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Federal agents have arrested the top enforcement officer for the U.S. Virgin Islands environment agency on drug trafficking charges after he was allegedly caught with a cache of cocaine on a government patrol boat. In a statement issued late Saturday, the U.S. attorney's office in the three-island U.S. Caribbean territory said Roberto Tapia was ordered held without bail pending a Tuesday hearing. He is the director of environmental enforcement for the Virgin Islands' Department of Planning and...

Around 11,000 police officers and soldiers blocked an annual conference Sunday at Tunisia's main religious center by a radical Islamist movement that has been implicated in attacks across the country, prompting clashes with angry youths that resulted in one death. Security checkpoints were in place and patrols conducted throughout the central city of Kairouan after authorities declared the conference to be held there by the ultraconservative Muslim group Ansar al-Shariah a threat "to security...

Nigeria's military says its offensive against insurgents in the country's restive northeast has killed at least 14 suspected Islamic extremists and three soldiers. Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, a military spokesman, said in a statement that one soldier also was missing as "forces have been engaging a large number of heavily armed terrorists" for the last two days. He did not say exactly where the fighting occurred but that about 20 people were arrested. There was no independent confirmation of...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's senior coalition partner says that reaching a final peace agreement with the Palestinians is unrealistic at the current time and the sides should instead pursue an interim arrangement. Finance Minister Yair Lapid's assessment, delivered in a published interview Sunday just days before the arrival of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, throws a contentious idea into the mix as the U.S. searches for ways to restart peace talks. It remains unclear whether the...

Just weeks after a tense border standoff, China's new premier visited India on Sunday on his first foreign trip as the neighboring giants look to speed up efforts to settle a decades-old boundary dispute and boost economic ties. Premier Li Keqiang met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the two leaders emphasized that efforts should be made to resolve the border dispute between the two countries which led to a bloody war in 1962, India's External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin...

An editor has accused Algeria's government of censorship after it blocked the publication of his two newspapers. Hicham Aboud, editor of the My Journal and Djaridati newspapers, said that happened after he rejected an order from the Communication Ministry on Saturday night to remove an article from the papers that claimed hospitalized President Abdelaziz Bouteflika had slipped into a coma. The 76-year-old leader suffered a stroke last month and is being treated in France. Aboud said, "This...

A rising star in Britain's Labour Party, described by some as the "British Barack Obama," Chuka Umunna urged the United Kingdom to more aggressively forge ties with West Africa's fast-growing economies. During a trade mission to West Africa last week that included a stop in his father's home country Nigeria, Umunna, a member of the British Parliament, dismissed the comparison to the United States president. "Let's not beat around the bush. The reason why people make the comparison is, frankly,...

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said Sunday his party will end years of bias and abuse by the police, military and intelligence services and will make sure the services uphold the country's new constitution which demands impartiality in their duties. Tsvangirai said if his party comes to power it will manage the police and military so that Zimbabweans "will not fear their soldiers and policemen" any longer. Launching his party's election platform, Tsvangirai said security services must...

The U.S. Embassy employee accused of spying in Moscow flew out of Russia on Sunday, five days after he was ordered to leave the country, NTV television reported. The Kremlin-loyal TV station broadcast video Sunday evening showing Ryan Fogle going through passport control and security at Sheremetyevo International Airport. He also was pictured in the company of embassy staff as he wheeled a suitcase into the Moscow airport, which is used by Delta Air Lines for its direct flights to New York. Russian...

Pope Francis is calling for renewal in the Catholic church as he wrapped up two days of mass gatherings in St. Peter's Square aimed at energizing the faithful. About 200,000 people turned out Sunday for Mass celebrated by Francis, about the same size crowd that came to a pep rally for Catholics that the pope led the night before in the square. Francis urged his church to be more welcoming and avoid closing in on itself. But he warned that faithful should avoid "dangerous parallel paths" outside...

Cairo airport officials say baggage handlers have resumed work after a strike that left passengers on 20 international flights from Europe and Arab countries waiting several hours for luggage. Baggage handlers went on strike Saturday afternoon to demand stronger safety measures after a colleague died when a conveyer belt used to unload luggage fell on his head. His EgyptAir co-workers say it took more than an hour for the ambulance to arrive at the scene from the airport's onsite hospital. Hospital...

Iran's state radio says authorities have executed two men convicted of spying for Israel's Mossad and the American CIA intelligence agency. Sunday's report says Mohammad Heidari, who was accused of providing Mossad with classified information in return for money, and Kourosh Ahmadi, who allegedly gave the CIA intelligence on Iran, were hanged. The report didn't say when the men were arrested or tried. Iran occasionally says it has dismantled Western spying networks in the country and announces...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will seek increased military aid from India during a three-day visit starting Monday and will discuss recent cross-border clashes with Pakistan, India's archrival, an aide said. The comments follow a weekend report by the Times of India that said Afghanistan's ambassador to India had said the country needs India's help with "equipment and weapons to fight." The Press Trust of India later quoted a spokesman for New Delhi's Foreign Ministry as saying the country is...

Police shot dead a couple suspected to be terrorists after they threw four grenades, wounding five officers in an overnight stand-off, a police official said Sunday. Following a tip, investigators raided the apartment where the couple was staying in the Githurai Kimbo area on the outskirts of Nairobi Saturday evening and ordered them out of their house, said Boniface Mwaniki, the head of the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit. The couple refused to surrender, threw grenades and used their eight-month-old...

The High Court in Bangladesh's capital asked authorities Sunday to prevent the owner of a garment factory where 112 people died in a fire last year from leaving the country, a lawyer said. The High Court made the request in response to a petition seeking the arrest of Delwar Hossain, the owner of Tazreen Fashions Ltd. It also asked authorities to bring Hossain before the court on May 30. No criminal charges have been brought against Hossain, although a government inquiry into the fire accused...

A senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard has warned that his forces will be on watch for possible unrest after next month's presidential election, calling the outcome "unpredictable" and sending the strongest message yet against any attempts to revive street protests, media reported Sunday. The comments by Col. Rasool Sanaeirad point to a wide-ranging effort by Iranian authorities to intimidate opposition groups that could use the June 14 voting for possible political demonstrations....

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is holding out hope that an international conference to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Syrian civil war will be held in early June. The U.S. and Russia have agreed to try to bring the Syrian regime and opposition to the negotiating table, but no date has been set. Neither Syrian President Bashar Assad nor the main Western-backed opposition group has made a commitment to attend. Ban Ki-moon is in Russia as part of efforts to convene the conference. The...

A popular Vietnamese cable television provider has stopped providing CNN and BBC, saying the channels don't have the licenses needed under a law stipulating that much content on foreign channels must be translated into Vietnamese. Foreign governments and a leading pay TV trade group have urged the Vietnamese government to modify the decree, saying it is tantamount to allowing it the right to censor. Last week a small provider cut 21 foreign channels. On Sunday, one of the largest providers, VTV...

Venezuelan authorities have released a dissident ex-general who was jailed on charges of inciting unrest after the country's disputed presidential election. Retired Gen. Antonio Rivero said he would "take care of my health" as he was freed late Friday. Opposition leaders said he was hospitalized Saturday with a respiratory infection and digestive problems following a 16-day hunger strike he undertook to protest his arrest. Rivero remains accused of instigating violent protests following the...

It was just about a day after Argentine strongman Jorge Rafael Videla had seized power in March of 1976, and the bloodletting was already beginning. I had trekked out to isolated Neuquen province looking for Maria Estela Martinez de Peron, the constitutionally elected leader that Videla and his military cohorts had just toppled. Working for The Associated Press, I wanted to talk to her, her captors or anyone else to get the story. As it turns out, I could have been one of the military junta's...

Pope Francis lamented that investment losses by banks trigger more alarm in the economic crisis than the struggle of people to feed their families, as he led a huge rally Saturday to invigorate the church's moral conscience, hours after he held talks at the Vatican about the economic crisis with Germany's leader. Some 200,000 people, from Europe, Asia and the pope's native South America, filled St. Peter's Square and nearby streets to join Francis in hours of prayer, music and speeches aimed at...

Egyptian officials say baggage handlers in Cairo's airport have gone on strike to protest a colleague's death, leaving passengers on 20 international flights from Europe and Arab countries waiting several hours for luggage. Airport officials say senior officials from the country's national carrier are meeting the baggage handlers to hear their demands, which include guarantees of safer working conditions. The strike started Saturday after a baggage handler who works for EgyptAir died when a conveyer...

Police say gunmen on a motorcycle have shot and killed a senior member of a leading Pakistani political party. Police officer Sarfaraz Nawaz says Zohra Shahid was gunned down outside her home in the city of Karachi in southern Sindh province. Shahid was the vice president of former Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party in Sindh. No one has claimed responsibility for the killing. Khan's party has claimed it was the victim of vote rigging in several areas of Pakistan,...

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in a newspaper interview Saturday he won't step down before elections and that the United States has no right to interfere in his country's politics, raising new doubts about a U.S-Russian effort to get Assad and his opponents to negotiate an end to the country's civil war. In the capital Damascus, a car bomb killed at least three people and wounded five, according to Syrian state TV. It said bomb experts dismantled other explosives in the area. The Britain-based...

A suspected U.S. drone strike killed four al-Qaida militants Saturday in a southern Yemeni province once overrun by the group, according to security officials. The officials said the attack took place around dawn in an area called Deyqa in Abyan province. Officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to brief the media. Yemeni forces battled al-Qaida in Abyan province last year, routing militants from major cities that al-Qaida had briefly ruled during the country's 2011 political...

France will see its first gay weddings within days, after French President Francois Hollande signed a law Saturday authorizing marriage and adoption by same-sex couples and ending months of nationwide protests and wrenching debate. Hollande's office said he signed the bill Saturday morning, a day after the Constitutional Council struck down a challenge to the law and ruled it in line with France's constitution. Hollande, a Socialist, had made legalizing gay marriage one of his campaign pledges...

Russia's Sergey Karjakin won the (EURO)100,000 ($130,000) Norway chess championship on Saturday after drawing against Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria. Karjakin needed only a draw against Topalov to take the top prize after the world No. 1 player Magnus Carlsen failed to win against Levon Aronian from Armenia, ranked No. 2. Karjakin led the nine-day tournament from the beginning, winning his first four games and starting the day on 5.5 points, half a point ahead of Carlsen. He took over five hours...

North Korea fired three short-range guided missiles into its eastern waters on Saturday, a South Korean official said. It routinely tests such missiles, but the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing tensions. The North fired two missiles Saturday morning and another in the afternoon, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said by phone. He said the North's intent was unclear. His ministry said it is watching North Korea carefully in case...

Libyan officials say explosions went off in the capital Tripoli and the restive eastern city of Benghazi, but no casualties were reported. A security official says one bombing targeted an abandoned church in Benghazi that had been previously damaged by fire. The explosion damaged only a car parked outside. The official says two other explosions targeted parked security vehicles elsewhere in the city. A soldier was lightly wounded from flying debris. The official spoke on condition of anonymity...

In 1948, Suleiman Mamoudi fled by foot with his parents and other families from their village of Bir el-Sabae in Palestine. The 28-year-old and his family walked west for several hundred miles, crossing the Sinai Peninsula before settling in an area around 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of Cairo. They had not planned to stay long in Egypt's Sharqiya province, until they found themselves unable to return home after the Jewish takeover of their city, renamed Beersheba. Mamoudi, now 93 years old,...

Part of an airliner carrying more than 130 people caught fire as it was landing in Moscow, and passengers evacuated the plane by jumping off one of its wings and shooting down an evacuation slide. The Emergencies Ministry says none of the passengers and crew members were injured by the fire on the landing gear of the Boeing 737 at Vnukovo Airport on Saturday. A ministry statement said the plane belonging to Russian carrier UTair (YOOT-air) was flying to Moscow from the southern city of Stavropol....

A string of attacks killed at least 16 people in Iraq on Saturday, while gunmen abducted eight policemen guarding a post on the country's main highway to Jordan and Syria, the latest in a wave of violence to grip the country. The shootings and bombings follow three days of attacks that killed 130 people in both Shiite and Sunni areas in scenes reminiscent of retaliatory attacks between the two groups that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007. The spike in bloodshed in recent...

Three people have been killed and three others injured during a shooting at a gas station in Puerto Rico. Police say several men opened fire on the group early Saturday in the eastern town of Las Piedras. It is unclear what prompted the shooting. The U.S. territory had already seen five similar shootings reported this year in which at least three people died. Police have said most of the fatal shootings are related to drug trafficking. The island of 3.7 million people reported a record 1,117...

The body of a Congolese journalist was found on the bank of the Ngezi River near the provincial capital of Bunia in eastern Congo, the city's mayor said Saturday. "We found his body yesterday in an advanced state of decay. It showed signed of strangulation according to the doctor who examined him on the scene. We couldn't move him further as it was very decomposed and had to bury him near the river," said Mayor Ferdinand Fimbo. Guylain Chanjabo, a journalist at Radio Canal R??v??lation in Bunia,...

Nigeria's military declared a 24-hour curfew Saturday on neighborhoods in a northeastern city that's the spiritual home of an Islamic extremist network as soldiers continued the government's emergency campaign in the region, with authorities saying they killed 10 suspected insurgents. A statement Saturday on behalf of Lt. Col. Sagir Musa named 11 areas of Maiduguri where people must remain inside their homes until further notice. Musa said it was part of the military's push since President Goodluck...

Brazil is using more than 20,000 troops along its borders with 10 South American nations to reinforce security ahead of the Confederations Cup soccer tournament in June. The Defense Ministry says in a statement that 25,000 army, navy and air force troops began deployment on Saturday along the nearly 17,000 kilometers (10,600 miles) of border Brazil shares with its neighbors. Planes, helicopters, and patrol boats will be used to stop drug trafficking, arms smuggling and other crimes, as well as...

Conservative religious lawmakers in Afghanistan blocked legislation on Saturday aimed at strengthening provisions for women's freedoms, arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles and encourage disobedience. The fierce opposition highlights how tenuous women's rights remain a dozen years after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime, whose strict interpretation of Islam once kept Afghan women virtual prisoners in their homes. Khalil Ahmad Shaheedzada, a conservative lawmaker for Herat...

Even before the first drops flow, Uganda's oil sector is beset by bribery allegations against officials, tax-related cases abroad that cost the government millions in legal fees, and the alleged interference of a president whose firm control of the sector worries transparency campaigners. Uganda, which has confirmed oil deposits of about 3.5 billion barrels, wants to extract at least 1.2 billion barrels over the next three decades. That figure could rise when more oil blocks are put up for exploration...

The former premier of the Cayman Islands who faces charges in a corruption probe is denying allegations that he donated $1 million to a Caribbean university to obtain an honorary PhD. McKeeva Bush said in a statement late Friday that he knows nothing about a donation to University College of the Caribbean in Jamaica as alleged in local media reports. He notes that police arrested him a day before he was scheduled to travel and receive the honorary degree. In March, authorities accused Bush of...

Rescuers searching for 23 trapped workers at a giant U.S.-owned gold and copper mine in Indonesia spotted six bodies Saturday but weren't able to immediately retrieve them because of falling debris, a company official said. The collapse at the Big Gossan underground training facility at the PT Freeport Indonesia mine happened last Tuesday when 38 workers were undergoing safety training. Ten miners were rescued and five bodies have been recovered since then. "Rescuers have spotted six bodies,...

The pale, young Christian woman sat handcuffed in the courtroom, accused of insulting Islam while teaching history of religions to fourth-graders. A team of Islamist lawyers with long beards sang in unison, "All except the Prophet Muhammad." The case against Dimyana Abdel-Nour in southern Egypt's ancient city of Luxor began when parents of three of her pupils claimed that their children, aged 10, complained their teacher showed disgust when she spoke of Islam in class. According to the parents,...

If you're American and want to do business in Myanmar, there's a list of people and companies you have to steer clear of by law. But it leaves off a former minister's son U.S. officials suspected of brokering arms deals with North Korea, and high-rolling relatives of the man who led the repressive military government for 19 years. The Obama administration didn't add anyone to the U.S. government's Myanmar sanctions list over 3 1/2 years, despite recommendations from the U.S. Embassy in Yangon...

Egyptian security officials say clashes between Muslims and Christians in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria left one man dead of a heart attack. Officials say the clashes in the city's el-Dekheila suburb erupted when a Coptic man allegedly sexually harassed a Muslim woman. Residents of the area fired birdshot and threw Molotov cocktails at one another during the Friday night fighting. Police say Christian resident Sherif Sedky died of a heart attack during the clashes. Police forces...

Mountaineering officials say 64 climbers, including a Saudi Arabian woman, have successfully scaled Mount Everest from Nepal's side of the mountain. Tilak Padney of Nepal's Mountaineering Department says 35 foreigners accompanied by 29 Nepalese Sherpa guides reached the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak on Saturday morning after climbing all night from the highest camp on South Col. All were reported to be safe. Among them was Raha Moharrak, who became the first Saudi Arabian woman to scale the...

Motorcycle-riding gunmen assassinated a police chief in front of his house after he led an anti-Taliban campaign in western Afghanistan, an official said Saturday. Police Chief Abdul Ghani was leaving his driveway in his car outside his home in Farah province when the two raced up and opened fire. Provincial spokesman Abdul Rahman Zhawandai said that Ghani was rushed to hospital after the attack Friday night but died of his wounds. Ghani had recently launched a crackdown against insurgents in...

Engineering a financial bailout for Cyprus in March was such a chaotic process that top European officials say it is time to rethink how the region manages its crisis _ and who should be involved. Officials say the International Monetary Fund, which has contributed financial expertise and billions in emergency loans, may no longer be needed as a key decision-making partner. And they say that the eurozone would be able to make decisions and take action more quickly if it wasn't bound by the need...

A man has been arrested for allegedly making fake bomb threats against several domestic flights bound for Shanghai, Chinese officials said Saturday. It was the second time in a week that Chinese flights were grounded because of fake bomb threats. Another man was arrested Thursday for allegedly making such calls the previous day. The Civil Aviation Administration of China, or CAAC, said a 43-year-old man surnamed Ji and from the eastern city of Yancheng was arrested on suspicion of making prank...

A video purportedly of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack has caused an uproar in Canada. Ford on Friday called the allegations "ridiculous." The video has not been released publicly, and there is no way to verify whether it is authentic. Reports by gossip website Gawker and the Toronto Star said it was taken by a man who claimed he had sold crack to Ford. The Associated Press hasn't seen the video. The conservative mayor of Canada's largest city refused to take questions Friday. In brief comments...

Myanmar's president has pardoned at least 20 political prisoners just ahead of a historic visit to the United States that will highlight the two sides' improved relations brought about by the former pariah nation's democratic reforms. State media reported Saturday that 23 prisoners were freed, though it did not call them political offenders. Ye Aung, a member of the government's political prisoner scrutiny committee, said at least 20 political detainees were freed Friday. President Thein Sein...

A Chinese aviation industry news website says a man has been arrested for allegedly making fake bomb threats against several domestic flights bound for Shanghai. It's the second time in a week that Chinese flights have been threatened with fake bomb threats. A man is in police custody for allegedly making such calls Wednesday. China Aviation Resources Net said Saturday that a man surnamed Ji and from the eastern city of Yancheng admitted to making the prank calls Friday afternoon, grounding several...

Chinese authorities say rainstorms that battered southern China this week have killed 55 people and left 14 others missing. The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs website says at least nine provinces have had storms and some flooding and landslides since Tuesday. It says Guangdong province has been hit the hardest, with 36 deaths and 10 missing people, followed by Jiangxi province, where six people are reported dead and four more missing. Guangdong's weather service forecasts more heavy rain along...

Mexico's government says it will create a special investigative unit to search for the missing, heeding a request by relatives of the disappeared who have been on a hunger strike for nine days. Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam made the announcement Friday after meeting with a group of parents who have been on a hunger strike and living in tents outside his office. Murillo Karam says the special unit will guarantee that the same investigators and forensic experts remain on the cases until...

An Organization of American States study released Friday is calling for a serious discussion on legalizing marijuana. Drug policy reform advocates called the report historic, though it made no specific proposals and said there was "no significant support" among the OAS' 35 member states for legalizing cocaine, the illicit drug with the greatest impact on Latin America. "This is the first time any multilateral organization anywhere has done something like this," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive...

A week of drag shows, colorful marches and social and cultural events in Havana culminates Friday with celebrations of the International Day Against Homophobia. Hundreds of activists have taken part in the activities organized by a sex education center headed by first daughter Mariela Castro. "Join (us) to educate families about their great social responsibility to ensure that there is no discrimination of any kind," Castro said. The schedule included a gala bash at the capital's cavernous Karl...

Egyptian security forces have fired tear gas at protesters hurling firebombs at them in central Cairo, hours after hundreds of opponents of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi rallied peacefully in the streets denouncing his rule and demanding early presidential elections. The Friday protests witnessed low turnout but come on the heels of a campaign dubbed "Rebel," which aims at collecting 15 million signatures on a petition to oust Morsi and hold early elections. Coordinators said they have collected...

A video purportedly of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack has caused an uproar in Canada. Ford on Friday called the allegations "ridiculous." The video has not been released publicly, and there is no way to verify whether it is authentic. Reports by gossip website Gawker and the Toronto Star said it was taken by a man who claimed he had sold crack to Ford. The Associated Press hasn't seen the video. The conservative mayor of Canada's largest city refused to take questions Friday. In brief comments...

Former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, who took power over Argentina in a 1976 coup and led a military junta that killed thousands of his fellow citizens in a dirty war to eliminate so-called "subversives," died quietly in his sleep Friday while serving life in prison for crimes against humanity. He was 87. Federal Prison Service Director Victor Hortel said Videla died in his prison cell. He was found lifeless in his bed and declared dead at 8:25 a.m., according to an official medical report cited...

Bombs ripped through Sunni areas in Baghdad and surrounding areas Friday, killing at least 76 people in the deadliest day in Iraq in more than eight months. The major spike in sectarian bloodshed heightened fears the country could again be veering toward civil war. The attacks followed two days of bombings targeting Shiites, including bus stops and outdoor markets, with a total of 130 people killed since Wednesday. Scenes of bodies sprawled across a street outside a mosque and mourners...

Soldiers in Nigeria launched their first raid against suspected Islamic extremists in a campaign to take back control of the nation's northeast, killing at least 21 people, a security official said Friday. The fighting happened Thursday in the Sambisa Forest Reserve, just south of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, which soldiers previously targeted hunting for fighters belonging to the extremist network known as Boko Haram. Details of the raid, however, remained sketchy on Friday as a military...

A coroner overseeing a British inquest into the 2006 poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko ruled Friday he has to exclude evidence on whether the Russian state was involved in the killing, drawing bitter criticism from the former Russian security agent's widow and adding further doubts to an already much-delayed probe. In his ruling Friday, coroner Robert Owen said he accepted an application made by British Foreign Secretary William Hague to keep some evidence surrounding the case secret on...

Stern-looking soldiers clutching assault rifles wave down the beat-up Chevy Caprice entering this sprawling slum on the outskirts of Caracas. Flashlights in his face, the driver steps out and places his hands on the roof while the soldiers frisk him for drugs and weapons. He's clean, and a hand gesture from the commanding officer sends him off into the maze of ramshackle homes that is Petare, one of the most dangerous parts of Venezuela's notoriously crime-infested capital. Since Monday, this...

Tunisia's Interior Ministry on Friday banned a conference by the North African country's most prominent ultraconservative Islamic group, setting up the possibility of a confrontation over the weekend. The ministry statement, which appeared on their Facebook site, said Ansar al-Shariah's annual conference to be held in Tunisia's holy city of Kairouan was not in compliance with the laws governing assembly and was a threat to public order. Part of the ultraconservative salafi Muslim trend that gained...

Dozens of disgruntled border policemen forced the closure of Egypt's main crossing point into the Gaza Strip on Friday to protest the abduction of their colleagues by suspected militants, underscoring the lawlessness and crisis of authority in the country two years since the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. The police protest comes a day after masked gunmen ambushed two taxis at gunpoint outside the city of el-Arish, the capital of North Sinai governorate, fleeing with four border policemen...

A lawyer for a Guantanamo Bay prisoner is calling on the U.S. Justice Department to release photos of wounds the man suffered when struck with non-lethal rounds at a recent clash with guards at the prison. Attorney Ramzi Kassem's letter to a Justice Department official, which was released on Friday, also calls for a review of the April 13 incident, describing the wounds suffered by his client as more serious than portrayed by the U.S. military. Moath al-Alwi, a prisoner from Yemen, was struck...

In a story May 13 about suspects disappearing or dying after being in the custody of the Honduran National Police, The Associated Press misquoted U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield as suggesting that the Honduran armed forces have engaged in vigilantism. In fact, Brownfield was speaking of the danger of communities carrying out vigilantism. Brownfield's full quote was, "The option is that if we don't work with the police, we have to work with the armed forces, which almost everyone...

Silvio Berlusconi's private disco featured not only aspiring showgirls performing striptease acts as sexy nuns and nurses, but one woman dressed up as President Barack Obama and a prominent Milan prosecutor whom the billionaire media mogul has accused of persecuting him, according to the first public sworn testimony by the Moroccan woman at the center of the scandal. Karima el-Mahroug's testimony Friday at the trial of three former Berlusconi aides accused with procuring her and other women for...

Rights activists visiting abandoned government prisons in the first Syrian city to come under rebel control have found torture devices and other evidence that detainees were abused there, Human Rights Watch said in a report Friday. Raqqa, in eastern Syria, was overrun in late February by rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad. The rebels facilitated the New York-based group's access to facilities that had belonged to a government security agency and military intelligence in late April....

Authorities in Puerto Rico have caught a 12-foot (3.6-meter) Burmese Python that they had been trying to find for several weeks following complaints from residents in the area. Sgt. Angel Atienza with the Department of Natural Resources said Friday that officials found the non-native snake in a river in the northern coastal town of Manati. He said it is illegal to keep such snakes as pets in the U.S. territory, with owners facing a $1,000 fine. Atienza said the snake weighed about 70 pounds....

Greece's deep, six-year recession is likely to end in 2014, but growth will be weak and unemployment will remain above 20 percent for another three years, the country's international debt inspectors said. The European Commission issued the gloomy predictions Friday in a 237-page assessment of Greece's bailout agreement, as the country formally received its latest emergency loan payout, worth 4.2 billion euros ($5.4 billion). The report cited progress by Greece's year-old coalition government...

World stock markets rose steadily on Friday after two key indicators suggested the U.S. economic expansion will continue. The Conference Board reported that its leading indicator index for the U.S. increased 0.6 percent in April, following a 0.2 decline in March, due to recovering housing and labor markets. "In general, the (index) points to a continuing economic expansion with some upside potential," said Ataman Ozyildirim, an economist at the private research association. In addition, the...

Bombs that exploded outside two mosques in a village in northwestern Pakistan killed at least 15 people Friday, underlining the challenge of militant violence facing a new government set to take power under the leadership of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The blasts at the two Sunni Muslim mosques also wounded 70 people, said tribal police officer Mohammad Jamil Khan. Both of the mosques were badly damaged, and the roof of one of them collapsed. The mosques were located in Baz Darrah village...

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said Friday he is poised to sweep to victory in upcoming presidential elections and return the nation to the world community after years of isolation. "We are going to be new brooms" for change, he told about 500 party leaders and activists at a party conference to finalize a platform. He will be pitted against long-time ruler President Robert Mugabe, 89, in elections. No date has been set but it is expected to be held around September. Tsvangirai described...

France's constitutional council has rejected a challenge by conservative lawmakers to the country's new gay marriage law, saying the law was constitutional. That means France could see its first gay marriages by the end of May. France's parliament passed the law legalizing gay marriage last month after a wrenching national debate. Opponents led by the conservative UMP party immediately challenged the law in France's Constitutional Council, which rejected their motion Friday. The gay marriage...

Twenty-three youths have died in the past nine days at initiation ceremonies that include circumcisions and survival tests, South African police said Friday. Police have opened 22 murder cases in the deaths in the northeastern province of Mpumalanga, according to spokesman Lt. Col. Leonard Hlathi. He said an inquest is being held into the 23rd death, of a youth who complained of stomach pains and vomited. Initiation ceremonies are common in South Africa, where youths partake in various activities...

Officials say a container of fuel being smuggled into Turkey from Syria has exploded, killing 10 people. The governor's office in Hatay province said Friday's blast occurred in Tunisma village when the smuggler set the tank on fire after realizing Turkish security forces had rushed to the scene. Hatay is the Turkish border province where two car bombs exploded in the town of Reyhanli last week, killing 51 people. Turkish authorities have blamed Syrian intelligence for that terrorist attack,...

The U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances is pressing governments to provide information about open cases. Over the past two decades, it received nearly 54,000 cases, of which nearly 43,000 in 84 states remain unsolved. The number of cases is believed to be only a fraction of those who disappeared after being taken by security forces. OPEN CASES (as of 2012) Iraq _ 16,401 Sri Lanka _ 5,676 Argentina _ 3,271 Algeria _ 3,005 Guatemala _ 2,899 Peru _ 2,371 El Salvador...

About 30 security agents showed up just after midnight, breaking down the door to an apartment in the town of Daraya near the Syrian capital of Damascus. They grabbed a 24-year-old university student and drove off. That was a year ago. The young man, who had been providing aid to Syrians displaced by the country's civil war, was never heard from again. His family was told by former prisoners that he ended up in one of the torture dungeons of President Bashar Assad's regime. They don't know if...

Rescuers were digging for a fourth day Friday trying to reach 23 workers trapped in a caved-in tunnel at a giant U.S.-owned gold and copper mine in Indonesia. PT Freeport Indonesia, the operator of the Grasberg mine in Papua province, said rescuers had successfully cleared two passages to provide access for heavy equipment that will help expedite the rescue efforts. The collapse happened Tuesday when 38 workers were undergoing safety training inside a classroom in the tunnel, which is part of...

Engineering a financial bailout for Cyprus in March was such a chaotic process that top European officials say it is time to rethink how the region manages its crisis _ and who should be involved. Officials say the International Monetary Fund, which has contributed financial expertise and billions in emergency loans, may no longer be needed as a key decision-making partner. And they say that the eurozone would be able to make decisions and take action more quickly if it wasn't bound by the need...

The Arab Spring may finally be en route to Algeria. With the president in a French hospital recovering from a stroke, the generation of aging politicians and generals that has run Africa's largest country for a half-century is reaching its end. Adding to the mix, Algeria's overwhelmingly young population is increasingly vocal in its demands for jobs and housing that its oil-dependent economy isn't providing. What comes next is of vital importance to Algeria _ and the West. Algeria has the most...

China is phasing out its reliance on executed prisoners for donated organs, but an architect of the country's transplant system said Friday that ingrained cultural attitudes are impeding the rise of donations among the general population. Almost all donated organs in China used to come from executed prisoners. A growing proportion now come from ordinary people, but the government is seeking to eliminate prisoner donations altogether. However, former vice health minister Huang Jiefu said Friday...

Germany's swanky resort island of Sylt has been shaken by the death of a Japanese chef following a fight with two customers who had complained about his food. Miki Nozawa died Monday from a brain hemorrhage after a brawl with the two men at a nightclub near his restaurant in the North Sea island's main town of Westerland. Prosecutors are waiting for a second autopsy report to determine whether Nozawa _ who had opened his restaurant less than three months earlier _ died as a result of the fight...

Portugal's Parliament has passed a law allowing same-sex married couples to adopt their partners' children, but lawmakers rejected legislation granting gay couples the same adoption rights as heterosexuals. The 230-seat Parliament passed by five votes Friday the center-left Socialist Party's proposal permitting a person in a same-sex marriage to adopt a partner's biological or adopted child. However, another proposal by the Left Bloc and Green Party that would have let gay partners adopt children...

Thousands of anti-gay protesters, including Orthodox priests, occupied a central street in Georgia's capital Friday, with some threatening to lash with stinging nettles any participant in a gay pride parade which was to take place there. Police in Tbilisi guarded several dozen gay activists and bused them out of the city center shortly after they arrived at the gathering. Those occupying the street held posters reading "We don't need Sodom and Gomorrah!" and "Democracy does not equal immorality!"...

Across Europe, gay couples are scared of publicly engaging in even the most basic expression of their affection: Holding hands. Released Friday, the largest ever EU survey of hate crime and discrimination targeting members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in the 27-nation bloc and Croatia showed many of them live in fear and conceal their sexual identity. Two-thirds of the 93,000 people who filled in the anonymous online questionnaire said they were afraid of holding hands...

The United States says it has completed a transfer of 75 kilograms (165 pounds) of salt coolant material to the Czech Republic as part of cooperation between the two countries in developing new nuclear reactors. The U.S. Embassy in Prague says the fluoride salt comes from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and will be used for experiments at the Czech Nuclear Research Institute in Rez near Prague. In Friday's statement, it says both countries will share the results of the...

A senior U.K. policeman says that British undercover officers often used the identities of dead children as aliases, confirming a recent newspaper report which first exposed the ghoulish practice. Chief Constable Mick Creedon said Friday that the tactic was once "common practice" at London's Metropolitan Police, also known as Scotland Yard. Stealing the identities of dead people is a classic piece of spycraft and features prominently in Frederick Forsythe's famed 1971 thriller "The Day of the...

A four-month strike at a car factory north of Paris has come to an end, although the workers say they will still fight a plan to close the plant. PSA Peugeot Citroen said Friday that it had signed an agreement with the CGT union to end the strike, which started in January. The CGT called the strike "suspended." Peugeot said around 130 of the plant's 2,500 workers have been on strike since Jan. 16. France's largest automaker is cutting 8,000 jobs and has slated the Aulnay-sous-Bois factory as...

An adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ended a visit to North Korea on Friday but would not give details of his talks with leaders in Pyongyang. Isao Iijima's three-day visit came amid a slight easing of tension on the Korean Peninsula after weeks of threats from the North aimed at Washington, Seoul and Tokyo. Japan has not disclosed the purpose of Iijima's trip. "I had serious and long hours of talks (with North Korean officials) during my visit," Iijima told reporters after he arrived...

A light rail train has derailed in Hong Kong's northern suburbs, injuring dozens of passengers. Police say 62 people were hurt, four seriously, in Friday's accident. They were all sent to hospitals. There was no word on the cause. Passengers told local media that the train was moving quite fast and going around a bend at the time of the accident. The incident occurred on a public holiday, when there were likely more passengers than usual. After the accident, one carriage leaned off the tracks...

An emerging Japanese nationalist political party whose co-leader outraged many with remarks about Japan's wartime and modern sexual services became embroiled in more controversy Friday when a party lawmaker accused ethnic Koreans of involvement in prostitution. The Japan Restoration Party urged the lawmaker, Shingo Nishimura, to retract his comments suggesting many ethnic Koreans are engaged in prostitution in Japan. Nishimura withdrew his remarks, but the party forced him out anyway. Osaka Mayor...

A main opposition group in Bahrain says police have searched the home of the Gulf nation's most senior Shiite cleric, who has strongly sided with anti-government protesters. The reported raid could touch off more clashes on the strategic island nation, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. The group Al Wefaq says security forces entered the home of Shiek Isa Qassim early Friday in Diraz, about 10 kilometers (six miles) west of the capital, Manama. Qassim was not at home at the time, but his family...

Indonesia has executed three death row inmates who were convicted of mutilating a man and murdering a family. Attorney General Office spokesman Untung Arimuladi says the three Indonesian men were executed by firing squad Friday at a high-security prison on Nusakambangan island. A court in South Sumatra province had sentenced 48-year-old Jurit bin Abdullah and 52-year-old Ibrahim bin Ujang to death in 1998 after they were found guilty of beheading and mutilating a man. The third inmate, 47-year-old...

The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders says one of its medical facilities located in a rural but violent region of South Sudan has been ransacked and destroyed. The group said Friday the attack leaves 100,000 people without medical care in South Sudan's Jonglei state. MSF _ as the group is also known _ said its hospital infrastructure was systematically damaged in last weekend's attack. The hospital is the only facility in Pibor Country. The nearest alternative facility is 90 miles (145...

An Israeli defense official says the head of the American CIA spy agency has made an unannounced visit to Israel. The official says CIA chief John Brennan met Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon. He did not disclose other details. The official spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the visit with reporters. Brennan's trip comes amid Israeli concerns about weapons transfers from Syria to the Lebanon's militant Hezbollah. Israel has carried out airstrikes...

The Philippine envoy to Taiwan on Friday advised thousands of Filipino workers there to eat at home and avoid the streets while emotions run high on the island over the shooting death of a fisherman by the Philippine coast guard. Philippine representative Amadeo Perez said after returning to Manila from Taipei late Thursday that his government has verified at least one attack, in which a Filipino was beaten with a bat. "He was brought to a hospital and police are investigating. We are documenting...

An Egyptian Coptic cleric who was mistreated during Orthodox Easter services is threatening to sue. Video supplied to The Associated Press shows Israeli police shoving Arsanious el-Orshalimi and putting him in a headlock. The incident took place during Orthodox Christian Holy Saturday in Jerusalem's Old City earlier this month. The event drew thousands of people to the area, and hundreds of Israeli police were on guard. A dozen church leaders in the Holy Land later signed a letter expressing...

A six-member U.N. team led by a former Syrian planning minister is drawing up a comprehensive postwar reconstruction plan even as the country's civil war rages on with no apparent end in sight. A joint U.S.-Russian push to bring together Syria's political opposition and representatives of President Bashar Assad's regime to negotiate a peaceful transition has given their work new urgency. In a rare interview, the U.S.-educated economist, Abdullah al-Dardari, told The Associated Press that more...

Asian stock markets were mixed in holiday-thinned trading Friday as investors digested a slew of disappointing economic data and corporate results from the U.S. Applications for unemployment benefits jumped to their highest level in six weeks, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday, while manufacturing slowed in the mid-Atlantic region. The bright spot was applications for new construction, which reached a five-year peak, reinforcing "the patchy nature of the US economic recovery," Michael...

Chinese authorities say rainstorms that battered southern China this week have killed 33 people and left 12 people missing. The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs website says at least nine provinces have had storms and some flooding and landslides since Tuesday. It says Guangdong province has been hit the hardest with 19 deaths and 11 missing people. Guangdong's weather service said some areas received more than 8 inches (21 centimeters) of rain in nine hours on Thursday. It forecasts more rain...