PARIS (AFP) -- The United States is set to call for tough U.N. sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad and his inner circle at a “Friends of Syria” meeting of over 100 Western and Arab nations in Paris on Friday.　But despite the estimated killing of more than 16,500 people in the 16-month uprising, key Syria allies Russia and China -- both with U.N. veto rights -- are not attending.　The Paris meeting follows a gathering in Tunis and another in Istanbul, both of which called in vain for tough

An Australian forklift driver who some historians argued was the true heir to the British throne has died in the small New South Wales town he called home, his local newspaper reported Thursday.Mike Hastings, 71, was a real-life aristocrat, born the 14th earl of Loudoun, who moved to Australia in 1960 in search of adventure.He made international headlines in 2004 when a documentary team from Brita

Officials said due to a police mix-up, an innocent Atlanta woman spent 53 days in jail on charges of battery and assault.Teresa Culpepper called 911 to report that her boyfriend had stolen her truck on Aug. 21. Around the same time, Angelo Boyd called saying his girlfriend, Teresa Gilbert, had doused him with boiling hot water. The same officer was dispatched to two scenes. However, he reported to

Authorities in Florida said a man who told a deputy he "wanted to go to jail" caused $800 worth of damage to a patrol car.The Manatee County Sheriff's Office said the man approached a deputy outside the Bradenton office of the department and told her he "wanted to go to jail," the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Thursday.The report said the man, later identified as Shakeem Fleming, 20, put his

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has decided to skip South Korea during her upcoming tour of Asia, Europe and the Middle East, according to her department Thursday.Clinton is scheduled to embark on a two-week trip later in the day to France, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Egypt and Israel, the department said.In Paris on Friday, she will attend the third meeting of

TOKYO (AFP) -- Last year’s nuclear accident at Fukushima was a man-made catastrophe and not only due to the tsunami that hit the plant, a Japanese parliamentary panel said Thursday in its final report on the disaster.“The TEPCO Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident was the result of collusion between the government, the regulators and (plant operator) TEPCO, and the lack of governance by said parties,” said the report by the Diet’s Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission

First proposed as a theory in the 1960s, the elusive Higgs had been hunted by at least two generations of physicistsGENEVA (AP) ― Scientists at the world’s biggest atom smasher hailed the discovery of “the missing cornerstone of physics” Wednesday, cheering the apparent end of a decades-long quest for a new subatomic particle called the Higgs boson, or “God particle,” which could help explain why all matter has mass and crack open a new realm of subatomic science.First proposed as a theory in th

Chicago police said a man accused of impersonating an alderman was busted by a pastor who is familiar with the real official.Police said a man called the Rev. John Harrell of Faith Community Baptist Church and claimed to be Alderman Michael Chandler, 24th district, when asking if the pastor would buy tickets to a play being held as a political fundraiser at the Goodman Theater, the Chicago Sun-Tim

Mexican electoral authorities said Wednesday they are recounting more than half the ballot boxes used in the weekend's presidential election after finding inconsistencies in the vote tallies.Of the 143,000 ballot boxes used during Sunday's vote, 78,012 will be opened and the votes recounted, said Edmundo Jacobo, executive secretary of Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute.Jacobo said the recount co

BAGHDAD (AP) ― Bombs pounded six Iraqi cities and towns Tuesday, killing at least 40 people and raising suspicion that security forces might be assisting terrorists in launching attacks on Shiite Muslims.The onslaught came just ahead of a religious pilgrimage that could attract even more violence.A senior Iraqi intelligence official said checkpoint guards may have been bribed to help al-Qaida-linked Sunni insurgents plant bombs at Shiite marketplaces. The attacks injected new fear into Iraqis, r