Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel on Sunday for the first time since an Egypt-mediated ceasefire on November 21, army radio and other media reported.The reports said it fell on open ground and caused no injuries, but an Israeli military spokesman denied that a rocket had hit."No rocket fell in Israeli territory," he told AFP, without elaborating.Israel and the militant Islamist group Hamas which rules Gaza fought an eight-day war last month in which 177

More than 60 people were killed in a regime air strike on a bakery in a rebel-held town on Sunday, monitors said, as peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi launched a new bid to resolve Syria's brutal 21-month conflict.In one of the deadliest incidents of the conflict, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike hit a bakery in Halfaya in the central province of Hama, killing more than 60 people and wounding at least 50.Many of the wounded were in critical condition, it said."In Halfaya, regime

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Acting CIA director Michael Morell said that “Zero Dark Thirty,” the Hollywood take on the hunt for Osama bin Laden, exaggerates the importance of information obtained by harsh interrogations.The movie by Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow tells the story of the decade-long search after Sept. 11, 2001 that climaxed in last year’s dramatic and deadly raid in May on the Al-Qaeda terror leader’s hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.The film shows U.S. personnel using harsh

TOKYO (AFP) ― Japan’s incoming premier Saturday pledged to seek a thaw in ties with China after a report said he will send a special envoy on a fence-mending mission to Beijing.Ties between Japan and China have become increasingly strained over a disputed island chain ― the Tokyo-controlled Senkakus, which Beijing calls the Diaoyus ― with neither side willing to budge after months of bitter wrangling.“I want to make efforts to return to the starting point of developing the mutually beneficial re

The Walt Disney Co. said it has canceled Olympic runner Suzy Favor Hamilton‘s appearances at its marathons after she was outed as a Las Vegas prostitute.　The family-friendly company said Hamilton was not under contract to speak at runDisney marathon events, but was an invited guest, The Sporting News reported Friday.　She appeared at this year’s Disneyland Half Marathon and at the Prince Half Marathon at Florida‘s Walt Disney World in February, The Hollywood Reporter said.Gossip website thesmokin

Indian police on Sunday banned protests in central New Delhi following a wave of violent demonstrations over the savage gang-rape of a medical student a week ago, an official statement said.Areas close to the president's residence and the parliament have been declared off-limits to protesters, it said, a day after police tear-gassed, baton-charged and fired water cannon at demonstrators.Thousands of protesters, most of them college students, rallied at the India Gate monument in the heart of the

A fight at an “End of the World” party in San Bernardino, Calif., ended with one man dead, two wounded and a suspect at large, city police said Saturday.Police said officers were investigating a non-lethal stabbing shortly before midnight Friday at a party that had attracted up to 100 people when they were called to a nearby home where 20-year-old Felipe Jason Moreno of San Bernardino was shot to death and his 22-year-old cousin was wounded, the Los Angeles Times reported.Police said the shootin

Egypt's Islamist-backed constitution received a “yes” majority in a final round of voting on a referendum that saw a low voter turnout, but the deep divisions it has opened up threaten to fuel continued turmoil.Passage is a victory for Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, but a costly one. The bruising battle over the past month stripped away hope that the long-awaited constitution would bring a national consensus on the path Egypt will take after shedding its autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak nearly

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ―The U.N. Security Council on Thursday authorized military action to wrest northern Mali from the control of al-Qaida-linked extremists but demanded progress first on political reconciliation, elections and training African troops and police. A resolution adopted unanimously by the U.N.’s most powerful body stressed that there must be a two-track plan, political and military, to reunify the country, which has been in turmoil since a coup in March. The Security Council authori