BERLIN (AP) ― Germany’s president said Wednesday that his angry phone call to a leading newspaper’s editor as it prepared to publish a story about a private loan he had received was a serious mistake, but insisted he has no intention of resigning.Christian Wulff, who was Chancellor Angela Merkel’s candidate for the largely ceremonial presidency in 2010, went on German public television to defend himself amid mounting speculation that he would have to go.“I carry my responsibility (as president)

Jan. 5, 2012

BUENOS AIRES (AP) ― Argentina’s president was awake and recovering Wednesday after a 3.5 hour operation to remove her cancerous thyroid gland.Cristina Fernandez’s surgery went without complications and all her vital signs were good, her spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro announced, prompting cheers and applause from supporters gathered outside the hospital.Doctors had expected a routine surgery and predicted a complete cure without chemotherapy, since preoperative tests showed the cancer had not spre

Jan. 5, 2012

A man left unable to walk by a tumour on his right leg that weighs more than the rest of his body went under the knife in Vietnam on Thursday to have the growth removed, hospital officials said.Nguyen Duy Hai's massive 90 kilogramme (198 pounds) tumour is to be cut away by a team of doctors in a ris

Jan. 5, 2012

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) _ A fight among inmates armed with makeshift knives, clubs and stones left 31 people dead in a prison in a drug-plagued state in northern Mexico, authorities said.Another 13 prisoners were wounded in the brawl in the penitentiary in the Gulf Coast city of Altamira, Tamau

Jan. 5, 2012

European Union governments have reached a preliminary agreement on an oil embargo against Iran but are debating when it should come into force, EU diplomats said Wednesday."There is an agreement in principle to forge ahead" with an oil embargo, a diplomat told AFP, but added "there is still a lot of

Jan. 5, 2012

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Chinese oil and gas giant Sinopec will invest $2.2 billion in Devon Energy, giving the firm a stake in exploring five U.S. shale fields, a company statement said on Tuesday.In return for the investment state-run Sinopec would take a one-third stake in fields across the United States, in 125 wells, according to a Devon statement.Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy will be responsible for running the projects and commercial marketing, it said.The deal, if approved by watchdogs, would

Jan. 4, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) ― Starbucks said Tuesday it is raising some prices regionally as it faces rising ingredient costs. The Seattle coffee chain is raising prices about 1 percent in the Northeast and Sunbelt regions. Starbucks wouldn’t disclose all of the states its raising prices, but the regions include New York; Washington, D.C.; and most Southern states. They exclude California and Florida. Other cities where it will raise prices include Boston, Atlanta, Dallas and Albuquerque, N.M. The price for a

Jan. 4, 2012

PARIS (AFP) ― Recommendations by France’s nuclear watchdog agency to beef up safety at plants will cost the state-owned electricity provider EDF up to 10 billion euros ($13 billion), a senior executive told AFP on Tuesday.“We had scheduled investment of around 40 billion euros (over 30 years) in our 58 reactors on the basis of plant operational life of up to 60 years,” Jean-Marc Miraucourt, head of engineering for nuclear facilities at Electricite de France, said.“Our preliminary estimates are t

Jan. 4, 2012

NAIROBI (AP) ― Red Cross volunteers are trying to reconnect 150 young children with their missing parents after tens of thousands of residents of South Sudan ran into the bush while fleeing a massive wave of tribe-on-tribe violence, an official said Tuesday.Many of those parents, though, are feared to be dead.Violence broke out late last month between two South Sudanese tribes in the town of Pibor, sending tens of thousands of residents into the surrounding countryside. A death toll is not known

Jan. 4, 2012

CAIRO (AP) ― Egyptians voted Tuesday in the final round of elections likely to seal the domination by Islamists over the country’s new parliament as secular activists grew increasingly worried over the possibility of an alliance between the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and the ruling military.Activists point to what they call mounting signs of a confluence of interests between the Brotherhood, who are set to be the biggest bloc in the next parliament, and the ruling generals. The result, they fea

Jan. 4, 2012

KABUL (AFP) ― The Taliban announced on Tuesday that they had come to an “initial agreement” to set up an overseas political office, possibly in Qatar, in their first public gesture towards peace talks with the U.S.In a statement on their purported website “Voice of Jihad,” the Islamists said they had held “preliminary talks with relevant sides including Qatar” to open an office outside Afghanistan, without confirming where it would be.It is the first time the insurgent group has publicly raised

Jan. 4, 2012

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (AP) ― A stray cat that survived two trips to a Utah animal shelter’s gas chamber now has a new home.Officials at West Valley City’s animal shelter in Utah say the cat named Andrea hadn’t been adopted for 30 days when shelter officials tried to put her to death in October. She survived, so they gassed her again.Shelter officials detected no vital signs and presumed she was dead after the second try, so they put her in a plastic bag in a cooler. But when they checked the ba

Jan. 4, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) ― The White House says it is still considering a visa request for Yemen’s outgoing autocratic president.Spokesman Jay Carney says the request is being considered for the sole purpose of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s coming to the U.S. for medical treatment. Carney says he has no timeline for when a decision will be made.Saleh’s aides said over the weekend that he had reversed his plans to leave Yemen and would be staying in the country. However, a senior administration official

Jan. 4, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) ― An annual Wikipedia fundraising campaign ended Tuesday with donors around the world pumping a record $20 million into the foundation that runs the free online knowledge repository.Non-profit Wikimedia Foundation launched the campaign in November, getting an early boost in the form of a $500,000 grant from Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife. The total amount of money donated has climbed each year since Wikimedia began the fundraising campaigns in 2003. “Our model is

Jan. 4, 2012

DES MOINES (AFP) -- Mitt Romney is still the favorite to win the U.S. Republican presidential nomination, but a quick knock-out of his more conservative rivals seems out of reach after a near-draw in Iowa, experts said Wednesday.“Iowa is a reminder that if Romney wins, it will be because he’s the last guy standing -- not because he has strong Republican support,” said Matt Dickinson, a political scientist at Middlebury College in Vermont.The former Massachusetts governor and millionaire venture

Jan. 4, 2012