HOMS, Syria (AP) ― The presence of Arab League monitors in Syria has re-energized the anti-government protest movement, with tens of thousands turning out over the past three days in cities and neighborhoods where the observers are expected to visit. The huge rallies have been met by lethal gunfire from security forces apparently worried about multiple mass sit-ins modeled after Cairo’s Tahrir Square.On Thursday, security forces opened fire on tens of thousands protesting outside a mosque in a D

Japan’s ruling party compromised on a plan to double the sales tax by 2015 to help reduce the world’s largest public debt, delaying implementation by six months to help lawmakers meet a campaign pledge. The proposal by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda would raise the sales tax from 5 percent to 8 percent in April 2014 and to 10 percent in October 2015. The agreement, reached late yesterday, must be approved by a government panel led by Finance Minister Jun Azumi before discussion with the oppositio

A 99-year-old Italian man filing for divorce from his 96-year-old wife said he found letters from an affair she had 50 years ago.The Rome man, a Sardinia native who has been married to his wife for 77 years, came across letters she sent to a former lover during the late 1950s, the ANSA news agency r

BRUSSELS (AFP) ― The new year promises to be make or break time for the eurozone, with dramatic integration into a new fiscal union for most and predictions that one “small country” could leave the currency area.If 2011 went down as the “annus horribilis” for the European Union’s symbol of integration, leaders of Germany, France and debt-laden monetary partners face stark choices as they enter 2012, a decade after euro notes and coins first entered into everyday circulation.The euro debt crisis

ATHENS (AFP) ― Early elections in Greece have been delayed to give the interim government more time to rescue the country’s crisis-hit economy, but political uncertainty looks set to complicate delicate talks with creditors.Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos late on Tuesday said ballots would be set in late April to enable critical negotiations with the eurozone and banks holding Greek sovereign debt to be concluded.Venizelos made the announcement at an internal meeting of the Socialist party.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) ― The annual cleaning of one of Christianity’s holiest churches deteriorated into a brawl between rival clergy Wednesday, as dozens of monks feuding over sacred space at the Church of the Nativity battled each other with brooms until police intervened.The ancient church, built over the traditional site of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, is shared by three Christian denominations ― Roman Catholics, Armenians and Greek Orthodox. Wednesday’s fight erupted between Greek and Arme

RIYADH (AP) ― Women in Saudi Arabia will not need a male guardian’s approval to run or vote in municipal elections in 2015, when women will also run for office for the first time, a Saudi official said Wednesday.The change signifies a step forward in easing the kingdom’s restrictions against women, but it falls far short of what some Saudi reformers are calling for.Shura Council member Fahad al-Anzi was quoted in the state-run al-Watan newspaper saying that approval for women to run and vote cam

BEIJING (AP) -- A former lawyer and veteran activist left disabled by past police mistreatment went on trial Thursday, the third dissident in a week to be prosecuted as China presses a sweeping crackdown to deter popular uprisings like the ones that shook the Arab world.Looking thin and frail, Ni Yulan lay on a bed and used an oxygen machine to help her breathe during the hearing, her daughter, Dong Xuan, said afterward. Dong said she told the court about her mother’s run-ins with police since 2

BEIRUT (AP) ― Arab League monitors gathered accounts about the Syrian government’s crackdown on dissent in the central city of Homs Wednesday as fresh violence flared just dozens of miles away. Activists said troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters, killing at least six.Though President Bashar Assad’s regime has made concessions to the observers, including the release of nearly 800 prisoners, the military was pressing ahead with a campaign to put down mostly peaceful protests.In th

CARACAS (AFP) ― Venezuela is on track to set a new record murder rate and to remain South America’s most violent country, according to data released by a crime watchdog.The Venezuela Violence Monitor said Tuesday that 19,336 people had been murdered in 2011, an average of 53 per day in a country of 29 million.“We must inform the nation that 2011 will end as the most violent year in the nation’s history,” the group said in a press release.The group’s figures indicate that the rate of homicides cl

WASHINGTON (AP) ― The months of turmoil among Republicans bidding to become the party nominee to challenge President Barack Obama head into a final sorting process in Iowa next week with Mitt Romney and Ron Paul leading a field of seven candidates.Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Paul, a long-serving Texas congressman, are running neck-and-neck in the Midwestern state that holds precinct nominating caucus meetings Tuesday night. The caucuses are a test of the campaign financing and