ALL RECENT AP STORIES

Authorities say soldiers have found and safely detonated a car bomb in a northeast Nigeria city that's the spiritual home to a radical Islamist sect. Col. Victor Ebhaleme, the head of military operations in the area, told journalists Wednesday that soldiers discovered the car that morning in the city of Maiduguri in a neighborhood that has seen attacks by the sect known as Boko Haram. Boko Haram is blamed for killing at least 286 people so far this year, according to an Associated Press count....

Senegal's minister of the interior has refused to authorize an anti-government demonstration. If the opposition goes ahead with Wednesday's planned demonstration, police will be allowed to crack down because the event was not authorized. In a letter dated Monday, Minister of the Interior Ousmane Ngom said the government has the right to "restrict such liberties through legal channels when there is a real threat to public order." Thirteen opposition candidates are running against 85-year-old...

Ambulance sirens screamed, firefighters rescued pretend victims and children dove under school desks for cover during a citywide disaster drill Wednesday in India's congested, quake-vulnerable capital of 16.7 million people. It was the first-ever earthquake drill for New Delhi, where poorly constructed buildings, loosely hanging electrical wires and narrow alleys that encourage traffic would mean heavy damage in a major earthquake. Nine out of 10 buildings are at risk of moderate or significant...

Senior North Korean officials are pledging loyalty to new leader Kim Jong Un ahead of what would have been his late father Kim Jong Il's 70th birthday. Kim Jong Un and thousands of military and party officials gathered Wednesday in Pyongyang. Kim Jong Il's birthday is Thursday. The audience clapped loudly as ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam gave a speech praising Kim Jong Un as the unquestioned successor to Kim Jong Il. Kim Jong Il died in December. North Korea has since held nationwide...

Japan's nuclear safety chief says the country's regulations are flawed, outdated and below global standards and he is apologizing for their failure to provide better protection. Haruki Madarame admitted Japanese safety requirements such as for tsunami and power losses were too loose. Many officials have looked the other way and tried to avoid changes. Madarame spoke Wednesday at an inquiry investigating the meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami....

Fire has swept through a prison in Honduras, killing dozens of inmates and leaving some 40 injured. The head of the national prison system, Danilo Orellana, said the fire broke out Tuesday night at a prison in the town of Comayagua. Officials are investigating the cause of the blaze but two theories are that it was triggered by rioting prisoners or by an electrical short-circuit, he said. The facility held at least 800 inmates and is located 140 kilometers (90 miles) north of the Central American...

The homemade "sticky" bombs discovered in a Bangkok house after an accidental blast were similar to devices used against Israeli Embassy targets in India and Georgia, Israel's ambassador said Wednesday, building on his country's claims the incidents are part of a covert terror campaign by Iran. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast called the allegations "baseless," saying Israel was trying to damage its relations with Thailand and fuel "conspiracy" theories. Thailand's government...

France's foreign minister says his country is trying to rework a U.N. Security Council resolution that aims to end violence in Syria _ with a focus on overcoming Russian resistance. Alain Juppe also reiterated France's hope that the council will reconsider creation of "humanitarian corridors" that would allow aid groups to reach Syrian areas that are facing "absolutely scandalous massacres." Speaking Wednesday on France-Info radio, Juppe said a planned U.N. General Assembly vote Thursday on Syria's...

Syrian President Bashar Assad has ordered a referendum on Feb. 26 on a new constitution that would open the way to political parties other than the ruling Baath Party, the state news agency said Wednesday. Amendments to Syria's constitution were a key demand by the opposition at the beginning of the country's 11-month-old uprising against Assad. But in the wake of the military's deadly assault on dissent, many opposition leaders are demanding nothing less than Assad's departure. The current...

The U.S.-led military coalition said Wednesday that it regrets the killing of eight civilians in a NATO airstrike this month in eastern Afghanistan. Civilian casualties have long been a source of friction between the U.S.-led international force and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who condemned the bombing and sent a delegation to the scene to investigate. The coalition called in the airstrike on Feb. 8 in the Najrab district in Kapisa province, after movements by eight people on the ground were...

Philippine troops have arrested an alleged Abu Sayyaf militant suspected of involvement in numerous kidnappings, including those of American and European tourists, police said Wednesday. Abdulhan Ussih, subject of a $77,000 bounty, was captured Tuesday after three months of surveillance in southern Zamboanga city. He was a fish trader and helped secure food and other supplies for the militants, police Senior Superintendent Generoso Bonifacio said. Ussih has denied any link to al-Qaida-linked...

An Iraqi-born cleric pleaded not guilty in a Norwegian court Wednesday to charges of making death threats against politicians and encouraging suicide bombings. Prosecutors said Mullah Krekar, a 55-year-old Islamist who came to Norway as a refugee in 1991, faces several years in prison if found guilty. Since his arrival, Krekar has made frequent trips to Iraq where he founded the Kurdish Ansar al-Islam, listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and other nations. It is suspected...

Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency says six European ambassadors are meeting Iranian officials to discuss the European Union sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program. Mehr says envoys from Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Portugal and Netherlands were invited to Iran's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday. The report says the talks are focused on EU sanctions, which include a boycott of new oil contracts with Iran. Iran has strongly denounced the EU action. Mehr didn't provide further details....

President Nicolas Sarkozy has opened a personal Twitter account as France buzzes with speculation that he plans at last to announce his long-expected candidacy for re-election. The conservative leader who is trailing Socialist Francois Hollande in the polls also tweeted that he would appear on France's biggest prime-time news program later Wednesday. Sarkozy's office confirmed the account, which gained more than 14,800 followers in the two hours after the first tweet on "NicolasSarkozy". Hollande...

Oil rose above $101 a barrel Wednesday in Asia as escalating tensions in the Middle East outweighed lingering concerns about Greece's ability to implement austerity measures to resolve its debt crisis. Benchmark crude was up 80 cents to $101.55 per barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 17 cents to finish at $100.74 per barrel in New York on Tuesday. Brent crude was up 80 cents at $118.15 per barrel in London. Analysts...

Turkey condemns what it calls atrocities in Syria and says the world cannot watch another Sarajevo, the Bosnian city that endured years of siege warfare and international dithering in the 1990s. Yet it is steering clear, for now, of proposals for a "safe haven" across the border where civilians could shelter and army defectors regroup. Turkey matters in the global debate about the bloodshed because of its 566-mile (911-kilometer) frontier with Syria, and because it has matured into a regional...

Four days before a tsunami devastated a Japanese nuclear plant, its operator promised a fuller assessment of the risk of such a disaster _ but not for seven months. The disclosure in a three-page briefing paper obtained by The Associated Press raises questions about whether the utility and regulators were too complacent about studies that suggested a tsunami could overwhelm the defenses at the 40-year-old Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. It also highlights Japan's slow pace of decision-making on an...

A career law-and-order official has been tapped to run a Tibetan area at the center of protests against Chinese rule, and is calling for his subordinates to take a hard line against unrest while trying to raise local living standards. Liu Zuoming was appointed as Communist Party secretary of Sichuan province's Aba region over the weekend. It is not clear whether his transfer was prompted by the latest unrest or part of a regular rotation of officials. His predecessor in Aba, Shi Jun, was promoted...

The international community must rule out military intervention as a solution to the Syrian crisis, the leader of a global Islamic group said Wednesday. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, said he remained involved in "quiet diplomacy activities" with Syrian President Bashar Assad over the power struggle that has cost more than 5,000 lives over the last 11 months. The violence has led to the Middle Eastern country's most severe international...

Two Iranian suspects arrested in Bangkok after three explosions hit the city were likely planning to attack individuals but did not have the capacity to target large crowds or buildings, Thai police said Wednesday. A day after the blasts in a residential Bangkok neighborhood, Thai authorities admitted to being caught by surprise and said they had little information about who the alleged attackers were and their possible targets. National Security Council chief Wichean Potephosree told reporters...

A spokesman for a global Islamic group says the international community must rule out military intervention as a solution to the Syrian crisis. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, told the members of the National Press Club of Australia on Wednesday that he remains involved in "quiet diplomacy activities" with Syrian President Bashar Assad over the power struggle that has cost more than 5,000 lives in that Middle Eastern country. Ihsanoglu,...

Venezuela's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered opposition electoral officials not to destroy lists of voters following primary elections, a decision that was promptly condemned by opposition leaders who vowed to keep voters' identities secret. The court order was sought by Rafael Velasquez, a mayoral contender who lost in Sunday's primary and called for the voter lists to be reviewed. But opposition politicians said the decision appeared to be an attempt to intimidate adversaries of President Hugo...

Mexico's top domestic security official says a U.S. State Department travel warning on almost half of Mexico's states is "ridiculous" and "out of proportion." Interior Department Alejandro Poire says million of tourists visit Mexico without incident. Poire told a news conference Tuesday that he believes "these alerts overstate or misstate the standards and security situation that exists in our country." The State Department issued an updated travel warning Feb. 8 urging travelers to "defer nonessential...

Mexico's Roman Catholic Church drew fire Tuesday for releasing a set of voting "guidelines" for the faithful ahead of the July 1 presidential elections. All religious groups in Mexico are banned from engaging in electoral politics, or supporting or opposing any candidate or party. The guidelines published by the Archdiocese of Mexico on its web site appear to closely skirt the restriction. But the issue is a sensitive one in Mexico, where harsh anti-clerical laws sparked the 1926-1929 Cristero...

Rev. Rafael Reatiga asked his parishioners to pray for him and gave the choirmaster a list of songs for his funeral shortly before he was found shot to death together with another Roman Catholic priest, a Colombian prosecutor said Tuesday. Authorities initially suspected robbery when Reatiga's body was found along with that of Rev. Richard Piffano, 37, in a car in southern Bogota on Jan. 27, 2011. But on Tuesday prosecutor Ana Patricia Larrota said investigators had determined that it was suicide...

Coat flying open, reins in hand, Kim Jong Il is depicted astride a galloping horse in a larger-than-life statue unveiled as part of birthday celebrations for the late North Korean leader. The statue is the first bronze casting of Kim, who during his lifetime shunned proposals to erect a bronze like the massive statue of his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, that towers over downtown Pyongyang. Kim Jong Il, who would have turned 70 on Thursday, died of a heart attack in December. Kim Jong...

Guatemala's first president with a military background in 25 years said Tuesday the drug war can't be won with arms alone, and pledged that his administration will focus on fighting hunger, which he called a security problem. In an interview with The Associated Press one day after he promised to propose legalizing drugs in Guatemala, President Otto Perez Molina said the Central American country isn't following U.S. orders, despite American opposition to legalization. "We are not doing what the...

Mexican officials said Tuesday they have arrested a man who manufactured methamphetamine for the Sinaloa drug cartel run by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. The arrest of suspect Jaime Herrera Herrera was the latest in a series of detentions of associates of Guzman, the most wanted man in Mexico. The arrest also came amid mounting evidence that Guzman's Sinaloa cartel has moved into meth production on an industrial scale. Officials say several enormous seizures of meth precursor chemicals and large...

The head of the local government in Nevis sought Tuesday to assure the public that the island is safe despite the fact that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was robbed in his vacation home by a man wielding a machete. Nevis Premier Joseph Parry said police are taking the matter seriously and he said that he visited Breyer at his home the day after Thursday night's attack. "The police have been very much involved from the very beginning," Parry said in an interview with radio station...

Current and former police officers may have committed up to 30 murders during the recently ended police strike in Brazil's northeastern state of Bahia, law enforcement officials there said. Up to 30 people were killed execution-style out of the 180 murdered during violence that hit the state during the 12-day strike, said Arthur Gallas, head of the police department's homicide department, during a late Monday briefing for reporters. The victims' bodies were found with their hands cuffed or tied...

Thousands of fighters from across western Libya have held a mass parade in Tripoli, showing off heavy machine guns and rocket launchers and firing rifles in the air. The procession Tuesday was a show of force by members of some 100 militias that announced a new, unified military council the day before. It appeared intended as a warning to anyone who might stage attacks during celebrations this week of the one-year anniversary of the start of the uprising that ended with the death of Moammar Gadhafi...

A gay activist in Uganda says that the country's ethics minister, accompanied by police, broke up a meeting of gay participants. Amnesty International labeled Tuesday's action a "raid" and called on the government to end what it called "outrageous" harassment of the gay community. Participant Pepe Julian Onziema says the government minister labeled the meeting "null and void." A parliamentarian this month reintroduced a bill that originally called for the death penalty for some homosexual acts....

South Sudan on Tuesday accused its northern neighbor Sudan of bombing a border town, violating a non-aggression agreement between the two nations just hours after it was signed. South Sudanese military officials said Sudan launched an attack early Saturday on the disputed town of Jau. Military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said the area was shelled by Sudanese Armed Forces in the early morning then bombed by the Sudanese Air Force during the day. Four South Sudanese soldiers were wounded in the...

Italian prosecutors asked the country's highest criminal court on Tuesday to reinstate the murder convictions of American Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend in the brutal slaying of a British student. Perugia prosecutors filed the 112-page appeal, more than four months after an appeals court threw out the convictions against Knox, 24, and Raffaele Sollecito, 27. Prosecutors Giovanni Galati said he is "very convinced" that Sollecito and Knox were responsible for the Nov. 1, 2007, stabbing death...

Tunisia's state news agency says an appeals court has dismissed a criminal lawsuit filed by authorities against the former Libyan prime minister for allegedly crossing into the country illegally. The defense said Tuesday that the suit against Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi was unfounded because the prime minister's diplomatic passport already had the necessary official stamps. Al-Mahmoudi fled Libya after rebels overthrew dictator Moammar Gadhafi and was arrested in September in Tunisia while heading...

A Moroccan court has convicted a student of "violating the sacred values" of the kingdom and sentenced him to three years in prison after a video posted online showed him criticizing the king, the state news agency reported Tuesday. Abdelsamad Haydour, from Taza, a mountain town 187 miles (300 kilometers) east of the capital that has been a hot spot for violent protests, accused King Mohammed VI of oppressing his people in the 4-minute clip, and also called the monarch a dog, a dictator and a...

Serbs in northern Kosovo voted Tuesday in a referendum that is likely to overwhelmingly reject Kosovo's ethnic Albanian rule, further hindering Serbia's attempts to join the European Union. The EU, and even Serbia _ which does not recognize Kosovo's declaration of independence in 2008 _ have urged the Serbs not to stage the two-day referendum that asks whether they accept Kosovo's government. Serbs in the tense north last summer set up road blocks to defy the Kosovo government, clashing with...

A suspected Irish Republican Army dissident already facing trial over one bomb was arraigned Tuesday on a charge of planting a car bomb outside a Northern Ireland courthouse. Eamon Cassidy, 49, offered no plea and was ordered held without bail over his alleged role in planting a 100-pound (45-kilogram) car bomb across the street from the courthouse in Londonderry, Northern Ireland's second-largest city, in March 2011. Tuesday's arraignment took place in the same building. Cassidy is already being...

Nicolas Sarkozy faces an unprecedented challenge if he wants another term. No presidential candidate in France's postwar history has come back from being so far behind so late in the campaign. If polls can be believed, the brash, risk-taking and unabashedly America-friendly French leader who took center stage in the Libya war and in the fight to save the euro needs something akin to a miracle to get re-elected. With just 68 days left until the first round of voting in France's presidential ballot,...

An Iranian opposition website says security forces in Tehran staged a major clampdown following calls for protests to mark the anniversary of pro-reform leaders being placed under apparent house arrest. Kalame.com says some "silent" protests were held Tuesday, but gave few details. The reports cannot be confirmed because of severe media restrictions on covering opposition activities. Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi have been out of the public eye for a year under what...

Ambassadors from 10 EU countries on Tuesday asked the Netherlands to repudiate a nationalist party's website that urges people to lodge complaints about central and eastern Europeans. The site launched last week by Geert Wilders' Freedom Party, which backs the minority government, calls on citizens to report "central and east Europeans ... for general nuisance, pollution and labor market displacement." An open letter signed by diplomats from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,...

It was 1996 when Micaela Flores and 15 other women from Peru's highlands accepted an ambulance ride to a Cuzco clinic, lured by the offer of a free medical checkup. But when they arrived, the clinic's doors were locked behind them. "'We're going to make a small incision,'" Flores, now 54, said she was told. When she resisted, the mother of seven said health workers tied her feet and hands and anesthetized her. All the women, said Flores, were surgically rendered barren through tubal ligations....

The Israeli government has given a hardline Jewish group permission to build a new archaeological center in a tense Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem, officials said Tuesday. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said Tuesday that a Jerusalem planning committee approved the project this week. The public has 60 days to appeal. Any Israeli-backed project in east Jerusalem runs the risk of sparking protests that can escalate into violence, as conflicting claims to the area are at the heart...

Officials in Madagascar say a cyclone that hit the Indian Ocean island left three people dead. Cyclone Giovanna struck land about 1 a.m. Tuesday, bringing heavy rain and high winds. About 70 families, including 45 in the capital, were flooded out of their homes. According to national disaster officials, one of the dead was struck by an electricity pylon toppled by high winds in Brickaville, some 160 miles (260 kilometers) east of the capital, Antananarivo. The collapse of a house in Brickaville...

Upcoming Tibetan New Year's celebrations appear poised to bring more bloodshed to the troubled Himalayan region, the head of Tibet's exile government said Tuesday, warning that China has sealed off the regions ahead of a crackdown. Already facing nearly two dozen self-immolations, many by Buddhist monks and nuns calling for Tibetan freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama, China is sending thousands of extra security forces to Tibetan areas to prepare for expected protests. "They have sealed...

A bomb disposal officer was killed trying to defuse a bomb just minutes after another blast in a flashpoint central Nigeria city previously hit by a feared Islamist sect, police said Tuesday. The first blast occurred Tuesday morning near a pedestrian bridge in a residential neighborhood in Kaduna and left no casualties, said Kaduna state police spokesman Aminu Lawan. However, an officer from the police's anti-bomb squad was checking the contents of a plastic bag on the site, about 30 minutes...

Snow as deep as 15 feet (4.5 meters) isolated areas in Romania, Moldova and Albania on Tuesday and turned a power plant in Kosovo into a park of dazzling ice sculptures. In a winter harsher than many can remember, energy workers struggled mightily Tuesday to break the ice that has encapsulated Kosovo's main power station in Obilic. Steam from the plant's vents coated its pipes and buildings with ice and snow, turning them into unworldly, unrecognizable objects of art. Since the end of January,...

When it comes to religion, British politicians tend to heed the famous advice of Tony Blair's spin doctor, Alastair Campbell _ "We don't do God." In contrast to the United States, the deity is rarely invoked on the campaign trail or in political speeches. But a Muslim Cabinet minister has become the latest member of Prime Minister David Cameron's government to urge the country to embrace its Christian heritage. Sayeeda Warsi also said that "militant" secularism poses a threat to Europe, a comment...

Israel's Defense Ministry says a humanitarian assistance team it sent to Turkey this week received a warm greeting, despite a deepening rift between the countries. A ministry statement Tuesday said a team this week visited the area in Turkey where hundreds were killed in an earthquake in October. The statement quoted Ahmet Kazankyeh, vice governor of the Van district, as thanking Israel for sending relief materials and other help. It quotes him as saying: "You are our true friends, and the proof...

The Maldives' national museum reopened Tuesday without some of its most valuable exhibits a week after a mob of suspected religious extremists smashed images from the pre-Islamic era of this Indian Ocean archipelago. About 35 exhibits _ mostly images of Buddha and Hindu gods _ were destroyed. Some of the artifacts dated to the sixth century, museum director Ali Waheed said. Waheed says 99 percent of the Maldives' pre-Islamic artifacts from before the 12th century, when most inhabitants were Buddhists...

The top U.S. Catholic bishop vowed legislative and court challenges Tuesday to a compromise by President Barack Obama to his healthcare mandate that now exempts religiously affiliated institutions from paying directly for birth control for their workers, instead making insurance companies responsible. Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, who heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in an interview with The Associated Press that he trusted Obama wasn't anti-religious and intended to make...

Pakistan announced Tuesday that it has temporarily allowed NATO to ship perishable food to its troops in Afghanistan, a sign of thawing tensions following American airstrikes last year that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan closed its Afghan border to NATO supplies in response to the deadly Nov. 26 attack on two of its border posts. The closure has been a headache for coalition forces, who have had to spend much more money to get goods to Afghanistan using alternative routes....

A military spokesman says four soldiers have been killed by separatist rebels in the country's restive south. Saliou Ngom says the attacks happened Monday night. He says eight soldiers were also wounded, and two of the wounded were flown to Dakar. The Movement of the Democratic Forces of Casamance has waged a low-level insurgency against Senegal's government since the early 1980s. The last few months have seen an increase in attacks after years of relative calm. These attacks come ahead of a...

Syrian government forces renewed their assault on the rebellious city of Homs on Tuesday in what activists described as the heaviest shelling in days, as the U.N. human rights chief raised fears of civil war. Troops loyal to President Bashar Assad have been shelling Homs for more than a week to retake parts of the city captured by rebel forces. Hundreds are believed to have been killed since last Saturday, and the humanitarian conditions in the city have been worsening. Homs was under "brutal...

Iran's official news agency says that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will unveil new nuclear projects on Wednesday. IRNA did not say in its Tuesday report what the projects would be. But an independent news website that regularly reports on nuclear developments says the ceremonies are likely to include the formal inauguration of the the underground Fordo uranium enrichment site in central Iran, and starting operations on two lines of centrifuges there. Irannuc.ir also says that the president is...

A clash in Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast has left 15 Kurdish rebels and two Turkish soldiers dead, officials said Tuesday. The governor's office in Sirnak province said the clash took place in a mountainous area northeast of Sirnak after troops detected rebel hideouts late Monday. Earlier, state television TRT had reported that troops, reinforced from the air with helicopter gunships, killed 10 rebels in Sirnak. The violence comes just before the 13th anniversary of the capture of Kurdish...

Two former Romanian agriculture ministers were convicted on Tuesday of corruption and sentenced to three years in prison. Last month, Romania's highest court sentenced former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase to two years in prison after convicting him of illegally raising funds for a failed presidential campaign. The two cases are one reason that Transparency International, a non-governmental organization based in Berlin, has ranked Romania as one of the most corrupt countries in the European Union....

An Iranian man carrying grenades blew off his own legs and wounded four civilians Tuesday after an earlier blast shook his house in Bangkok, Thai authorities said. The explosions came a day after an Israeli diplomatic car was bombed in India _ an attack Israel blamed on Iran. Authorities say it's unclear whether the Bangkok explosions were linked to the New Delhi attack, but Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said, "we can't rule out any possibility." Thai security forces found more...

Zimbabwean police have disrupted a Valentine's Day march aimed at promoting peace and love between foes in the troubled southern African nation. Marchers at Harare's central square fled scores of baton-wielding police Tuesday, scattering thousands of fliers in the streets. Witnesses saw no marchers arrested. Police at the scene said the demonstration by about 200 members of the militant Women of Zimbabwe Arise organization was illegal under sweeping security laws that require police clearance....

Britain's security minister is holding talks in Jordan seeking to overcome a European ban on deporting a radical Islamist cleric from the U.K. to the kingdom. The government said James Brokenshire is holding meetings Tuesday with Jordanian officials seeking new assurances in the case of Abu Qatada, a cleric who British officials say is an al-Qaida figurehead and a threat to national security. He was freed from an English prison into virtual house arrest late Monday after the European Court of...

Two separate attacks against Iraqi security forces killed three people and wounded 18 others on Tuesday, officials said. A bomb in a parked car exploded around noon near an Iraqi army checkpoint in the northern city of Mosul, killing a soldier and a bystander, a police officer said. Twelve other passers-by were wounded in the attack. Sunni-dominated Mosul, located 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, was a major haven for al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgent groups several years ago...

Kuwait's ruler has named the Gulf nation's new government, appointing the prime minister who served in a caretaker role before parliamentary elections earlier this month. The new Cabinet announced Tuesday also has no women. It's the first time since 2005 that women are absent from Kuwait's top political affairs. No women were elected to the new parliament, which had four female lawmakers in the last assembly. Besides Prime Minister Sheik Jaber Al Hamad Al Sabah, the 16-seat Cabinet has four...

In a Feb. 13 story about a planned statue in a Paris suburb that is to be modeled after French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, The Associated Press erroneously reported the estimated cost of the statue as euro81 million. The estimated cost is euro81,000.

Authorities in the Maldives on Tuesday asked former President Mohamed Nasheed to make a police statement on his controversial order to the military to arrest a top judge, a move that ended in his ouster from power last week. They say Nasheed has refused. The move could be a prelude to criminal charges against Nasheed, who has said he was forced to resign at gunpoint. Nasheed's party officials could not be contacted immediately for comment. The Maldives, an Indian Ocean island nation that relies...

A Yemeni security official says government troops have killed 12 al-Qaida-linked militants in heavy artillery shelling in the south while two soldiers died in clashes with militants in the same area. The official says the bombardment of Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan, started on Monday night and was still going on early Tuesday, hitting northern and eastern parts of the city. He says two Yemeni soldiers died in separate clashes with the militants in Zinjibar. The official spoke on...

A Tibetan monk set himself on fire in western China and was beaten by security forces as they put out the flames, a rights group said, marking the latest in a series of dramatic protests against China's handling of its vast Tibetan areas. Responding to spiraling unrest in Tibetan areas, Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday defended China's policies on Tibet, saying the government respects traditional culture and freedom of religious belief. He said China has invested heavily in Tibet and will continue...

Philippine government agents have arrested a doctor accused of defrauding a California health care program of more than $3 million. National Bureau of Investigation official Claro de Castro Jr. said Tuesday that Dr. Eric Chan was apprehended inside a military camp in metropolitan Manila. Chan is a medical corp reservist of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. De Castro says Chan fled the U.S. to evade arrest and prosecution for cases including grand theft before the Los Angeles Superior Court....

Egyptian authorities have released an Australian journalist, his Egyptian translator and an American student detained last week for allegedly inciting people to strike. The prosecutor general's office in Cairo informed media on Tuesday that Austin Mackell, translator Aliya Alwi, and student Derek Ludovici are allowed to stay at their places of residence in Egypt but remain under investigation and cannot leave the country. They were arrested in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla al-Kobra on Saturday...

When 200 activists in green T-Shirts marched along a pristine Myanmar beach to protest plans for a coal plant, they expected a long, tough struggle against the powers that be. But then, something bizarre happened. A deputy Cabinet minister asked for a meeting. He listened patiently to their concerns about pollution. And then he told them the government agreed: It would halt construction of the controversial 4,000-megawatt plant on Myanmar's southern panhandle. In a long-repressed country whose...

China, which vetoed a U.N. resolution on Syria, said Tuesday that its envoy held talks with the head of the Arab League. China along with Russia vetoed the resolution more than a week ago that would have pressured Syria's President Bashar Assad to step down, saying a vote was called before differences in the proposal were bridged. The veto drew widespread criticism, including from the Arab League, which has been pushing regional efforts to end 11 months of bloodshed in Syria. A statement from...

A police officer says an American citizen has been detained at an airport in northwestern Pakistan after bullets were found in his luggage. Dost Mohammad Khan says the man was claiming to be an American diplomat. U.S. Embassy officials did not immediately answer calls seeking comment. Khan says the man was detained Tuesday in Peshawar city, where the U.S. has a large consulate. He says the suspect had 13 bullets in his luggage.

South Korea is offering to hold Red Cross talks with North Korea on reuniting families separated by the Korean War. Tuesday's proposal comes after South Korea last week proposed talks on preserving a historic North Korean site and allowed lawmakers to visit a North Korean border city. Seoul's Red Cross chief Yu Jung-keun told reporters her side wants to hold talks next week. The Koreas last held family reunions in November 2010. Their relations plunged later that month after the North bombarded...

The U.N. Security Council began a four-day mission in Haiti on Monday to review the terms of its mandate and evaluate earthquake reconstruction efforts in the Caribbean country. The 15-member delegation led by U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice plans to meet with senior Haitian officials, tour the future site of a job-generating industrial park and visit a police academy in the capital. "We will see how the United Nations supports Haitian government institutions in security and governance," Rice said...

A Tibetan monk set himself on fire in western China and was beaten by security forces as they put out the flames, a rights group said, marking the latest in a series of dramatic protests against China's handling of its vast Tibetan areas. Lobsang Gyatso, a 19-year-old monk from the Kirti monastery in Sichuan province's Aba prefecture, set himself ablaze on Aba's main street Monday afternoon, the London-based International Campaign for Tibet said. Security forces beat Gyatso while extinguishing...

U.S. inability to cut illegal drug consumption leaves Guatemala with no option but to consider legalizing the use and transport of drugs, President Otto Perez Molina said Monday, a remarkable turnaround for an ex-general elected on a platform of crushing organized crime with an iron fist. Perez said he will try to win regional support for drug legalization at an upcoming summit of Central American leaders next month. He got his first public support on Monday at a security meeting with El Salvador...

A Sydney man has been fined 750 Australian dollars ($800) for mooning Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, during a royal visit to Australia. Barman Liam Lloyd Warriner was sentenced Tuesday in a Brisbane court on a charge of creating a public nuisance for baring his buttocks to the 85-year-old British monarch and her 90-year-old husband in October. Prosecutors had asked for a AU$1,000 fine. Warriner admitted holding an Australian flag clenched between his bare buttocks and running...

Venezuelan presidential candidate Henrique Capriles on Monday called for "balanced elections" and criticized the use of government money and slanted coverage in state media as President Hugo Chavez seeks re-election. Capriles is expected to face a tough race against Chavez, who even after 13 years in office remains a hero to many of his supporters and maintains a visceral connection to a significant segment of the poor in Venezuela. Chavez also will likely use a bonanza of public spending as he...

Oil prices fell toward $100 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as investors look to the latest U.S. crude supply figures for clues about demand strength. Benchmark crude for March delivery was down 37 cents at $100.54 a barrel at midmorning Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.24 to settle at $100.91 on Monday. Brent crude was steady at $117.93 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London. Oil has hovered near $100 for several months amid signs...

The capture of the Shining Path's last remaining ideologue is undoubtedly a major blow to what's left of the once-potent guerrilla group but it is unlikely to diminish the illicit cocaine trade that financed it, Peruvian analysts said Monday. Comrade Artemio, who authorities say was captured Sunday, had lived more than two decades as a fugitive, leading one of two remnants of the fanatical Maoist-oriented Shining Path. The 50-year-old rebel, a self-described Marxist whose given name is Florindo...

A police strike in Rio de Janeiro ended Monday just days before the city explodes in chaos for the world's biggest Carnival bash. The decision came just two days after a similar strike ended in the northeastern state of Bahia, which saw the homicide rate double in its capital, Salvador, during the stoppage. The strikes, and the threat of similar action in other Brazilian states, had stoked concerns about Brazil's security forces ahead of its hosting of the 2014 soccer World Cup and Rio's hosting...

A court in eastern China has indicted the man long considered China's No. 1 fugitive on charges of bribery and running a $10 billion smuggling ring. Lai Changxing fought extradition from Canada for 12 years but was deported in July after Beijing assured Ottawa that he wouldn't face the death penalty. The state-run Global Times newspaper reported Tuesday that a local court in the coastal city of Xiamen had accepted an indictment from prosecutors and begun hearing the case against Lai. The move...

The U.S. State Department is sending a team of experts in international law to Haiti to look at ways to strengthen its beleaguered judiciary, Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille said Monday. In an interview with The Associated Press, Conille said the delegation is scheduled to arrive in Haiti this week following a recent meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "We did ask them for assistance in looking at how do we make sure that we can reinforce our judiciary system," Conille...

The editor-in-chief of a newspaper that crusaded against corruption in Brazil's rough border region with Paraguay was shot dead, police said Monday, just days after another slain journalist's body was found in a different state. Paulo Rodrigues, 51, was approached by two men on a motorcycle while driving late Sunday through the town of Ponta Pora in Mato Grosso do Sul state, where his Jornal da Praca newspaper and Mercosulnews.com website are based, police said. The gunmen fired 12 shots, five...

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton warned Monday that the rampant poverty that plagues oil-rich Nigeria _ felt most acutely in its Muslim north _ is fueling the religious violence now tearing at the nation. A radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram claimed Monday it killed 12 soldiers and beheaded three government informants in its bloody wave of sectarian violence against Nigeria's weak central government. While Clinton never named the sect in a speech Monday night in Nigeria's commercial capital...

Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric whom British officials say is an al-Qaida figurehead and a threat to national security, was freed from an English prison into virtual house arrest late Monday, British media reported. Judicial officials acknowledged earlier in the day that the 51-year-old extremist preacher's release from Long Lartin jail was imminent, but declined to comment on the reports from Sky News and the BBC, citing operational concerns. Both broadcasters aired photographs that appeared...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Egyptian authorities to release a detained Australian journalist, his translator and an American student who was traveling with them. Egyptian security forces arrested Austin Mackell, translator Aliya Alwi, and student Derek Ludovici on Saturday in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla al-Kobra. The three have been accused of trying to bribe people to join a strike aimed at pressuring Egypt's military rulers to give up power. CPJ deputy director Robert...

Representatives of about 100 militias from western Libya said Monday they had formed a new federation to prevent infighting and allow them to press the country's new government for further reform. The move was a blow to the National Transitional Council, which helped lead the eight-month uprising against longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi that ended with his capture and death in October. The NTC has struggled for months to stamp its authority on the country, and has largely failed to decommission...

An online auction began Monday for more than 2,000 acres of land overlooking the Caribbean that was once part of the bustling Naval Station Roosevelt Roads. The auction, which is expected to last at least three days, is the latest attempt to finally resolve the fate of a base that closed in 2004, shortly after the military stopped using the nearby island of Vieques as a bombing range. The minimum bid was $10 million for one parcel of nearly 500 acres. The minimum is $30 million for another parcel...

The armed group that clashed with Tunisian forces in the south of the country earlier this month had links to al-Qaida, the interior minister said Monday as he announced a wave of arrests tied to the incident. Tunisian forces caught up with a three-man armed militant cell on Feb. 2 and killed two of them after a gunbattle the day before that wounded two soldiers and a national guard member. Ali Laarayedh said that 12 other Tunisians have been arrested on suspicion of belonging to the group and...

Actor Sean Penn is taking Argentina's side in the Falkland Islands dispute. Penn met with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner on Monday and then urged Britain to join U.N.-sponsored talks over what he called "the Malvinas Islands of Argentina." Penn says "the world today is not going to tolerate any ludicrous and archaic commitment to colonialist ideology." Britain has refused to negotiate as long as Falklanders want to remain part of the British realm, and is increasing its military defenses...

The United Nations on Monday backed Maldives' new leader's proposal for a national unity government though the ousted leader is calling for a snap poll to resolve a political crisis. U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco called on all parties to come together "on the principle of inclusiveness and national unity, and reach a consensus on the way forward." Former President Mohamed Nasheed resigned last Tuesday after months of public protests and fading...

The Taliban's former defense minister died in a Pakistani jail in 2010, a spokesman for the insurgent group said Monday. Little had been heard of Obaidullah Akhund since he was arrested by Pakistani authorities in 2007. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said Monday that relatives have recently been informed that Obaidullah died of heart disease in a Karachi prison on March 5, 2010. Obaidullah was one of the top deputies of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar when the Islamist regime ruled...

Gen. Mohammed Lamari, who led Algeria's military during a decade of civil war that crushed the nation's Islamic rebel groups, died Monday. He was 73. Lamari died after being rushed to a hospital in the town of Biskra south of Algiers, the news agency quoted his brother, Khaled, as saying. The Ministry of Defense said the cause of death was a heart attack. Lamari was one of the generals who overthrew Algeria's government in January 1992 to forestall what appeared to be an upcoming victory by an...

Sources say a Rwandan diplomat has been expelled from Sweden for allegedly spying on Rwandan exiles. A source close to the Swedish government told The Associated Press the diplomat had engaged in "refugee espionage" and was sent back to Rwanda last week. Another source familiar with the matter told the AP on Monday the diplomat was Evode Mudaheranwa, the Rwandan embassy's second-highest-ranking official. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because it was a sensitive diplomatic matter. Officials...

Bolivia's long-downtrodden indigenous majority adored President Evo Morales as he championed a new constitution that promised the nation's 36 ethnicities unprecedented autonomy. But three years after voters overwhelmingly approved that document, making poor, landlocked Bolivia a "plurinational" republic, the country's first indigenous president is under attack for essentially ignoring it. Lowlands Indians have quit his Movement Toward Socialism over his insistence, without seeking their consent,...

Members of a radical Islamist sect ambushed an army patrol in Nigeria's restive northeast and killed 12 soldiers, a spokesman for the group said Monday. The military disputed the claim by the sect known as Boko Haram, though residents of the neighborhood in Maiduguri where the attack happened said they heard the fierce gun battle and explosions Sunday night where the sect said they attacked the soldiers. Meanwhile, the sect said it beheaded three people who provided information about the group...

An Israeli military court on Monday rejected an appeal from a Palestinian man on hunger strike for 58 days to have his jail term reduced, officials said. Lawyer Mahmoud Hassan said a military court judge refused the appeal and that his client, Khader Adnan, will be detained until May 8. A military spokeswoman confirmed the ruling and said Adnan will be expected to carry out the full four-month sentence. The spokeswoman spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations. Adnan is...

Locked in a cellar where she was allegedly raped and beaten for nearly a decade, a young deaf and mute Pakistani woman told a U.K. court on Monday how she was trafficked into Britain and forced to work as a virtual slave. The woman, whose age is not known, said she was around 10 when she was brought to the northern city of Manchester as a domestic servant in 2000. She cannot be identified for legal reasons. A Pakistani couple _ 83-year-old Ilyas Ashar and his wife, 66-year-old Tallat Ashar _...

A former senior British police officer was sentenced to jail on corruption charges Monday for falsely arresting a business rival over a financial dispute. A jury in London found Ali Dizaei, a former commander with London's Metropolitan Police, guilty of misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice. He was accused of making threats, assault, false arrest and faking evidence against Iraqi businessman Waad al-Baghdadi in a dispute over payment for work on Dizaei's website. It...