GAZA CITY (AFP) -- Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed three Palestinians on Sunday, raising the toll to 18, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed no let-up against rocket-firing militants.Hamas said it was talking with Egyptian officials in a bid to reach a truce with Israel, but warned that it expected the Jewish state to hold fire first and that talks had so far been unproductive.And Islamic Jihad, which claimed responsibility for most of the rockets fired from Gaza in recent days, warned

BEIJING (AFP) ― Chinese police rescued more than 24,000 abducted children and women last year, some of whom had been sold for adoption or forced into prostitution as far away as Angola, officials said Sunday.Trafficking of women and children is a serious problem in China ― blamed in part on the strict “one-child” policy, which has put a premium on baby boys― and activists say the cases uncovered by police are just the tip of the iceberg.The Ministry of Public Security said in a report posted on

CAIRO (AP) ― Egypt’s parliament moved Sunday toward a vote to order an end to more than $1 billion in U.S. aid, a reflection of tensions with Washington over the case of Americans charged with illegal activity by their pro-democracy groups.The U.S. was angry enough over the charges against the American workers that it threatened to cut off aid to Egypt. The measure in the Islamist-dominated Egyptian parliament, probably just symbolic, showed that there is considerable anger in Cairo over charges

Women wearing masks against the odor of death threw themselves over the graves of their dead children, while men had to be restrained to stop them from hurting themselves as more than 100 victims of last week‘s arms depot explosion were laid to rest in a mass funeral.Republic of Congo’s government scrambled to organize Sunday‘s mass burial, which took place exactly one week after an arms depot inside a military barracks caught fire, setting off a lethal rain of grenades, mortar rounds, shells an

Moving from house to house, a U.S. Army sergeant opened fire Sunday on Afghan villagers as they slept, killing 16 people _ mostly women and children _ in an attack that reignited fury at the U.S. presence following a wave of deadly protests over Americans burning Qurans.The attack threatened the dee

Moody’s declares Greece in default on its debtBRUSSELS (AFP) ― Greece took a critical step Friday toward avoiding bankruptcy with a world-record debt write-off deal crucial for the country’s second massive bailout from the IMF and the European Union.Athens announced that a large majority of the country’s private creditors had agreed to a debt swap aimed at erasing 107 billion euros ($140 billion) worth of debt.The success of the deal meant Greece would be able to meet a looming March 20 debt pay

TOKYO (AFP) ― Top Japanese cabinet ministers were warned of possible nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima hours after the tsunami hit last March, government papers have revealed, despite repeatedly denying the risk in public.A summary of a government meeting held about four hours after a giant earthquake sent huge waves crashing into the atomic power station showed that one unidentified participant had cautioned of the risk of a meltdown.“If the temperature of the reactor cores rises after eight hours

TOKYO (AFP) ― The earthquake and tsunami of March 11 last year killed thousands and caused widespread damage as well as sparking a nuclear emergency at Fukushima.As Japan marks the first anniversary of the disaster, here are some key figures:Time of earthquake: 14:46 local time. A tsunami warning was issued three minutes later.Magnitude: 9.0Epicenter: At 38.1 degrees north latitude, 142.9 east longitude in the Pacific Ocean, at the depth of 24 kilometers underwater.Height of waves: Waves higher