NEW YORK (AP) ― Guards at New York City’s massive Rikers Island jail complex are taking unusual precautions to make sure IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn doesn’t come to any harm behind bars.The 62-year-old banker and diplomat has a whole jail wing to himself, a medical device to make sure he doesn’t stop breathing during the night and guards checking him 24 hours a day to make sure he doesn’t kil

Watermelons have been bursting by the score in eastern China after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather, creating what state media called fields of ``land mines.''About 20 farmers around Danyang city in Jiangsu province were affected, losing up to 115 acres (45 hectares) of melon, China Central Television said in an investigative report.Prices over the past year promp

 A retired prison guard ate his 25,000th Big Mac on Tuesday, 39 years to the day after eating his first ... nine.Don Gorske was honored after reaching the meaty milestone during a ceremony at a McDonald's in his hometown of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Surely McDonald's most loyal customer, Guinness World Records recognized Gorske's feat three years and 2,000 Big Macs ago, and the 59-year-old says he h

JERUSALEM (AP) ― Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday took a tough line toward an emerging Palestinian government ahead of a high-profile trip to Washington, saying “those that want to destroy us are not partners in peace.”Netanyahu reiterated a willingness to agree to a Palestinian state under certain conditions but made clear he did not believe it was possible if the Islamic milit

(Nicolas Sarkozy)When French President Nicolas Sarkozy was briefed on the arrest of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on sexual assault charges, his first response would have been a kind of “I told you so!” French daily Le Parisien reported, citing his aides.The guess is based on the cynical comments Sarkozy made one year ago regarding a sexual scandal involving the head of the international bank.A

The U.S. magazine Foreign Policy has chronicled French political leaders’ sex scandals after Dominique Strauss-Kahn‘s arrest. Following are excerpts from the report.IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn is seen at Manhattan Criminal Court, in New York, on Monday. (AFP-Yonhap News)Felix FaureFelix Faure who was president of France from 1895 to 1899 died mysteriously on Feb. 16, 1899. He was alone in a dr

Police say a Pennsylvania man has survived a lighting strike while helping set up tents for a Boy Scout outing.Police in the town of Industry say the 49-year-old man was standing by a tree hit when he was struck by a bolt of lightning at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday.Industry officer Aaron Lopez says the man and others were moving scouts and camping supplies off the site as a thunderstorm approached.Lo

NEW YORK (AP) ― Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s reputation with women earned him the nickname “the great seducer,” and not even an affair with a subordinate could knock the International Monetary Fund leader off a political path pointed in the direction of the French presidency. All that changed with charges that he sexually assaulted a maid in his hotel room, a case that generated shock and revulsion, e

Looser controls on food reporting could signal broader media reformBEIJING (AP) ― Toxic bean sprouts, filthy cooking oil, drug-tainted pork: The relentless headlines in Chinese media have churned up queasy feelings for months about the dangers lurking in the nation’s dinner bowls.The stories are grim reading but show China’s usually strict censors are allowing the press more latitude to help it mo