ALL RECENT AP STORIES

Ivory Coast's government lashed out at the United States Embassy in Abidjan over a report citing restrictions on press freedom including the suspension last year of several opposition media outlets. The report "contains deficiencies" that undermine its credibility and the embassy should have presented its findings to the government before going public with them, Communications Minister Affoussiata Bamba-Lamine said. "Furthermore, it does not provide concrete proof of the claims contained in the...

One thing is certain in the race to lead France's cultural and political center: A woman will be mayor of Paris for the first time in the city's 2,000-year history. The outcome of the conservative primary that begins May 31 is all but decided _ Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, or NKM as she is often known, is widely considered the only candidate with a realistic chance. Her Socialist opponent in the March 2014 election will be Anne Hidalgo, the current mayor's designated heir. The two have already...

Volkswagen's German factory workers will get a two-stage raise under a new wage deal reached as the automaker grapples with slipping sales and profit. The company said Tuesday it agreed with the IG Metall union on increases of 3.4 percent from Sept. 1 and 2.2 percent from July 1 of next year through February 2015. The agreement covers 102,000 workers in six west German auto plants. Volkswagen AG personnel head Horst Neumann said the deal went "to the limit" of what a tough auto market would...

A senior figure in the main Western-backed Syrian opposition group has welcomed the EU decision to let the bloc's arms embargo expire, calling it a "positive" step. Syrian National Coalition member Louay Safi says however that a delay in deciding to provide weapons until August means that the Syrian regime can continue killing Syrians. Tuesday's comments were the first by a Coalition member since EU member states decided late Monday to allow an arms embargo on Syria to expire Saturday. Still,...

Sri Lanka's top meteorology official on Tuesday apologized for naming a deadly cyclone after a king who built massive irrigation tanks well over a millennium ago and was venerated as a god. Political leaders and civil groups have protested the naming of a cyclone after King Mahasen, who ruled Sri Lanka in the 4th century. At least 18 deaths related to Cyclone Mahasen were reported in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka before it weakened by May 16. Bangladesh alone evacuated 1 million people from...

The U.N. Population Fund said Tuesday it wants to help an estimated 22 million women gain access to family planning services in territories emerging from conflicts and natural disasters. Babatunde Osotimehin, the fund's executive director, said the fund will work with the International Planned Parenthood Federation to address unmet needs for family planning among marginalized populations in Bolivia, C??te d'Ivoire, Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Kenya, Liberia, Myanmar, Nigeria, the Pacific Islands,...

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates is urging Australia to boost foreign aid following the country's announcement that it was delaying a pledge to increase overseas aid spending. Gates made his plea during a speech in the capital Canberra on Tuesday. He said that although Australia has been relatively generous, more money is needed for vital medicine and agricultural developments. Australia said this month it was postponing by two years a long-standing pledge to increase its foreign...

Vietnam has accused China of damaging a fishing boat in the latest escalation of tension in the disputed South China Sea. The Foreign Ministry said a Chinese vessel slammed into a Vietnamese fishing boat while it was operating in Vietnamese waters on May 20. It damaged the ship's hull and risked the lives of 15 crew members, it said. Ministry spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi said in a statement that the ministry lodged a protest Monday with the Chinese embassy. Nghi said the Chinese action violated...

The European Union's drug agency says high youth unemployment in some EU countries and cuts to public health budgets could reverse advances in fighting drug abuse. The annual European Drug Report published Tuesday said record levels of treatment provision and a drop in new heroin use and cocaine consumption were among positive developments documented last year. But it warned that jobless young people are vulnerable to drug abuse, while reductions in government spending as part of austerity policies...

Japan pledged better safety practices for its troubled nuclear industry Tuesday after an accident at a government research facility that exposed 33 people to minor excess radiation and had not been immediately disclosed. Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura, whose agency oversees research at the facility in Tokaimura, north of Tokyo, said the government will tighten oversight. "It is crucial for a nuclear research facility to give top priority to safety measures," Shimomura said. "Their lack...

Northern Ireland police say two officers have escaped injury after two pipe bombs were thrown at their vehicle after they responded to a bogus emergency call. No group claimed responsibility for Tuesday's ambush in an Irish Catholic part of north Belfast. But Irish Republican Army splinter groups regularly target police as part of their efforts to undermine Northern Ireland's peace process. A senior policeman, Chief Inspector Andy Freeburn, says it was "sheer good fortune" that both officers...

When his neighborhood is plunged into darkness, high school student Maximos Youssef is forced to study for his year-end exams _ critical in determining his future job prospects _ by the light of a candle. Youssef says he is in no mood to learn, and the flame only makes sweltering summer nights without fan or air conditioner even hotter. But, he says, "there is no other option. We have exams. We need to study." The 18-year-old is one of millions of Egyptians whose tempers have been frayed by the...

North Korea says South Korean businessmen can enter a jointly run industrial park in the North that has been emptied since April after tensions between the two countries soared. In a statement carried by the North's official media on Tuesday, the government agency in charge of relations with Seoul said Pyongyang is ready to talk about reopening the Kaesong complex if the business owners visit. South Korea's Unification Ministry urged North Korea to have talks with the government not civilians....

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Islamic leaders expressed dismay over decisions by authorities in western Myanmar to restore a two-child limit on a Muslim minority group, a policy that does not apply to Buddhists and follows accusations of "ethnic cleansing." The order makes Myanmar perhaps the only country in the world to level such a restriction against a particular religious group, and is likely to bring further criticism that Muslims are being discriminated against in the Buddhist-majority...

Japan is pledging tighter nuclear safety after an accident at an atomic research facility exposed 33 people to minor excess radiation, though none were injured. Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura, whose agency oversees such research, said Tuesday the government will tighten oversight of such research. He criticized a "low level of safety awareness" at the facility in Tokaimura, north of Tokyo. Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority had rated last week's accident as "Level 1," or third from the...

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has urged Australia to boost foreign aid following the country's announcement that it was delaying a pledge to increase overseas aid spending. Gates made his plea during a speech in the capital Canberra on Tuesday. He says although Australia has been relatively generous, more money is needed for vital medicine and agricultural developments. Australia said this month it was postponing by two years a long-standing pledge to increase its foreign aid...

In two stories May 8 and two stories May 14 and 17 about the use of sex slaves during World War II, The Associated Press reported erroneously that then-Prime Minister Yohei Kono issued a 1993 statement expressing remorse for suffering caused to sexual slaves of Japanese troops. Kono was Chief Cabinet secretary at the time, not prime minister. A corrected version of the latest story of May 17 is below: Japan mayor: Lack of sensitivity on sex comment Japan mayor says his lack of sensitivity about...

U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon is pushing for stronger relations between the U.S. and Chinese militaries ahead of a summit between President Barack Obama and China's Xi Jinping. Donilon told top Chinese Gen. Fan Changlong on Tuesday that the sides should boost cooperation in nontraditional military activities such as peacekeeping, disaster relief and fighting piracy. Donilon was meeting with Xi and other Chinese leaders over two days in Beijing to prepare for the June 7-8 summit,...

The Cambodian prime minister said he wants a law to punish people who deny that atrocities occurred during the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime, apparently trying to link his political opponents to the widely despised movement. Hun Sen's appeal to Parliament on Monday comes ahead of a July 28 election his Cambodian People's Party is expected to win by a landslide. Hun Sen has been campaigning aggressively and has suggested several times that an opposition victory would be akin to bringing back the Khmer...

Investors seeking bargains helped push Japan's benchmark stock index higher Tuesday after plunging 3 percent the day before. Other Asian markets registered relief with slight gains. The Nikkei has been on a rollercoaster ride since last Thursday, when it plummeted more than 7 percent after interest rates on the country's benchmark 10-year bond spiked to above 1 percent for the first time in a year. The swing in Japanese bonds unnerved investors at a time when Japan's already overburdened government...

A U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter crashed off the southern Japan island of Okinawa early Tuesday after the aircraft developed problems in flight. The pilot ejected and was recovered safely. The F-15, flying out of Kadena Air Base, went down in the Pacific about 115 kilometers (70 miles) east of Okinawa, the military said in a statement. Lt. Col. David Honchul, the chief spokesman for the U.S. Forces, Japan, said the pilot was recovered safely after a search by U.S. and Japanese rescue crews. After...

Abdul Malik and his fellow Afghan soldiers were driving across the arid and volatile south when their armored personnel carrier struck a roadside bomb. Malik found himself outside the vehicle, dazed but aware of his three comrades nearby. One had a serious head wound. Help came quickly: U.S. helicopters swooped in and took them to the Afghan military hospital in Kandahar, the largest in the region. Malik lost his leg below the knee. Without the quick rescue, he would likely have lost his life....

A prominent resident of the Bahamas wanted on fraud charges in Canada has been arrested in Panama. Dr. Arthur Porter was detained Monday by Panamanian authorities, along with his wife Pamela, several months after Quebec police announced they wanted to charge him in connection with the province's ongoing corruption scandals. Quebec's anti-corruption police said extradition proceedings are being undertaken. The Sierra Leone-born Porter is a physician and cancer specialist who faces six fraud-related...

In his first visit to Colombia in more than a decade, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that he's pleased security concerns can now take a back seat to trade and economic issues in talks with Washington's longtime ally. Biden praised President Juan Manuel Santos for helping lead Latin America toward a "middle class, democratic and secure" future. He reiterated U.S. support for Santos' efforts to make peace with FARC rebels, noting apparent progress in Havana with a land reform agreement...

The top U.S. and Russian diplomats met Monday to try to accelerate frustratingly slow peace efforts in Syria, where the signs point only to a worsening conflict. Capping off an eight-day trip to the Middle East and Africa, Secretary of State John Kerry flew into the French capital to see Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and exchange updates on their respective diplomatic efforts. The United States and its Arab allies are attempting to secure the participation of Syria's fractured opposition...

The European Union said its member states within days will be able to send weapons to help Syria's outgunned rebels, seeking to pressure President Bashar Assad's regime ahead of planned peace talks mediated by the United States and Russia. Though no EU country has any such plans now to send arms, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the decision "sends a very strong message from Europe to the Assad regime." He spoke after an all-day meeting of foreign ministers Monday that laid bare EU...

Mexico has created a special investigative unit to search for missing people and it is already working on locating them, authorities said Monday. Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said the unit includes 12 federal investigators and a group of federal police agents as support. The unit will be part of the Attorney General's Office, he said. "We don't do magic but we will exhaust all options and speak with the absolute truth about the chances of seeing results," Murillo Karam said, adding that...

President Porfirio Lobo said Monday that he is backing efforts by a Roman Catholic Church leader to arrange a truce between the country's two largest and most violent gangs. Lobo told The Associated Press that he has called Bishop Romulo Emiliani of San Pedro Sula to offer his support in bringing peace to Honduras, which has one of highest homicide rates in the world. The bishop has been acting as a mediator between the Mara Salavatrucha and 18th Street gangs. He said last week he expects the...

Chile's small Communist Party on Monday officially announced its support for socialist Michelle Bachelet's candidacy to regain the presidency. Party leader Guillermo Teillier announced the pact after meeting with Bachelet, who was Chile's president from 2006 to 2010 and is now the front-runner for the Nov. 17 vote. Communist and other leftists were considered enemies of the state during Chile's 1973-90 military dictatorship, when thousands of people were killed and disappeared for their politics....

Police in the Cayman Islands say a member of Uruguay's Special Olympics swim team has apparently drowned during a competition in the waters off a popular beach. A Monday police statement identifies the dead man as 41-year-old Pablo Jose Perez Larza. His hometown in Uruguay hasn't been released. Police say the man died Saturday after getting into difficulty while taking part in an 800-meter sea swim off Grand Cayman island's Seven Mile Beach. The competition is an open water swimming event for...

Mexico's government says it has created a special investigative unit to search for missing people. Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam says the unit will include 12 federal investigators and a group of federal police agents as support. He said Monday the unit will be part of the Attorney General's Office. Karam says the special unit will guarantee that the same investigators and forensic experts remain on cases until they are solved. Authorities said last week that they are working on creating...

Mali's government announced on Monday that much-anticipated presidential elections will be held July 28, in a communique that set the dates for the campaign period and a runoff election. The move suggests that the West African country is serious about holding the ballot, despite the fact that the capital of one of the country's northern provinces remains under the control of a rebel group. The ballot would be the first since a coup in March 2012 ousted Mali's democratically elected president just...

A coordinated wave of car bombings tore through mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 66 people and maiming nearly 200 as insurgents step up the bloodshed roiling Iraq. The attacks in markets and other areas frequented by civilians are the latest sign of a rapid deterioration in security as sectarian tensions are exacerbated by anti-government protests and the war in neighboring Syria grinds on. More than 450 people have been killed across Iraq in May. Most of the killings...

Egypt's president sent a bill that would regulate non-governmental organizations to the country's interim parliament on Monday after months of criticism by rights groups concerned about stifling of their activities. The text of the bill presented to the Islamist-dominated Shura Council was not made public, but a top presidential aide said that Mohammed Morsi's legal team took into consideration concerns that had been raised by local and international groups. NGOs allege past versions of the bill...

Sudanese government troops clashed with rebels in the conflict-wracked state of Southern Kordofan near the border with South Sudan, and each side claimed Monday it inflicted heavy losses on the other. The clashes erupted Sunday in the Dandor area, 500 kilometers (300 miles) west of Khartoum. Southern Kordofan state has been hit by violence for nearly two years, displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians and killing scores. Late Monday, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir declared that his forces...

British police arrested a 10th suspect Monday in connection with the vicious street killing of a soldier in London, an apparent Islamic extremist attack that has horrified the country and heightened racial tensions. The 50-year-old man was detained in Welling, east of London, on suspicion of conspiring to murder 25-year-old soldier Lee Rigby, Scotland Yard said. Police gave no further information about the suspect's identity. The latest arrest came as more details trickled out about the background...

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's press advisers are the latest to leave their jobs as questions swirl about a video that purportedly shows the mayor smoking crack cocaine. The mayor of Canada's largest city said outside his office Monday that press secretary George Christopoulos and deputy press secretary Isaac Ransom decided to leave, but he declined to say why. Ford fired his chief of staff last week. Ford also apologized for calling journalists "a bunch of maggots" on his weekly radio show on Sunday....

The U.N.'s top human rights body agreed Monday to hold another urgent session on the civil war in Syria, hoping to prod accountability for the killing of thousands of civilians. The U.S., Turkey and Qatar persuaded the 47-member Human Rights Council to hold a debate Wednesday looking into the violence in the Syrian town of Qusair, near Lebanon. The move came as the U.N.'s top human rights official, Navi Pillay, warned that the international community was failing Syria's victims. The council...

Rome's conservative mayor was trailing badly in his re-election bid Monday and appeared headed toward a runoff with a center-left challenger, according to projections and partial vote counting. The Italian capital was the only big city up for grabs among mayoral races in around 500 towns. The two-day vote was marked by a sharp drop in turnout nationwide _ the latest sign of Italians' disenchantment with politicians who have been unable to steer the eurozone's third-largest economy out of recession....

A senior Russian diplomat says Washington's latest moves aimed at easing Moscow's concern about NATO's U.S.-led missile defense plans are insufficient. Monday's statement by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov followed an exchange of letters by President Barack Obama and Russia's President Vladimir Putin that mentioned the missile defense dispute, a longtime irritant in bilateral ties. Russian media said Obama offered to provide Russia with more information about the missile defense plans....

African leaders on Monday asked the International Criminal Court to transfer charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to the Kenyan legal system. The African Union summit, which ended Monday in Addis Ababa, agreed to press the United Nations to move the charges against Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, to Kenya. African leaders believe that the ICC prosecutions "have degenerated into some kind of race hunt" of Africans, African Union chairman Hailemariam Desalegn said Monday. Kenyatta...

A government spokesman says that at least 12 people were killed in clashes between opposition marchers and security forces in Guinea's capital. Government spokesman Albert Camara said Monday that in addition to the 12 dead, 26 people were hospitalized with injuries from the violence last week. Hospital workers said the death toll is actually higher, at 18, because some families took their dead from the morgue for immediate burial. The clashes on Thursday and early Friday were the latest in the...

Chelsea Clinton is carrying out some of her father's globe-trotting work in a country where her mother blazed a diplomatic trail _ Myanmar. She represented former President Bill Clinton's Clinton Global Initiative at a Monday ceremony bringing Procter & Gamble's Children's Safe Drinking Water initiative to the Southeast Asian nation. The program provides water purification packets to areas with unsafe water supplies. The project's organizers say access to safe drinking water is poor in rural...

Syrian troops gained ground Monday in a nine-day offensive against a key rebel-held town, and a Syrian TV correspondent covering the fighting there was killed by gunfire, state media and a pro-opposition group reported. The fighting raged as European Union foreign ministers met in Brussels to try to bridge divisions over easing an arms embargo, a step that would allow weapons shipments to rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad. In Paris, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign...

Gunmen abducted two South African citizens Monday in Yemen's second largest city, Taiz, and police said a lawmaker was behind the kidnapping to pressure the government to hand over a disputed piece of land. It was the latest twist in Yemen's bumpy road to democracy after more than three decades of autocratic rule that ended with longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ouster in an uprising last year. The country's new president is struggling to unify the country and its armed forces in the face...

A Spanish climber has died on the world's seventh highest mountain after falling and surviving for three nights without food or water, his family said Monday. Juanjo Garra, 49, died on Dhaulagiri mountain in the Himalayas after rescue attempts failed to bring him down to an altitude where helicopters could land. The Sherpa who was climbing with him survived. Using Garra's personal blog and Twitter account, his family said Garra and the Sherpa were stranded in heavy snow, strong winds and temperatures...

Some questions about Iran's June 14 presidential election and beyond: DOES THE ELECTION MATTER? Yes, but not in the ways many people think. Iran's president does not set the country's major policies such as the nuclear program, relations with the West or military projects. All this falls under the ruling clerics headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The president acts as the main emissary for the theocracy's positions. But the president is far from powerless. The post oversees important...

The Zimbabwe prime minister's party said it stayed away from a state funeral Monday for an intelligence officer because he had been convicted by a court of attempted murder. Elias Kanengoni, deputy director of the Central Intelligence Organization, died Wednesday after collapsing at his country home. He was 60. He was buried Monday with full military honors at Heroes' Acre, a shrine for politicians and fallen former guerrillas in the bush war that led to independence in 1980. Kanegoni, an ex-guerrilla,...

Here is a look at the some of the deadliest attacks in Iraq since the withdrawal of U.S. troops on Dec. 18, 2011: _May 27, 2013: A wave of car bombings tears through mostly Shiite Muslim neighborhoods of the Baghdad area, leaving at least 66 people dead. _May 21, 2013: Car bombing at a Sunni mosque kills at least 20 people. _May 20, 2013: A wave of attacks, some at markets and in rush hour crowds, kills 113 people in Shiite and Sunni areas. _May 17, 2013: Bombs rip through Sunni areas in...

When zookeeper Sarah McClay was mauled to death by a Sumatran tiger at an animal park in England, its owner suggested she had violated safety procedures and entered the animal's pen. But police said Monday that's not what happened. Cumbria Police said that according to witnesses, the tiger escaped from its pen and attacked 24-year-old McClay on Friday as she was working in a staff area at South Lakes Wild Animal Park in northwestern England. She later died of her injuries at a hospital. "What...

In a May 17 story about the death of jailed former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, The Associated Press, relying on an initial prison service statement and comments from a spokeswoman for the prisoners, reported erroneously that he died in his sleep while in bed. The official death report, later made public, revealed that he died while sitting on the toilet. A corrected version of the story is below: Argentine dictator Videla dies in prison at age 87 Former Argentine dictator Jorge Videla...

Since Morocco's adoption of more democratic constitution during the Arab Spring, the arrest of political activists has increased, the country's main human rights group said Monday. Morocco prided itself for avoiding the turmoil of the Arab Spring by enacting reforms and amending the constitution, but activists say at least 70 members of their pro-democracy February 20 movement remain in prison. "The arrests of activists have increased since the adoption of a new constitution in July 2011," Mohammed...

Police have found two bodies they believe to be those of missing former Dutch national volleyball star and her partner, the Interior Ministry said Monday. Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the apparent killing of the couple. The bodies were found in a lemon grove Sunday and "all signs indicated" they are those of Ingrid Visser, 35, and her partner, Lodewijk Severein, 57, Joaquin Bascunana, an Interior Ministry official in the southern Murcia region, said. The corpses were buried...

A Red Cross worker says rebel attacks on villages in Central African Republic's west have killed at least 25 people. Namssene Paulin, a Red Cross worker in the region near Bossangoa said that elements of the Seleka rebel alliance are spreading fear in the area with these attacks, and villagers have fled to find safety. Paulin said Monday that the rebels arrived in the village of Poulissi on Friday in three vehicles and began killing residents there. Paulin said at least 25 people were killed...

Pakistani police say a roadside bombing has killed five police officers in the country's northwest. Senior police officer Abdullah Khan said the attack Monday targeted the vehicle of Khan Bahadur, deputy superintendent of police, killing him. It took place near the village of Periani in the Shangla district. Khan said the remote controlled detonation of the bomb planted in the mountainous terrain destroyed the vehicle and killed four other officers. They were returning from the funeral of a fellow...

A long-forgotten dog tag that spent the past 69 years in a farm field in France is back in the hands of the western New York veteran who lost it. Irving Mann says he was skeptical when an email from a French woman recently arrived at his Rochester jewelry store. She said she'd found the tag in her barley field and was looking for its owner. The 88-year-old chairman of Mann's Jewelers says he thought it might be a scam. But any doubts disappeared when the woman, Sophie LaFollie, sent it to him...

France's foreign minister says more signs have emerged of chemical weapons being used in Syria. France had been looking into reports of that since early this month when the ministry said there were accounts and indicators on the use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war that needed to be verified. On Monday, minister Laurent Fabius said outside a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels that there `' are stronger and better substantiated indications of the local use of chemical...

Saudi Arabia's king has converted the national guard command into the National Guard Ministry and appointed his son Mitab, the commander of the guard, as National Guard Minister. The national guard serves as an elite force to protect the regime. A royal decree issued Monday gave no reasons for the move. It was not clear what changes this would make on the ground. In November 2010, King Abdullah appointed Mitab, 60, as minister of state, Cabinet member and national guard commander. Mitab, King...

Zeev Elkin has faced a wave of criticism since he was made the de facto chief of Israel's Foreign Ministry two months ago: He isn't prepared for compromise with the Palestinians. He doesn't speak English well enough. He is a West Bank settler. But Israel's deputy foreign minister, who is the top official until a new foreign minister is named, makes no apologies for his ideology or background, and in fact thinks they are an advantage. Claiming to reflect the "real positions" of most Israelis, Elkin...

Singapore police who examined the scene of an American's death admitted on the last day of a coroner's inquest Monday that they deviated from official protocols by not dusting for fingerprints or collecting DNA samples, and by examining the contents of a laptop computer there. Shane Truman Todd's body was found in his Singapore apartment by his girlfriend last June 24, and police have said he killed himself. State counsel presented evidence of links to suicide websites on the 31-year-old's laptop...

A small town in Germany that once was a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis is now welcoming jobless foreigners with open arms. A dozen Spaniards affected by record unemployment in their home country have made their way last year to Wunsiedel on the German-Czech border. The town, nestled in the north Bavarian hills mountains, was best known as the burial place of Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess, drawing annual far-right marches until authorities put a stop to them in 2005. Now Wunsiedel has become...

The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal and survivors of the bloody conflicts that ripped through the Balkans in the 1990s looked back on two decades of trials and tribulations as the court marked the 20th anniversary Monday of its establishment by the U.N. Security Council. Court officials hailed the tribunal's legacy of putting on trial war crimes suspects ranging from heads of state to low-ranking soldiers. Activists and survivors also praised the court, but lamented how slow it has been to mete out...

Shares in Club Mediterranee rose sharply Monday on word that the iconic French vacation resort operator's two largest shareholders are launching a buyout. The offer by Axa Private Equity of France and Fosun, a Shanghai, China-based investment company, values Club Med stock at 556 million euros ($719.41 million). Axa PE and Fosun already own a combined 19.33 percent of Club Med shares representing 24.87 percent of the voting rights. They are offering 17 euros a share for the rest of Club Mediterranee's...

New Chinese Premier Li Keqiang says his government wants to attract foreign companies and is willing to undertake reforms to promote investment. Speaking Monday after meeting Economy Minister Philipp Roesler, Li said foreign companies needed to be able to expect fair competition and protection for their patents and copyrights. The dpa news agency reports Li said: "China will not deviate from promoting reforms and opening to the outside." Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed after meeting Li Sunday...

Thousands of troops searched through the densely forested stronghold of Maoist rebels in eastern India on Monday for those who ambushed a convoy of ruling party officials and supporters, killing 24, police said. The attack in Chhattisgarh state showed that the Maoists still have the ability to strike, even at heavily guarded convoys, despite claims by the government that it has greatly weakened a guerrilla insurgency it termed the nation's greatest internal security threat. "There are hills,...

A northeastern Chinese court has sentenced to death a man who strangled a baby boy after realizing the infant was in the back seat of a car he had just stolen, in a case that triggered public anger. The official Xinhua News Agency said the Changchun Intermediate People's Court found Zhou Xijun guilty of murder and sentenced him to death on Monday. State media reports say Zhou stole an SUV parked outside a supermarket, its engine still running, in Changchun city in March. He drove it onto a highway...

North Korea relaxed state control of salaries last month, a government economist said, outlining a change in policy intended to boost production by giving companies latitude to provide workers with financial incentives. In an interview with The Associated Press, Ri Ki Song, a professor at the Institute of Economics at North Korea's Academy of Social Sciences in Pyongyang, said enterprises are now allowed to use some of their earnings to pay workers more. Until recently, most salaries were set...

A U.S. diplomat says Washington backs reforms for Bangladesh's garment industry while encouraging global brands not to pull out their business following last month's building collapse that killed more than 1,100 people in the world's worst garment industry disaster. Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy R. Sherman said Monday that Bangladesh must act to improve workplace safety and workers' rights. She adds the U.S. is working with the Bangladesh government, private sector, labor groups...

In a rundown district of Lebanon's second largest city, residents have adapted to waging war with their neighbors. Whenever violence breaks out, they string large cloths across intersections to block snipers' view, sleep in hallways to take cover from mortar shells and abandon apartments close to the front line. Sectarian fighting between the two Tripoli neighborhoods, Bab Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen, goes back several decades, but these days it's a proxy battle of the rival sides in Syria. Bab...

A suspect in last week's savage killing of a British soldier on a London street was arrested in Kenya in 2010 while apparently preparing to train and fight with al-Qaida-linked Somali militants, an anti-terrorism police official said. Michael Adebolajo, who was carrying a British passport, was then handed over to British authorities in the East African country, another Kenyan official said Sunday. The information surfaced as London's Metropolitan Police said specialist firearms officers arrested...

An insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan has killed a NATO service member, the coalition said. The U.S.-led military coalition says the service member died Sunday as a result of insurgent fire. It did not provide any other details. The death brings the number of international force members killed this month in Afghanistan to 20. May has been the deadliest month this year for international troops in Afghanistan, but casualties are down over previous years as foreign forces pull back and allow...

An opposition activist in Kuwait says an appeals court has overturned a five-year prison sentence against a former parliament member for insulting the Gulf nation's ruler. Monday's decision does not clear Musallam al-Barrack, who still faces the charges and has a new sentencing hearing next month. But it helps ease an escalating political confrontation between al-Barrack's supporters and the Western-backed rulers in Kuwait. Al-Barrack's conviction last month touched off protests and clashes....

The spokesman for a pro-reform Iranian presidential candidate says state television cut off his campaign broadcast unexpectedly, citing technical problems. Mohammad Reza Aref is one of two pro-reform candidates cleared by the Islamic Republic's constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council, to run in June 14 elections. Most other approved candidates were hard-liners, while their most charismatic challengers, including centrist Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, were disqualified. Witnesses say Aref's...

Sri Lanka's government is investigating the death of a Buddhist monk who set himself on fire last week, saying journalists knew in advance of his plans and could have alerted authorities. Bowatte Indraratana died over the weekend after setting himself on fire Friday near the famed Temple of Buddha's Tooth Relic in the central town of Kandy. The 30-year-old was the first monk to self-immolate in Sri Lanka. The Media Ministry said Monday that the monk could have been saved if media personnel had...

"Look at these people, this wildlife." As the partying journalist of Paolo Sorrentino's "The Great Beauty," Toni Servillo was surveying Rome's colorful nightlife, but he might as well have been contemplating the Cannes Film Festival. The 66th edition of the Cote d'Azur extravaganza drew to a close Sunday, awarding the sensual, heartbreaking lesbian romance "Blue is the Warmest Color: The Life of Adele" the festival's top honor, the Palme d'Or. The Cannes Film Festivale is a 12-day circus of...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry straddled the diplomatic boundary this weekend between presenting the best face of America and a misleading one. In a question-and-answer session with young Ethiopians on Sunday, Kerry exaggerated the U.S. record on climate change, appeared to conflate past U.S. policy on drones with President Barack Obama's new policy and gave an incomplete account of how he opposed the Iraq war. A day earlier, he struggled with economic data as well as the contents of his own...

Adriana Peixoto would fit right in at the trendiest Rio de Janeiro bar with her hipster glasses and the big black tattoos on her calves. But for a weekend gossip session over beers and seafood paella, the 35-year-old audiovisual producer and her friends settled on a venue that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago: a bar in a "favela," one of the hillside slums that were long ruled by ruthless and heavily armed drug gangs and off-limits to outsiders. The vast majority of Rio's murders...

Communist guerrillas set off a roadside bomb and opened fire on a truck carrying police in the northern Philippines on Monday, killing seven and wounding seven officers. The members of the elite police Special Action Force were en route to a hospital for a regular medical test when the rebels, hiding in the bush along the road, detonated the explosive device and sprayed the vehicle with gunfire, said the regional police director, Chief Superintendent Rodrigo de Gracia. Such hit-and-run attacks...

A Japanese mayor apologized Monday for saying earlier that U.S. troops should patronize legal adult entertainment businesses as a way to reduce rapes and other assaults. Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, who is also the co-head of an emerging nationalistic party, said his remarks two weeks ago rose from a "sense of crisis" about cases of sexual assaults by U.S. military personnel on Japanese civilians in Okinawa, where a large number of U.S. troops are based. "I understand that my remark could be construed...

A nurse has pleaded guilty to murdering 11 elderly people by setting fire to the Sydney nursing home where he worked. Roger Dean also pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to another eight nursing home residents injured by the blaze in 2011. The 37-year-old registered nurse was on duty when he set the fire and later appeared on television describing his efforts to rescue trapped people at the nursing home in the suburb of Quakers Hill. He made his pleas in New South Wales state Supreme...

A North Korean economist says the government introduced new economic management methods last month that relax state control of workers' salaries. Government economist Ri Ki Song says the change introduced April 1 should not be seen as "reform and opening." He says North Korea is sticking to socialist ownership of the means of production. Enterprises will be allowed to set salaries from money left over after repaying the state for its investment and putting aside funds for continued operation...

Mexican authorities say a bus apparently went out of control after a blowout and turned over, killing 16 people in central Hidalgo state. State attorney general's spokesman Fernando Hidalgo says the accident happened Sunday afternoon as a group of tourists was returning to Mexico City from a weekend trip to the thermal baths in the town of Santa Maria Amajac. Hidalgo says witnesses reported that the bus driver lost control when the vehicle blew a tire. The bus hit a guard rail and flipped. The...

Japan's stock market dived Monday after the yen reversed some of its recent fall against the U.S. dollar. Stocks elsewhere in Asia were mixed as investors tried to sort out conflicting indicators about the health of the global economy. The Nikkei 225 shed 3.1 percent to 14,157.34, after its stalwart export sector was hit with wide-ranging losses. The benchmark in Tokyo has been on a tear, rising 36 percent since the beginning of the year. The yen's steady fall against other major currencies has...

Vietnamese police have arrested one of the country's best known bloggers for posting criticism of the communist government. The arrest of 49-year-old Truong Duy Nhat is the latest in an intensified crackdown against dissent in the one-party state. Tuoi Tre newspaper reported Monday that police arrested Nhat at his home in central Danang City on Sunday and he was flown with a police escort to the capital Hanoi for further investigation. He was accused of "abusing democratic freedoms," an offense...

The Colombian government and the country's biggest rebel group announced an agreement Sunday on one of their main bones of contention, land reform, after more than a half year of slow-moving peace talks in Cuba's capital. Both said the agreement constituted a major breakthrough, although several key details still needed to be worked out in the coming weeks and months. They did not release the text of the accord, but said it dealt with issues like property rights, access to land and rural infrastructure...

A rocket was fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel late Sunday night, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported. The news agency said the rocket was fired from a location near the southern town of Marjayoun, about six miles (10 kilometers) north of the Israeli border. It was not immediately clear who fired the rocket or whether it caused any damage or casualties. The Israeli military did not confirm that a rocket was fired, but said residents in northern Israel reported hearing an...

Tens of thousands of people protested against France's new gay marriage law in central Paris on Sunday, and police clashed with right-wing demonstrators. The law came into force over a week ago, but organizers decided to go ahead with the long-planned demonstration to show their continued opposition as well as their frustration with President Francois Hollande, who had made legalizing gay marriage one of his keynote campaign pledges in last year's election. Marchers set off from three separate...

Police in Haiti say a Brazilian military plane veered onto the grass next to a runway of the capital's airport after one engine caught fire as the aircraft attempted to take off. There were no injuries. Airport police spokesman Max Justin says the fire erupted as the airplane was speeding down the runway Sunday and the craft ran into the grass. Fire crews put out the blaze. There were burn marks visible on the plane, and its front landing-gear had snapped off. Justin says none of the 121 U.N....

Israel's president on Sunday urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to overcome differences and resume peace negotiations, saying the sides could not afford "to lose this opportunity." President Shimon Peres issued his call ahead of a gathering of Mideast leaders on the sidelines of a conference hosted by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum on the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan. Sunday's conference included a rare face-to-face meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, with the participation...

Egyptian Islamists and former members of the nation's military voiced concern Sunday about the potential pitfalls stemming from a decision by the country's top constitutional court that would allow members of the armed forces and police to vote in the nation's elections. For decades, a long-running legal tradition in Egypt's army and police barred soldiers, conscripts and members of the security from voting while in the service. The ban, which was written into law in 1976, was widely seen as a...

It was an audacious idea that came to symbolize Israel's self-described status as "Start-Up Nation," a company that believed it could replace most gasoline-powered cars with electric vehicles and reduce the world's reliance on oil _ and all within a few years. But it all came crashing down. The company, Better Place, started out as a source of pride and a symbol of Israel's status as a global high-tech power, but it suffered from a local brand of hubris and overreach. On Sunday, it announced...

A suspect in last week's savage killing of a British soldier on a London street was arrested in Kenya in 2010 while apparently preparing to train and fight with al-Qaida-linked Somali militants, an anti-terrorism police official said Sunday. Michael Adebolajo, who was carrying a British passport, was then handed over to British authorities in the East African country, another Kenyan official said. The information surfaced as London's Metropolitan Police said specialist firearms officers arrested...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday she would use her country's economic clout to prevent the European Union from imposing punitive tariffs on some Chinese products to avoid a trade war. Germany will push for "very intense talks" between the EU and China to seek a negotiated solution as swiftly as possible, the leader of Europe's biggest economy told visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. The EU Commission, the 27-nation bloc's executive arm, accuses China of pricing its solar panels and...

Libyan lawmakers have approved the prime minister's pick for interior minister after his predecessor resigned. Mohammed al-Sheikh replaces Ashour Shwayel as head of Libya's fledgling police force. He was sworn in Sunday after Libya's General National Congress endorsed him. The Interior Ministry is under pressure to rein in militias, which have grown in strength. They help provide security in the absence of a strong police or military force, but they do not answer to a central authority. The...

Israel's president on Sunday urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to overcome differences and resume peace negotiations, saying the sides could not afford "to lose this opportunity." President Shimon Peres issued his call ahead of a gathering of Mideast leaders on the sidelines of a conference hosted by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum on the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan. Sunday's conference included a rare face-to-face meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, with the participation...

Secretary of State John Kerry declared Sunday he believes a potential $4 billion plan is emerging that could expand the Palestinian economy by up to 50 percent in the next three years. It could also cut unemployment by almost two-thirds, and average wages could jump 40 percent, he said. But Kerry said it all depends on parallel progress on peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Kerry has been working with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and global business leaders to devise economic...

A wanted Ugandan general who questioned the president's succession plan has requested the protection of British police and won't return home anytime soon, his lawyer said Sunday. Gen. David Sejusa is now hiding from Ugandan undercover agents allegedly sent to track him down in London, where he is traveling, said Ugandan lawyer Joseph Luzige. "Sejusa told me there is a team of people who have been sent to London to hunt him down," the attorney said. "He said these people's intentions are not good...

Two rockets hit Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut on Sunday, tearing through an apartment and peppering cars with shrapnel, a day after the Lebanese group's leader pledged to lift President Bashar Assad to victory in Syria's civil war. The strikes illustrated the potential backlash against Hezbollah at home for linking its fate to the survival of the Assad regime. It's a gambit that also threatens to pull fragile Lebanon deeper into Syria's bloody conflict. Despite such risks, Hezbollah chief...

Yemeni security officials say a security officer has been shot dead by gunmen on a motorcycle in a restive province where high-level intelligence officers have been assassinated in the past and where al-Qaida is active. They say Maj. Majid Muttayr died after he was shot by men with a firearm affixed with a silencer on Sunday in al-Qutn district in southeastern Hadramawt province. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to brief reporters. The shooting comes a day after...

A Kenyan police official says the country's anti-terrorism police have killed a wanted terrorist and recovered a cache of weapons in the port city of Mombasa. Police official Boniface Mwaniki said Sunday that Khalid Ahmed was trailed by police from the capital Nairobi to Mombasa where he was killed in a dawn exchange of fire at his mother's house. Mwaniki says the Somali national sneaked into Kenya from Somalia where he had undergone paramilitary training. Mwaniki said police recovered a hand...