BERLIN (AP) ― Europeans appear to be more closely related than previously thought.Scientists who compared DNA samples from people in different parts of the continent found that most had common ancestors living just 1,000 years ago.The results confirm decade-old mathematical models, but will nevertheless come as a surprise to Europeans accustomed to thinking of ancient nations composed of distinct ethnic groups like “Germans,” “Irish” or “Serbs.”“What’s remarkable about this is how closely everyo

CLEVELAND (AP) ― In the years after his friend’s daughter vanished while walking home from school, Ariel Castro handed out fliers with the 14-year-old’s photo and performed music at a fundraiser held in her honor.When neighbors gathered for a candlelight vigil just a year ago to remember the girl, Castro was there too, comforting the girl’s mother.Castro, just like everyone else in the tight-knit, mostly Puerto Rican neighborhood, seemed shaken by the 2004 disappearance of Gina DeJesus and anoth

Sexual assaults in the U.S. military are a growing epidemic across the services and thousands of victims are still unwilling to come forward despite a slew of new oversight and assistance programs, according to a new Pentagon report.Troubling new numbers estimate that up to 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year, according to survey results released against a backdrops of scandals including an ongoing investigation into more than 30 Air Force instructors for assaults

The U.S. and Russia agreed Tuesday to try to convene an international conference this month to come to a political solution to end the two-year Syrian civil war but gave no indication how they would convince President Bashar Assad into talks with the rebels seeking to overthrow him.Secretary of State John Kerry said that if such a gambit were successful, it might no longer be necessary to consider arming the Syrian rebels. Kerry also said it was up to the Syrian people whether Assad should leave

The man accused in the deadly Colorado theater shootings wants to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity, his lawyers said Tuesday, despite their fears that the plea could severely hamper his ability mount a defense against the death penalty.James Holmes is charged with more than 160 counts of murder and attempted murder in the July 20 assault on a packed movie theater that killed 12 and injured 70. Prosecutors announced last month they would seek the death penalty.Holmes was widely

The World Trade Organization has settled on Roberto Azevedo of Brazil, a well-known diplomat and consummate insider in Geneva circles, to serve as its director-general for the next four years, officials said Tuesday.Azevedo won by positioning himself as someone who could turn around _ even heal _ the organization as it struggles for relevancy in global trade negotiations.The directorship is chosen by consensus in a complex and secretive process, and the runner-up is expected to concede afterward

President Francois Hollande said Tuesday that France was taking seriously a call by al-Qaida's north African wing for Muslims worldwide to launch attacks against the country's interests over its military operation in Mali.An AQIM leader called on Muslims to "attack French interests everywhere" in a video message posted online."We are taking seriously the threat by AQIM (al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb)," Hollande told reporters.He said that despite considerable losses inflicted on Islamist group

DHAKA (AP) ― The death toll from last month’s collapse of a building housing garment factories in Bangladesh has passed 700, police said Tuesday, as survivors of the country’s worst-ever industrial disaster protested for compensation. The police control room overseeing the recovery operation said the toll reached 705 dead Tuesday afternoon as workers pulled more bodies out of the wreckage of the illegally built eight-story building that housed five garment factories. The disaster is the worst ev

CLEVELAND (AP) ― Three women who went missing separately about a decade ago, when they were in their teens or early 20s, had been tied up and held in a home just south of downtown Cleveland before being found Monday, and three brothers were arrested, police said. One of the women frantically told a police emergency dispatcher that the person who had taken her was gone, and she pleaded for police officers to come and get her, saying, “I’m free now.” Cheering crowds gathered Monday night on the st

MOSCOW (AFP) ― Thousands of protesters filled a Moscow square Monday to denounce President Vladimir Putin a year into his new term and rekindle the momentum that was brutally quashed when a protest last year led to mass arrests.Organizers said tens of thousands turned up for the rally, which marked one year since a chaotic May 6, 2012 anti-Kremlin protest that descended into violence and Putin’s return to the presidency a day later.Police estimated the numbers at 8,000.“Putin is a thief,” charis

LONDON (AFP) ― Veteran British comic Jimmy Tarbuck has become the latest celebrity to be arrested in connection with a historical child sex abuse investigation, media reported on Tuesday.North Yorkshire Police confirmed that a 73-year-old man was arrested in Kingston upon Thames on April 26. The Daily Mail on Tuesday identified him as Tarbuck.Police released the former quiz show host on bail after questioning him over claims that a young boy was assaulted in the late 1970s, according to the repo