VATICAN CITY (AFP) ― Two months after his historic resignation, Benedict XVI returned to the Vatican on Thursday, where he will live in a former monastery in an unprecedented arrangement that will see a pope and a former pope both housed in the tiny state.It was a relatively low-key return for the 86-year-old pope emeritus, off-limits to all but the Vatican’s own media service. The service announced shortly after his arrival that expected video coverage would not be provided, sparking doubts ove

More than 130 people have been killed in the latest outbreak of tribal fighting in western Sudan's Darfur region, a tribal leader said on Friday."Fighting was going on until last night and from our side we have 37 dead," said the leader of the Beni Halba tribe, who claimed that more than 100 members of the rival Gimir group were also killed.A Gimir official could not immediately be reached.The Beni Halba leader, who declined to be named, said a land dispute caused the fighting in Edd al-Fursan,

The United States said Thursday it was taking a fresh look at whether to arm Syria's rebels as the Damascus regime pressed an assault on opposition forces in the embattled city of Homs.After having rejected the idea previously, President Barack Obama's deputies were weighing the option of providing weapons to Syria's outgunned opposition, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters.Asked whether the U.S. government was rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels, Hagel replied with a firm "Y

NEW DELHI (AP) ― The platoon of Chinese soldiers slipped across the boundary into India in the middle of the night, according to Indian officials. They were ferried across the bitterly cold moonscape in Chinese army vehicles, then got out to traverse a dry creek bed with a helicopter hovering overhead for protection. They finally reached their destination and pitched a tent in the barren Depsang Valley in the Ladakh region, a symbolic claim of sovereignty deep inside Indian-held territory. So st

ISLAMABAD (AP) ― A convicted Indian spy who was on Pakistan’s death row died from a head injury after two inmates attacked him with a brick, state TV said Thursday. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his government would arrange to bring Sarabjit Singh’s remains home and for his last rites to be conducted in consultation with his family. The statement called it “particularly regrettable” that Pakistan did not heed pleas to take a humanitarian view of the prisoner’s case. It’s unclear how

Lakhdar Brahimi wants to resign as the joint United Nations-Arab League envoy to Syria because his efforts to find a political solution to the escalating conflict have failed, U.N. diplomats said Wednesday.Brahimi has found that speaking for two organizations with different views on Syria has made his role of trying to mediate a political transition almost impossible, two diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because their discussions with Brahimi were private. While U.N. Secretary-

Three college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were arrested and accused Wednesday of trying to protect him by going into his dorm room and getting rid of a backpack filled with hollowed-out fireworks three days after the deadly attack.The three 19-year-olds were not accused of any role in the bombing itself. But in a footnote in the court papers outlining the charges, the FBI said that about a month before the tragedy, Tsarnaev told two of them that he knew how to ma

WASHINGTON (AP) ― President Barack Obama said he wants more information about chemical weapons use in the Syrian civil war before he decides on escalating U.S. military or diplomatic responses, despite earlier assertions that use of such weapons would be a “game-changer.” With the U.S. disengaging from the unpopular war in Afghanistan and still smarting from the difficult conflict in Iraq, Obama has been reluctant to unleash American military power in the Syrian fighting, a civil war that has ki

DHAKA (AFP) ― Tens of thousands of Bangladeshis joined May Day protests Wednesday to demand the execution of textile bosses over the collapse of a factory complex, as rescuers warned the final toll could be more than 500.Despite calls by the prime minister for “cool heads,” tensions over the country’s deadliest industrial disaster showed little sign of abating and there were fears of more violence and vandalism at textile mills.Workers holding red banners and flags chanted “Hang the killers, Han

WASHINGTON (AP) ― President Barack Obama on Tuesday renewed his pledge to close the prison for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but the impediments that have thwarted him thus far remain. In a White House news conference, Obama said he would try to persuade the Congress to end restrictions that have prevented him from closing the facility. The comments followed the arrival Monday of medical reinforcements at the prison to help deal with a hunger strike by about 100 of the 166 detainee