MIAMI (AFP) -- Two Cuban cast members of an award-winning film who disappeared en route to New York for a film festival have emerged in Miami and will apply for political asylum in the United States.“In Cuba, we were talking about it, to stay,” actor Javier Nunez Florian told the Miami-based, Spanish-language channel America TeVe in an interview that aired late Friday, appearing alongside actress Anailin de la Rua.On a stopover in Miami on their flight Wednesday from Havana to New York for the T

BEIJING (AFP) -- Blind activist Chen Guangcheng, who has escaped from house arrest, gained worldwide acclaim for exposing abuses under China‘s draconian family planning policy.Blinded after an illness in his infancy, Chen, 40, grew up in China’s eastern province of Shandong on classical Chinese tales of courageous heroes who fought wicked officials to help powerless ordinary people.The stories, passed on to him by his father, inspired Chen to help others and to embark on his civil rights crusade

RIYADH (AP) ― Saudi Arabia closed its Cairo embassy Saturday and recalled its ambassador following protests over a detained Egyptian human rights lawyer in a sharp escalation of tension between two regional powerhouses already on shaky terms due to uprisings in the Arab world.The unexpected Saudi diplomatic break came following days of protests by hundreds of Egyptians outside the Saudi Embassy in Cairo and consulates in other cities to demand the release of Ahmed el-Gezawi. Relatives and human

KUALA LUMPUR (AP) — A massive street rally demanding electoral reforms in Malaysia raised questions Sunday about whether the long-ruling coalition government will delay calling elections in the face of such a strong show of force by the opposition.Police used tear gas and chemical-laced water Saturday against some 50,000 people and arrested more than 450 at the demonstration. Officials said three demonstrators and 20 police were injured, and all those arrested were released by Sunday.The rally w

LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― Los Angeles marks the 20th anniversary of the city’s riots Sunday, climaxing weeks of public hand-wringing about the deadly 1992 unrest sparked by the on-camera police beating of a black motorist.A series of events is scheduled, including speeches by civil rights activist the Reverend Al Sharpton and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and a community “speakout” at the epicenter of the six-day riots in gritty South L.A.Local radio and other media have hosted wall-to-wall debates

PARIS (AFP) ― Moamer Gadhafi’s regime agreed to fund French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign to the tune of 50 million euros, a news website reported Saturday, publishing what it said was documentary evidence.The 2006 document in Arabic, which website Mediapart said was signed by Gadhafi’s foreign intelligence chief Mussa Kussa, referred to an “agreement in principle to support the campaign for the candidate for the presidential elections, Nicolas Sarkozy, for a sum equivalent

A blind legal activist who escaped house arrest in his Chinese village is under the protection of American officials, activists said Saturday, creating a diplomatic dilemma for the U.S. and China days ahead of a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.Chen Guangcheng, who has exposed forced abortions and sterilizations in villages as a result of China's one-child policy, fled from his g

A man running the London Marathon stopped only 800 meters from the finish line and dropped to one knee to propose to his girlfriend.Ben McCreadie, 28, of Newport, Wales, was running the 42-kilometer race Sunday and stopped just short of the finish line to kneel in front of his girlfriend, Laura Rendell, 30, who was in the crowd to cheer for him, and ask her to marry him, The Sun reported Thursday.

US law enforcement blew the roof off a mountain hideout in Washington state on Saturday and inside found the body of a man suspected of killing his wife and teenage daughter, officials said.Peter Keller, who had been missing since Sunday when the bullet-ridden bodies of Lynnettee Rocha Keller, 41, and their 19-year-old daughter Kaylene Keller were discovered at the family home, apparently died of