CAIRO (AP) – In his first comments to the media by since he was detained more than two years ago, Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak said he is dismayed at the country's state of affairs and particularly the plight of the poor.The 85-year old Mubarak spoke to Al-Watan newspaper after a session of his retrial for his role in the killing of hundreds of protesters during the popular uprising that forced him to step down in 2011. His comments were published Sunday, a day after he appeared in the

PARIS (AP) – The French Health Ministry says a second case of a deadly new respiratory virus related to SARS has been confirmed.A ministry statement issued Sunday said a hospital roommate of the 65-year-old man who initially contracted the virus has tested positive.The two shared a room for a few days in late April at Valenciennes hospital in northern France, and hence were in ``prolonged and close contact.'' Both are now hospitalized in nearby Lille.Four suspected cases, all people who had cont

President Barack Obama and South Korea's new leader Park Geun-hye will seek to present a strong front against North Korea's nuclear threats when they meet at the White House Tuesday. But they also want to leave the door open to talks with Pyongyang.Park has had something of a baptism of fire since she took office in February, two weeks after North Korea's latest atomic test that has ratcheted up tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula and undermined her hopes of forging a more trusting relation

DAMASCUS (AFP) - Israeli warplanes have targeted a Syrian weapons shipment headed for Hezbollah in Lebanon, media quoted U.S. officials as saying Saturday, as Sunnis were fleeing a city for fear of a massacre.The news came as U.S. President Barack Obama, under mounting criticism that he has allowed Bashar al-Assad's regime to cross his own declared "red line" on using chemical weapons, came close to ruling out deploying U.S. troops to Syria.CNN said U.S. and Western intelligence agencies were re

CAMARILLO, California (AP) – A wildfire tearing through a coastal region in Southern California nearly tripled in size as high temperatures fueled the flames, but an expected weekend change in the weather will likely give crews manning the fire lines much-needed assistance.The fire 50 miles  (80 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles mushroomed to 43 square miles  (111 square kilometers) Friday as 900 firefighters used engines, aircraft, bulldozers and other equipment to battle the flames.Forecast

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AFP) - President Barack Obama came close Friday to ruling out deploying U.S. troops to Syria, saying he did not foresee a scenario in which that would be beneficial to the United States or Syria."As a general rule, I don't rule things out as commander-in-chief because circumstances change and you want to make sure that I always have the full power of the United States at our disposal to meet American national security interests," Obama said."Having said that, I do not fores

GENEVA (AP)-The World Meteorological Organization says last year was the ninth-warmest since record-keeping began in 1850, despite the cooling effect of the weather pattern called La Nina. The U.N.'s weather agency says this marks the 27th year in a row the global average temperature--58 degrees Fahrenheit (14.45 degrees Celsius) in 2012-- surpassed the 1961-1990 average. WMO said in annual climate report Thursday the years from 2001 to 2012 were all among the top 13 warmest on record - the hott

WATERTOWN, Massachusetts (AP) – Two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing killed a university police officer, injured a transit officer in a firefight and threw explosive devices at police during their getaway attempt in a long night of violence that left one of them dead and another still at large Friday, authorities said as the manhunt intensified for a young man described as a dangerous terrorist.The suspects were identified to The Associated Press as coming from the Russian region near Che

WATERTOWN, Massachusetts (AP) – Two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing – identified to The Associated Press as coming from a Russian region near Chechnya – killed an MIT police officer, injured a transit officer in a firefight and threw explosive devices at police during their getaway attempt in a long night of violence that left one of them dead and another still at large Friday, authorities said.A law enforcement intelligence bulletin obtained by the AP identified the surviving bomb suspe

   BEIJING -- The World Health Organization said Monday there is no evidence China's bird flu is spreading among humans, but jitters over the outbreak that has killed six people saw airline and tourism shares slump.   China announced just over a week ago that H7N9 avian influenza had beenfound in humans for the first time, and the number of confirmed cases has since reached 21.   Like the more common H5N1 variant which typically spreads from birds tohumans, experts fear such viruses can mutate i