President argues only Western allies have fortitude to promote democracyLONDON (AP) ― President Barack Obama stood in the historic grandeur of Westminster Hall and served notice to England and the world that the growing influence of countries like China, India and Brazil does not mean a diminished global role for America and its European allies.“The time for our leadership is now,” Obama declared

World News May 26, 2011

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) ― Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s parameters for a peace deal, outlined in a speech to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, fell far short of what is needed to resume negotiations, Palestinian officials said.Nabil Shaath, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Netanyahu’s insistence on keeping key parts of the territories the Palestinians want for their

World News May 25, 2011

Authorities fear toll could rise as full scale of destruction becomes clearJOPLIN, Missouri (AP) ― Rescue crews dug through piles of splintered houses and crushed cars Monday in a search for victims of a half-kilometer-wide tornado that killed at least 116 people when it blasted much of this Missouri town off the map and slammed straight into its hospital.It was the deadliest single twister in the

World News May 24, 2011

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) ― An Icelandic volcano flung ash, smoke and steam kilometers into the air and dropped a thick layer of gray soot in an eruption far more forceful ― but likely far less disruptive ― than the one that grounded planes across Europe last year.The country’s main airport was closed Sunday and pilots were warned to steer clear of Iceland as areas close to the Grimsvotn volcano wer

World News May 23, 2011

RABAT, Morocco (AP) ― Moroccan police on Sunday spent hours chasing hundreds of pro-democracy activists through the streets of the capital in an effort to prevent any pro-reform demonstrations from taking place.Riot police armed with truncheons charged any attempts at protest gatherings, injuring some activists and hauling others off to waiting police trucks.Morocco’s Feb. 20 movement, which is ca

World News May 23, 2011

SANAA (AP) ― Under pressure from protesters and regional allies, Yemen’s president said Saturday he will sign a deal to step down after 32 years in power. Still, he condemned the proposal as “a coup” and warned the U.S. and Europe that his departure will open the door for al-Qaida to seize control of the fragile nation on the edge of Arabia.The mixed signals from Yemen’s embattled president, Ali A

World News May 22, 2011

BRUSSELS (AFP) ― Europe fought to retain leadership of the IMF on Thursday to help tackle its debt crisis as emerging nations launched a sharp counter-attack, saying it was time rising economies took the helm.With the ink barely dry on Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s letter of resignation from a New York jail cell, European nations staked their claim to the top job at the world’s lender of last resort on

World Business May 20, 2011

GLADSTONE, New Jersey (AFP) ― Top seed Choi Na-yeon advanced to the second round of the $1.5 million LPGA Match Play Championship by beating Scotland’s Catriona Matthew 3 and 2 but second seed Shin Jiyai was eliminated.South Korea’s Choi, claiming the top seed by virtue of leading last year’s LPGA money list, was level with her European rival until a birdie at the par-4 15th and a bogey by Matthew

Golf May 20, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) ― A sea of cameras captured a rumpled, handcuffed, angry-looking Dominique Strauss-Kahn as plainclothes detectives took the International Monetary Fund head from a police precinct to court. The images weren’t unusual for a high-profile criminal case in the U.S., but in his French homeland, they’d be illegal.While American authorities have condoned such “perp walks” (short for perpetr

World News May 18, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) ― Guards at New York City’s massive Rikers Island jail complex are taking unusual precautions to make sure IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn doesn’t come to any harm behind bars.The 62-year-old banker and diplomat has a whole jail wing to himself, a medical device to make sure he doesn’t stop breathing during the night and guards checking him 24 hours a day to make sure he doesn’t kil

World News May 18, 2011