Coral damage not widespread

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Lower-than-feared sea temperatures this summer gave a break to fragile coral reefs across the Caribbean and the central Gulf of Mexico that were damaged in recent years, scientists said Thursday.

Unusually warm water in recent years has caused the animals that make up coral to expel the colorful algae they live with, creating a bleached color. If the problem persists, the coral itself dies — killing the environment where many fish and other marine organisms live.

Hurricane Ida hits Nicaragua

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Hurricane Ida ripped into Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast Thursday, destroying homes, damaging schools and downing bridges before losing steam and becoming a tropical storm.

Ida, clocking 75 mph winds, struck land around sunrise in Tasbapauni, about 60 miles northeast of Bluefields, said meteorologist Dennis Feltgen of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

UN rethinking Afghanistan role

KABUL — The United Nations is sending about 600 foreign staff out of the country or into secure compounds because of the deadly Taliban attack on U.N. workers, warning the Afghan government Thursday that international support will wane unless it cracks down on corruption fueling the insurgency.

The decision follows a drawdown of U.N. operations in Pakistan, casting doubt on whether the world body can operate effectively in this region with war raging on both sides of the border.

Kirkuk at heart of law deadlock

BAGHDAD — Iraqi politicians are dueling with new hostility over the fate of Kirkuk, the oil-rich city that both self-ruled Kurds in the north and Iraq’s central government want to control.

The dispute has caused a deadlock over an election law, threatening to delay Iraq’s nationwide elections set for mid-January. Any vote setback could, in turn, disrupt American plans to withdraw troops from Iraq, scheduled to ramp up after the vote.

Paraguay prez in paternity suit

ASUNCION, Paraguay — A third woman has filed a paternity claim against Paraguay’s Roman Catholic bishop-turned-president, her lawyer confirmed Thursday.

Hortensia Damiana Moran, 40, a religious activist who worked on President Fernando Lugo’s election campaign, went public with her allegation a year ago, but at the time said she would not file a formal claim on behalf of her 2-year-old son.

But late Wednesday, Moran filed a petition asking a judge to order a DNA test to prove Lugo is Juan Pablo’s father, said her lawyer, Rodrigo Aguilar.

Negotiators scale back UN climate pact ambitions

BARCELONA, Spain — With the U.S. Congress still struggling to agree on sharp cuts in greenhouse gases or how to fund them, European officials said Thursday they were now striving for a political agreement instead of a new treaty to allow the U.S. and other rich nations to make commitments that are not legally binding.

The revised thinking was an implicit admission of defeat: the two-year timetable for crafting a landmark treaty will miss its deadline, and that failure threatens to deepen the distrust between rich countries and poor nations reeling from drought and failing crops caused by persistently warmer weather.

The treaty had been due to be completed in December at a 192-nation conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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