant silverware for the first time in his otherwise glittering career. ...

For most of her 20-year marriage to Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs was content to be a behind-the-scenes philanthropist.

LYON, France (Reuters) - A British father living in France has admitted to killing his two children by slitting their throats, blaming a rocky divorce from his wife, prosecutors said on Sunday. Police arrested the 48-year-old unemployed man on Saturday after the bodies of his 5-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son were found at his apartment in a suburb of the eastern city of Lyon. "He offered explanations linked to the children's custody," an official from the Lyon prosecutor's office told Reuters. ...

Friday's horrifying crash on the Metro North railway in Connecticut has halted train service for hundreds of thousands of daily commuters in and out of New York City. And as the big Monday commute approaches, officials want you to know that the highways probably can't handle the anticipated influx of extra cars.