Influential Israeli Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in hospital

Israel's Shas party, blesses a man after casting his ballot at a polling …more JERUSALEM (AP) — The spiritual leader of an Israeli ultra-Orthodox political party was hospitalized after a suspected minor stroke in Jerusalem on Saturday, a development that could shake his party's fortunes and mute one of Israel's most influential voices.Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, 92, is conscious and in a stable condition,...

Read More..

Gunmen shoot birdshot at Egypt protesters; 15 hurt

CAIRO (AP) — A dozen masked attackers fired birdshot late Saturday at protesters who have camped outside Egypt's presidential palace in Cairo for the past month, wounding several along with security forces standing watch nearby, witnesses said. It was the latest in a series of shootings of protesters in Egypt.Paramedic Mohammed Sultan put the total number of wounded in the attack at 15, including...

Read More..

Christian Orthodox believers celebrate Epiphany

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Thousands of young men leapt into icy rivers and lakes across eastern Europe on Sunday to retrieve crucifixes cast by priests in ceremonies commemorating the baptism of Jesus Christ.By tradition, a wooden cross is cast into the water and it is believed that the person who retrieves it will be freed from evil spirits.In the central Bulgarian city of Kalofer, 350 men in traditional...

Read More..

Spain's 'El Nino' lottery hands out $1.1 billion

A lottery showered €840 million ($1.1 billion) on ticket holders in five regions of Spain on Sunday, in the midst of a deep recession and high unemployment.The "El Nino" (The Child) lottery is held each Feast of the Epiphany — Jan. 6 — and the top prize tickets were sold in Alicante, Leon, Madrid, Murcia and Tenerife. The lottery's name refers to the baby Jesus, who according to tradition was visited...

Read More..

Northern Irish militants seen hijacking flag protests

BELFAST (Reuters) - Pro-British militant groups are instigating riots that have rocked the Northern Irish capital Belfast in the past month, a police officers' representative said on Sunday as officers came under attack again.The violence stems from protests over the removal of the British flag over Belfast City Hall. It has been among the province's worst since a 1998 peace accord ended 30 years...

Read More..

Different challenges in Central African Rep., Mali

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Two land-locked, desperately poor African countries are gripped by rebellions in the north that have left huge chunks of both nations outside of government control. Neighboring countries are rushing troops into Central African Republic only a few weeks after rebels started taking towns but Mali's government is still awaiting foreign military help nearly one...

Read More..

EU says Iran not responded to nuclear talks proposal

 The European Union has proposed a time and place for further talks on Iran's nuclear program, but Iran has yet to respond, an EU spokesman said on Friday.Iran said earlier on Friday it had agreed to resume talks in January with six major powers - represented by the EU - but the EU spokesman said Tehran had not yet replied to proposals made on December 31."We offered dates and a venue, but we...

Read More..

Pakistani girl shot by Taliban leaves UK hospital

LONDON (AP) — Three months after she was shot in the head for daring to say girls should be able to get an education, a 15-year-old Pakistani hugged her nurses and smiled as she walked out of a Birmingham hospital.Malala Yousufzai waved to a guard and smiled shyly as she cautiously strode down the hospital corridor talking to nurses in images released Friday by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham."She...

Read More..

Why so much secrecy around Chávez's health? Venezuela's not alone.

The government of Hugo Chávez has, for the first time, characterized the Venezuelan leader’s health condition as “severe” following his Dec. 11 surgery in Cuba for a recurrence of cancer.But the announcement Thursday night is unlikely to put an end to the rumor mill that has swirled in the past three weeks in the Andean country.While everyone is worked up over President Chávez's health status, his...

Read More..

Israel tells underweight models to gain weight or get off the runway

“You’re a knockout! Did you gain a little weight?” Israeli fashion photographer and model agent Adi Barkan crows as he greets one of his top models, a towering brunette decked out in a chic black minidress surrounded by the exuberant chaos of the photo shoot in downtown Tel Aviv.This is a celebratory week for Mr. Barkan, as a new law championed by the fashion giant took effect Jan. 1, banning the...

Read More..

Myanmar launches air-strikes on Kachin rebels

Heavy fighting between the Myanmar Army and the rebel Kachin Independence Army (KIA), is raising concern that a major escalation of violence is under way in the region, casting a shadow over Myanmar's much-touted reforms.The Myanmar Army offensive – which includes the use of helicopter gunships and fighter jets – comes after weeks of heavy fighting at outposts about 10 miles outside the KIA headquarters...

Read More..

Egypt's Brotherhood says UAE arrests unfounded

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said on Wednesday some of its members had been wrongfully arrested in United Arab Emirates (UAE) on allegations of helping to train local Islamists in subversion tactics."I know 11 people were detained. I know that some of them are from the Brotherhood," said Mahmoud Ghozlan, a Brotherhood spokesman in Cairo. "The claim that they are a cell seeking to destabilize...

Read More..

5 female teachers killed: Pakistan aid work imperiled

Pakistani police on Wednesday searched for the gunmen behind the brazen murder of five teachers and two health workers, amid fears that public health campaigns would suffer and lead to a resurgence of polio and other preventable diseases.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which occurred Tuesday in Swabi, a city in the troubled northwest. The Pakistani Taliban has in the...

Read More..

Gunmen kidnap seven Pakistani soldiers

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped seven soldiers from a bus in Pakistan on Wednesday, military officials said, just days after Taliban forces executed 21 pro-government paramilitaries they had seized.The gunmen took the seven soldiers and let go a sweeper on the bus with them, one military official said. The gunmen were wearing military uniforms, other sources said.The men were travelling between...

Read More..

Former Chilean military officials held in singer's 1973 slaying

At least four former military officials were detained in Chile on Wednesday for their alleged role in the slaying of singer-songwriter Victor Jara during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.Jara was killed days after the coup that ousted left-leaning President Salvador Allende, and his death became a symbol of the political violence and human rights abuses that ravaged Latin America in the...

Read More..

Nurse who died after Kate hoax call was from India

LONDON (AP) — A nurse found dead days after she took a crank call about the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was originally from India, British police said Saturday, as details began to trickle out about the woman whose death has sparked anger at the Australian radio DJs behind the hoax. Jacintha Saldanha, 46, was found dead early Friday at nurses' housing provided by London's King Edward VII hospital,...

Read More..

Billionaire media baron Silvio Berlusconi, who resigned in disgrace a year ago with Italy tottering through the European debt crisis, on Saturday announced he is running for a fourth term as premier. Berlusconi, 76, reluctantly stepped down in November 2011 after pressure from international financial markets. He was later convicted of tax fraud and has faced sexual misconduct allegations. An unelected government of technocrats, led by widely respected economist Mario Monti, was appointed to replace him. Opinion polls have seen the popularity of Berlusconi's Freedom People Party plunge to far below that of Italy's other large party, the center-left. But he is confident he can achieve victory. "I'm running to win," Berlusconi told reporters outside the training facilities of his soccer team AC Milan. No date has been set for elections, linked to the end of Parliament's term in late April. But Berlusconi's decision earlier in the week to yank the support of his party — Parliament's largest — for Monti's anti-crisis government increased the likelihood that Italy's president would dissolve the legislature and call early elections. "It seems to me that March 10 has been indicated" as a possible date for early elections, "and that seems a date that's fine with me," Berlusconi said. Monti was flying back from a conference in France for a meeting Saturday evening at the presidential palace to take the pulse of political tensions. President Giorgio Napolitano has made clear he wants Parliament to at least pass a vital budget law later this month and avoid a "precipitous" demise amid mounting political uncertainty.

PARIS (AP) — A man was shot dead and several houses were bombed on the French island of Corsica, a vacation destination that has seen a wave of gang killings this year and is also home to a simmering nationalist movement. The attacks Friday night come after the series of killings that has outraged France and prompted the government to vow to stamp out the violence that has long been allowed to simmer...

Read More..

Berlusconi says he is running again for premier

Billionaire media baron Silvio Berlusconi, who resigned in disgrace a year ago with Italy tottering through the European debt crisis, on Saturday announced he is running for a fourth term as premier. Berlusconi, 76, reluctantly stepped down in November 2011 after pressure from international financial markets. He was later convicted of tax fraud and has faced sexual misconduct allegations. An unelected...

Read More..

Anger at Australian radio station over royal hoax

The sudden death of a nurse who unwittingly accepted a prank call to a London hospital about Prince William's pregnant wife Kate has shocked Britain and Australia, and sparked an angry backlash Saturday from some who argue the DJs who carried out the hoax should be held responsible. At first, the call by two irreverent Australian DJs posing as royals was picked up by news outlets around the world...

Read More..

UK hospital says royal prank call appalling after nurse death

LONDON/PERTH, Australia (Reuters) - The London hospital that treated Prince William's pregnant wife Kate condemned on Saturday an Australian radio station that made a prank call seeking information about the duchess, after the apparent suicide of a nurse who answered the phone. There has been renewed soul-searching over media ethics after Jacintha Saldanha, 46, the nurse who was duped by the station's...

Read More..