NEW YORK — About 300 guitars, including instruments associated with Eric Clapton, Elvis Presley and Eddie Van Halen, are heading to a New York City auction.

Also on tap at Guernsey's sale Feb. 27 are acoustic guitars from the late 1800s and one played by actor Robert Blake in the film "In Cold Blood."

Among the top highlights is a 1952 Gibson Super 400 CES 7-String made for late studio guitarist Tony Mottola that could bring as much as $100,000. Mottola worked with such music greats as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis and Rosemary Clooney.

There are two "In Cold Blood" guitars. One was used by Blake in the role of killer Perry Edward Smith in the 1967 Oscar-wiinning movie based on the blockbuster book by Truman Capote, and the other is the actual guitar owned by Smith. They are being offered as one lot with a pre-sale estimate of $150,000 to $200,000.

A yellow-and-black Charvel guitar, customized for Eddie Van Halen in the 1980s, could bring $60,000 to $80,000. The original bill of sale made out to Van Halen is included.

A 1959 Gibson owned by Franny Beecher, the lead guitarist for the rock and roll band Bill Haley & His Comets, could fetch $20,000 to $25,000. It's one of only 57 made in 1959 in the natural finish.

Also in the auction catalog are four guitars associated with Eric Clapton, two of them signed; several Elvis Presley items, including a signed guitar; and Jimi Hendrix's guitar strap from Woodstock.

The sale also includes vintage guitars and mandolins made by string instrument maker Joseph Bohmann and more than 40 guitars from the late arranger and jazz musician Robert Yelin. About two dozen instruments owned by guitarist and singer-songwriter George Benson also are being offered.

Story: Associated Press

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SEOUL — North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of ballistic missile technology.

The rocket was fired from North Korea's west coast and its path was tracked separately by the United States, Japan and South Korea; no damage from debris was reported. At an emergency national security council meeting in Seoul, the country's president called the firing an "intolerable provocation."

North Korea, which calls its launches part of a peaceful space program, trumpeted the beauty of the launch's "fascinating vapor" as the rocket cut through the clear blue sky and said it had successfully put a new Earth observation satellite, the Kwangmyongsong 4, or Shining Star 4, into orbit less than 10 minutes after liftoff. It vowed more such launches. A U.S. official said it might take days to assess whether the launch was a success.

The firing came about two hours after an eight-day launch window opened Sunday morning. It follows North Korea's widely disputed claim last month to have tested a hydrogen bomb. Washington and its allies will consider it a further provocation and push for more tough sanctions. The United States and Japan quickly requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday morning, saying Pyongyang violated a council ban on ballistic missile launches.

North Korean rocket and nuclear tests are seen as crucial steps toward the North's ultimate goal of a nuclear armed missile that could hit the U.S. mainland. North Korea under leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to bolster its nuclear arsenal unless Washington scraps what Pyongyang calls a hostile policy meant to collapse Kim's government. Diplomats are also pushing to tighten U.N. sanctions because of the North's Jan. 6 nuclear test.

In a statement, North Korea's National Aerospace Development Administration, in typical propaganda-laden language, praised "the fascinating vapor of Juche satellite trailing in the clear and blue sky in spring of February on the threshold of the Day of the Shining Star." Juche is a North Korean philosophy focusing on self-reliance; the Day of the Shining Star refers to the Feb. 16 birthday of former dictator Kim Jong Il. North Korea has previously staged rocket launches to mark important anniversaries.

Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said a South Korean Aegis-equipped destroyer detected the North Korean launch at 9:31 a.m. The rocket's first stage fell off North Korea's west coast at 9:32 a.m. and the rocket disappeared from South Korean radars at 9:36 a.m. off the southwestern coast. There was no reported damage in South Korea.

International Reaction

The South Korean government couldn't immediately confirm reports by Yonhap news agency and YTN TV that the rocket might have failed.

The U.S. Strategic Command issued a statement saying it detected and tracked a missile launched on a southern trajectory but it did not pose a threat to the United States or its allies.

Japan's NHK broadcaster showed footage of an object visible in the skies from the southern island of Okinawa that was believed to be the rocket. Japanese chief Cabinet spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters that no debris fell on Japanese territory.

The global condemnation began almost immediately.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye called the launch an "intolerable provocation." She said the North's efforts to advance its missile capabilities were "all about maintaining the regime" in Pyongyang and criticized the North Korean leadership for ignoring the hardships of ordinary North Koreans.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to "take action to totally protect the safety and well-being of our people." U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice called the North's missile and nuclear weapons programs a "serious threats to our interests — including the security of some of our closest allies."

The Foreign Ministry in China, the North's only major ally and protector in the U.N. Security Council, where Beijing wields veto power, expressed "regret that, disregarding the opposition from the international community, the (North) side obstinately insisted in carrying out a launch by using ballistic missile technologies."

Kim Jong Un has overseen two of the North's four nuclear tests and three long-range rocket tests since taking over after the death of his father, dictator Kim Jong Il, in late 2011. The U.N. Security Council prohibits North Korea from nuclear and ballistic missile activity. Experts say that ballistic missiles and rockets in satellite launches share similar bodies, engines and other technology.

"If North Korea has only nuclear weapons, that's not that intimidating. If they have only rockets, that's not that intimidating, either. But if they have both of them, that means they can attack any target on Earth. So it becomes a global issue," said Kwon Sejin, a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

North Korea in 2013 also did a nuclear test and then unnerved the international community by orchestrating an escalating campaign of bombast, including threats to fire nuclear missiles at the U.S. and Seoul.

North Korea has spent decades trying to develop operational nuclear weapons.

North Korea has said that plutonium and highly enriched uranium facilities at its main Nyongbyon nuclear complex are in operation. The North is thought to have a small arsenal of crude atomic bombs and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles. But it has yet to demonstrate that it can produce nuclear bombs small enough to place on a missile, or missiles that can reliably deliver its bombs to faraway targets.

After several failures testing a multistage, long-range rocket, it put its first satellite into space with a long-range rocket launched in December 2012.

The North's recent activity comes amid a long-standing diplomatic stalemate. Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.

Story: Foster Klug / Associated Press

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GAUHATI, India — The tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan has a new crown prince.

The Royal Media Office in capital Thimphu said Saturday that the baby boy was born on Friday to King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck and his wife, Queen Jetsun Pema.

Wangchuck married Jetsun Pema in a Buddhist ceremony in 2011.

The child, the royal couple's first, was delivered by a medical team at the Lingkana Palace in Thimphu.

The media statement says that King Wangchuck was by the side of the queen during the delivery.

Story: Associated Press

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TAINAN, Taiwan ― A powerful, shallow earthquake struck southern Taiwan before dawn Saturday, collapsing a high-rise residential complex and killing at least five people and injuring hundreds. At least 230 people were pulled out from rubble, as rescuers raced against time to find dozens of others unaccounted for.

More than 1,200 firefighters and soldiers in the worst-hit Tainan city scrambled with ladders, cranes and other equipment to the ruins of a 17-floor residential building that folded like an accordion in a pile of rubble and twisted metal. Local media said the building included a care center for newborns and mothers.

The central disaster response center said five people were killed, including four at the high-rise. One victim was a 10-day-old.

The fifth death was caused by falling objects at a water tower. Another 378 people were injured, the disaster response center said.

The Wei Guan residential tower was home to 256 people living in 96 units. According to the disaster response center, 230 of them were rescued and 26 unaccounted for, although it was unclear how many people were inside the building at the time of the fall.

The news website ET Today reported that a mother and a daughter were among the survivors from the Wei Guan building, and that the girl drank her urine while waiting for rescue, which came sooner than expected.

Dozens more people have been rescued or safely evacuated from a market and a seven-floor building that was badly damaged, the official China Central News Agency reported. A bank building also careened, but no injuries were reported, it said.

Most people were caught asleep when the 6.4-magnitude temblor struck about 4 a.m. local time, Saturday. It was located some 35 kilometers southeast of Yujing, and struck about 10 kilometers underground, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

As dawn broke, live Taiwanese TV showed survivors being brought gingerly from the high-rise, including an elderly woman in a neck brace and others wrapped in blankets. The trappings of daily life ― a partially crushed air conditioner, pieces of a metal balcony, windows ― lay twisted in rubble.

People with their arms around firefighters were being helped from the building, and cranes were being used to search darkened parts of the structure for survivors. Newscasters said other areas of the city were still being canvassed for possible damage.

Men in camouflage, apparently military personnel, marched into one area of collapse carrying large shovels.

The disaster response center said 1,236 rescuers were deployed, including 840 from the army, along with six helicopters and 23 rescue dogs.

The quake was felt as a lengthy, rolling shake in the capital, Taipei, on the other side of the island. But Taipei was quiet, with no sense of emergency or obvious damage just before dawn.

Residents in mainland China also reported that the tremor was felt there.

Questions were being asked if the construction crew had cut corners when building the Wei Guan residential complex that was finished in 1989. The interior minister, Chen Wei-zen, said an investigation would examine if the developer skirted requirements.

Earthquakes frequently rattle Taiwan, but most are minor and cause little or no damage.

However, a magnitude-7.6 earthquake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed more than 2,300 people.

Facebook has activated its "safety check" feature for Taiwan that allows users to let their friends and loved ones know they're safe.

Facebook chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says in a posting, "My thoughts are with everyone in Taiwan and across our global community affected by this disaster."

The link is available at http://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/taiwanearthquake-feb02-2016

China has offered assistance to Taiwan following a 6.4-magnitude quake that killed at least three people and injured more than 150 in the south of the self-ruled island.

According to China's office handling relations with Taiwan, mainland officials have been in touch with their Taiwanese counterparts since shortly after the quake hit the southern city of Tainan.

China sent a letter offering rescue assistance if needed, and expressed condolences to those who suffered in the quake.

Story: Wally Santana / Associated Press

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