Lawyers for accused plotters of the September 11 attacks want President Barack Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush to testify at a military tribunal for “inflammatory statements” they argue have tainted proceedings.The request by attorneys for three of the five suspects was included in a document made public Thursday calling for the dismissal of all charges against them.The attorneys also req

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) ― A Pakistani surgeon recruited by the CIA to help find Osama bin Laden was Wednesday sentenced to 33 years in prison for treason, sparking a warning from U.S. senators over American aid.Shakeel Afridi, who was sacked as a government doctor two months ago, was found guilty under the tribal justice system of Khyber district, part of Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt.In addition to his jail sentence, he was fined 320,000 rupees ($3,500). The doctor had worked for year

CAIRO (AFP) ― Egyptians vote on Thursday in the second day of a gripping presidential election in which candidates are pitting stability against the ideals of the uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s rule. Polls are scheduled to open again at 8:00 a.m. for voters to choose among 12 candidates, with the front runners divided between Islamists who say they will champion the uprising’s goals and Mubarak-era ministers.Voting in 13,000 polling stations takes place over two days in order to accommodate

BAGHDAD (AFP) -- Iran threatened on Thursday to scupper efforts to defuse the crisis over Tehran‘s nuclear program in the final hours of crunch talks in Baghdad after world powers stopped short of offering sanctions relief.The P5+1 -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany -- want to persuade Iran to get into a process of regular meetings hashing out details of measures aimed at easing suspicions Tehran wants nuclear weapons.But after EU foreign policy chief Catherine

MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russia staged Wednesday the first successful test-launch of a new intercontinental missile designed to pierce the defence system now being deployed by NATO despite Moscow‘s fierce complaints.The highly-symbolic launch came just four days after the alliance formally activated the first stage of a defense shield whose deployment Russia has bitterly opposed out of fears that it may target its own vast nuclear arsenal.The missile “should raise the combat capabilities of Russia’s Stra

Chinese authorities arrested a man and his girlfriend in the death of an elderly woman he knocked down while driving drunk and whose body was later found buried at a construction site. Police say the woman likely was alive when buried.The official Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday the couple was intoxicated and returning home from a bar in the eastern city of Cixi on April 30 when the man ran o

A woman who called 911 after her husband was unable to breathe found a snoring Maryland dispatcher at the other end of the line.The woman called 911 from her Montgomery County home on April 4. According to a recording of the call, she repeatedly says "hello" but gets no reply. A second dispatcher intervenes and gives her first aid advice as the first dispatcher can be heard snoring. The woman's hu

Gunmen have kidnapped two foreign women aid workers and their three local colleagues in a remote province in northeast Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.“Yesterday evening, five health workers, including two female foreign nationals, were kidnapped in the Yaftal area,” Abdul Mahroof Rasikh, the spokesman for the governor of Badakhshan province, told AFP.The group had been travelling on horseba

The 20-year-old son of a rich English jeweler was sentenced to at least 16 years in prison Tuesday for strangling his 17-year-old girlfriend.Elliot Turner was convicted Monday of the murder of Emily Longley, a model from New Zealand, The Daily Telegraph reported.His parents, Leigh and Anita Turner of Bournemouth, were found guilty of perverting the course of justice for allegedly trying to cover u

CAIRO (AFP) ― Egyptians take to the polls on Wednesday in a historic presidential election contested by Islamists and secularists promising radically different futures for the country.The election is the final phase of a tumultuous transition overseen by the ruling military council after a popular uprising ousted longtime president Hosni Mubarak last year.After decades of pre-determined results, for the first time, the outcome of the vote in the Arab world’s most populous nation ― which also pit

YANGON (AP) ― A small group of demonstrators carried candles and tied up traffic in Myanmar’s largest city Tuesday evening as discontent grows over chronic power cuts in the country, which is easing toward democracy after decades of military rule.The problem, which has exasperated Myanmar’s citizens for more than a decade, has sparked the first serious street protests this year in the country’s new atmosphere of reform and reconciliation. Two days of rallies in Mandalay this past weekend drew hu

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― A French woman forced a transatlantic flight from Paris to North Carolina to be diverted to Maine on Tuesday after claiming she had a “surgically implanted device.”The U.S. Airways jet with 179 passengers and crew on board landed safely in Bangor, Maine, where the woman was taken into custody by the FBI before the Boeing 767 continued its journey to Charlotte, North Carolina.Coming on the heels of a thwarted airline bomb plot by al-Qaida’s Yemen branch, the incident has laid b

MADRID (AFP) ― Tens of thousand of striking teachers and students and their supporters demonstrated across Spain on Tuesday to protest deep government cuts to education spending.The protesters included groups of students, young parents accompanied by their sign-holding children and teachers wearing the green T-shirts that have become a symbol of their movement against the budget cuts.Thousands marched in Madrid behind a large black and white banner that read: “Education is not an expense, it is