JERUSALEM (AP) ― Disagreements have already emerged in nascent negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, an Israeli official said Tuesday, but he said his government remains committed to a year-end target to reaching a final peace deal.The Israeli pronouncement was the first time either side has spoken about the dialogue launched last week in Jordan. The low-level contacts, between the chief Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, are aimed at reviving formal peace talks.The Israeli officia

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Global uncertainty on how to deal with the threats of nuclear weapons and climate change have forced the “Doomsday clock” one minute closer to midnight, leading international scientists said Tuesday.“It is now five minutes to midnight,” said Allison Macfarlan, chair of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which created the Doomsday clock in 1947 as a barometer of how close the world is to an apocalyptic end.The last decision by the group, which includes a host of Nobel Prize win

WASHINGTON (AP) _ A group of scientists that tracks the likelihood of a global cataclysm says the world is moving closer to doomsday.The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced Tuesday that it has moved its ``Doomsday Clock'' to five minutes to midnight.The group says inadequate progress on stop

JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- Officials at a South African university say one person is dead after prospective students stampeded the campus.Thousands of young adults and their parents began gathering at the University of Johannesburg campus on Monday to seek admission to the college.Many had only learn

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is due to receive annual compensation worth $378 million, boosted by restricted stock awards that are payable over the coming decade. The total includes $376.2 million in shares that will vest starting in five years, Cupertino, California-based Apple said Monday in a proxy filing to shareholders. Cook’s base salary was $900,000 in 2011. The company, which plans to hold its annual shareholder meeting on Feb. 23, had previously disclosed that Cook receiv

CAIRO (AP) ― The Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the biggest winner in parliamentary elections, but the fundamentalist group that has long dreamed of ruling Egypt is likely to be cautious about flexing its newfound muscle.The Brotherhood has been crushed by the military before and will likely tread carefully to avoid spooking the ruling generals or the country’s Western supporters, who provide generous amounts of badly needed foreign aid.That may be the best tactic for the Brotherhood as it se

LAGOS (AP) ― A national strike fueled by widespread dissent over spiraling gas prices paralyzed Nigeria as tens of thousands of protesters took over the empty streets to criticize government corruption in one voice.Protests remained largely peaceful across the country on Monday, the strike’s first day, though a police shooting in Lagos left one dead and four wounded, while another in the northern city of Kano killed two more.Still, the widespread anger could be felt just like the heat pouring of

VIENNA (AFP) ― Iran has further stoked Western fears about the purpose of its nuclear activities by starting to enrich fissile material in a new site deep inside a virtually impregnable mountain bunker.The Fordo site near the holy city of Qom, 150 kilometers southwest of Tehran, has begun enriching uranium to 20-percent purity, the U.N. atomic watchdog Agency, said late Monday.U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that Iran’s enriching of uranium to 20 percent at the site was “a

NORCROSS, Georgia (AP) _ Suburban Atlanta school officials are deciding whether to discipline teachers who gave third-grade students math homework with word problems about slavery.The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has called for the firing of the nine teachers in

WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Barack Obama announced Monday that chief of staff William Daley was quitting and heading home to Chicago, capping a short and rocky tenure that had been expected to last until Election Day in November. Obama budget chief Jack Lew will take over the job.Daley's run as Obam