DAMASCUS (AFP) ― The Arab League on Sunday called an emergency meeting on Syria’s failure to implement its peace plan, as forces reportedly killed at least 19 demonstrators after prayers on one of Islam’s holiest days.The announcement that Arab foreign ministers would hold the gathering came on the fourth straight day of deadly violence since Syria agreed to the League’s peace blueprint aimed at ending eight months of bloodshed.The Arab League said a meeting was called for next Saturday because

LAGOS (AP) ― U.S. officials warned after a weekend of violence and fear that luxury hotels frequented by foreigners and Nigeria’s elite may be bombed by a radical Muslim sect as the death toll from attacks in the country’s northeast rose to more than 100.The warning by the U.S. Embassy shows how seriously diplomats take the threat posed by the outlawed Islamist group known locally as Boko Haram, which previously bombed the United Nations headquarters in the capital, Abuja, killing 24.The unusual

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Herman Cain’s rise as a presidential contender was supposed to prove that race didn’t matter in the Republican Party. Cain is fast making it the only thing that does.The black conservative is trying to navigate around allegations that he sexually harassed at least three women, implying that the accusations surfaced because he is black. Hours after the claims were reported, Cain’s supporters branded his trouble a “high-tech lynching.” That’s the term coined 20 years ago by anoth

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) ― A former general promising to get tough on rampant crime and drug violence easily won Guatemala’s presidential election on Sunday, marking a shift to the right in the poor Central American nation.Otto Perez Molina of the conservative Patriotic Party won 55 percent of the vote, topping tycoon-turned-political populist Manuel Baldizon of the Democratic Freedom Revival party, who had 45 percent, according to Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal.Perez, 61, is the first former

PARIS (AP) ― Once among the world’s most feared masterminds of terror, the man known as Carlos the Jackal is now a graying convict who has been behind bars for 17 years. On Monday, he goes on trial for four deadly attacks that occurred nearly three decades ago, and the verdict could determine his chances of ever being freed.Defiant ahead of the proceedings before a special anti-terrorism court ― expected to last six weeks ― the 62-year-old whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez told a French r

NEW YORK (AP) _ Rescued Chilean miner Edison Pena dropped out of Sunday's New York City Marathon at the 11-mile mark.Pena entered Sunday's 26.2-mile event again following a difficult year that included a hospitalization in Santiago for psychological problems and reported drug and alcohol issues.He f

TOKYO (AP) -- The Chinese skipper of a fishing boat has been arrested in waters off southwestern Japan after fleeing the coast guard and being chased down, Japanese authorities said.Zhang Tianxiong was arrested Sunday about 60 kilometers off Japan’s Goto islands in the East China Sea on charges of refusing inspection and fleeing authorities, the coast guard said.According to the coast guard, Zhang, from Fujian province in eastern China, refused an inspection after his 135-ton boat was sailing th

KABUL (AP) ― Two suicide bombers targeted worshippers on a key Muslim festival in northern Afghanistan, killing seven, including two local police commanders, officials said Sunday.The bombers struck as Muslims were leaving a mosque on the outskirts of Old Baghlan City after prayers at the start of the Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice.At least 18 other people were taken to hospitals with injuries from the attack in Hassin Tal, about 10 kilometers east of the city. One bomber blew himself u

WAJIR, Kenya (AP) ― Two people were killed in a suspected al-Shabab attack at a church in an eastern Kenyan town, a police official said Sunday.Kenyan police chief Leo Nyongesa said that a woman and her two grandchildren were also injured when attackers hurled a grenade at the Pentecostal Church in Garissa late Saturday.Ibrahim Makunyi, the head pastor at the church, said the house near the entrance of the church that belonged to a church elder had been bombed.“One of the dead is a member of the

LONDON (AP) ― British newspaper the Guardian is reporting that media baron Rupert Murdoch paid former News International chief Rebekah Brooks $2.7 million and the use of an office as part of her severance package.The newspaper says without citing sources that the high-profile CEO of the now-closed tabloid News of The World was also granted continued access to her company limousine and driver for two years.The report said Brooks was given a central London office, adding that her spokesman asked t

BOGOTA (AP) ― Rescuers are searching for signs of life amid mud and rubble after a rain-fueled landslide buried homes in northwestern Colombia, killing at least 29 people.Red Cross rescue director Cesar Uruena says between 20 and 40 people remain missing from Saturday’s landslide in Manizales, 165 kilometers northwest of the capital, Bogota.President Juan Manuel Santos said Sunday that 29 bodies have been identified and he sent condolences to the families.The landslide was caused by heavy rains

LAGOS (AP) ― Residents fearfully left their homes to bury their dead in northeast Nigeria following a series of coordinated attacks that killed at least 69 people and left a new police headquarters in ruins, government offices burned and symbols of state power destroyed.A radical Muslim sect known locally as Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks in Borno and Yobe states, with the worst damage done in and around the city of Damaturu. The group also promised Saturday to continue its bl