LONDON (AP) ― Two Europeans held hostage in Nigeria by kidnappers claiming ties to al-Qaida were killed before rescuers could free them, authorities said Thursday.The men ― a Briton and an Italian ― were killed by their captors. A Nigerian official said the two died in the crossfire during the rescue attempt, Prime Minister David Cameron said.Chris McManus and Franco Lamolinara were taken captive in May. The pair had been working on a bank construction project in Nigeria, a country that has seen

March 9, 2012

President Hamid Karzai‘s U.S.-backed government is under fire this International Women’s Day, accused of selling out on Afghan women‘s rights as it tries to woo the Taliban into peace talks.Lawmakers, rights organizations and analysts say that the Afghan leader, by endorsing an edict calling women second-class citizens, has endangered hard-won progress in women’s rights since the Taliban fell from power in 2001.The Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization denounced authorities for try

March 8, 2012

PARIS (AFP) ― Scientists on Wednesday said they had recorded the first real-time images of atoms moving in a molecule, a feat that captured movement lasting less than one millionth of a billionth of a second.The exploit entailed directing an ultra-fast laser onto molecules of nitrogen and of oxygen. Its pulse of light knocked a single electron out of its orbit around one of the atoms.The electron tumbled back onto the molecule, causing a tiny collision that, like ripples in a pond, proved a “bac

March 8, 2012

DAMASCUS (AFP) ― Syria’s deputy oil minister resigned on Thursday, becoming the most senior official to join the rebel ranks, as Washington revealed it is mulling non-lethal aid to the insurgency.Abdo Hussameddin announced his resignation in a video posted by activists on YouTube, saying he was joining the revolt.“I, the engineer Abdo Hussameddin, the deputy oil minister... announce my defection from the regime and my resignation,” he said in the video. “I am joining the revolution of the people

March 8, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Mitt Romney’s uninspiring showing in Super Tuesday’s primaries nonetheless moves him closer to the Republican presidential nomination. But a string of events and voter data underscore his challenge in winning independent voters turned off by the long, divisive primary.Romney won a tight race against Rick Santorum in Ohio, where he heavily outspent his main rival, and posted victories in Massachusetts, Virginia, Vermont , Idaho and Alaska. Tuesday’s mixed results will not change

March 8, 2012

Chinese officials sought Wednesday to discredit Tibetans who have set themselves on fire to protest China‘s rule over their region, calling them outcasts, criminals and mentally ill people manipulated by the exiled Dalai Lama.The Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader has said he does not encourage the self-immolations. However, Chinese officials have sought to portray the past year’s wave of about two dozen immolations -- including three since Saturday -- as the result of outside orchestration rathe

March 8, 2012

March 8, 2012

PARIS (AP) ― France’s prime minister scrambled Wednesday to dispel concerns in the Jewish and Muslim communities after criticizing the ritual slaughter of animals for kosher and halal meat.Halal meat in particular has emerged as a hot-button issue in the campaign for presidential elections starting next month in France, a country with at least 5 million Muslims, the largest such population in western Europe.Francois Fillon’s call for religions to “reflect” upon what he called outdated traditions

March 8, 2012

Mitt Romney‘s campaign said Wednesday it would take “an act of God” for rivals to win the Republican presidential nomination, but the party is bracing for a rough, divisive fight well past Super Tuesday.Romney collected six victories in the 10-state voting bonanza including Ohio, the pivotal battlefield which he won in a nailbiter against his most persistent challenger, Rick Santorum.While Romney boosted his pole position in the race to become the Republican Party’s nominee against President Bar

March 8, 2012

OKYO(AFP) ― Japanese prosecutors said Wednesday they had charged scandal-hit Olympus and three former senior executives over a huge loss cover-up.It came as the 20-day detention period of former president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, named as a key player in a scheme to shift $1.7 billion of losses from the camera-maker’s balance sheet, expired.Tokyo District prosecutors said Kikukawa, two other former Olympus executives, Hideo Yamada and Hisashi Mori, and three financial advisers conspired to falsify the

March 7, 2012

ANTANANARIVO (AFP) ― Tropical Storm Irina has killed at least 65 people in Madagascar, most of them residents of the Ifanadiana district in the southeast of the island, weather authorities said on Monday.Three people were also reported missing, according to the National Bureau of Natural Catastrophes, which did not provide any other details.Earlier it was reported that only one person had been killed when the storm passed over Madagascar last week before lashing the coasts of South Africa and Mo

March 7, 2012

BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) ― Tribal leaders and militia commanders declared oil-rich eastern Libya a semiautonomous state on Tuesday, a unilateral move that the interim head of state called a “dangerous” conspiracy by Arab nations to tear the country apart six months after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi.Thousands of representatives of major tribes, militia commanders and politicians made the declaration at a conference in the main eastern city of Benghazi, insisting it was not intended to divide the coun

March 7, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) ― The shadowy underworld of Internet hackers was rocked Tuesday by news that one of the world’s most-wanted and most-feared computer vandals has been an FBI informant for months and helped authorities build a case against five people they say were comrades. The FBI said it captured the legendary hacker known as Sabu last June and he turned out to be Hector Xavier Monsegur, a 28-year-old self-taught, unemployed computer programmer with no college education, living on welfare in publ

March 7, 2012