LONDON – Britain’s departed defense minister Liam Fox breached rules by allowing a personal friend access to meetings and overseas visits — including discussions with a U.S. military commander and senior Israeli officials, a report by the country’s top civil servant ruled Tuesday.

Fox stepped down as defense secretary on Friday amid intense scrutiny over the role of Adam Werritty, who had posed as an aide, arranged private meetings and joined at least 18 trips overseas.

The former defense lobbyist, who was best man at Fox’s wedding in 2005, had no official government role but appeared frequently at the minister’s side across the globe.

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FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) – At last, victims of Japan's nuclear crisis can claim compensation. And they are angry.

They are furious at the red tape they have to wade through just to receive basic help and in despair they still cannot get on with their lives seven months after the huge quake and tsunami triggered the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.

Shouts fill a room at a temporary housing complex where seven officials, kneeling in their dark suits, face 70 or so tenants who were forced to abandon their homes near the Fukushima nuclear plant after some of its reactors went into meltdown after the March 11 quake struck.

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ORLANDO, Fla (Reuters) – A 19-year-old Florida woman was sentenced to life in prison on Monday for the brutal murder of a teenager who was lured by text message to a fatal ambush, prosecutors said.

The woman, Charlie Kay Ely, was found guilty in September of first-degree murder in the death of 15-year-old Seath Tyler Jackson, who was beaten, shot and burned in April in Summerfield, northwest of Orlando.

Four other defendants, who ranged in age from 15 to 20 at the time of their arrests, remain in jail awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges, prosecutors in Ocala said.

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DAKAR (Reuters) – President Barack Obama's deployment of 100 military advisers to help defeat Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) may yield him a popular foreign policy win but risks triggering more violence if it fails.

In a letter to Congress on Friday, Obama said he authorized the mission to help local armies hunt LRA leader Joseph Kony, whose rebel sect is blamed for years of abductions, killings and acts of brutality in remote central Africa.

While the United States has assisted unsuccessful local efforts to snare Kony since 2008, the announcement was seen as potentially significant if it heralds a renewed commitment to end a two-decade-long scourge to regional security.

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LOUISA, Va. – Residents of this rural community just outside Richmond know they may be lucky, seeing as how no one died in the earthquake, hurricane and tornado that have hit back-to-back-to-back in the past few months. That doesn’t mean they aren’t bitter: “Louisa cares: Because the feds don’t,” read Friday’s headline atop the local newspaper.

The federal government has refused to help foot the $ 18 million tab for the damage from the disaster trifecta, most of which was caused by the earthquake, leaving people to host fundraisers and help out neighbors because few homes and businesses had insurance. But they say they can’t do it alone.

Many look at how bad things could have been and note no one was killed in any of the disasters that began when the 5.8-magnitude earthquake began in Louisa County on Aug. 23 and rumbled all along the East Coast. The hurricane and tornado were far less destructive — the former bringing mostly heavy rain and wind gusts, the latter damaging only a plantation home dating to the 18th century. Still, they hope they’re in the clear for a while.

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