CAIRO (AP) ― An Egyptian court on Wednesday acquitted 24 loyalists of ousted President Hosni Mubarak who had been accused of organizing one of the most dramatic attacks on protesters during last year’s uprising, the “Camel Battle,” in which assailants on horses and camels charged into crowds in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. The 24 were found innocent on charges of manslaughter and attempted murder. The defendants included some of the biggest names of Mubarak’s regime, including the former parliament sp

ISLAMABAD (AP) ― Schools shut their doors in protest and Pakistanis across the country held vigils Wednesday to pray for a 14-year-old girl who was shot by a Taliban gunman after daring to advocate education for girls and criticize the militant group. The shooting of Malala Yousufzai on Tuesday in the town of Mingora in the volatile Swat Valley horrified Pakistanis across the religious, political and ethnic spectrum. Many in the country hoped the attack and the outrage it has sparked will be a t

CARACAS (AP) ― Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez named a new vice president on Wednesday, choosing his longtime foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro. Chavez made the announcement at an event where he was declared the winner of Sunday’s presidential election. He called for a round of applause for his outgoing vice president, Elias Jaua, who has held the post since 2010 and is running for a governor’s post in December elections. Maduro has been Venezuela’s top diplomat since 2006, and his prominence at

President Barack Obama admits he lost his first debate because he ‘was just too polite’WASHINGTON (AP) ― Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney tried to win Ohio voters Wednesday by promising new jobs, while President Barack Obama urged his supporters to stay focused even though he admitted he lost his first debate because he said he “was just too polite.” Romney was spending a second day in Ohio Wednesday, a must-win state in the November election, as he tries to build on a shift in mome

Mo Yan has focused an unflinching eye on what he calls the darkness and ugliness of 20th-century Chinese society in a prolific writing career that on Thursday landed him the 2012 Nobel prize for literature.Mo Yan, one of China's leading writers of the past half-century, became the first Chinese national and just the second Chinese-language writer to be awarded the coveted prize.The 57-year-old, wh

NEW YORK (AP) -- Two Americans won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for studies of how the cells in our bodies pick up signals as diverse as hormones, smells, flavors and light _ work that is key to developing better medicines.　 Those signals are received by specialized proteins on cell surfaces. Dr. Robert Lefkowitz and Dr. Brian Kobilka made groundbreaking discoveries about the inner workings of those proteins, mainly in the 1980s, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.　 The protein

An American state representative has been linked to an investigation into a brothel ran out of east Orange County in California. The man at the center of the probe is Mark David Risner, 55, who is accused of hiring prostitutes to work out of his home. He has been arrested and is currently facing arraignment.The investigation led to the discovery of Florida state representative Mike Horner’s name written on the brothel’s client list. According to the records, someone from the Republican represent

Police in Pennsylvania said a man accused of robbing a bank for $1 was apparently trying to end up in federal prison.Northern Cambria police said Jeffery McMullen, 50, handed a note to tellers at the AmeriServ bank Friday demanding $1, The (Johnstown) Tribune-Democrat reported Wednesday.Police said two tellers thought the note was a joke before a third handed over the $1 and called police.Investigators said McMullen, who told the workers he would wait for police, wrote in his note that he wanted

Schools shut their doors in protest and Pakistanis across the country held vigils Wednesday to pray for a 14-year-old girl who was shot by a Taliban gunman after daring to advocate education for girls and criticize the militant group.The shooting of Malala Yousufzai on Tuesday in the town of Mingora in the volatile Swat Valley horrified Pakistanis across the religious, political and ethnic spectru

Turkish jets on Wednesday forced a Syrian passenger plane to land at Ankara airport on suspicion that it might be carrying weapons or other military equipment, amid heightened tensions between Turkey and Syria that have sparked fears of a wider regional conflict.The Syrian Air jetliner was traveling from Moscow when it was intercepted by F16 jets as it entered Turkish airspace and was escorted to

BAGHDAD (AP) ― Al-Qaida is rebuilding in Iraq and has set up training camps for insurgents in the nation’s western deserts as the extremist group seizes on regional instability and government security failures to regain strength, officials say. Iraq has seen a jump in al-Qaida attacks over the last 10 weeks, and officials believe most of the fighters are former prisoners who have either escaped from jail or were released by Iraqi authorities for lack of evidence after the U.S. military withdrawa