A fight among inmates led to a prison riot in northern Mexico that killed 44 people Sunday, a security official said.Nuevo Leon state public security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano said the riot broke out at about 2 a.m. in a high-security section of a prison in the city of Apodaca outside the nort

TEHRAN (AFP) ― Iranian warships entered the Mediterranean after crossing the Suez Canal on Saturday to show Tehran’s “might” to regional states, the navy commander said, at a time of simmering tensions with Israel.In Jerusalem, the Foreign Ministry said Israel will be watching the ship’s movements closely to ensure they do not approach its coast.“The strategic navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has passed through the Suez Canal for the second time since the (1979) Islamic Revolution,” Admiral

RIGA (AP) ― Latvian voters resoundingly rejected a proposal to give official status to Russian, the mother tongue of their former Soviet occupiers, though the defeated referendum Saturday is expected to leave scars on an already divided society.Russian is the first language for about one-third of the Baltic country’s 2.1 million people, and many of them would like to accord official status to the language to reverse what they claim has been 20 years of discrimination.But for ethnic Latvians, the

TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) ― Hondurans are burying victims of one of the world’s worst jail fires as they search for answers about what caused the disaster.On Saturday, the death toll rose to 358 after two severely burned inmates died in a hospital.Several funerals took place in various towns around the country Friday after authorities released the bodies of the first 24 victims of a horrific inferno that has rattled this Central American nation.“This was a barbaric crime,” said Trinidad Varela, who bid

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) ― The Rio Carnival came alive Saturday with more than two million revelers in outlandish costumes staging a mammoth, frenzied samba-driven street festival in the city center.Drawing the huge crowds, a day after legendary King Momo declared the Carnival officially open, was the Cordao da Bola Preta ― one of Rio’s oldest and most popular blocos street parties.While the eagerly awaited highlight of the Carnival, the parades of elaborately decorated fantasy floats and scantily d

Gunmen assassinated a senior prosecutor and a judge in a restive province in northwest Syria on Sunday, the country's state news agency said, while activists reported that security forces shelled rebel-held areas in the besieged city of Homs.SANA news agency said gunmen opened fire in the morning on

A 40-year-old woman was burned alive by villagers after being accused of casting black magic in Nepal on Friday.Dengani Mahato, mother of two, was severely beaten and set on fire by a mob including her own family members after a shaman blamed her over death of a boy a year ago, BBC and AFP reported.

The best voices of a generation all paid tribute to her. But in the end, the most powerful voice at Whitney Houston's funeral Saturday was her own.The first notes of ``I Will Always Love You,'' at the end of a 3 {-hour remembrance of the pop superstar, played as her casket left the hometown church w

TOKYO, Feb 18, 2012 (AFP) - Japan Emperor Akihito's heart bypass surgery that lasted about five hours ended successfully Saturday, national network NHK and other media said.The 78-year-old emperor was advised to undergo the procedure after tests showed a narrowing of two of his coronary arteries.The

BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) -- Libyans on Friday celebrated the first anniversary of the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi with fireworks and slogans, even as its new leader vowed to act firmly against further instability.The former rebels who toppled Gadhafi last year with NATO backing set up fresh checkpoints in the capital Tripoli, in Benghazi, the eastern birthplace of the uprising, the western port city of Misrata and other towns.The country’s new rulers have not organized any official celebration