BEIRUT (AP) ― Rebels captured a small military base near Aleppo on Tuesday and stormed another in the same area that protects a major airport, a day after seizing Syria’s largest dam. With the back-to-back blows to President Bashar Assad’s regime, opposition fighters appear to be regaining some momentum, expanding their northern zone of control while at the same time pushing deeper into the heart of the capital, Damascus. Rebels have been attacking Aleppo’s civilian airport, which remains in reg

Delivering the first State of the Union address of his second term, U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday that his administration will strengthen missile defense against North Korean threats.Citing North Korea's nuclear test earlier this week, Obama said such a provocative act will only deepen the communist nation's isolation. "America will continue to lead the effort to prevent the spread of the world's most dangerous weapons," he said in a speech at Capitol Hill. "The regime in North Korea

President Barack Obama's decision to bring home within a year about half of the 66,000 U.S. troops now in Afghanistan will shrink the force to the size he found it when he entered the White House vowing to reinvigorate a stalemated war.Still to be decided: how many troops will remain beyond 2014, when the U.S.-led combat mission is scheduled to end. The stated goal is to prepare Afghanistan's army and police to handle the Taliban insurgency largely on their own by then.Obama determined that his

France's lower house of parliament approved a sweeping bill on Tuesday to legalize gay marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt children, handing a major legislative victory to President Francois Hollande's Socialists on a divisive social issue.The measure, approved in the National Assembly in a 329-to-229 vote, puts France on track to join about a dozen mostly European nations that allow gay marriage and comes despite a string of recent demonstrations by opponents of the so-called “marriage

The manhunt for a former Los Angeles police officer suspected of going on a killing spree converged on a mountain cabin where authorities believe he barricaded himself inside, engaged in a shootout that killed a deputy and then never emerged as the home went up in flames.A single gunshot was heard from within, and a law enforcement official told The Associated Press late Tuesday that officials had found a charred body.If the body of Christopher Dorner is found inside, as authorities suspect, the

U.S. President Barack Obama is announcing plans to scale back troops from Afghanistan and boost the U.S. economy as he delivers a closely watched State of the Union address laying out his priorities for the year ahead and for his newly begun second term in office.The speech before a joint session of Congress' two chambers is expected to be dominated by domestic issues such as jobs, taxes and spending. But foreign policy priorities interjected in the hours before the speech, with North Korea anno

CHARLESVILLE (AP) ― Eleven bodies were pulled from the wreckage of a military plane that crashed in Liberia, with Guinea’s army chief of staff and top military officers among its passengers, officials said Monday. The military officers were on their way to attend Liberia’s Armed Forces Day celebrations, when the plane went down between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. in Charlesville, near Liberia’s largest airport and some 45 kilometers south of Monrovia, the capital. “At 7:09 a.m., air traffic control cle

NAIROBI (AP) ― A leading candidate insisted Monday during Kenya’s first presidential debate that the crimes against humanity charges he faces at the International Criminal Court won’t hinder his ability to run the country. The charges against Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto relate to violence that killed more than 1,000 people after the last elections in 2007. Kenya’s next presidential election is set for March; Kenyatta’s and Ruto’s cases will start in Apr

CAIRO (AP) ― Security forces sprayed protesters with water hoses and tear gas outside the presidential palace Monday as Egyptians marked the second anniversary of the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak’s with angry demonstrations against his elected successor. The forces were trying to disperse a small crowd of protesters after some of them attempted to cross a barbed wire barrier meant to block them from the palace gate. Some protesters chanted: “The people want to bring down the regime.” Others th

BEIRUT (AP) ― Syrian rebels scored one of their biggest strategic victories Monday since the country’s crisis began two years ago, capturing the nation’s largest dam and iconic industrial symbol of the Assad family’s four-decade rule. Rebels led by the al-Qaida-linked militant group Jabhat al-Nusra now control much of the water flow in the country’s north and east, eliciting warnings from experts that any mistake in managing the dam may drown wide areas in Syria and Iraq. A Syrian government off

GAO, Mali (AP) ― Malian soldiers scoured the city of Gao on Monday for remnants of the radical Islamic fighters who invaded the town and engaged in an hours-long fight with soldiers before French and Malian forces regained control. Sunday’s brazen assault marked the first time the jihadists had penetrated the city of mud-walled buildings since they fled two weeks ago. The attack also showed the al-Qaida-linked militants’ intent to fight for control of Gao, which they had ruled for nearly 10 mont

LONDON (AP) ― When he became pope at age 78, Benedict XVI was already the oldest pontiff elected in nearly 300 years. He’s now 85, and in recent years he has slowed down significantly, cutting back his foreign travel and limiting his audiences. The pope travels to the altar in St. Peter’s Basilica on a moving platform to spare him the 100-meter walk down the aisle. Occasionally he uses a cane. Late last year, people who were spending time with the pontiff emerged saying they found him weak and t

VATICAN CITY (AP) ― Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation opens the door to an array of possible successors, from the conservative cardinal of Milan to a contender from Ghana and several Latin Americans. But don’t count on a radical change of course for the Catholic Church: Benedict appointed the majority of cardinals who will choose his successor from within their own ranks. There’s no clear front-runner, though several leading candidates have been mentioned over the years as “papabile” ― or having t