BEIJING, (AFP) ― A city in southern China is considering passing a law to protect people who help strangers from being sued, after a case in which an injured toddler was ignored by 18 passers-by, a report said Wednesday.Officials in Shenzhen are drafting rules that would protect well-intentioned rescuers from legal action if their efforts failed “as long as there was no negligence or deliberate sabotage,” the China Daily said.There have been renewed calls for such laws in China after the death l

WARSAW (AP) ― A Boeing airliner from the U.S. carrying 231 people was forced to land on its belly Tuesday in Warsaw after its landing gear failed to open, triggering sparks and small fires. No one was hurt, but some passengers sobbed as they prayed for a safe landing.Capt. Tadeusz Wrona, who handled the descent so smoothly that many on board thought the Boeing 767 landed on its wheels, was instantly hailed a hero in Poland and online, where within hours he was the focus of several Facebook fan p

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has lost his appeal against extradition to Sweden to answer sex crime allegations.   In a judgment Wednesday, Judges John Thomas and Duncan Ousely said that Assange, who was in court to hear the verdict, should be sent to Sweden to be questioned over the al

NEW YORK (AP) _ The world has make great progress in eliminating inequality between men and women in health and education, but not in economic participation and political empowerment, according to a survey of 135 nations released Tuesday.The annual survey by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum sho

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) _ Australia's government has introduced legislation to impose a 30 percent tax on the burgeoning profits of iron ore and coal mining companies that are feeding Chinese demand.The legislation introduced to Parliament on Wednesday is not certain to pass since key independent l

LONDON (AP) ― Prince Charles will keep his little-known veto over some planned laws, a power that dates back to the Middle Ages, after the British government said Monday it was not going to rewrite ancient constitutional rules.New evidence that the heir to the throne has been playing an active political role has touched a nerve among anti-monarchists, but Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said it did not plan reforms.Parliamentary records show that Prince Charles has been consulted over at l

Giant leap toward statehood, but relationship with Israel worsens; U.N. body to lose a fifth of its budgetPARIS (AP) ― Palestine won its greatest international endorsement yet, full membership in UNESCO, but the move will cost the agency one-fifth of its funding and some fear it will send Mideast peace efforts off a cliff.In an unusually dramatic session Monday at the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, there were cheers for “yes” votes and grumbles for

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.N. investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions that the Syrian government worked with A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan‘s atomic bomb, to acquire technology that could be used to make nuclear arms.The buildings in northwest Syria closely match the design of a uranium enrichment plant provided to Libya when Moammar Gadhafi was trying to build nuclear weapons under Khan’s guidance, officials told The Associated Press.The U.N.‘s

STOCKHOLM, Oct 31, 2011 (AFP) - Swedish rally driver Per-Gunner Andersson is known for his speed behind the wheel but he wasn't fast enough this weekend when his wife had to give birth in their car on the way to hospital."It was a little strange," Andersson, 31, told the online edition of tabloid Ex