JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian militants said Tuesday they had launched a large number of floating explosives into the Mediterranean Sea to avenge the death of a top Hamas commander, a day after two bomb-laden barrels washed up on Israel’s coastline.

Israeli authorities launched an intensive search for new bombs, closing miles of beaches, deploying robotic bomb squads and ordering surfers out of the wintry waters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Hamas and hinted at retaliation.

Abu Saed, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, a Gaza faction with close ties to Hamas, said the attack was meant to avenge the killing last month of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a veteran Hamas operative who Israeli defense officials say was involved in smuggling rockets into Gaza.

Hamas says Israeli Mossad agents ambushed al-Mabhouh in his Dubai hotel room, immobilized him with an electrical shock and strangled him to death.

Israel has refused to comment on the allegations.

“We confirm that there are still many of these charges in the ocean, and they haven’t exploded yet,” Abu Saed said, standing alongside five other gunmen in military fatigues.

In Jerusalem, Netanyahu accused Hamas, which rules Gaza, of being behind the operation, with support from Iran and Syria.

“We view with great severity the Hamas operation near the Gaza beach, and we will respond accordingly,” he said, without elaborating.

On Monday afternoon, a barrel bomb washed up on the beach of Ashkelon, about nine miles (15 kilometers) north of Gaza. A few hours later, another one was found at Ashdod, six miles (10 kilometers) farther north.

Each had about 22 pounds (10 kilograms ) of explosives, police said. They said bombs of that size could cripple small civilian vessels but not Israeli warships.

The barrels should not pose a threat to shipping lanes in the east Mediterranean since the tides would just carry them back to shore.

The second barrel blew up as a police robot was examining it, sending the tractor-like device tumbling through the air, according to witnesses. A police bomb squad defused the other one. No one was hurt.

Maritime authorities warned sailors and fishermen to be alert to possible dangers in the waters. In Ashdod, a crane-like robot crawled along the beach, prodding suspicious objects.

The military linked the barrels to two explosions at sea on Friday, aimed at Israeli ships. Israeli analysts speculated that the beach barrels might have been meant for ships but floated ashore instead.

“The attack was an intended terrorist attack that failed,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. He did not refer to the Hamas threat of retaliation.

On Tuesday, Iran joined Hamas in publicly accusing Israel of carrying out the al-Mabhouh assassination, calling it “yet another example of state-sponsored Israeli terrorism.”

Israel, the EU and the United States shun Hamas as a terror group. Hamas overran Gaza in 2007, expelling forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who now controls only the West Bank.

In response, Israel clamped a blockade on Gaza, allowing only essential humanitarian supplies to enter.

Late Tuesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the West Bank and Gaza must be reunited under a single government, but he did not say how that would be done. Fayyad also told an Israeli security conference that Israel’s blockade must be lifted. “It is wrong,” he said.

Addressing the same conference, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said if Israel does not reach a peace deal to relinquish control of Palestinian population centers, “(Israel) will have to be either a binational or undemocratic (state). … If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.”

Israel launched a three-week offensive in Gaza a year ago to try to stop years of near-daily rocket barrages by Palestinian militants. About 1,400 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed in the massive operation.Since then, rocket fire has dropped considerably, and Hamas has been seen to keep an informal cease-fire, though other groups have attempted to carry out attacks.

A rocket exploded in Israel on Tuesday, the military said, causing no damage. A previously unknown Palestinian militant group claimed responsibility on an Islamic Web site.

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Associated Press writer Rizek Abdel Jawad in Gaza City contributed to this report.

Wigan’s Mohamed Diame, center, vies for the ball against Nott’s County’s Richard Ravenhill, left, and Ben Davies, right, during their FA Cup fourth round replay soccer match at DW Stadium, Wigan, England, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Tim Hales) ** NO INTERNET/MOBILE USAGE WITHOUT FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION PREMIER LEAGUE (FAPL) LICENCE. CALL +44 (0) 20 7864 9121 or EMAIL info@football-dataco.com FOR DETAILS **

President Barack Obama answers question on stage during his town hall meeting at Nashua High School North in Nashua, N.H.,Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Key dates in Kraft’s quest to buy Cadbury:

Sept. 7, 2009: Kraft reveals that it made unsolicited offer of 300 pence in cash and 0.2589 in Kraft shares for each Cadbury share that Cadbury rebuffed.

Sept. 22: Cadbury asks UK regulators to step in, forcing Kraft to produce a formal bid or abandon the proposal.

Nov. 9: Kraft makes formal offer, unchanged from earlier terms. Cadbury rejects offer.

Nov. 23: Cadbury shares hit a roughly five-year high on speculation of rival bids.

Dec. 4: Kraft takes offer directly to Cadbury shareholders nearly unchanged.

Jan. 5, 2010: Kraft raises cash portion of offer but cuts shares to maintain the total value of the bid.

Jan. 12: Italian candy company Ferrero says it will not bid on Cadbury.

Jan. 13: U.S. candy maker Hershey reported to be planning bid for Cadbury without Ferrero.

Jan. 19: Kraft announces improved offer of 500 pence cash and 0.1874 new Kraft shares for each Cadbury share that backed by Cadbury board.

Jan. 22: Hershey says it will not make bid for Cadbury.

Feb. 2: Kraft announces it reaches majority vote to seal deal.

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — A Jamaican judge on Tuesday sentenced an 89-year-old U.S.-born botanist to four years in prison for conspiring to kill his wife and three other women who lived in the couple’s home on the Caribbean island.

Judge Gloria Smith sentenced George Proctor, a Boston native who has lived in Jamaica for about 60 years, along with his chauffeur Glenmore Fillington. Both were convicted last week for conspiring to kill the 66-year-old woman and the three others.

Prosecutors said Proctor gave his coconspirator $90,000 to kill the women in April 2006.

The wife and the three women, whose identities and relationship to the couple have never been released by authorities, were not harmed, however.

The elderly, diabetic botanist stood silently when the judge announced the sentence. Fillington, 44, fell to the courtroom floor and cried loudly after he was sentenced to six years.

Before sentencing, Dr. Edgar Lowe, Proctor’s physician warned that his patient could not survive for long in a Jamaican prison.

Proctor’s lawyer, Thomas Tavares-Finson, told reporters he is filing an appeal.

“I don’t think he is aware of his circumstances,” Tavares-Finson said of his client.

Jamaican police arrested Proctor in April 2006 at the capital’s airport as he was about to board a plane to the United States.

His arrest and conviction shocked his colleagues at the University of the West Indies and beyond.

“George is very well known and highly respected among botanists and is probably the most knowledgeable living authority on the flora of the West Indies, having traveled and botanized extensively on many islands,” said Mark T. Strong, a scientist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

In a Tuesday e-mail from Washington, Strong said 31 species of plants have been named for Proctor, including species from Jamaica, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands and St. Lucia.

“We were all very shocked here about the allegations and that he was ultimately convicted,” Strong said.

Proctor’s wife and daughter have declined to speak to reporters.

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Associated Press writer David McFadden contributed to this report from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

BOGALUSA, La. (AP) — Bogalusa Mayor Mack McGehee and others charged with bribery got to court on time, but the judge wasn’t there.

Rick Wood of the Washington Parish District Attorney’s Office says they apparently were given the wrong date — Judge Raymond Childress was scheduled Thursday in St. Tammany Parish, not Washington Parish.

Motions for McGehee, Councilman Danny Stogner, former councilman Thomas Kates and Marshal Wayne Adams were rescheduled for Feb. 4, with trial scheduled Feb. 22 instead of Feb. 18.

They’re charged with criminal conspiracy and bribery of a withdrawn candidate. Kates allegedly was bribed to endorse a candidate after quitting the city marshal’s race.

The bribery charge carries up to a year in prison and $10,000 fine, defendants can choose jury trials.

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Information from: Bogalusa – Daily News , http://www.gobogalusa.com

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada Chancellor Dan Klaich says proposed budget cuts to the state’s colleges and universities will undermine years of progress in higher education.

But Klaich told members of the Board of Regents on Tuesday that while budget projections from the state are alarming, higher education shouldn’t act in haste.

Some regents said their goal should be to do as little harm as possible to the system.

The Nevada System of Higher Education is facing a $37 million reduction in state funding as of March 1, and $110 million for the 2011 fiscal year that begins July 1.

The $110 million shortfall would equate to a nearly 30 percent reduction from the budget approved by lawmakers last year.

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Information from: Las Vegas Sun, http://www.lasvegassun.com

NEW YORK (AP) — Carey Mulligan, the 24-year-old star of “An Education,” prepared herself for Oscar nominations in a peculiar way: She watched a film about drug addiction: “Requiem for a Dream.”

First, the nominee for best actress went out to see Mel Gibson’s “Edge of Darkness”; then she stayed up late at home watching the harrowing “Requiem,” hoping it would distract her.

“It was so trippy,” the British actress said Tuesday in an interview from Los Angeles. “It gave me something else to think about.”

But the reality couldn’t be avoided for long: Mulligan’s widely acclaimed, star-making performance had brought her all way to the Oscars.

“It was like a really good, friendly punch in the stomach,” she said. “It’s a good feeling, but it’s like a jolt. You can be in as many top-five lists and have as many people say things to you on red carpets as you like, and it doesn’t for a single second make you honestly think that you’re going to get nominated.”

In “An Education,” Mulligan plays Jenny, a teenage schoolgirl in suburban 1960s London who questions her imminent and promising ascent to university when she falls in love with an older man (Peter Sarsgaard). As Jenny, Mulligan is a seldom seen combination of beauty and smarts — there isn’t a man or adult who intimidates her.

“She’s got so much going on in those eyes, in the face — the animation, the intelligence,” said Nick Hornby, author and screenwriter of “An Education,” who was nominated Tuesday for best adapted screenplay. The film was also up for best picture.

“I used to joke to people that one line we were never going to get in a review was, ‘This is a great movie, but unfortunately Carey Mulligan sucks,’” said Hornby. “Without her, we were completely sunk. There’s a radiance about her.”

The performance has brought countless comparisons of Mulligan to Audrey Hepburn. She is also nominated for her first Oscar at the same age Hepburn was for hers — 1953, for “Roman Holiday,” which she won.

“I’ve always been so embarrassed by that comparison,” says Mulligan. “You feel like Shrek compared to Audrey Hepburn. It’s a really nice comparison, but it just seems so mad.”

There was plenty to celebrate when Israel Horovitz turned 70 last year.

He has written more than 70 plays (“Maybe four of which, if they never get performed again that would be all right with me,” he says). One of the 70, an early work called Line, has been playing continuously off-Broadway for 37 years, the longest running show in New York. Not only have his plays been translated in over 30 languages, Horovitz is the most-produced American playwright ever in France.

So the theater community got together and created 70/70 Horovitz Project, in which all of his plays would be read or performed during his milestone year — a time period that has recently been extended. Tonight, Florida Stage opens its contribution to the project, Horovitz’s recent Sins of the Mother, directed by the playwright himself. Read the full story