Major test arrives for U.S. strategy in Afghanistan
Feb 10, 12:17 AM
U.S. and Afghan forces pushed Tuesday to the edge of the southern Afghan town of Marjah, trying to seize the major Taliban supply and drug-smuggling stronghold. The burgeoning U.S.-led offensive aims to build public support by providing aid and services once the insurgents are gone.
Iran moves to further uranium processing
Feb 9, 10:40 PMTEHRAN, Iran | Iranian nuclear technicians set dozens of centrifuges spinning Tuesday to begin enriching uranium stocks to a significantly higher level. The controversial move prompted President Barack Obama to warn of a “significant regime of sanctions.” Iran’s acceleration in its enrichment program was a defiant step that puts weapons-grade uranium in closer reach, should Tehran choose to go after the bomb. It was also another in a series of mixed messages that appeared calculated to boost Iran’s leverage in negotiations with world powers on limiting its nuclear program.
Tel Aviv “savior” accused of enslaving women
Feb 8, 11:06 PM
JERUSALEM | The women tattooed his name and portrait on their bodies and gave their children his name — Savior. They spoon-fed the bearded, one-time healer as if he were royalty, brushed his shoulder-length white locks, sent him text messages when they were ovulating and slept with him at his bidding. They turned over wages and welfare payments to him, and lived in cramped, rundown Tel Aviv apartments with the children they bore him. According to police, he fathered some of his own daughters’ children.
Top Canadian military official charged with murder
Feb 8, 10:56 PM
TORONTO | The commander of Canada’s largest air force base has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of two women Chris Nicholas, detective inspector of the Ontario Provincial Police, said Monday that Col. Russell Williams, 46, was also charged in the sexual assaults of two other women. Williams was arrested Sunday in Ottawa.
French government seeks to boost national identity
Feb 8, 10:56 PMPARIS | The French flag will be hoisted at every school in France and the national anthem sung by students at least once a year as part of government efforts to instill in citizens a sense of pride in being French, Prime Minister Francois Fillon has announced. Language training and instruction on gender equality are foreseen for newly arrived immigrants, and new citizens will attend solemn ceremonies and sign pacts listing the duties that go with being French once a law is adjusted to make that possible.
Newest threat for Haiti: Rainy season approaches
Feb 8, 11:06 PMPORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti | Survivors of Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake have had one saving grace: There’s been no significant rain since the disaster. But that won’t last. The rainy season in Haiti is deadly even in a good year. Now, in a devastated capital city, the early spring rains threaten to cause landslides and bring about health problems in the makeshift camps where more than 500,000 people are living.
Exit polls favor Yanukovych in Ukraine race
Feb 8, 12:01 AM
KIEV, Ukraine | Exit polls showed pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych with a narrow lead in Ukraine’s presidential runoff, a result that would close the book on Ukraine’s pro-Western Orange Revolution but raise the risk of postelection unrest. Yanukovych declared victory, but his opponent, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a leader of Orange forces, rejected the exit poll data and said Sunday’s race was too close to call.
Iran takes new nuclear step
Feb 7, 10:51 PMTEHRAN, Iran | Iran’s president on Sunday called on his atomic agency to significantly enrich the country’s stockpile of uranium, angering Western nations who want to the Islamic republic to halt its nuclear program. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad maintained, however, that Iran was also still willing to follow a U.N. plan to send its uranium abroad for further enrichment. Refining uranium produces nuclear fuel for a power plant but if carried out far enough can create material for a weapon.
Final chapters | Recent deaths in the news
Feb 6, 9:11 PM
David Brown, film and theater producer who helped bring to the screen two of the 1970s’ biggest hits, “Jaws” and “The Sting.” Brown died Monday at his New York home after a long illness. He was 93. As a producer, he was nominated for the best picture Oscar four times, for “Jaws,” 1975; “The Verdict,” 1982; “A Few Good Men,” 1992; and “Chocolat,” 2000.
Costa Rica expected to elect its first woman president
Feb 4, 10:41 PM
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica | Voters appear likely to elect the country’s first female president, a protege of Nobel laureate Oscar Arias. Laura Chinchilla holds a nearly 20-point lead over two male rivals ahead of Sunday’s balloting.
Compromise may save Northern Ireland power-sharing
Feb 4, 10:41 PMBELFAST, Northern Ireland | Lawmakers from Northern Ireland’s main Protestant party have unanimously backed a compromise with the Catholic minority to save their power-sharing government, Democratic Unionist Party leader Peter Robinson declared today. Robinson, leader of the 2 1/2 -year-old coalition at the heart of Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace accord, announced the breakthrough following 10 days and nights of negotiations that had left negotiators on the edge of exhaustion.
Parents say they handed children over to missionaries
Feb 3, 11:09 PMCALLEBAS, Haiti | Desperate parents in this struggling village perched above Haiti’s earthquake-flattened capital said they gave their children away willingly, trusting the American missionaries who promised to take them to a better life. The stories the villagers told The Associated Press on Wednesday contradict claims by the Baptist group’s leader that the children came from orphanages or were handed over by distant relatives.
Vegetative patients show some response
Feb 3, 10:59 PMNEW YORK | Scientists have detected glimmers of awareness in some vegetative brain-injury patients and even communicated with one of them, according to a study published Wednesday. The findings, published online Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, are certain to rekindle debate over life-sustaining care for those with grievous brain injuries.
Medical journal retracts study linking vaccine, autism
Feb 2, 11:09 PMLOS ANGELES | A prominent international medical journal, the Lancet, on Tuesday formally retracted a 1998 research paper that purported that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine causes autism. The action came less than a week after the U.K. General Medical Council’s Fitness to Practice Panel concluded that Andrew Wakefield, the study’s author, had provided false information in the report and acted with “callous disregard” for the children in the study. The council is now considering whether Wakefield is guilty of serious professional misconduct. A positive finding could cause him to lose his medical practice.
Critical months ahead for Afghanistan
Feb 2, 10:09 PMWASHINGTON | The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday the next 12 to 18 months will be critical to reversing momentum gained by insurgents in Afghanistan, with nothing short of the war-torn nation’s security at stake. Not only that, Adm. Mike Mullen told the Senate Armed Services Committee: “Our future security is greatly imperiled if we do not win the wars we are in.”
Kidnapping victims free after car chase, shootout
Feb 2, 9:43 PMMEXICO CITY | A kidnapping attempt in northern Mexico led to a highway car chase and gun battle that left seven gunmen and a federal police officer dead, Mexican authorities said Tuesday. The federal Public Safety Ministry said two kidnapping victims were freed after the late-Monday shootout with gunmen thought to belong to the drug-trafficking gang known as the Zetas.
Russia’s Novaya Gazeta Web site hacked, paralyzed
Feb 1, 10:40 PMMOSCOW | The Web site of Russia’s highest-profile independent newspaper has been paralyzed for a week by a sustained attack from hackers, its deputy editor said Monday. Novaya Gazeta’s Andrei Lipsky said Monday was the seventh day of a debilitating denial-of-service attack from an unknown source.
Female suicide bomber in Iraq kills 54
Feb 1, 10:40 PM
BAGHDAD | A female suicide bomber detonated her explosives inside a way station for Shiite pilgrims Monday, killing 54 people. The attack was the third major strike by suspected Sunni insurgents in a week.
China plans broad retaliation for U.S. arms sales to Taiwan
Jan 30, 8:10 PMHONG KONG | The Chinese government announced late Saturday an unusually broad series of retaliatory measures in response to the latest U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. The statement signaled a souring of relations between the world’s two largest economies.
Recent deaths in the news
Jan 30, 8:45 PM
J.D. Salinger, enormously influential author who wrote “The Catcher in the Rye.” Salinger died of natural causes Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., where he had lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. He was 91. Howard Zinn, historian and shipyard worker, civil rights activist and World War II bombardier, and author of “A People’s History of the United States,” a best seller that inspired a generation of high school and college students to rethink American history. Zinn died of a heart attack Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 87 and lived in Auburndale, Mass.
TODAY'S TOP 5
- More than 60 feared dead, 400 hurt in Afghanistan avalanches
- Irish victims of sexual abuse by clergy ask pope to replace bishops
- Vice president now acting president of Nigeria
- Political supporters clash in streets of Sri Lanka
- Haiti raises earthquake's death toll to 230,000
FROM NEWS SERVICES
Ukraine vote count shows win for Yanukovych
Feb 10, 4:50 AM
Opposition candidate Viktor Yanukovych has narrowly defeated Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in Ukraine's bitterly fought presidential race, a preliminary vote count showed Wednesday.
Court: UK gov't must release Gitmo detainee intel
Feb 10, 4:00 AMBritain's Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling that the government must disclose secret intelligence about the treatment of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who says he was tortured in U.S. custody.
Britain discloses secret data on terror prisoner
Feb 10, 4:30 AMBritain's government on Wednesday disclosed once-secret information on the treatment of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who says he was tortured in U.S. custody, losing an extended court battle to keep the material classified.
China high court stresses 'mercy' in death penalty
Feb 9, 11:45 PMChina's highest court has issued new guidelines on the death penalty that instruct lower courts to limit its use to a small number of "extremely serious" cases.
Officials: Afghan avalanches kill 157 people
Feb 10, 4:50 AMThe death toll from massive avalanches that blocked a mountain pass north of Kabul soared to 157, as hundreds more remained trapped in their snowbound vehicles, Afghan officials said Wednesday.
Vietnam War-era shell explodes, injuring 4
Feb 10, 3:10 AMOfficials say a Vietnam War-era artillery shell has exploded at a coffee plantation. Four men were injured, three seriously.
Soldier detained over teen's death in Kashmir
Feb 10, 4:20 AM
A soldier suspected of involvement in the shooting death of a teenager in Indian-controlled Kashmir was detained after the killing triggered massive anti-India protests across the region.
UN forecasts 'stable' Afghan opium crop
Feb 10, 2:15 AMAfter a major drop over the past two years, Afghanistan's opium cultivation is unlikely to rise or fall dramatically in 2010, a U.N. report said Wednesday.
China jails young man for joining political party
Feb 10, 2:40 AM
A 20-year-old factory worker who joined a banned political party because he was unhappy with one-party rule in China was sentenced to jail for 18 months Wednesday, his mother said.
Pakistani officials: Taliban chief is dead
Feb 10, 4:55 AMPakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has died, the country's top civilian security official told The Associated Press Wednesday, giving the government's first categorical confirmation of the death of the feared militant leader.
Iran says nuclear fuel swap remains an option
Feb 10, 4:35 AMA top Iranian official says a nuclear fuel swap with the West proposed under a U.N.-drafted plan remains an option.
Iran rewards Basij militia with political clout
Feb 10, 2:20 AM
During an Iranian government meeting late last month, a top adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brought a proposal to expand the political voice of a group more known for its street muscle: the civilian militia corps called the Basij.
China declares new national food-safety campaign
Feb 10, 2:40 AMChina declared a new food-safety campaign Wednesday after contaminated milk products from an earlier scandal showed up repackaged in several places around the country, exposing weaknesses in the country's promise to stop such problems from happening again.
NZ teen kidnaps puppy to save it from euthanasia
Feb 10, 4:00 AMA New Zealand teenager faced legal action after he stole his own injured puppy from a clinic to save it from euthanasia when the family couldn't afford expensive surgery after it was hit by a car.
China urges more talks on Iran nuclear plans
Feb 9, 2:01 AMChina has called for more talks in the wake of calls by other world powers for possible sanctions on Iran if it goes through with its intention to enrich uranium to higher levels.
Haiti raises earthquake's death toll to 230,000
Feb 9, 6:31 PMHaiti's government has raised the death toll for the Jan. 12 earthquake to 230,000 from 212,000 and says more bodies remain uncounted.
Anti-whalers, Japanese fleet fire water cannons
Feb 9, 6:01 AM
Activists vowing to stop the killing of whales exchanged water-cannon fire with a Japanese whaling fleet they are tailing in the Antarctic Ocean, as sea confrontations that have led to collisions and a sunken vessel continue.
Canadian police look into old cases after arrest
Feb 9, 6:00 PM
Canadian authorities are looking into unsolved murder and sexual assault cases after charging the commander of Canada's largest Air Force base with the murder of two women and the sexual assault of two others.
Iran boosts nuclear enrichment, drawing warnings
Feb 9, 8:32 PM
Iranian nuclear technicians set dozens of centrifuges spinning Tuesday to begin enriching uranium stocks to a significantly higher level, prompting President Barack Obama to warn of a "significant regime of sanctions."
Pro-Chavez lawmakers plan to punish dissidents
Feb 9, 5:25 PMLegislators allied with President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday they plan to adopt rules that will punish any lawmaker who abandons the socialist leader.
