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South African soldiers who are training for a United Nations military mission in Congo will be adequately prepared even though the South African army as a whole is overstretched and underfunded, the army chief said Thursday. Lt. Gen. V.R. Masondo also told media at a briefing that the South African units bound for Congo are being helped in their training by troops who participated in a mission in Central African Republic, or CAR. In March, rebels there killed 14 South African soldiers while seizing...

Slovenia's government has formally approved an agreement it reached with trade unions to cut public sector wages by up to 4.8 percent as part of budget austerity measures the country needs to avoid an international bailout. The agreement, which was confirmed Thursday, is expected to save 108.6 million euros ($141 million) this year and 182.6 million euros in 2014 for debt-laden Slovenia, which is struggling to avoid becoming the sixth of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro to need...

Valtr Komarek's son says the left-wing Czech politician and economist who helped overthrow the country's communist regime has died at age 82. His son Martin, a journalist for the Mlada Fronta Dnes daily, said Komarek died Thursday in a Prague hospital. Born Aug. 10, 1930, in the southeast town of Hodonin, Komarek became a Communist Party member after World War II. From 1964-67, he served as an adviser to the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, then minister of industry in Cuba's government....

Taiwan's military on Thursday conducted exercises in waters between Taiwan and the Philippines, close to the spot where Filipino coast guard personnel opened fire on a Taiwanese fishing vessel last week, killing a 65-year-old-crew member. Two Lafayette frigates, one Kidd-class destroyer, two missile boats and assorted Mirage and locally produced jet fighters took part in the drill, underscoring Taiwan's anger over the incident, which has dominated local media coverage for the past week. It seems...

Jordan's military says a trainer jet has crashed near the Syrian border, killing its two Jordanian pilots. A spokesman says the British-made aerobatic T-67 Firefly trainer was on a routine flight early Thursday west of King Hussein Air College, a Royal Jordanian Air Force base in the border town of Mafraq, when it developed an unspecified "technical fault." The spokesman demanded anonymity under army regulations. The base is believed to house 3,000 Syrian army and police defectors and 200 U.S....

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator says Tehran and the six world powers will resume talks on its nuclear program "in the near future." Saeed Jalili said Thursday that a new round of talks could take place either before or after elections in Iran next month. Jalili was speaking a day after he met with EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton in Istanbul to see if the sides had enough common grounds to restart negotiations. Jalili said: "We discussed how we could bring the differing views closer to...

Pakistan says it will conduct a recount or re-do the vote for eight national assembly seats following allegations of vote rigging in the recent election. Pakistan election commission official Khurshid Alam said Thursday there are three other seats where the voting remains to be done, either because a candidate was killed in the run-up to the May 11 election or security was too poor to hold the vote. Alam says the commission has finished counting the votes for 261 of the 272 directly elected seats....

Three Red Cross workers and two Egyptian technicians who were abducted by armed men in Yemen's southern province of Abyan have all been released, Yemeni security officials said Thursday. The three staffers from the International Committee of the Red Cross had been held since Monday morning, when armed men stopped their ICRC-marked vehicle in the vicinity of Jaar, near the southern port city of Aden, the ICRC said in Geneva. The three _ two international staff and a locally hired employee _ were...

An Australian politician taking his morning jog through the national capital came out second best Thursday after crossing a kangaroo. Shane Rattenbury, a minister in the Australian Capital Territory government, which administers the city of Canberra, said he was running on a sidewalk in inner-suburban Ainslie and was only seconds away from a collision before he saw the eastern gray kangaroo at the end of a hedge grazing on a front lawn. "We both got a nasty fright, and of course when kangaroos...

For some, it was a barbaric way to treat animals. For others, it was great business. Until January, slaughterhouses across Poland _ a deeply Catholic nation _ were the unlikely venues for the Islamic and Jewish slaughter of animals, which in both religions involves a swift cut to the throat of a conscious animal and death by bleeding. Millions of euros were being made exporting the halal and kosher meat to countries like Egypt, Iran and Israel, as well as to Muslim and Jewish markets inside...

Tropical Storm Alvin, the first named storm of the east Pacific hurricane season is gradually strengthening off the coast of Mexico. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Alvin's maximum sustained winds early Thursday are near 50 mph (85 kph). The storm, which currently isn't a threat to land, could become a hurricane in the next day or two. As of 5 a.m. EDT, Alvin was centered about 705 miles (1,135 kilometers) south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico, and moving west-northwest near 10 mph (17...

A court has sentenced a Malaysian couple to 24 years in prison for fatally starving their Cambodian housemaid. Police found the body of Mey Sichan at the couple's home in Malaysia's northern Penang state in April last year. Medical reports said she weighed only 26 kilograms (57 pounds). The Penang High Court on Thursday convicted Soh Chew Tong and his wife, Chin Chui Ling, of causing the death. Their lawyer could not immediately be contacted to comment on a possible appeal. The death occurred...

Japan's economy grew by a stronger-than-expected 3.5 percent in annual terms last quarter, giving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a boost as his government tackles reforms needed to ensure a sustained recovery from two decades of malaise. Stronger consumer spending and public works investment coupled with aggressive monetary easing lent oomph to the recovery that began in the last quarter of 2012, when annual growth was 0.3 percent. The preliminary data for January to March showed the world's third-largest...

A plane crashed while trying to land at a mountain airstrip in northern Nepal early Thursday, and all 21 people on board, including eight Japanese tourists, survived with injuries, police said. Four of the injured were in critical condition, police officer Bhim Bahadur Chand said. The state-owned Nepal Airlines plane was carrying eight Japanese tourists. The others on board, including three crew members, are all Nepali. The Canadian-built Twin Otter plane was trying to land at Jomsom airport,...

Global economic malaise has knocked the stuffing out of Luo Yan's business making toy animals. Sales of Hello Kitty dolls and plush rabbits have fallen 30 percent over the past six months, according to Luo, owner of Tongle Toy Enterprise, which employs 100 people in the southern city of Foshan, near Hong Kong. Orders from the United States and debt-crippled Europe are down 80 percent. "We don't talk about profits anymore," said Luo. China's shaky recovery is losing steam, adding to pressure...

China downplayed border tensions with India on Thursday, days before the new Chinese premier visits the neighboring country on his first foreign visit since taking office in March. Disagreements over the Himalayan frontier can be handled under existing mechanisms and should not affect overall relations, Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao told reporters at a briefing. "China and India have historical border issues, but these are outweighed by our mutual interests and cooperation," Song said. Song...

About 2,000 demonstrators concerned about pollution have taken to the streets in southern China to protest plans for a planned refinery on the outskirts of the city of Kunming. Government officials said this week that the project by the powerful state company PetroChina will meet environmental standards and is crucial to the local economy. The refinery is expected to produce up to 10 million tons of refined oil annually. Citizens remain worried that the facility will pollute local air and water....

The Philippine president apologized to Taiwan for the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman by Philippine coast guard personnel, after Taiwan rejected an earlier Philippine apology and started retaliating diplomatically. In a subsequent statement late Wednesday, Taiwan's premier called the apology "a positive move," but said a series of sanctions imposed by Taipei on Manila to protest the action would remain in effect. A previously scheduled military exercise involving the coast guard, the navy...

A cyclone only a day away carries wind and rain that could become deadly. But in dozens of refugee camps that spatter Myanmar's western coast, the order to evacuate ahead of the storm was met with widespread refusal. Tens of thousands of displaced Rohingya people live in the plastic-roofed tents and huts made of reeds, and they distrust nearly any order from a government that barely acknowledges they exist. Even as rain and wind from the edges of Cyclone Mahasen began to pelt the coast near the...

A plane crashed while trying to land at a mountain airstrip in northern Nepal early Thursday, injuring all 21 people on board. Four of the injured are in critical condition, police officer Bhim Bahadur Chand said. No one was killed. Nine passengers are Japanese tourists, and the three crew members and the other passengers are all Nepali. The plane belonging to state-owned Nepal Airlines was trying to land at Jomsom airport, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of Katmandu, when it crashed...

New Zealand will sell a minority stake in a second power company this year as part of a plan to balance its books. The government on Thursday announced it plans to list state-owned Meridian Energy on the stock market by the end of the year. Last week, the government raised 1.7 billion New Zealand dollars ($1.4 billion) by selling a 49 percent stake in Mighty River Power in an initial public offering. The sale of shares in Meridian is likely to raise significantly more than that, although the...

Police in southern China detained a man early Thursday who is suspected of calling in fake bomb threats that grounded five domestic flights the previous day. The man was detained at a rental home in the city of Dongguan, police in the southern hub of Shenzhen said in an online statement. Police gave no word on a possible motive. They identified the suspect by his surname, Wang, and said he is 26, unemployed and from the autonomous northern territory of Inner Mongolia. He is accused of making...

Asian stock markets were mixed Thursday following dour European economic data that dampened hopes of a recovery there anytime soon. However, losses were limited by another record session on Wall Street. The European Union statistics office said Wednesday that nine of the 17 countries that use the euro are in recession, including France. The combined economy of the 17 countries shrank by 0.2 percent in the first three months of 2013 compared to the prior quarter. Meanwhile, the economy of Germany,...

Japan's economy enjoyed a stronger than expected recovery last quarter, growing at a 3.5 percent annual pace as the government stepped up public works spending and eased credit to encourage investment. The data for January to March showed the world's third-largest economy grew 0.9 percent on a quarterly basis, the fastest pace in a year, compared with revised 0.3 percent growth in the final quarter of 2012, as Japan inched its way out of recession. The figures were reported by the Cabinet Office...

Upset about plans for a petrochemical plant near her hometown in China, a woman turned to a new method that Chinese are using to air their complaints: she posted a petition on the White House's website. Then, Chinese police asked her to remove it. Last week's run-in with internal security agents turned into an unexpected lesson for the woman. "I didn't think (the petition) was a big deal and didn't foresee the ensuing events," said the woman, who asked to be identified only by the initials she...

Seismic activity is continuing at the Popocatepetl volcano near Mexico City and authorities say they have readied shelters and identified evacuation routes in case they should be needed. Mexico's National Disaster Prevention Center says there were two explosions at the white-capped volcano between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. The center says the volcano spewed a plume of steam about a mile (1.5 kilometer) into the sky. Authorities continue to monitor the volcano's activity but have not...

Colombia's Supreme Court has convicted a former longtime congressman of being the mastermind behind the massacre of 43 people by right-wing paramilitary fighters in the north of the country more than two decades ago. It has sentenced him to 30 years in prison. The high court says the 78-year-old Cesar Perez Garcia was found responsible for a "crime against humanity" as the result of the mass slaying the night of Nov. 11, 1988, in an area about 300 kilometers (about 185 miles) northwest of Bogota....

Nicaraguan authorities deported a U.S. man on Wednesday to face fraud and money laundering charges in his home country. Interior Minister Ana Morales said Lawrence Hartman was sent to Florida, where he was expected to appear in court Thursday. The 47-year-old lawyer was detained April 25 when he tried to get a Nicaraguan passport using a fraudulent birth certificate, Morales said. U.S. prosecutors say Hartman is one of seven people charged in Tampa, Florida, with operating an investment fraud...

An independent agency that investigates abuse allegations against Jamaica's security forces says the island's police need training in how to deal with mentally ill citizens. A report from the Independent Commission of Investigations says 75 percent of police confrontations with mentally ill suspects end in fatalities. It says six people believed to suffer from mental illnesses were killed by police in 2011. Commissioner Terrence Williams told reporters at a Wednesday news conference that police...

The Mexican government announced Wednesday it has fired an official whose daughter sent inspectors to shut down a restaurant that didn't give her the table she wanted. It's the latest comeuppance for the wealthy and well-connected who have recently caused anger in Mexico with arrogant behavior in public. Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong called a news conference to say the government fired Humberto Benitez Trevino as head of the country's consumer protection agency because his daughter...

Protesters and disgruntled job seekers forced the closure of an eastern Libyan oil terminal on Wednesday for the second time in six months, disrupting exports, said an oil ministry official. Deputy Oil and Gas Minister Omar al-Shakmak said dozens demonstrated at Zueitina terminal, demanding the Libyan National Oil Corporation make good on pledges to hire 340 people. This is the second time protesters have closed the terminal, through which flows 20 percent of Libya's 1.6 million barrels a day...

A human rights group says authorities in Equatorial Guinea have arrested nine activists before this month's legislative elections. Amnesty International said Wednesday the arrests were "further evidence of the authorities' determination to clamp down on free speech" before the May 26 vote. Activists had organized a demonstration for Wednesday because authorities in Equatorial Guinea had refused to register a new opposition political party. Noel Kututwa, Africa Program Deputy Director for Amnesty,...

In the judiciary's latest face-off with Egypt's Islamist rulers, the country's top council of judges decided Wednesday to suspend its participation in a government-backed judicial reform conference following a renewed push by lawmakers on a controversial bill that would force thousands of their colleagues into retirement. The declaration by the Supreme Judicial Council makes it unlikely that the conference, which aimed to give judges a chance to reform themselves, would reduce tensions between...

Two bombs exploded at a checkpoint outside a provincial governor's compound in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least one police officer, an official said. The explosions struck in the early morning in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. The first bomb wounded a policeman, and the second was remotely detonated minutes later as police swarmed to the blast scene to secure it. The second explosion killed one police officer and wounded at least five policemen and three civilian...

A Russian security services operative _ his features bathed in shadows _ went on state television Wednesday to claim that the U.S. diplomat who was ordered out of the country was the second American expelled this year over spying allegations. The anonymous operative said the CIA had failed to halt this "disturbing activity" despite Moscow asking it to do so. The TV report came one day after Russia ordered Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy, to leave the country after the Federal...

A lawyer says Bahraini courts have sentenced six people to a year in prison on charges of making Twitter posts deemed offensive to the Gulf nation's king. The convictions Wednesday are part of wider crackdowns across Gulf Arab states against perceived dissent expressed on social media, including imposing tougher media laws. Lawyer Shahzalan Khamis says the prosecution claimed the six suspects violated laws with posts critical of Bahrain King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. No other details on the posts...

A car bomb exploded near a bus station in Baghdad's main Shiite district Wednesday, the deadliest in a series of explosions that killed at least 33 people nationwide, officials said. The bloodshed came amid growing tensions between the Shiite-led government and minority Sunnis following a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in the country's north. Violence has ebbed sharply in Iraq, but a spike in attacks has raised fears about a return of the sectarian bloodshed that pushed the...

U.N. nuclear agency officials on Wednesday again failed to reach a deal with Iranian counterparts that would allow the agency to relaunch its probe of suspicions that Tehran might have worked on atomic arms. It was the 10th inconclusive meeting between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran on the issue over the past year and a half. The IAEA's investigation has stalled for more than five years, with Tehran saying it has answered all questions it is obliged to. Iran denies any interest...

You can see the streets where he grew up and played soccer, the church where Jorge Bergoglio prayed as a teenager and the cathedral where the man who would become Pope Francis said Mass. You can even visit the stand where he bought his newspapers every weekend and where he went for a haircut. With an Argentine on the throne of St. Peter, the South American country's capital city has launched a series of guided tours to give visitors a glimpse of the places that formed Francis, even if the bus...

The eurozone is now in its longest ever recession _ a stubborn slump that has surpassed even the calamity that hit the region in the financial crisis of 2008-2009. The European Union statistics office said Wednesday that nine of the 17 EU countries that use the euro are in recession, with France a notable addition to the list. Overall, the eurozone's economy contracted for the sixth straight quarter, shrinking by 0.2 percent in the January-March period from the previous three months. Though the...

A 6-year-old girl drowned when a small boat crammed with immigrants trying to enter Greece illegally sank off an eastern Aegean Sea islet. Greece's Merchant Marine Ministry says 21 people, mainly Syrians, were rescued after the vessel foundered for unknown reasons Wednesday off Farmakonissi. The nationality of the drowned child was not available. Uninhabited Farmakonissi, just off the Turkish coast, is regularly used by human trafficking rings to drop off people who pay them handsomely to be...

Puerto Rico's representative in Congress is seeking an unprecedented yes-or-no vote on whether the island should become the 51st state, submitting a bill Wednesday that riled many in the U.S. territory. The proposal by Pedro Pierluisi calls for a federally approved ratifying vote in which Puerto Ricans would be asked if they want their island to become a state. If the majority agrees, the bill calls for the president to submit legislation to Congress within 180 days. "I expect a clear and firm...

A plan to turn Mali into a stable democracy rather than a terrorist haven drew massive support Wednesday as various nations and international organizations pledged 3.25 billion euros ($4.22 billion) to help reconstruct the conflict-ridden West African nation. The objective of the donors' conference in Brussels had been to raise 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) to support an ambitious 4.3 billion euro ($5.6 billion) plan drafted by Malian officials aimed at helping what many observers now view as...

Nigeria rumbled to a war footing Wednesday as soldiers and equipment moved into its northeastern states as part of an emergency military campaign against Islamic extremists waging a bloody insurgency. In the last two days, Associated Press journalists and witnesses have seen armored tanks and soldiers moving through major roads and cities in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. Those states, crossing an arid region of some 155,000 square kilometers (60,000 square miles), are now under a state of emergency...

The eurozone is stuck in recession _ its longest since the euro was founded in 1999. The latest figures from the European Union's statistics office show that the economy of the 17 EU countries that use the euro shrank for a sixth straight quarter, slumping by 0.2 percent in the January-March period from the previous three months. Initially it was just the countries at the forefront of the eurozone's debt crisis, such as Greece and Portugal, that were contracting. But the malaise is now spreading...

A major casino operator is accusing Phil Ivey, an American who is one of the world's top professional poker players, of amassing millions of dollars in winnings by cheating at baccarat. Court papers filed in Britain's High Court by the Malaysia-based Genting Group say that Ivey and an accomplice successfully used a scam to rack up winnings of roughly 7.8 million pounds ($11.9 million) last summer. The case has rocked the world of professional poker by pitting one of its most charismatic young...

There's a storage room just off a university lab that gives students more experience than many can handle: Skinned pigs and cats, disembodied cow livers, intestines, brains and the other unidentifiable detritus of years' worth of dissections fill a dozen wading pool-sized vats to the brim. With the veterinary department's incinerator long on the fritz, the stomach-turning, formaldehyde-drenched mass of animal carcasses and organs grows by the day. Similar scenes of neglect and decay play out...

Over a decade ago, the man now set to become Pakistan's next prime minister stood at this border crossing with archenemy India to inaugurate a "friendship" bus service connecting the two countries as cheering supporters waved flags and tossed rose petals. There is widespread hope on both sides of the border that Nawaz Sharif will take similarly bold steps to improve relations with India following his election victory over the weekend, thus reducing the chance of a fourth major war between the...

Cyprus may finally get its piece of the moon. Some 40 years ago, the Mediterranean island nation was supposed to receive a 1.1 gram piece of moon rock from the United States. The rock was one of 270 such lunar samples U.S. astronauts brought back from Apollo moon missions in 1969 and 1972 that the Nixon administration gave as gifts to foreign countries. But the item vanished _ allegedly taken by a relative of an American diplomat. And with Cyprus reeling from war and internal strife in 1974,...

Representatives of Colombia's government and largest rebel army have resumed peace talks in the Cuban capital. Both sides say they hope to reach an agreement soon on the first of six agenda items: agrarian reform. The talks recessed May 3, and Colombian analysts expressed dismay that six months at the negotiating table had yet to yield a deal on land. Jorge Torres Victoria is a commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who uses the nom de guerre Pablo Catatumbo. He said...

A couple of wigs, sunglasses and a compass? Really? Some of the items Russian authorities say they seized from a U.S. diplomat who they accuse of spying look like they came from Austin Powers' arsenal rather than James Bond's. But while the old-fashioned items might seem clownish or reminiscent of Cold War intrigues, they could in some ways be more useful than many modern gadgets, experts say. Bob Ayers, a former U.S. intelligence officer, said disguises and cash drops have long been staples...

The Congolese army says that 32 were killed in fighting between soldiers and Mai Mai militiamen. The rebels launched an assault early Wednesday on the town of Beni, 220 miles (350 kilometers) north of Goma. Army spokesman Col. Olivier Hamuli said the assailants targeted a military center there. At least 24 militiamen were killed and three soldiers died including a lieutenant colonel. He said five others who were awaiting transfer to a military training center also were killed. Resident Jean...

Polish officials have honored Irena Sendler, a Polish woman credited with saving 2,500 Jewish children from the Holocaust, by naming a walkway in a symbolically important spot after her. Sendler was a social worker who smuggled Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto during World War II, when Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany. The children were placed with Christian families and in convents and given new names. Sendler died in 2008. President Bronislaw Komorowski and Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz...

Japan's nuclear watchdog announced Wednesday that a trouble-plagued next-generation test reactor will not be allowed to restart due to safety violations, dealing a setback to the country's pro-nuclear government. The Nuclear Regulation Authority's decision is the latest blow to the Monju fast-breeder reactor and Japan's nuclear fuel cycle program. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is hoping that Monju will be a key part of Japan's plans for disposing of atomic waste and reducing the...

Dozens of paintings, a silver tea set and other items belonging to Nelson Mandela's ex-wife Winnie will be auctioned next week to pay off debts she owes to a South African school. The sale will happen at the home of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, a polarizing figure who was beloved by many for her role in the anti-apartheid struggle but was also involved in legal troubles over the years, including a kidnapping conviction in the early 1990s. Madikizela-Mandela collects a salary as a member of parliament,...

Japan's parliament has approved a record-high 92.6 trillion yen ($906.2 billion) budget for this fiscal year, raising military spending for the first time in 11 years and boosting public works outlays to help revive the economy. The budget was approved late Wednesday after the lower house of parliament, whose decision takes precedence, overrode its rejection by the opposition-dominated upper house. The lower house, which passed the budget on April 16, is controlled by a coalition led by the ruling...

Mining activities at a giant U.S.-owned gold and copper mine in Indonesia were halted Wednesday as rescuers using jacks, saws and wheelbarrows dug through a caved-in mine tunnel looking for about 25 trapped workers, the mine operator said. Four bodies have been found and 10 miners rescued since the cave-in occurred Tuesday morning. Oxygen was being pumped into the tunnel as the search continued, but the status of the trapped workers was not known. Heavy equipment cannot be used in the tight space,...

Hard-line Iranian lawmakers have petitioned authorities to bar two prominent presidential contenders _ a moderate former president and a protege of current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad _ from running in next month's election in a further sign of intense political jockeying over the final ballot list. The Tuesday appeal by nearly 100 parliament members reflects worries over the potential election-swaying influence of ex-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a close confident...

A preliminary report into last month's Lion Air plane crash off the resort island of Bali urges the budget carrier to immediately address safety concerns by providing more training for pilots during critical landing times. The National Transportation Safety Committee's investigation did not outline what caused the accident, but said the brand new Boeing 737-800 aircraft was airworthy. It issued three safety recommendations for Lion Air to ensure its pilots are properly trained and follow regulations...

The U.S. Navy is putting underwater drones through wartime-style drills as part of international mine-clearing exercises in the Persian Gulf following similar maneuvers by Iran. The U.S.-led exercises, which began last week, include operations by the unmanned SeaFox devices, which are equipped with sonar and an explosive charge designed to shoot and destroy mines. It is part of the Navy's plans to increasingly deploy automated surveillance and protection systems, including aerial drones. Navy...

A 12-year-old Russian boy was stabbed nearly two dozen times while on vacation on the island of Crete, allegedly by a Dutchman working as an entertainer at the child's hotel, Greek authorities said. The boy was airlifted to Athens on a military plane and hospitalized in serious condition Wednesday. The medical examiner who inspected the boy's wounds in Crete, Antonis Papadomanolakis, told state television the child suffered 20 stab wounds. He was being treated in the main children's hospital...

Thailand has limited the use of shackles on more than 500 prisoners who committed serious crimes in a move to conform to international human rights standards. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Wednesday the initiative also shows the government's intent to switch its emphasis from punishment to rehabilitation of inmates. Under the pilot project, 563 well-behaved inmates out of 800 prisoners at Central Bangkwang Prison have had the shackles removed from their ankles since January. Previously,...

At just 13, Radomir Franz already knew he wanted to be a taxidermist. He credits a boyhood trip to a natural science museum with capturing his imagination. More than three decades later, he's one of central Europe's most sought-after experts in the field _ and says he has stuffed animals from every country except, perhaps, Greenland. On a recent visit, some of his 15 staff _ all of whom he trained because there's no other place to learn the trade in the Czech Republic _ were stuffing an elephant's...

Two doves celebrated their freedom with a soaring flight over St. Peter's Square on Wednesday, all thanks to Pope Francis. As Francis toured the square in his open-topped popemobile at his weekly public audience, someone in the crowd thrust a white bird cage with two doves inside at him. Looking puzzled, his security detail took the cage and handed it to Francis. Without hesitation, the pope opened the cage door, thrust a hand inside, extracted one dove and sent it to fly over the vast square....

Bulgaria's president says he will start talks with the four parties represented in the new legislature following last weekend's election. President Rosen Plevneliev said he will announce when parliament will convene after holding those talks Friday, but it will be before May ends. The Central Electoral Commission said Wednesday that the center-right GERB party took 30.5 percent of the vote while the Socialists got 26.6 percent. The other two groups in the parliament are the mainly Turkish MRF...

Six people were killed and dozens more injured when a four-story building under construction collapsed in eastern Rwanda, police said Wednesday as the rescue effort ended. Christophe Semuhungu, the police spokesman for Rwanda's Eastern Province, said rescue workers from the police and the military had found no more bodies after combing through the rubble of the building in the eastern Rwanda district of Nyagatare. He said at least 30 workers were injured in the Tuesday afternoon incident. Most...

The top U.S. envoy on North Korea says China has indicated it will continue to implement sanctions against Pyongyang. The U.N. sanctions are intended to make North Korea abandon its nuclear programs. China is North Korea's economic lifeline. The envoy, Glyn Davies, was in Beijing on Wednesday for meetings with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, and other officials. He said they had "excellent and very useful" conversations on North Korea. He told reporters that China is "seeking to convey messages...

Malaysia's leader named a new Cabinet on Wednesday in an effort to restore confidence in a long-ruling coalition that won national elections last week with a smaller majority. Prime Minister Najib Razak chose a mix of experienced officials and fresher faces meant to reinvigorate an administration accused of losing touch with many Malaysians. Najib said he considered his selection "a balanced Cabinet of experienced figures, technocrats and those who represent the young." He announced the Cabinet...

China is trying to strengthen its claim on tiny, uninhabited, Japanese-controlled islands by raising questions about the much larger Okinawa chain that is home to more than a million Japanese along with major U.S. military installations. The tactic, however, appears to have done little but harden Tokyo's stance. Japan refuses to offer any concessions to China over Tokyo's control of the uninhabited East China Sea islands, which are called Diaoyu by China and Senkaku by Japan. Tokyo issued a formal...

Tunisia is taking a harder line on preaching by ultraconservative Muslim groups, a crackdown that has sparked demonstrations by rock-throwing protesters and ominous warnings of terrorist attacks to come. As it struggles to hunt down al-Qaida linked terrorists in its frontiers, the government has also been trying to rein in salafis emboldened by the fall of the country's repressive dictatorship two years ago. The interior minister said last week that gatherings will require permission, a measure...

The recession across the economy of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro continued into the first three months of 2013, according to the latest figures from the EU's statistical agency, Eurostat. The figures, released Wednesday, also showed that the wider 27-country EU has slipped in to a recession _ defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Here is a glance at how Europe's economies have managed. Growth rates in Gross Domestic Product across Europe (percentage...

France's economy is in recession again _ and that could spell more trouble for Europe. The national statistics agency, Insee, said Wednesday that gross domestic product fell 0.2 percent in the first quarter of the year. The agency also revised its data for the fourth quarter of last year, saying GDP fell 0.2 percent, up from a 0.3 percent retraction. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. News of the fall into recession comes on the first anniversary of President...

Air India says the cockpit door of one of its planes got jammed during a flight while the captain was using the toilet, forcing an unscheduled landing by the co-pilot in central India. An airline statement says the captain couldn't return to the cockpit because the door was locked and that all efforts to open it, even from inside, failed during Tuesday's flight from New Delhi to the southern Indian city of Bangalore. The co-pilot landed the plane at the nearest airport. The door was fixed by...

A South Korean presidential spokesman who was fired after inappropriately touching a woman during a U.S. trip blames a "cultural difference" with America. Other South Koreans say the fault for such incidents truly lies with a society that allows powerful men to get away with harassment. Five months after the country elected its first female leader, Park Geun-hye, last week's incident involving her spokesman Yoon Chang-jung marred her first trip to Washington as president. It also highlighted the...

Indonesian police say they have arrested three suspected Islamic militants thought to be planning terror attacks, including the nephew of a radical cleric imprisoned on terror charges. Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar says Samidi, an alleged instructor at a jihadist military-camp on Sulawesi island, was arrested Tuesday in Central Java's Purwokerto town. Hours later, suspected bomb maker Slamet Pilih Utomo was arrested in Solo, the hometown of radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir. Amar...

Hong Kong's corruption watchdog has launched a criminal investigation of its former chief following complaints of excessive spending when giving tens of thousands of dollars in gifts to mainland Chinese and other officials. The Asian financial center's anticorruption agency and Department of Justice said Tuesday there was "sufficient basis" to open an investigation into allegations of possible bribery and misconduct by Timothy Tong. Tong was commissioner of the Independent Commission Against...

An American citizen sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for what Pyongyang has described as hostile acts against the state has started life at a "special prison," state media said Wednesday. Kenneth Bae entered the prison Tuesday, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a short dispatch, but no other new details were provided about the American arrested in November who Pyongyang accuses of trying to establish an anti-Pyongyang base in the North. Two South Korean experts on North Korean...

Okinawa has marked the anniversary of its return to Japan after decades of post-World War II U.S. occupation amid snubs from Tokyo and growing concerns over the concentration of the roughly 25,000 U.S. forces still on their islands. Tensions between Okinawans and the central government in Tokyo are longstanding, but Wednesday's anniversary of the May 15, 1972, reversion comes at a particularly awkward time. Protests were planned in Tokyo and there were no official ceremonies in Okinawa. Last...

On the surface, the Arab League's improved peace initiative offers Israel everything it ever dreamed of _ normal relations with an entire region that has long objected to the very existence of the Jewish state, and even the chance to keep some war-won land. But two weeks after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry persuaded Arab leaders to reissue their 2002 offer with new incentives, Israel is maintaining a striking silence, and critics are accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of missing a...

An overcrowded boat capsized while trying to escape a cyclone bearing down on Myanmar, tossing dozens of members of the displaced Rohingya minority group into the sea. Eight bodies were found and more than 50 people were missing and feared dead, the United Nations said. More than 100 people were aboard the boat when it set sail late Monday night, but only 42 had been rescued, James Munn, an official with the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Tuesday. They are among...

Hong Kong's corruption watchdog has launched a criminal investigation of its former chief following complaints of excessive spending when giving tens of thousands of dollars in gifts to mainland Chinese and other officials. The Asian financial center's anticorruption agency and Department of Justice said Tuesday there was "sufficient basis" to open an investigation into allegations of possible bribery and misconduct by Timothy Tong. Tong was commissioner of the Independent Commission Against...

Taiwan slammed Manila's response to the shooting death of a Taiwanese fisherman as informal and insincere, and said Wednesday it is recalling its representative and will discourage travel to the Philippines. Premier Jiang Yi-huah said the government was displeased with the apology delivered by the Philippine representative office in Taipei. Taiwan will not accept anything short of a Philippine government apology, he said. "The shooting was conducted by one of its civil servants, and its government...

In a rare departure from her characteristically tough style, a teary-eyed Prime Minister Julia Gillard introduced a new tax bill to Parliament on Wednesday that would fund better care for Australians with severe physical and mental disabilities. During an emotional speech to Parliament, Gillard's voice became unsteady after she spoke of a thank you card she had recently received that featured her photograph taken by a 12-year-old girl who has Down syndrome. Gillard said the tax would provide...

Enthusiasm on Wall Street sparked by another positive report on the U.S. economy helped push most Asian stock markets higher Wednesday. The National Federation of Independent Business reported a slight improvement in confidence among small business owners in the U.S. in April. That helped boost the Dow Jones industrial average to close at a record high Tuesday. "A combination of further improvement of economic performance and low inflation in the US should keep risk appetite buoyant," said analysts...

Rescuers have found four bodies and rescued 10 of the dozens trapped underground after a tunnel caved in at a giant U.S.-owned gold and copper mine in eastern Indonesia, police said Wednesday. The search continued for around 27 other workers a day after the cave-in, Papua police spokesman Lt. Col. Gede Sumerta Jaya said. The collapse occurred Tuesday morning at the Grasberg mine in remote Mimika district in Papua, the easternmost province in the vast archipelago nation. "We don't want to be careless...

Haitian President Michel Martelly defended his administration Tuesday as he marked two years in office, pointing to a national school-tuition program, social protection projects and the return of tourism as his leading achievements. Pacing on a stage in downtown Port-au-Prince, Martelly ad-libbed for about 30 minutes about his government's accomplishments that were detailed in a 500-page book that he held aloft. He also said he opposed the division that has long been a hallmark of Haitian politics...

A U.S. diplomat was ordered Tuesday to leave the country after the Kremlin's security services said he tried to recruit a Russian agent, and they displayed tradecraft tools that seemed straight from a cheap spy thriller: wigs, packets of cash, a knife, map and compass, and a letter promising millions for "long-term cooperation." The FSB, the successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, identified the diplomat as Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, detaining him briefly...

A judge has suspended a preliminary order that blocked the signing of a deal giving a multinational consortium the right to run Rio de Janeiro's Maracana Stadium for 35 years. Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht, Los Angeles-based sports and entertainment company AEG and the sports and entertainment company IMX, which is owned by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista, won the contract Thursday. Then a local judge ruled that the deal couldn't be finalized ahead of a decision on the legality...

The men who beat Malcolm Shabazz to death not only punched and kick him but also used a bat or stick during the attack, Mexico City's top prosecutor said Tuesday. Prosecutor Rodolfo Rios said the two waiters arrested in the case had served the grandson of civil rights activist Malcolm X and a friend at the Palace bar near Plaza Garibaldi. Shabazz's friend, Miguel Suarez, told investigators that the two had consumed about a dozen beers and then the waiters demanded they pay a tab of 15,000 pesos,...

A U.S. military spokesman says medics at the Guantanamo Bay prison were called to a cell amid a long-running hunger strike at the U.S. base in Cuba. Navy Capt. Robert Durand says the prisoner had been reported "unresponsive" while being checked by guards inside the section of the prison known as Camp 5. Durand says the prisoner was examined, determined to be OK and returned to his cell. His identity was not disclosed. The so-called "code yellow" occurred Tuesday as 100 prisoners were on hunger...

An American Airlines jetliner bound for Panama made a safe emergency landing in the Cayman Islands on Tuesday, aviation officials in the British Caribbean territory said. The Cayman Islands Airport Authority said the flight took off from Miami with 147 passengers. After an unspecified "mechanical problem" was detected, the plane diverted and landed at Owen Roberts International Airport on the territory's main island of Grand Cayman, the authority said. All airport emergency services were on standby...

The Cold War is long over, but espionage is forever. Russian spies still operate in the U.S. and American ones in Russia. On Tuesday, Russia's security services said they had caught a U.S. diplomat who they claim is a CIA official trying to recruit a Russian agent. Here are some other cases of apparent spying between the old rivals: THE ANNA CHAPMAN RING These Russian spies lived in suburban U.S. homes and worked at jobs like real estate brokers or travel agents, quietly inserting themselves...

An overcrowded boat capsized while trying to escape a cyclone bearing down on Myanmar, tossing dozens of people into the sea. Eight bodies were found and more than 50 people were missing and feared dead, the United Nations said Tuesday. More than 100 Rohingya were aboard the boat when it set sail late Monday night, said James Munn, an official with the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The U.N. said tens of thousands of Rohingya were endangered by the storm. About 140,000...

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court _ the permanent war crimes court in The Hague, Netherlands _ says she has received a complaint about Israel's 2010 raid on a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for Gaza, and she will open a preliminary investigation. The complaint comes from the tiny African state of Comoros, a member of the court, though Israel is not. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she met Tuesday with lawyers from a Turkish law firm that is representing Comoros. Eight Turks and...

A driver who tried to escape arrest by claiming political connections was charged with manslaughter Tuesday after the woman she hit with her Porsche last week in Mexico City died of her injuries. Mexico is experiencing a backlash against the common practice of wealthy or well-connected people trying to browbeat police and businesses, after a series of such incidents were pilloried on social networking sites. On Thursday, suspect Dalia Ortega lost control of the Porsche she was driving in a quiet...

Admitting Islamic extremists now control some of his nation's villages and towns, Nigeria's president declared a state of emergency Tuesday across the country's troubled northeast, promising to send more troops to fight what he said is now an open rebellion. President Goodluck Jonathan, speaking live on state radio and television networks, also warned that any building suspected to house Islamic extremists would be taken over in what he described as the "war" now facing Africa's most populous...

Lebanese members of the Syrian leader's Alawite sect fear their tiny community will be a casualty of the civil war raging in the neighboring country. Already, Sunni Muslim extremists have stoned a school bus, vandalized stores and beaten or stabbed a number of men in a wave of attacks against Lebanese Alawites, stoking fears of even more violence should Syrian President Bashar Assad be removed from power. In one particularly humiliating case, angry Sunnis tied a rope around an Alawite man's...

The vote count from last weekend's nationwide elections in Pakistan on Tuesday indicates a big win for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party. Figures released by the country's election commission, based on 254 of the 269 races where the counting has been completed, show Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party will likely get a majority in the national assembly, setting him up to be prime minister for the third time. As the new premier, the 63-year-old Sharif, a devout Muslim and a populist,...

For years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been saddled with an image of a cigar-smoking, cognac-drinking socialite. Now a new disclosure about his soaring spending on housekeeping, furniture, clothing and other expenses is increasing pressure on him in a country whose leaders once were known for washing their own dishes and taking out the garbage. The uproar, which began with a TV station's report that Netanyahu spent $127,000 in public funds for a special sleeping cabin on a recent...

A convoy of gunmen opened fire on a row of liquor stores in eastern Baghdad immediately after sunset on Tuesday, killing 11 people and wounding five others, officials said. Police said the gunmen were in four cars that had stopped in the area and attacked shortly after sunset. Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to media. The attack in the Zayouna neighborhood came as the stores were at their peak...