NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

US/ ANIMAL KINGDOM IS PREAKNESS FAVORITE: Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom is captured during a training run in Maryland on Tuesday morning, just days before the Preakness Stakes. Animal Kingdom was made the 2-1 favorite Wednesday for Saturday's Preakness, which has a 14-horse limit for the race, the 2nd in the Triple Crown race. The last Triple Crown winner was Affirmed in 1978.

WORLD/ TITANIC CAPTAIN'S CIGAR BOX SELLS AT AUCTION: A cigar box once owned by the captain of the Titanic has been sold for £25,000 at an auction in Liverpool, England. The walnut humidor was discovered gathering dust on a bedroom cabinet in a Merseyside home. It was spotted by an auctioneer when he was invited to value a number of antiques. The owner said she had no idea the item was connected to the ill-fated vessel, even though it had been lying around her home for 20 years. The box carries the distinctive emblem of the White Star Line shipping company and bears the initials of the master of the passenger liner, Edward John Smith, who was from Stoke-on-Trent. The owner said the box had been in her family for several generations. It is thought to have been given to her father by relatives of Edward John Smith's widow, Sarah. The box is lined with camphor wood and was designed to hold 40 of the finest Havana cigars. The RMS Titanic was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast and sank after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912.

WORLD/ MOSCOW SAYS NO TO GARY PRIDE MARCH AGAIN: Moscow has once again denied permission for a gay Pride march. Activists applied to hold the event in Bolotnaya Ploshchad city park on May 28, but Mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s administration turned down the request, citing a risk of public disorder. Gay rights campaigner Nikolai Alekseev said authorities cited complaints from Cossacks, religious groups and individuals. The city’s last mayor repeatedly banned the marches on pretexts of health and safety and has called gays and lesbians “satanic”. Sobyanin said earlier this year that there is “no need” for the marches. Last October, the European Court of Human Rights upheld three complaints over Moscow’s Pride ban and agreed that authorities had acted illegally. Human Rights group Amnesty International today urged Moscow to allow the march to go ahead.

WORLD/ NEW FUKUSHIMA TSUNAMI PICS RELEASED: New photos have been released of the moment on March 11 when the Japanese tsunami, unleashed by the 9.0 earthquake, destroyed a sea wall designed to protect the Fukushima nuclear plant and then surged towards reactors. Tons of water can be seen destroying the wall and sweeping away reactor equipment, cars and other machinery in pictures released by plant owners. The tsunami knocked out cooling systems at the plant, causing the reactors to melt down and numerous explosions as engineers tried to release a build up of radioactive hydrogen gas.