BEIJING (AP) ― French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Thursday she is “very positive” after talks with Chinese officials about her candidacy to head the International Monetary Fund and said Beijing’s stake in the body should increase.Lagarde is on a global tour to promote her candidacy to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who quit after he was charged with sexually assaulting a New York hote

A stay-at-home father in Utah has been dubbed the world’s most embarrassing dad, thanks to the ridiculous costumes he wears in the morning when son gets on the school bus, according to Metro.The quirky father boasts 170 different outfits in his wardrobe. Fitting into a slim mermaid suit is tricky, but he manages to slip his bulk body into it.In other instances he has seen his son off dressed as Wo

 BARCELONA (AFP) – A flexible thief squeezed into a large suitcase and then emerged to plunder valuables from other bags while inside the luggage compartment of a Spanish airport bus, police say. A thief hided into a large suitcase inside the luggage compartment of a Spanish airport bus, police say. (AP-Yonhap News)The thief had a partner who would buy a bus ticket and place the suitcase in a bus

Government knew reactor design inadequacies, need for independence of regulatorsTOKYO (AP) ― Japan admitted Tuesday it was unprepared for a severe nuclear accident like the tsunami-caused Fukushima disaster and said damage to the reactors and radiation leakage were worse than it previously thought.In a report being submitted to the U.N. nuclear agency, the government also acknowledged reactor desi

HARDIN, Texas (AP) _ Deputies who swarmed a rural Texas neighborhood Tuesday to search a farmhouse where a person claiming to be a psychic told officials multiple bodies were buried found no evidence of even a single homicide, a sheriff's official says.Liberty County Sheriff's Capt. Rex Evans said there was no indication of bodies being anywhere on the property about 70 miles (112 kilometers) nort

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ― Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Monday that he will seek a second term as head of the United Nations, pledging to keep leading the world body as a “bridge-builder” at a time of unprecedented global change. His re-election is virtually assured.The former South Korean foreign minister finally made public what has been the U.N.’s worst kept secret ― that he wants a secon

Activist casts doubt on account; official says authorities will respond firmly to attacksBEIRUT (AP) ― Armed men killed 120 Syrian security forces and torched government buildings Monday in a northern region where troops have unleashed deadly assaults on protesters for days, Syria said. The government vowed to respond “decisively,” hinting at an even more brutal crackdown by a regime known for rut

SANTIAGO (AP) ― An erupting Chilean volcano sent a towering plume of ash across South America on Monday, forcing thousands from their homes, grounding airline flights in southern Argentina and coating ski resorts with a gritty layer of dust instead of snow.Booming explosions echoed across the Andes as toxic gases belched up from a 5 kilometer long fissure in the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic comp

NEW YORK (AP) _ A teary-eyed congressman from New York confessed Monday that he tweeted a lewd photo of himself to a young woman and admitted ``inappropriate'' exchanges with six women, reversing his string of denials about the incidents.In an apparent attempt to end the scathing headlines that the allegations have drawn, U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, a democrat, apologized repeatedly in a half-hour n

NEW DELHI (AP) ― Hundreds of police officers swooped down Sunday on the venue of a hunger strike by a charismatic Indian yoga guru and forcibly removed him and thousands of his supporters.Officers detained Baba Ramdev for security reasons, but later released him, said Rajan Bhagat, a police spokesman in the Indian capital, New Delhi. Renowned yoga guru Baba Ramdev performs Yoga exercises before go

SANAA, Yemen (AP) -- Embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh flew to Saudi Arabia for medical care after he was wounded in a rocket attack on his palace, a senior government official said Sunday. Saleh's abrupt departure threatened to deepen the crisis in his impoverished nation shaken by months of protests against his 33-year rule.Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh (AP-Yonhap News)His departure f

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) -- A top al-Qaida commander and possible replacement for Osama bin Laden was killed in an American drone-fired missile strike close to the Afghan border, a fax from the militant group he heads and a Pakistani intelligence official said Saturday. A supporter of the Pakistani religious party Jamaat-e-Islami reacts during a rally against drone attacks, in Karachi, Paki