DUBAI (AFP) ― The appointment of conservative Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz as heir to the Saudi throne raises concerns he could halt reforms were he to take power, say analysts, who add, however, that he may instead show a softer, more pragmatic side.“He has a strong reputation as an ultra-conservative ― close to religious and reactionary circles,” Gulf specialist Olivier Da Lage told AFP.“He is hostile to Shiites and follows an iron fist policy against any opposition. He also has a tough stance

MIAMI (AFP) ― An American evangelical pastor whose church’s burning of a Quran sparked deadly violence in Afghanistan announced on Friday that he plans to run for president in 2012.In a campaign manifesto titled “Stand Up America!” Jones pledged that on entering the White House he would immediately stop government overspending, bring all foreign-based troops home, and deport all illegal immigrants.The mustachioed pastor also vowed to bring down America’s stubbornly high unemployment rate by redu

BEIJING (AFP) ― China’s parliament passed legislation Saturday beefing up the nation’s counter-terrorism laws, while also ordering fingerprints to be added to all national identity cards.The two bills passed Saturday by the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, were aimed at safeguarding social stability, legislators told journalists.The bill laying out the nation’s legal definition of terrorism clarifies when China’s anti-terrorism forces should act and agai

KABUL (AP) ― A Taliban suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into an armored NATO bus Saturday on a busy thoroughfare in Kabul, killing 17 people, including a dozen Americans, in the deadliest strike against the U.S.-led coalition in the Afghan capital since the war began.The blast occurred on the same day that a man wearing an Afghan army uniform killed three Australian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter in the south ― attacks that show the resiliency of the insurgency and are

Poet-human rights activist becomes new leader of struggling stateDUBLIN (AP) ― Michael D. Higgins, a veteran left-wing politician, poet and human rights activist, was declared the winner Saturday of Ireland’s presidential election with nearly 57 percent of votes, and pledged to lift the spirits of a struggling nation.Higgins said he wanted to help revive the public’s faith in politicians at a time when Ireland faces record debts, a property market collapse, 15 percent unemployment and a fourth s

JERUSALEM (AP) ― A U.S.-Israeli citizen arrested in Egypt as a suspected spy flew to freedom in Israel and into his mother’s arms on Thursday after more than four months in jail, after a prisoner swap deal that has eased friction between the two countries.A smiling Ilan Grapel, 27, looked fit after his one-hour flight from Cairo landed at Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv. On the tarmac, his tearful mother, Irene, who had traveled to Israel from her home in Queens, New York, clas

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ― The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to lift the no-fly zone over Libya on Oct. 31 and end military action to protect civilians, acting swiftly following the death of Moammar Gadhafi and the interim government’s declaration of the country’s liberation.The council authorized the actions on March 17 in response to an Arab League request to try to halt Moammar Gadhafi’s military, which was advancing against rebels and their civilian supporters. The NATO bombing

ERCIS, Turkey (AP) ― Rescuers, working under floodlights, pulled a 13-year-old boy alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building early Friday, over 100 hours after a massive earthquake leveled many buildings in eastern Turkey, killing at least 550 people.A picture by the state-run Anatolia news agency showed a rescue team carrying, Ferhat Tokay, out of the debris, wearing a neck brace. In other pictures from a field hospital, he appeared conscious and looking at his rescuers.Tokay’s re

NEW YORK (AP) — The Fukushima nuclear disaster released twice as much of a dangerous radioactive substance into the atmosphere as Japanese authorities estimated, reaching 40 percent of the total from Chernobyl, a preliminary report says.The estimate of much higher levels of radioactive cesium-