XINGTAI, China (AFP) ― Thick grey smog pressed against Zhao Jian’s windshield, blotting visibility to two meters as he drove through China’s most polluted city.“I don’t remember ever seeing air pollution so bad,” said Zhao of the weeks of recent haze that saw hazardous air hanging across swathes of the country.But like others in Xingtai, a 3,000-year-old city that in February was officially declared to have the country’s worst air pollution, Zhao has no hope for improvement. “There’s nothing you

DAMASCUS (AFP) ― Syria warned Tuesday it is ready to fight “for years” against rebels, as world powers worked on a new initiative to find regime officials suitable for peace talks with the opposition.The U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said an entire generation risked being lost in the spiralling conflict between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and insurgents.As the bloodletting approached a third year without a solution in sight, France said it was working with Russia and the United States to

TOKYO (AFP) ― Japan on Wednesday called for stronger security ties with Southeast Asia as Tokyo looks to boost alliances at a time of growing territorial tensions with China.Vice-minister level representatives from Japan and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations were beginning a two-day gathering at a Tokyo hotel, with several participating nations embroiled in sovereignty rows with Beijing.“The Asia-Pacific region has various issues concerning security and defense ... including t

WASHINGTON (AP) ― China’s uncompromising attitude in maritime territorial disputes with its neighbors is partly a response to the U.S. strategic rebalance to the Asia-Pacific, according to U.S. intelligence agencies. In an annual assessment of worldwide threats presented to a Senate panel Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said that the new leaders in Beijing are grappling with a slew of internal challenges that have the potential to spark serious domestic unrest. So the le

PARIS (AFP) ― A severe late-winter snowstorm battered northwestern Europe on Tuesday, causing widespread travel chaos with the cancellation of hundreds of flights at main airports and the suspension of train services including cross-Channel Eurostar trains.Blizzard-like conditions ― coming only eight days before the official start of spring ― also knocked out power to thousands of people in France and left thousands of motorists stranded in their cars.France was the worst affected but Belgium, B

New York City Police Officer Gilberto Valle's lawyers said he was just spinning sick and twisted fantasies for his own pleasure when he chatted online about abducting, roasting and eating women. A jury, though, decided he was deadly serious.Valle, 28, was convicted Tuesday of conspiracy in a macabre case that opened a window on a shocking Internet world of cannibalism fetishists. He could get life in prison at sentencing June 19 but is likely to face much less.His lawyers branded the outcome a “

The judge in the deadly Colorado movie theater shooting case entered a not guilty plea on behalf of James Holmes on Tuesday after the former graduate student's defense team said he was not ready to enter one.If Holmes is convicted, he could be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison. Judge William Sylvester said Holmes, 25, can change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity later, if he chooses.Such a change could be the only way Holmes could avoid life in prison or execution. Pros

Black smoke poured from the Sistine Chapel chimney on Tuesday, signaling that cardinals had failed on their first vote of the papal conclave to choose a new leader for the world's 1.2 billion Catholics and their troubled church.Surrounded by Michelangelo's imposing frescoes imagining the beginning and the end of the world, cardinals locked themselves into the chapel following a final appeal for unity to heal the divisions that have been exposed by Pope Benedict XVI's shocking resignation and rev

BEIJING (AP) ― At an “appropriate time,” China will send a team to survey islands at the heart of an increasingly heated dispute with Japan, a Chinese official said Tuesday in Beijing’s clearest statement yet that it intends to set foot on the Japanese-controlled territory. The remarks by Chinese mapping agency Vice Director Li Pengde added to the sharpening rhetoric between the two sides over a set of uninhabited islets known as Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese. The dispute has greatly

Hackers posted Social Security numbers and other personal data of at least 14 U.S. celebrities and other public figures on a website, police said Monday.The entertainment news website TMZ, which first reported the celebrity hacking, said it would not reveal the name of the website that had made public the private data of Britney Spears, Donald Trump, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Mel Gibson, Ashton Kutcher, Vice President Joe Biden, FBI Director Robert Mueller, former Secretary o

An overwhelming 99.8 percent of Falkland Islands voters have backed keeping their government just the way it is: a British Overseas Territory.Of the 1,517 valid votes cast, only 3 islanders voted “no” to the question: “Do you wish the Falkland Islands to retain their current political status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom?”  One vote was somehow lost, officials said Monday.The referendum was aimed at showing the world that the residents' self-determination must be considered in a