KABUL (AP) ― A new strategic partnership that commits the U.S. to defend Afghanistan militarily for 10 years after most foreign forces leave in 2014 is intended to signal that the U.S. will not tolerate a resurgent al-Qaida or attacks launched by militants from neighboring Pakistan.The agreement, parts of which were read out Monday in the Afghan parliament, is big on symbolism but light on substance. It leaves out specifics, including how much funding the U.S. will provide to support Afghan secu

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― U.S. President Barack Obama Monday ordered new sanctions on Syria and Iran and the “digital guns for hire” who help them oppress their people with surveillance software and monitoring technology.Obama announced additions to the pile of U.S. sanctions already faced by the two governments as part of a wider effort to crack down on human rights abuses, atrocities and genocide, at a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Museum.The measures will hit the two governments but also companies th

DHAKA (AFP) ― Two demonstrators were killed and more than 20 police injured in Bangladesh on Monday as officers fought to control a crowd of 10,000 people protesting over the disappearance of opposition leader Ilias Ali.Police said mobs armed with sticks and stones set fire to a local council building and attacked a police station in Sylhet city, home to Ali, a prominent Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) figure who has been missing for six days.“There were more than 10,000 protesters. They atta

An Occupy Wall Street protester can’t stop prosecutors from getting his tweets, a judge has ruled in a clash over the bounds of privacy in an age of living publicly on social networks.In a ruling punctuated with Twitter users’ beloved hashtag marks, the judge said prosecutors weren’t overreaching by seeking Malcolm Harris’ public tweets for weeks before and months after his Oct. 1 disorderly condu

Criminality worldwide generates proceeds in the trillions of dollars each year, making crime one of the world's ``top 20 economies,'' a senior U.N. official said MondayWith the scope of global crime _ and particularly organized crime _ threatening emerging economies and fomenting international instability, Yury Fedotov called for concerted world action to combat the trend.``We need to recognize th

A pair of French men said their 35-year friendship has ended due to a dispute over a $1.3 million winning lottery ticket.Messouad Boudissa, 79, and Cheikh Guendouzi, 73, from the village of Villeneuve-sur-Lot, said they ended their friendship following a dispute about the winnings from a $26 lottery ticket. Guendouzi said he loaned Boudissa the money to buy the ticket in July 2011, with the unders

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Anxious to prove he's not insane, confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik told a court Monday that questions about his mental health are part of a racist plot to discredit his extreme anti-Muslim ideology.Breivik, who has admitted to killing 77 people in a bombing and youth camp massacre, said that no one would have asked for a psychiatric examination had he been a ``bear

SANFORD, Florida (AP) -- In a low-key event for such a high-profile case, the neighborhood watch volunteer awaiting his second-degree murder trial in the fatal shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin was released from a Florida jail on $150,000 bail.George Zimmerman was wearing a brown jacket and blue jeans and carrying a paper bag as he walked out of the jail around midnight Sunday. He was fo

A soccer ball swept into the Pacific Ocean in Japan's deadly earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 has washed ashore in Alaska, its owner confirmed.The ball was found by David Baxter on the shore of Middleton Island, south of the Alaskan mainland, the Kyodo news agency reported.His Japanese wife Yumi translated writing on the ball as messages from Grade 3 school children in 2005 for a 16-year-old h