LONDON (AFP) - A 15-year-old boy was tortured and drowned on Christmas Day by his relatives after they accused him of practising witchcraft, a British court heard Thursday.Kristy Bamu suffered 101 different injuries from being attacked with a chisel, a hammer and a metal bar, and was in such pain th

Jan. 8, 2012

FAIRFAX, Virginia (AP) -- A Virginia woman was sentenced Friday to 35 years for throwing her 2-year-old granddaughter off a walkway at a busy shopping mall, a murder the judge called ``almost beyond comprehension.''Carmela dela Rosa, 51, offered a tearful, barely audible apology to her family, sayin

Jan. 8, 2012

TEHRAN (AFP) -- Iranian media were largely silent Saturday on the U.S. navy's rescue of 13 Iranians held by pirates in the Arabian Sea, making little mention of the incident -- or that the U.S. ships included an aircraft carrier Tehran had warned out of the region.The official Islamic Republic News

Jan. 7, 2012

DAMASCUS -- An explosion ripped through a police bus in the center of Syria's capital Friday, killing at least 10 people and possibly 25 in an attack authorities blamed on a suicide bomber, an official and state-run TV said.Syrian television showed residents and paramedics carrying human remains, ho

Jan. 6, 2012

Japan's coast guard on Friday found a wooden boat carrying three men and the dead body of another individual, believed to be adrift from North Korea in waters off the western Japanese island of Okinoshima, a report said.According to Japan's public broadcaster NHK, coast guard officials initially sus

Jan. 6, 2012

RENNES, France -- French fans of Michael Jackson are suing the late pop star's doctor for "emotional damage" they suffered over his death, their lawyer said Friday.The case against Conrad Murray, who was jailed in November over the star's 2009 death, is due to be heard in the city of Orleans on Apri

Jan. 6, 2012

BAGHDAD (AP) ― An apparently coordinated wave of bombings targeting Shiite Muslims killed at least 78 people in Iraq on Thursday, the second large-scale assault by militants since U.S. forces pulled out last month.The attacks, which bore the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents, come ahead of a Shiite holy day that draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from across Iraq, raising fears of a deepening of sectarian bloodshed. Rifts along the country’s Sunni-Shiite faultline just a few years ago pushed Ir

Jan. 6, 2012

DAMASCUS  --  A suicide attacker detonated his explosives in central Damascus Friday, killing and wounding dozens of people, state TV said. The TV footage as well as an official suggested that the target of the attack was a police bus.Syrian television said the explosion went off at an int

Jan. 6, 2012

CAIRO (AP) ― Prosecutors on Thursday called for Hosni Mubarak to be hanged, saying he bore full responsibility for the killing of protesters during the uprising against him, in a courtroom moment unthinkable barely a year ago when the longtime leader held unquestioned power.The demand for the death penalty at the 83-year-old former president’s trial played to the widespread resentment of Mubarak among Egyptians who hoped that punishment for his oppressive rule would be fruit of the Arab Spring.S

Jan. 6, 2012

Over 3,000 people were killed in South Sudan in brutal massacres last week in an explosion of ethnic violence that forced tens of thousands to flee, the top local official in the affected area said Friday."There have been mass killings, a massacre," said Joshua Konyi, commissioner for Pibor county in Jonglei state."We have been out counting the bodies, and we calculate so far that 2,182 women and children were killed and 959 men died."United Nations and South Sudanese army officials have yet to

Jan. 6, 2012