KARACHI (AFP) ― At least 16 people were killed and more than 30 wounded in a blast at a gambling den in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi late Thursday, senior police and government officials said.The explosion ripped through the city’s biggest gambling complex, known as the Rummy Club, senior government official Sharfuddin Memon said.“It was a homemade bomb placed in a packet inside the cl

FUTABA, Japan (AP) ― Japan sealed off a wide area around a radiation-spewing nuclear power plant Friday to prevent tens of thousands of residents from sneaking back to the homes they quickly evacuated, some with little more than a credit card and the clothes on their backs.Fearing they might not see their homes again for months, evacuees raced into the deserted towns Thursday before the ban took e

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AP) ― Michel Martelly, a Haitian popular singer known by the stage name “Sweet Micky,” was officially declared the earthquake-devastated country’s next president, election officials said Wednesday.A spokesman for Haiti’s electoral commission, Pierre Thibault, said Martelly won the presidency with 67.57 percent of the vote, defeating rival candidate Mirlande Manigat.The announcement

European officials portray assistance as effort to fill rebels’ military gapPARIS (AP) ― Europe has moved closer to doing what it said it wouldn’t do in Libya ― directly jump into the bid to overthrow leader Moammar Gadhafi.France said Wednesday it has already sent military officers to work with Libyan rebels on the ground, in addition to stepping up airstrikes. Italy and Britain have said they’re

 

A 10-year-old boy in Liaoning province pretended to be his own parent in order to chat online with his teachers and the parents of his classmates.He kept up the ruse for nearly a year before his cover was blown.Registering as "Lulu's parent", the boy communicated with other parents and teachers in a group talking room on the instant messaging service set up by his teacher in a primary school in Da