BEIRUT (AP) ― Syrian troops stormed a flashpoint suburb of Damascus on Thursday, rounding people up in house-to-house raids and clashing with army defectors, activists said, as the 10-month-old uprising inches ever closer to the capital.Even as the fighting raged in Douma, tens of thousands of backers of President Bashar Assad poured into the streets just 16 kilometers away in downtown Damascus in a show of support for his embattled regime.Similar pro-regime rallies were held in other cities Thu

Jan. 27, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she wants to step off the “high wire of American politics” after two decades and is again tamping down speculation that she might stay in government if President Barack Obama wins a second term.Clinton told State Department employees on Thursday that she is ready for a rest and is paying no attention to the Republican presidential candidate debates. She said she wants to find out just how tired she is after working flat out as firs

Jan. 27, 2012

Proposal comes upon strongest EU, U.S. sanctions yetTEHRAN (AP) ― Iran is ready to revive talks with the U.S. and other world powers, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday, but suggested that Tehran’s foes will have to make compromises to prevent negotiations from again collapsing in stalemate.Iran’s insistence that it will never give up uranium enrichment ― the process that makes material for reactors as well as weapons ― scuttled negotiations a year ago and still looms as a potential dea

Jan. 27, 2012

Poland on Thursday signed an international copyright agreement, sparking more demonstrations by Internet users who have protested for days over fear it will lead to online censorship. Internet activists protest against the international copyright agreement ACTA in front of the European Parliament of

Jan. 27, 2012

 Inmates in the Kyrgyz prison system sewed their mouths shut after guards tried to force-feed them to break a hunger strike, a broadcaster reports. A prisoner on a hunger strike has his mouth sewn with a wire at a prison in Bishkek January 24, 2012. More than 1,000 inmates throughout Kyrgy

Jan. 27, 2012

This image obtained by NASA`s Dawn spacecraft shows the south pole of the giant asteroid Vesta. (NASA)GREENBELT, Md., Jan. 25 (UPI) -- NASA says data from its Dawn mission to the asteroid Vesta suggests the rocky body is cold and dark enough to have retained ice for billions of years.Modeling of Ves

Jan. 27, 2012

ATHENS (AP) ― He was known for his slow and dream-like directing style and had enough stamina at 76 to be working on his latest movie.But award-winning Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos was killed in a road accident Tuesday after being hit by a motorcycle while walking across a road close to a movie set near Athens’ main port of Piraeus.The driver, who was also injured and hospitalized, was later identified as an off-duty police officer.The accident occurred while Angelopoulos was working on his

Jan. 26, 2012

LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) - Around 100 Pakistani heart patients have died after taking faulty medicine made locally and dozens more are in a critical condition in hospital, government officials said Thursday."Nearly 100 patients have died due to a reaction to heart drugs," said Shahbaz Sharif, the head

Jan. 26, 2012

TOKYO (AP) _ The Japanese government's worst-case scenario at the height of the nuclear crisis last year warned that tens of millions of people, including Tokyo residents, might need to leave their homes, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press. But fearing widespread panic, officials

Jan. 26, 2012

Firm sold 37 million iPhones and 15 million iPads during the holiday season quarterNEW YORK (AP) ― The iPhone is taking over Apple. For the first time, the device that changed how people use mobile phones, accounts for more than half of the behemoth company’s sales. Apple Inc. on Tuesday said it sold 37 million iPhones in the last three months of 2011, vastly exceeding analyst estimates and propelling the company to record quarterly results. The phone accounted for 53 percent of Apple’s revenue

Jan. 25, 2012

WICHITA, Kansas (AP) ― U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown, the nation’s oldest sitting federal judge, has died at age 104.Brown died Monday night at the Wichita assisted living center where he lived, his law clerk, Nanette Turner Kalcik, said Tuesday.During his long tenure, the senior judge in Wichita repeatedly tried to explain why he had not yet fully retired from the federal bench.“As a federal judge, I was appointed for life or good behavior, whichever I lose first,” Brown quipped in a 2011 in

Jan. 25, 2012

CAIRO (AP) ― Egypt’s military ruler on Tuesday decreed a partial lifting of the nation’s hated emergency laws, an apparent attempt to ease criticism of his policies ahead of the first anniversary of the popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi said in a televised address that the draconian laws, in force for more than three decades, would be lifted effective Wednesday but would remain applicable to crimes committed by “thugs.” The military has often labeled organ

Jan. 25, 2012

CAMP PENDLETON, California (AP) ― The lone Marine to face sentencing for the killing of two dozen unarmed Iraqis in one of the Iraq War’s defining moments walked away with no jail time Tuesday after defending his squad’s storming of the homes of Haditha as a necessary act “to keep the rest of my Marines alive.”Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich’s sentence ends a six-year prosecution for the 2005 attack that failed to win any manslaughter convictions. Eight Marines were initially charged; one was acquitte

Jan. 25, 2012