CAMP DAVID, Maryland (AP) ― President Barack Obama and leaders of other major industrial powers grappled Friday with options to solidify world resolve against development of an Iranian nuclear bomb and encourage a more forceful response to worsening violence in Syria.Obama will have the ear of key players on both issues during back-to-back G8 and NATO summits that will be dominated with discussions of European economic woes and Afghanistan. Talks about Syria and Iran will be aimed directly and i

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― President Barack Obama Thursday eased investment curbs on Myanmar and named the first U.S. ambassador to the country in more than 20 years, hoping to reward a “nascent” political reform drive.But Obama, seeking maximum leverage on Myanmar’s nominally civilian government and to preserve his options in case of “backsliding,” maintained wider U.S. sanctions on Myanmar and figures linked to the former junta.“As an iron fist has unclenched in Burma, we have extended our hand, and a

A trawler in Scotland’s Shetland Islands has netted what experts say may be the largest oyster ever caught in Britain, an 8-inch, 2.2-pound specimen.The trawler Fidelitas was 27 miles off the island of Bressay when it brought up the shell, the BBC reported.Fidelitas skipper Mark Anderson brought the oyster to the University of the Highlands and Islands Marine Center, which documented its dimension

Seattle police are scratching their heads about this one.A car prowler shattered a window of a parked Jeep, stole nothing and left behind a little something for the car's owner — a dozen tortillas scattered across the floor. The crime happened last week near the University of Washington.Bemused by the break-in, police were moved to pun, saying, "The Seattle Police Department would like to take thi

TEHRAN (AP) -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is eager to attend the Olympic Games in London to support Iranian athletes but says that Britain has a "problem" with hosting him.Ahmadinejad was quoted on Thursday by the official IRNA news agency as saying he would like to be "beside Iranian athletes" in London but that the British are unwilling to have him there. He did not elaborate.Britain is in a

BERLIN (AP) -- The opening of Berlin's new 2.5-billion-euro ($3.18-billion) airport must be further delayed until spring of next year, the capital's mayor said Thursday, in a growing embarrassment for city officials.   The airport's planned June 3 opening was canceled at the last minute last week over unresolved fire safety issues but officials then said it could likely be opened this August. But

CAIRO (AP) ― A black smoke covered Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Around a dozen protesters who had been holding a weekslong sit-in demanding an end to military rule had come to the conclusion their gathering was useless. So over the weekend, they splashed gas on their tents and banners, burned them to ashes and left.Last year, Tahrir was the icon on the revolution, where hundreds of thousands massed daily in the uprising that ousted longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak in the name of democracy. N

ADEN (AFP) ― Yemen’s army, with the backing of U.S. experts, is slowly gaining ground in its southern offensive against al-Qaida, diplomats and officials said on Wednesday, as the death toll in five days of fighting rose to 144.The Yemeni air force late afternoon launched two air strikes targeting al-Qaida positions near Loder in Abyan province, killing 16 jihadists and wounding 14 others, according to a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, a local militia.On the ground, a military o

DAMASCUS (AFP) ― Syrian forces were accused Wednesday of having executed 15 civilians, as the office of U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said U.N. observers were evacuated from a tense town a day after a blast hit their convoy.Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, however, accused the West of ignoring violence by “terrorists” and said he would demand an explanation from Annan when he visits Damascus later this month.“After regime forces raided the neighborhood of Shammas (in the central city of Ho