A plane carrying 153 people plunged into a residential area of Nigeria's largest city on Sunday, with all those aboard presumed dead, an inferno igniting at the scene and buildings badly damaged.A number of people on the ground were also believed killed, an emergency official said, as around 10 burnt bodies had been removed from a building damaged in the crash.President Goodluck Jonathan declared

KABUL (AP) ― It was a risky but successful operation: British and other NATO forces stormed a cave tucked in the mountains before dawn Saturday and rescued two foreign female aid workers and their two Afghan colleagues being held hostage by Taliban-linked militants.Helicopters, flying under the cover of darkness, ferried the rescue team to extreme northeastern Afghanistan where they suspected the hostages were being held. After confirming the workers were there, they raided the site, killed seve

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AFP) ― Sudan’s army said it killed 45 rebels who were looting in eastern Darfur on Saturday but the insurgents told a different story, saying they had seized an army compound.A large force from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) attacked Fataha, a trade crossroads in the eastern part of North Darfur state, Sawarmi Khaled Saad, the Sudanese army spokesman, told AFP.“They looted the market and our troops responded. We killed 45 and destroyed 16 JEM vehicles,” he said, adding

DAMASCUS (AFP) ― Arab leaders called Saturday for U.N. action as at least 39 people were killed in Syria amid growing fears that envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan is failing and the country is heading for all-out civil war.Annan himself warned of sectarian warfare, singling out Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime as the key to resolving the conflict.Washington and Moscow agreed on the need to work together on Syria, a U.S. official said following a phone conversation between U.S. Secreta

SINGAPORE (AFP) ― Myanmar’s government has halted fledgling research on the peaceful use of nuclear power, the country’s defense minister said Saturday.Lieutenant General Hla Min told an Asia security conference in Singapore that the academic research had not progressed much because of what he called practical constraints.“In this new government, we have already given up all activities of nuclear issues. We have no future plans to extend on this,” he said through an interpreter.Hla Min acknowled

TORONTO (AP) ― A gunman fired shots in a crowded food court in one of Canada’s busiest malls Saturday killing a man and injuring seven others, police said.Police Chief Bill Blair said the shooting at Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto targeted one individual and there were a number of innocent bystanders. Police constable Victor Kwong said two people were in critical condition after being shot at the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto, including a 13-year old boy. The 25-year-old man who was killed

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The United States and Iran are locked in a long-running cyber war that appears to be escalating amid a stalemate over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.The Flame virus that surfaced recently may be part of the face-off, but Washington probably has more sophisticated tools at its disposal, security specialists say.“Large nations with large spy agencies have been using these kinds of techniques for more than a decade,” said James Lewis, a senior fellow who monitors technology at

A Saudi princess was caught trying to leave the Shangri-La hotel in Paris without settling a six million euro ($7.4 million) bill for her rooms, police said Saturday, confirming a report in the daily Le Parisien.Maha al-Sudani, the former wife of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Nayef ben Abdel Aziz, tried to walk out on 3:30 am Thursday without paying for her suite and those of her 60-strong entourage,

One by one, courts around America are deciding it's no longer slander to falsely call someone gay _ a measure of how attitudes are changing in the era of same-sex marriage and gays in uniform.While ``gay'' is still widely wielded as an insult, some judges have concluded that it is not damaging to anyone's reputation, just as calling a white man black is no longer grounds for legal action as it was