Promise to allow foreign observers  was not enough to stop Assad’s iron fistBEIRUT (AP) ― Security forces pursuing anti-government activists and army defectors shot dead at least 47 people in Syria on Tuesday, pushing the toll for two days of violence to nearly 150 even as the regime prepared to allow in foreign monitors under an Arab League plan aimed at stopping the bloodshed.Syrian state television showed pictures of military maneuvers and said they were meant to show its forces are ready to

PARIS (AFP) ― Astronomers on Tuesday said that for the first time they had spotted two Earth-sized worlds orbiting a Sun-like star, in another big advance in the search for so-called exoplanets.One of the planets is just three percent bigger than Earth and the other is 13 percent smaller, which would make it a bit tinier than Venus, they reported online in the British science journal Nature.The planets are inferred to have a rocky composition similar to Earth’s but they orbit so close to their s

AMSTERDAM (AP) _ A Dutch broadcaster _ renowned for testing the limits of good taste and the law _ says it will air a segment in which two presenters engage in cannibalism by eating a small chunk of one another's fried flesh.A BNN spokesman said Tuesday the men had each had a small piece of tissue s

Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Leah Garrapy produced so much breast milk for her baby Ella that she stuffed freezers with leftovers. She posted online that she's sell the surplus for $2 an ounce."I was running out of space,"said Garrapy, 25, who lives near Boynton Beach, Florida. "If I can sell some and mak

TOKYO (AFP) -- Japan’s coastguard said Tuesday it had arrested a Chinese boat captain in a possible fresh test for sometimes fraught maritime relations, just days after a South Korean officer was stabbed to death at sea.A coastguard vessel pursued the fisherman’s 130-ton boat for over six hours after it was spotted lowering ropes into the water around four kilometersoff islands in Nagasaki, southwest Japan, the second arrest in the area in less than two months.Japanese officers found some coral

TOKYO (AFP) -- Japan’s coastguard said Tuesday it had arrested a Chinese boat captain in a possible fresh test for sometimes fraught maritime relations, just days after a South Korean officer was stabbed to death at sea.A coastguard vessel pursued the fisherman’s 130-ton boat for over six hours after it was spotted lowering ropes into the water around four kilometersoff islands in Nagasaki, southwest Japan, the second arrest in the area in less than two months.Japanese officers found some coral

PORT MORESBY (AFP) ― A political crisis in Papua New Guinea appeared closer to an end Tuesday with the governor general admitting he was wrong to reinstate Sir Michael Somare as prime minister last week.The Pacific nation was thrown into a constitutional crisis when the Supreme Court reinstated Somare, 75, as leader and ruled the election of Peter O’Neill to the post by fellow lawmakers in August was unconstitutional.Governor General Michael Ogio, the representative of Queen Elizabeth II, the Co

BAGHDAD (AP) ― Iraq’s Shiite-led government issued an arrest warrant Monday for the Sunni vice president, accusing him of running a hit squad that assassinated government and security officials ― extraordinary charges a day after the last U.S. troops left the country.The vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, left Baghdad on Sunday for the semiautonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan, presumably hoping that Kurdish authorities would not turn him in. Investigative judges banned him the same day from trave

CAIRO (AP) -- Volunteers in white lab coats, surgical gloves and masks stood on the back of a pickup truck Monday along the banks of the Nile River in Cairo, rummaging through stacks of rare 200-year-old manuscripts that were little more than charcoal debris.The volunteers, ranging from academic experts to appalled citizens, have spent the past two days trying to salvage what’s left of some 192,000 books, journals and writings, casualties of Egypt’s latest bout of violence.Institute d’Egypte, a

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Russia urged NATO on Monday to investigate civilian deaths in Libya from its bombing campaign, saying the alliance’s claim that there were no civilian casualties is untrue.Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he has been asking NATO to give “a definitive report” to the U.N. Security Council summing up its activities in Libya. But he said “unfortunately” the alliance only provided “piecemeal, rather perfunctory reports ... (that) were not very informative.”Russia ho

CAIRO (AP) ― Egypt’s ruling military has sought to discredit the pro-democracy movement, portraying a detained protester as a woman of questionable morals, accusing a prominent publisher of incitement and alleging the media is trying to sabotage the country.Monday’s verbal attacks by a member of the ruling military council came hours after troops in riot gear swept through Cairo’s Tahrir Square before daybreak, opening fire on protesters and lobbing tear gas into the crowds. At least three peopl

CARACAS (AP) ― President Barack Obama’s sharp criticisms of Venezuela’s human rights record and its ties to Iran are heightening tensions with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who on Monday responded by calling Obama a “clown” and telling him to mind his own business.Obama appeared to stiffen his stance toward Chavez in his remarks, which were published Monday by the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal. Some of Obama’s Republican opponents have also been strongly critical of Chavez, and analysts

BEIJING (AFP) -- Villagers in southern China in a rare stand-off with local Communist authorities said Monday they were being bombarded with calls from officials to warn them not to take part in a planned protest march.The residents of Wukan, which has been under police blockade for over a week, say they will march on local government offices in a nearby town on Wednesday if their demands are not met.They want authorities to release three villagers detained on Dec. 9 for allegedly inciting riots

VENTURA, California (AP) ― A teen who fatally shot a gay classmate in the back of the head during a computer lab nearly four years ago was sentenced Monday to 21 years in state prison, capping an emotional case that focused attention on how schools deal with sexual identity.Brandon McInerney, 17, dressed in a white T-shirt and blue pants, didn’t speak at the hearing, but his lawyer said his client was sorry for killing 15-year-old Larry King.“He feels deeply remorseful and stated repeatedly if h