WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck much of New Zealand’s South Island early Saturday. No tsunami alert was issued and there were no reports of injuries. The quake, which hit 19 miles (30 kilometers) west of the southern city of Christchurch, shook a wide area with some residents there saying buildings had [...]
WASHINGTON – Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed Thursday to keep talking and produce a framework for a permanent peace deal, modest achievements reached amid deep skepticism about success at their first such session in two years. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet again on Sept. 14 and 15 in [...]
WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s defense minister said on Wednesday the Jewish state would be willing to hand over parts of Jerusalem in peace talks with the Palestinians to be launched by President Barack Obama. A flare-up of violence in the Palestinian West Bank and a deadlock over Jewish settlements there loom as potential deal-breakers for [...]
mins ago DES MOINES, Iowa – Potential 2012 presidential candidate Sarah Palin will headline the Iowa Republican Party’s biggest annual fundraiser, party officials announced Tuesday in the state that launches the presidential nominating process. The Sept. 17 speech at the annual Reagan Dinner in Des Moines will be the first Iowa appearance by the former Alaska [...]
Mount Sinabung erupts on SumatraAn Indonesian volcano, inactive for four centuries, erupted again on Monday, pitching ash two km (1.5 miles) into the air and sending nearby residents scurrying from their homes. Villages were emptying fast near Mount Sinabung on the north of Sumatra island, leaving behind only officials from the bureau of meteorology and [...]
By VERONIKA OLEKSYN and NADIA RYBAROVA, Associated Press Writers Veronika Oleksyn And Nadia Rybarova, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 28 mins ago BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – A gunman went on a rampage in Slovakia’s capital on Monday, killing seven people and wounding 15, then committed suicide, officials said. Five of the fatalities were members of a Roma family who [...]
KHAN BANI SAAD, Iraq – A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million children’s hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million waste water treatment system in Fallujah has cost three times more than projected, yet sewage still runs through the streets As the U.S. draws down [...]
LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. – A gunman entered a western Arizona home and killed the mother of his two children and three others before fleeing with the kids to California, where he fatally shot himself, police said Sunday. In all, six people died. Officers responding to the home said they found four people shot dead [...]
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An influential Israeli rabbi has said God should strike the Palestinians and their leader with a plague, calling for their death in a fiery sermon before Middle East peace talks set to begin next week. “Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this earth,” Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head [...]
TEHRAN (AFP) – Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi accused Swedish cosmetics firm Oriflame on Saturday of trying to harm Iran’s security after five of its employees were arrested amid allegations of espionage. “Oriflame intended to fight the (Iranian) system. There are no economic reasons behind the company,” Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi was quoted by state television [...]