KABUL (AFP) ― As a civil servant, Afghan Ahmad Mahfooz earns nearly 10 times the average annual salary in his impoverished homeland, but he still cannot afford to marry his fiancee.Already thousands of dollars in debt after hosting a lavish engagement party for 500 guests in December, Mahfooz says he doesn’t know how he will ever afford the kind of wedding his wife-to-be and her family expect.“I o

CAIRO (AP) ― In the first remarks since his dramatic ouster, former President Hosni Mubarak denied that he used his position to amass wealth and property during three decades in power, and issued an emotional defense of his legacy.The statement, broadcast Sunday at the end of a turbulent weekend that saw a deadly military crackdown on protesters, only stoked more public anger in the midst of Egypt

A FBI memo describes the 1947 Roswell UFO incident. (FBI The Valut)A memo, released by FBI’s online resource website The Vault, appears to confirm the 1947 Roswell UFO incident, Daily Mail reported Saturday. An alien spacecraft allegedly crashed in the town of Roswell, New Mexico on July 2, 1947 and since then the incident has been the subject of controversy and conspiracy theories. The memo writt

TOKYO (AP) ― Once Japan’s leaky nuclear complex stops spewing radiation and its reactors cool down, making the site safe and removing the ruined equipment is going to be a messy ordeal that could take decades and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.Radiation has covered the area around the Fukushima Daiichi plant and blanketed parts of the complex, making the job of “decommissioning” the plant ―

ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN, Netherlands (AP) ― A man armed with a machine gun opened fire in a crowded shopping mall, killing six people and wounding 15, then committed suicide, officials and witnesses said.Children were among Saturday’s casualties, including an infant who was lightly injured, said Mayor Bas Eenhoorn. Three of the wounded were hospitalized in critical condition.The rampage ended when the

(Kunio Shiga listens to a battery-powered radio in the living room of his home in Minami Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, inside the deserted evacuation zone established for the 20 kilometer radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex in northeastern Japan Friday, April 8, 2011. The 75-year-old man was stranded alone in his farmhouse ever since Japan's monstrous tsunami struck nearly a month a

A video of a brownish poodle puppy has found fame on YouTube and CBS news in the U.S.The little shaggy poodle apparently has something in common with human babies -- it makes a very similar gurgling sound. In the video, the puppy is rolling on the floor and playing, biting his forefoot. Viewers can’t believe the gurgling sound is really from the puppy. They say it is undistinguishable from a baby’

A new trend is emerging in the U.S. among youngsters: pointed ear surgery. According to ABC news, trendy young people who are fans of movies such as “Lord of the Rings” and “Star Trek,” like to copy the looks of elfin characters in these movies, especially their distinguishing pointed ears. The surgery is painful and dangerous. Unlike some tattoos and piercings, the ear surgery is expensive and no

(Yonhap News)SENDAI, Japan (AFP) ― A powerful aftershock rocked Japan’s tsunami disaster zone, killing at least four and triggering new concerns over nuclear power plants in a region still grappling with an atomic emergency.Electricity was cut across a huge area of northern Japan, forcing cooling systems at three nuclear plants to switch to emergency power and plunging more than 3.3 million househ

    RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) _ A gunman roamed the halls of an elementary school in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday and killed 12 children, lining them up against a wall and shooting them in the head at point-blank range as he shouted, ``I'm going to kill you all!''   It was the worst school shooting in Brazil _ and would have been deadlier if the gunman had not been shot in the legs by a police officer, wh