Chinese women flock to New York to have babies with U.S. citizenshipThe sky begins to brighten as Nancy Chen makes her way to JFK airport to pick up a mother-to-be who has made the long flight from China for a temporary stay in New York ― to give birth. Chen, who owns the New York Maternity Center, has been in the birthing business for five years. But the past few months have proved to be her busiest time ever, as the number of pregnant women from China seeking her services soars. The maternity

The science journal Nature reported claims on Monday that Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta had plagiarised large parts of his 2003 Ph.D. thesis which he denied, hinting at a political plot against him.In a news article, Nature said it had seen documents compiled by an anonymous whistle-blower indicating that more than half of Ponta’s 432-page law thesis on the International Criminal Court, written in Romanian, “consists of duplicated text.”“Moreover, the thesis was republished with very min

ST. LOUIS (AP) ― William S. Knowles, a longtime chemist who shared the Nobel Prize for discoveries that led to a treatment for Parkinson’s disease and various other medicines, has died, his daughter said Monday. He was 95.Knowles died June 13. His daughter, Lesley McIntire, said he died of complications from ALS.Knowles retired in 1986 after 44 years working for St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. But it was 15 years later that he and two other scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for work that

RIYADH (AP) ― Saudi Arabia kept power within the surviving, aging sons of the kingdom’s founding patriarch Monday by naming Defense Minister Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz as the new heir to the throne in a country both battling and embracing the upheavals across the Middle East.The choice was expected, but the speed of the royal decree was not ― just a day after the burial of the late crown prince, Prince Nayef, who died last week in Geneva and was in the No. 2 position only since November. Princ

LONDON (AFP) ― Aung San Suu Kyi begins a bittersweet return to Britain Tuesday, during which she will be showered with honors and have an emotional family reunion after nearly a quarter of a century in Myanmar.The democracy icon was arriving in Britain overnight from Ireland, where she took to the stage at a gala concert with U2 singer Bono to receive a prize from rights group Amnesty International.She was later given the freedom of the city of Dublin at a special ceremony and crowds joined in s

MIRABEL, Quebec (AP) ― A Canadian porn actor suspected in the dismemberment of a Chinese student arrived in Canada on Monday via military transport from Germany, where he was arrested this month.Luka Magnotta did not fight his extradition. He is suspected of killing Jun Lin and sending body parts to Canadian political parties and schools. The head is still missing. Police said they would ask Magnotta where it is.Investigators say Magnotta posted a video online showing him having sex with the dis

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Rodney King, the black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the touchstone for one of the most destructive race riots in U.S. history, was found at the bottom of his swimming pool early Sunday and later pronounced dead. He was 47. King’s fiancee called police at 5:25 a.m. to report that she found him in the pool at their home in Rialto, California, police Lt. Dean Hardin said. Officers arrived to find King in the deep end of the pool and pu

KADUNA, Nigeria (AFP) ― Multiple suicide attacks on churches in northern Nigeria and subsequent rioting by Christian youths targeting Muslims killed at least 36 people on Sunday, officials said.Bomb blasts struck three churches in the northern Kaduna state in the space of an hour, the latest in a string of Sunday attacks that has threatened to ignite wider sectarian strife across the divided country.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bloodshed but the attacks were likely to b