Deadly flooding strikes the Rocky Mountains of America – Japan is peeved over cartoons linking the Olympics and the Fukushima nuclear disaster – And you won’t believe how a social worker allegedly tried to smuggle cocaine through an airport.

A massive fire is consuming a beach boardwalk in Seaside Park on the New Jersey Shore.  It started in an ice cream store in or around the “Funtown Pier” on Thursday afternoon, spread through several blocks of wooden buildings, and burned well into the night.  The structures had been damaged by Hurricane Sandy, the superstorm that caused billions of damage in the region 11 months ago, and had been repaired and rebuilt for the summer tourist season.  Right now, it's ashes.

Flash flooding in the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado leaves at least three people dead and several injured.  As much as 8 inches of rain in 24 hours came crashing down mountainsides, affecting Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Collins, Greeley, Aurora and Boulder.  Rain is expected to last at least for a few more days in the soaked region.  Click here for video of a guy getting rescued from his capsized truck in rushing waters.

A Canadian woman is facing cocaine smuggling charges in Colombia, after being caught allegedly trying to smuggle the stuff in a fake pregnancy belly.  Police say they stopped 28-year-old Tabitha Leah Ritchie while trying to board an Air Canada flight in Bogota after an inspector noted that her belly was unusually cold and hard.  And after an inspection, filled with two kilos of blow.  While Ritchie isn’t allegedly smuggling cocaine, she’s a social worker in the great white north.

The former chief of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is asking Italy to pardon him for his role in kidnapping a Muslim cleric and sending him to Egypt to be tortured.  The program was called “Extraordinary Rendition”, in which America had client states do its dirty work. Robert Seldon Lady sent a letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano asking to be let off the hook because he was acting “under orders from senior American”.

Egypt is extending its state of emergency, for at least two more months.  The interim president’s office blames the current security situation.  Egypt’s interim, military-backed government declared a state of emergency in August, after hundreds of supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi were killed in clashes with police.

Japan has filed a formal complaint with a French weekly over cartoons linking Japan’s successful bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics with the Fukushima nuclear disaster.  One depicts mutated and emaciated (and ethnically stereotyped) Sumo wrestlers with a sportscaster declares, “Marvellous! Thanks to Fukushima, Sumo is now an Olympic sport.”  Le Canard Enchaine denied any intention to offend people affected by the nuclear disaster and understood Japan's reaction to the two cartoons; but the paper did not apologize.

Prince William is leaving the British military after more than seven years of service, completing his final shift as an RAF search and rescue pilot on Tuesday.  The Duke of Cambridge will now focus on royal duties and charity work together with the Duchess of Cambridge, and they will with little Prince George move into Kensington Palace within a few weeks.

Archeologists have discovered the ancient tomb of China’s “female prime minister”, who lived from 664-710 AD.  Shangguan Wan'er was a famous politician of her day, and served empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty.  Experts described the discovery as one of “major significance”, even though it had been subject to “large-scale damage” over the ages.