Twin blasts inside a university campus in Syria's largest city on Tuesday set cars ablaze, blew the walls off dormitory rooms and left more than 80 people dead, anti-regime activists said.What caused the blasts remained unclear.Anti-regime activists trying to topple President Bashar Assad's regime said his forces carried out two airstrikes. Syrian state media, for its part, blamed rebels fighting the Syrian government, saying they fired rockets that struck the campus.Aleppo, Syria's largest city

The U.S. government's official stance towards Japan's move to flex its military muscles remained elusive Tuesday, keeping media speculation alive on the politically and diplomatically sensitive issue.Japan's new conservative prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has been apparently seeking to increase the nation's military budget and expand the role of its self-defense forces abroad.Victoria Nuland, spokeswoman for the State Department, dismissed speculation on Japan's military drive as stemming from "pre

After a punishing bombing campaign failed to halt the advance of al-Qaida-linked fighters, France pledged Tuesday to triple the size of its force in Mali, sending in hundreds more troops as it prepared for a land assault to dislodge the militants occupying the northern half of the country.The move reversed France's earlier insistence on providing only aerial and logistical support for a military intervention led by African ground troops.France plunged headfirst into the conflict in its former co

BEIJING (AFP) ― Public anger in China at dangerous levels of air pollution, which blanketed Beijing in acrid smog, spread Monday as state media queried official transparency and the nation’s breakneck development. The media joined Internet users in calling for a re-evaluation of China’s modernization process, which has seen rapid urbanization and dramatic economic development at the expense of the environment. Dense smog shrouded large swathes of northern China at the weekend, cutting visibility

ISLAMABAD (AFP) ― Pakistani police fired tear gas and gunshots could be heard as a growing crowd of protesters converged on parliament on Tuesday, throwing stones at security forces, an AFP reporter said.The protesters are followers of Canadian-Pakistani cleric Tahir-ul Qadri, who led a two-day protest march into the capital Islamabad overnight to demand a peaceful “revolution” and the dissolution of parliament.It was not clear who fired the gunshots. An AFP reporter saw police fire tear gas she

CAIRO (AP) ― At least 19 people died and more than 100 were injured when two railroad passenger cars derailed just south of Cairo after midnight Monday, health officials said. The accident comes less than two weeks after a new transportation minister was appointed to overhaul the rail system, and just two months after a deadly collision between a train and school bus. The official MENA news agency quoted Health Ministry officials who said that the 107 wounded were being treated in hospitals near

President Barack Obama endorsed controversial bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, as well as stricter background checks for gun buyers _ but conceded he may not win approval of all in a Congress reluctant to tighten restrictions.Obama said lawmakers would have to ``examine their own conscience'' as they tackle gun control legislation after the horrifying Connecticut school shootings last month. The influential National Rifle Association and other pro-gun rights groups

Despite a punishing bombardment by French warplanes, al-Qaida-linked insurgents grabbed more territory in Mali on Monday, seizing a strategic military camp that brought them far closer to the government's seat of power. Declaring France had “opened the gates of hell” with its assault, the rebels threatened retribution.“France ... has fallen into a trap much more dangerous than Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia,” said Omar Ould Hamaha, a leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, one

BEIJING (AP) ― Beijing schools canceled outdoor flag-raisings and took sports classes indoors while hospitals saw a spike in respiratory cases Monday because of the extremely hazardous air in China’s notoriously smoggy capital following a weekend of off-the charts pollution. City authorities ordered many factories to scale back emissions, and were spraying water at building sites to try to tamp down the dust and dirt that worsens the noxious haze that has hung over the city since late last week.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) ― Pakistani leaders dismissed the government of southwest Baluchistan province early Monday in response to the demands of protesters angry about an attack on minority Shiite Muslims there that killed 86 people. In another part of the country, a roadside bomb killed 14 Pakistani soldiers. Over the past three days, thousands of Shiites have blocked a main road in the Baluchistan capital of Quetta with dozens of coffins of relatives killed in the twin bombing of a billiards ha