PHNOM PENH (AP) -- Southeast Asian leaders on Sunday adopted a human rights declaration despite last-minute calls for a postponement by critics, including Washington, who said the pact contains loopholes that could allow atrocities to continue.　 The 10 leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, an unwieldy bloc of liberal democracies and authoritarian states, signed a document adopting the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, where the heads of state

PARIS (AP) ― Groups opposed to President Francois Hollande’s plans to legalize gay marriage and gay adoptions took to the streets Saturday across France. Hollande said he would enact his “marriage for everyone” plan within a year of coming to power in May, but vocal opposition from religious leaders, some politicians and parts of rural France has divided the country. Saturday’s protest, called the “March for Everyone,” included pro-family and Catholic groups. Several thousand people marched in P

DUBLIN (AP) ― About 10,000 people marched through Dublin and observed a minute’s silence Saturday in memory of the Indian dentist who died of blood poisoning in an Irish hospital after being denied an abortion. Marchers, many of them mothers and daughters walking side by side, chanted “Never again!” and held pictures of Savita Halappanavar as they paraded across the city to stage a nighttime candlelit vigil outside the office of Prime Minister Enda Kenny. The 31-year-old, who was 17 weeks pregna

BANGKOK (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Sunday launched a three-day Southeast Asia tour, hailing alliances with countries such as Thailand as cornerstones of the administration’s deeper commitment to the Asia-Pacific region. 　 While in Asia, however, Obama will be dividing his attention by monitoring the escalating conflict between Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Obama has been in regular contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as with Egyptian and Turkish leaders

MONTREAL (AP) ― The French-speaking city of Montreal elected an Anglophone mayor Friday for the first time in 100 years, following his predecessor’s resignation over allegations of corruption.Michael Applebaum won a city council vote to serve as interim mayor for only a year, with a promise not to run in the next municipal election of November 2013.Applebaum speaks French, but it’s not his first language and Anglophones in Canada’s French-speaking province of Quebec rarely hold prominent politic

WASHINGTON ― President Barack Obama has nominated Audrey Choi, a Korean-American investment banker, as a member of the Community Development Advisory Board, the White House said Friday.Choi, 44, was the only Korean-American member of Obama’s transition team to prepare for his presidency four years ago.Nominating her to the position on the board, which advises on policies regarding the activities of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, Obama cited she brings “a depth of experien

U.N. attack helicopters targeted M23 rebels in eastern Congo on Saturday after fighting resumed following a monthslong lull in violence, a local official said.Two army officers and 151 rebels were killed in a battle beginning Thursday that the U.N. called the worst clash between the M23 group and the military since July. Attack helicopters for the U.N. mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, had been on standby.``MONUSCO helicopters this morning bombarded the M23 positions in the city of Kibumba,''

France on Saturday welcomed a member of the Syrian opposition as the country's ambassador, a bold bid to confer legitimacy on the week-old opposition coalition and encourage other Western nations to follow suit.The new envoy, Mounzir Makhous, appeared before the press after talks at France's presidential palace between President Francois Hollande and the head of the newly formed Syrian opposition coalition.France has swiftly stepped out ahead of Western allies nearly since the start of the Syria

Israel destroyed the headquarters of Hamas' prime minister and blasted a sprawling network of smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, broadening a blistering four-day-old offensive against the Islamic militant group even as diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire appeared to be gaining steam. In neighboring Egypt, President Mohammed Morsi hosted leaders from Hamas and two key allies, Qatar and Turkey, to seek a way to end the fighting.“There are discussions about the ways to

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel offered to suspend its offensive in the Gaza Strip on Friday during a brief visit by Egypt‘s premier there if militants refrain from firing rockets at Israel, an official said, but the Palestinians unleashed a fresh salvo. An official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli leader was responding to an Egyptian request. Gaza militants stepped up their barrages of rocket fire into Israel as Hesham Kandil crossed into Gaza before midday through the on

Some California Christians say they perceive a religious message in the image of a cross seen in a slice from a fallen pine tree.Tree trimmers at the Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Lafayette said they discovered the image Tuesday while cutting through a fallen California pine. The 4-inch-thick tree slice is currently being displayed in the office of cemetery administrators, the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times reported Thursday.“Since my brother passed away, I‘ve been looking for signs, waiting for him

A youth hostel in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, puts up ads calling itself “the worst hotel in the world.” Ironically, the ad has boosted the hostel’s popularity, and its facilities are apparently not as bad as they say.The Hans Brinker Budget Hotel at the center of Amsterdam confidently introduces itself online and on-site as the worst facility. Showing filthy rooms without any exaggeration a poster says it is filled with infectious germs and bugs. “This will develop your immune system,” it reads

ISLAMABAD (AP) ― Pakistan agreed to free a handful of Taliban prisoners at the request of the Afghan government, in a move meant to help jumpstart a shaky peace process with the militant group in Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday. The decision to release the prisoners ― described as mid- and low-level fighters ― is the most encouraging sign yet that Islamabad may be willing to play a constructive role in peace efforts that have made little headway since they began some four years ago, hobble