LONDON (AP) -- The IOC says a female gymnast from Uzbekistan has been formally expelled from the London Olympics after her backup "B'' sample also came back positive for doping.IOC spokesman Mark Adams says Luiza Galiulina has been kicked out of the athletes' village after the second test confirmed the initial finding for use of the banned diuretic furosemide.Galiulina -- a lesser-known name with

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Bombings and shootings ripped across Iraq on Monday, killing at least 103 people in the deadliest day this year. The coordinated attacks in 13 cities sent a chilling warning that al-Qaida is slowly resurging in the security vacuum created by a weak government in Baghdad and the departure of the U.S. military seven months ago.Though there was no immediate claim of responsibility, th

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Europe is on the brink again. The crisis over too much debt in the 17 countries that use the euro flared dangerously on Monday.Fears that Spain was next in line for a full-blown government bailout intensified following a weekend of bad news about Europe's fourth-biggest economy. Madrid's borrowing costs on its 10-year bonds -- an indicator of market confidence in a count

SHANGHAI (AP) -- Chinese offshore oil and gas giant CNOOC Ltd. said Monday it has agreed to buy Canadian producer Nexen Inc. for $15.1 billion in China's biggest-ever overseas energy acquisition.CNOOC and other big state-owned Chinese energy companies have stepped up purchases of oil and gas assets in the Americas in the past several years as part of a wider strategy aimed at securing access to re

LONDON (AP) -- The British government is considering whether to require the identification of individuals who sponsor tax avoidance schemes.The proposal was disclosed Monday as the government's tax office launched a formal consultation on a range of measures to crack down on plans designed purely to avoid tax.Treasury minister David Gauke says the measures are aimed at plans which are clearly cont

BEIJING (AP) -- As China's flood-ravaged capital dealt with the aftermath of the heaviest rain in six decades Monday, including the deaths of 37 people, questions were being raised about whether the city's push for modernization came at the expense of basic infrastructure such as drainage networks.Rescuers were still searching buildings that collapsed during Saturday night's torrential downpour an

Korea's left-wing party said Monday it will this week expel two of its lawmakers suspected to have been involved in a rigged primary, after initially failing to do so because of strong opposition from the party's main faction.The embattled Unified Progressive Party (UPP) was engulfed in turmoil over allegations that its primary vote, conducted in March to name proportional representation candidate

HONG KONG -- Taiwanese steel manufacturers have filed anti-dumping complaints on South Korean stainless steel products, saying they are sold at excessively low prices, South Korea's trade agency said Monday.Taiwan's leading stainless steel makers Yieh United Steel Corp. (YUSCO) and Tang Eng Iron Works Co. submitted complaints to the country's ministry of commerce, claiming South Korean products ar

The presidential office drew up plans in 2008 to purge leftist artists, an opposition lawmaker claimed Monday as he denounced the move as South Korea's equivalent to China's Cultural Revolution.The purge of "human resources in a leftist group should be constantly carried out without a sound," the alleged presidential document said, according to Jung Cheong-rae of the main opposition Democratic Uni

ATHENS (AP) -- Greece's new Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will not be well enough to travel to a critical European Union summit in Brussels after undergoing an eye operation, the government said Sunday.Samaras, 61, underwent surgery for a detached retina Saturday, just three days after being sworn in at the head of a three-party coalition government formed after two inconclusive general elections

Three lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic United Party said Sunday they will continue to push the policy of restricting the business of large retailers to protect mom-and-pop stores.The move came two days after the Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of five large retailers over new ordinances by two ward offices in Seoul that prohibit them from doing business on the second and fourt

   BEIJING (AFP) -- Russian and China pledged Tuesday to increase their cooperation in the United Nations, as the giant neighbours try to resist mounting pressure for international action to stop the bloodshed in Syria.   China's President Hu Jintao said closer cooperation would allow the two countries, whose stance has angered Western powers, to "set the global political and economic order in a m

   BEIJING (AP) -- China told foreign embassies Tuesday to stop publishing their own reports on air quality in the country, escalating its objections to a popular U.S. Embassy Twitter feed that tracks pollution in smoggy Beijing.   Only the Chinese government is authorized to monitor and publish air quality information and data from other sources may not be standardized or rigorous, Wu Xiaoqing, a

MADRID (AP) -- Spanish Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro Tuesday claims the amount of money needed to prop up Spain's troubled banking sector is not as excessively high and repeated the country's calls for the European Union to move faster towards establishing a banking union that would allow ailing lenders to seek help without governments intervening.Montoro declined to set a figure how much mon