DURBAN (AP) ― An all-encompassing climate deal “may be beyond our reach for now,” the U.N. chief said as China and India delivered a setback to European plans to negotiate a new treaty that would bind all parties to their pledges on greenhouse gas emissions.The European “road map” toward a new accord that would take effect after 2020 is a centerpiece of negotiations among 194 countries at a U.N. climate conference in the South African coastal city of Durban. It has been presented as a condition

MOSCOW (AP) ― The election official had a problem. Workers at his polling station had been stuffing ballot boxes with votes for Vladimir Putin’s party all day, he says, but when the votes were counted United Russia still didn’t have enough.So he huddled with the election commission he chaired at the Moscow precinct. The decision: Putin’s party would get the desired 65 percent. One member objected, but relented when the others tossed his Communist Party a few dozen votes.The commission chairman s

Russia has sent interior ministry troops to Moscow and increased the alert level of security forces after a protest of thousands of people opposing Vladimir Putin, officials said on Tuesday.   "They (the troops) have just one aim -- to ensure the security of the citizens," interior mi

CAIRO (AP) ― The runoff Monday for Egypt’s first-round parliamentary elections heated up tensions between competing Islamist groups that have so far dominated the vote, with scuffles breaking out and allegations of death threats.The strife shows the challenges facing the front-runner, the Muslim Brotherhood, after hard-line Islamist parties made a surprisingly strong showing. The more moderate Brotherhood is now under pressure to reassure both Egyptians and foreign allies that the country is not

BRUSSELS (AP) ― Belgium’s soon-to-be prime minister set up a slimmed-down coalition Monday, in one of the final steps before his team formally ends the record 541 days the country has gone without a government.The swearing-in on Tuesday will be a long-awaited relief to the entire nation of 6.5 million Dutch speakers and 4.5 million French speakers who long ago grew frustrated with the deadlock between politicians over linguistic differences.One radio presenter finally shaved off the beard he has

NEW YORK (AP) ― Germany agreed after a year of tough negotiations to pay pensions to about 16,000 additional Holocaust victims worldwide ― mostly survivors who were once starving children in Nazi ghettos, or were forced to live in hiding for fear of death.The agreement announced Monday between the New York-based Claims Conference and the German government is “not about money ― it’s about Germany’s acknowledgment of these people’s suffering,’’ said Greg Schneider, the conference’s executive vice

One-third of fathers with working wives are now the regular caregivers for their children, the result of the depressed economy and large numbers of out-of-work men, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. The number of such dads caring for children under age 15 increased to 32 percent in 2010 from 26

LONDON (AP) — A British court Monday gave WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange permission to continue his legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex crimes allegations.The decision means Assange does not face immediate deportation. British judges said Assange could apply to the Supreme C

ISLAMABAD (AP) ― Battered by Pakistani military operations and U.S. drone strikes, the once-formidable Pakistani Taliban has splintered into more than 100 smaller factions, weakened and is running short of cash, according to security officials, analysts and tribesmen from the insurgent heartland.The group, allied with al-Qaida and based in the northwest close to the Afghan border, has been behind much of the violence tearing apart Pakistan over the last 4 1/2 years. Known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban