British comedian Jim Davidson was arrested for a sexual offence on Wednesday. He was released on bail without charge, on condition that he would reappear for questioning in March.London police detained Davidson, who is thought to have been about to appear on reality TV show “Celebrity Big Brother,” and asked questions regarding allegations of sexual abuse. The police also searched Davidson’s house for evidence. The suspicions arose as two women accused Davidson of sexual abuse 25 years ago. At t

The most powerful Republican in the U.S. Congress is keeping his post.House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner narrowly retained the position as the new Congress voted Thursday.Boehner has had a bruising time in recent days as the outgoing Congress and the Obama administration negotiated and passed a limited deal to avoid the worst of the so-called “fiscal cliff.”Boehner faced criticism from conservatives in his own party over the fiscal deal. Fellow Republicans from the Northeast then blas

YANGON (AP) ― Myanmar’s military has acknowledged carrying out airstrikes against ethnic Kachin rebels in the country’s north, and says it has captured a hilltop post from where the insurgents launched attacks on government supply convoys.The statement broadcast on state television Wednesday contradicted government claims two days earlier that the military was not carrying out offensive air attacks on the Kachin, raising questions about how much control the elected government of reformist Presid

BEIRUT (AP) ― The United Nations gave a grim new count Wednesday of the human cost of Syria’s civil war, saying the death toll has exceeded 60,000 in 21 months ― far higher than recent estimates by anti-regime activists. The day’s events illustrated the escalating violence that has made recent months the deadliest of the conflict: As rebels pressed a strategy of attacking airports and pushing the fight closer to President Bashar Assad’s stronghold in Damascus, the government responded with deadl

GENEVA (AFP) ― A gunman has opened fire in a village in southern Switzerland, killing three people and wounding two others, police said on Thursday.The man, who had reportedly been drinking heavily before the shooting and was armed with an assault rifle, launched the attack in the village of Daillon late Wednesday.As police rushed to the scene to stop the attack, they exchanged fire with the gunman and wounded him, police said. He had been taken to hospital, they said.“Three victims died at the

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was released from a New York hospital on Wednesday, three days after doctors discovered a blood clot in her head.Clinton's medical team advised her Wednesday evening that she was making good progress on all fronts and said they are confident she will fully recover, said Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines. Doctors had been treating Clinton with blood thinners to dissolve a clot in a vein that runs through the space between the brain and the skull behind th

The United Nations gave a grim new count Wednesday of the human cost of Syria's civil war, saying the death toll has exceeded 60,000 in 21 months _ far higher than recent estimates by anti-regime activists.The day's events illustrated the escalating violence that has made recent months the deadliest of the conflict: As rebels pressed a strategy of attacking airports and pushing the fight closer to President Bashar Assad's stronghold in Damascus, the government responded with deadly airstrikes on

An American journalist who graduated from Marquette University has been missing in Syria since he was kidnapped more than one month ago, his family said Wednesday, less than two years after he was held by government forces in Libya while covering that country's civil war.The family of James Foley, of Rochester, N.H., said he was kidnapped in northwest Syria by unknown gunmen on Thanksgiving day.Foley, 39, has worked in a number of conflict zones around the Middle East, including Syria, Libya and

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) ― Ten people, including four children, died and 120 were hurt in a stampede at an evangelical vigil in the Angolan capital Luanda on New Year’s Eve, Angolan news agency Angop reported.It quoted civil protection spokesman Faustino Sebastiao as saying the victims were crushed by the crowd and asphyxiated at the entrance to the Cidadela Desportiva stadium after only two of the four gates had been opened.Twelve of the injured were still in hospital on Tuesday.“We were expecting 70

BEIRUT (AP) ― Clashes between government troops and rebels on Tuesday forced the international airport in Aleppo to stop all flights in and out of Syria’s largest city, while fierce battles also raged in the suburbs of the capital Damascus.The rebels have been making inroad in the civil war recently, capturing a string of military bases and posing a stiff challenge to the regime in Syria’s two major cities ― Damascus and Aleppo.The opposition trying to overthrow authoritarian President Bashar As

ABIDJAN (AP) ― A crowd stampeded after leaving a New Year’s fireworks show early Tuesday in Ivory Coast’s main city, killing 61 people ― many of them children and teenagers ― and injuring more than 200, rescue workers said.Thousands had gathered at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium in Abidjan’s Plateau district to see the fireworks. It was only the second New Year’s Eve fireworks display since peace returned to this West African nation after a bloody upheaval over presidential elections put the

ISLAMABAD (AP) ― Gunmen on motorcycles sprayed a van carrying employees from a community center with bullets Tuesday, killing five female teachers and two aid workers, but sparing a child they took out of the vehicle before opening fire. The director of the group that the seven worked for says he suspects it may have been the latest in a series of attacks targeting anti-polio efforts in Pakistan. Some militants oppose the vaccination campaigns, accusing health workers of acting as spies for the