TOKYO (AP) ― Japan says it will soon require atomic reactors to be shut down after 40 years of use to improve safety following the nuclear crisis set off by last year’s tsunami.Concern about aging reactors has been growing because the three units at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan that went into meltdown following the tsunami in March were built starting in 1967. Among other reactors at least 40 years old are those at the Tsuruga and Mihama plants in central Japan, which were b

CARACAS (AP) ― Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is courting Latin America on a four-nation tour starting Sunday that will let him tout some of Iran’s few friendships while tensions grow over the country’s threats to block oil shipments in retaliation for tighter U.S. sanctions.His government finds itself largely isolated in the standoff over its nuclear program, and the new sanctions targeting Iran’s Central Bank and oil industry have triggered an abrupt drop in the nation’s currency.Iran’s

LONDON (AFP) - A 15-year-old boy was tortured and drowned on Christmas Day by his relatives after they accused him of practising witchcraft, a British court heard Thursday.Kristy Bamu suffered 101 different injuries from being attacked with a chisel, a hammer and a metal bar, and was in such pain th

FAIRFAX, Virginia (AP) -- A Virginia woman was sentenced Friday to 35 years for throwing her 2-year-old granddaughter off a walkway at a busy shopping mall, a murder the judge called ``almost beyond comprehension.''Carmela dela Rosa, 51, offered a tearful, barely audible apology to her family, sayin

TEHRAN (AFP) -- Iranian media were largely silent Saturday on the U.S. navy's rescue of 13 Iranians held by pirates in the Arabian Sea, making little mention of the incident -- or that the U.S. ships included an aircraft carrier Tehran had warned out of the region.The official Islamic Republic News

DAMASCUS -- An explosion ripped through a police bus in the center of Syria's capital Friday, killing at least 10 people and possibly 25 in an attack authorities blamed on a suicide bomber, an official and state-run TV said.Syrian television showed residents and paramedics carrying human remains, ho

Japan's coast guard on Friday found a wooden boat carrying three men and the dead body of another individual, believed to be adrift from North Korea in waters off the western Japanese island of Okinoshima, a report said.According to Japan's public broadcaster NHK, coast guard officials initially sus

RENNES, France -- French fans of Michael Jackson are suing the late pop star's doctor for "emotional damage" they suffered over his death, their lawyer said Friday.The case against Conrad Murray, who was jailed in November over the star's 2009 death, is due to be heard in the city of Orleans on Apri

BAGHDAD (AP) ― An apparently coordinated wave of bombings targeting Shiite Muslims killed at least 78 people in Iraq on Thursday, the second large-scale assault by militants since U.S. forces pulled out last month.The attacks, which bore the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents, come ahead of a Shiite holy day that draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from across Iraq, raising fears of a deepening of sectarian bloodshed. Rifts along the country’s Sunni-Shiite faultline just a few years ago pushed Ir