TOKYO (AP) ― Japan’s nuclear regulators raised the severity level of the crisis at a stricken nuclear plant Tuesday to rank it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing the amount of radiation released in the accident.The regulators said the rating was being raised from 5 to 7 ― the highest level on an international scale overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, there was

April 12, 2011

BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) ― Libyan rebels, backed forcefully by European leaders, rejected a cease-fire proposal by African mediators on Monday because it did not insist that Moammar Gadhafi relinquish power.A day after an announcement that the Libyan leader had accepted the truce, a doctor in rebel-held Misrata said Gadhafi’s forces battered that western city and its Mediterranean port with artillery

April 12, 2011

Rush-hour explosion wounds 150; terrorist attack suspectedMINSK (AFP) ― Belarus on Tuesday sought to identify the perpetrators behind the bombing on the Minsk metro that killed 12 and wounded 150, the first major apparent act of terror in its post-Soviet history.The explosion at a busy metro station in the heart of the Belarussian capital near the headquarters of President Alexander Lukashenko stu

April 12, 2011

Veiled muslim women take part in a protest against France banning the wearing of Islamic veils in public, in London Monday, April 11, 2011. (AP-Yonhap News)PARIS (AFP) ― France ― home to Europe’s biggest Muslim population ― on Monday officially banned women from wearing full-face veils in public places. Other European countries have drawn up bans on the burqa and the niqab but France is the first

April 12, 2011

West Gate Bridge in Melbourne (AP)MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) _ A man who killed his 4-year-old daughter by throwing her off a bridge in Australia's second-largest city as her horrified brothers watched was sentenced Monday to life in prison.Arthur Freeman, 37, stood motionless as Victorian Supreme Court Justice Paul Coghlan handed down the punishment, which came despite Freeman's argument that he w

April 12, 2011

A man drags a sand bag across a street damaged by liquefaction in the March 11 earthquake in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo, Wednesday, April 6, 2011. (AP-Yonhap News)TOKYO, (AFP) - A strong offshore earthquake rocked Tokyo on Tuesday, swaying buildings in the Japanese capital and stopping subway services.The US Geological Agency put the magnitude at 6.4, at a depth of 13.1 kilometers (8.1

April 12, 2011

    TOKYO (AFP) - Japan may raise the severity of its nuclear accident to seven -- the top level on an international scale -- from five, the Kyodo news agency reported Tuesday, as workers battled to contain the crisis.   Kyodo said preliminary figures from the country's Nuclear Safety Commission  revealed the battered Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had released up to 10,000 terabecquerels of radi

April 12, 2011

Opposition says will study proposal but dictator’s 41 year-old rule must endTRIPOLI (AP) ― A delegation of African leaders said Sunday that their Libyan counterpart, Moammar Gadhafi, accepted their “road map” for a cease-fire with rebels, whom they will meet Monday. They met hours after NATO airstrikes battered Gadhafi’s tanks, helping Libyan rebels push back government troops who had been advanci

April 11, 2011

KABUL (AFP) ― As a civil servant, Afghan Ahmad Mahfooz earns nearly 10 times the average annual salary in his impoverished homeland, but he still cannot afford to marry his fiancee.Already thousands of dollars in debt after hosting a lavish engagement party for 500 guests in December, Mahfooz says he doesn’t know how he will ever afford the kind of wedding his wife-to-be and her family expect.“I o

April 11, 2011

CAIRO (AP) ― In the first remarks since his dramatic ouster, former President Hosni Mubarak denied that he used his position to amass wealth and property during three decades in power, and issued an emotional defense of his legacy.The statement, broadcast Sunday at the end of a turbulent weekend that saw a deadly military crackdown on protesters, only stoked more public anger in the midst of Egypt

April 11, 2011

TOKYO (AP) ― Once Japan’s leaky nuclear complex stops spewing radiation and its reactors cool down, making the site safe and removing the ruined equipment is going to be a messy ordeal that could take decades and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.Radiation has covered the area around the Fukushima Daiichi plant and blanketed parts of the complex, making the job of “decommissioning” the plant ―

April 10, 2011

ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN, Netherlands (AP) ― A man armed with a machine gun opened fire in a crowded shopping mall, killing six people and wounding 15, then committed suicide, officials and witnesses said.Children were among Saturday’s casualties, including an infant who was lightly injured, said Mayor Bas Eenhoorn. Three of the wounded were hospitalized in critical condition.The rampage ended when the

April 10, 2011

(Kunio Shiga listens to a battery-powered radio in the living room of his home in Minami Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, inside the deserted evacuation zone established for the 20 kilometer radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex in northeastern Japan Friday, April 8, 2011. The 75-year-old man was stranded alone in his farmhouse ever since Japan's monstrous tsunami struck nearly a month a

April 10, 2011

(Yonhap News)SENDAI, Japan (AFP) ― A powerful aftershock rocked Japan’s tsunami disaster zone, killing at least four and triggering new concerns over nuclear power plants in a region still grappling with an atomic emergency.Electricity was cut across a huge area of northern Japan, forcing cooling systems at three nuclear plants to switch to emergency power and plunging more than 3.3 million househ

April 8, 2011

    RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) _ A gunman roamed the halls of an elementary school in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday and killed 12 children, lining them up against a wall and shooting them in the head at point-blank range as he shouted, ``I'm going to kill you all!''   It was the worst school shooting in Brazil _ and would have been deadlier if the gunman had not been shot in the legs by a police officer, wh

April 8, 2011

ROME (AP) ― A boat carrying as many as 300 migrants from Libya capsized in rough seas off the Italian coast early Wednesday, leaving 250 people unaccounted for. Survivors told of desperately trying to reach rescue boats as those unable to swim screamed in the darkness and pulled one another under the water.If the number of dead is confirmed, it would prove the deadliest crossing to Italy in recent

April 7, 2011