PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- A car bomb exploded on a crowded street in northwestern Pakistan Sunday, killing 37 people in the third blast to hit the troubled city of Peshawar in a week, officials said.The latest explosion appeared to have been a bomb planted in a parked car and detonated by remote control, said police officer Zahid Khan. It went off in a crowded market that is the city's oldest bazaar near a mosque and a police station, officials said.The blast damaged the mosque and nearby shops

The U.S. government hurtled toward a partial shutdown for the first time in 17 years as Congress deadlocked over Republicans' insistence on delaying the 2010 health-care law. The House voted 231-192 just after midnight today to stop many of the Affordable Care Act's central provisions for one year and tie that to an extension of government funding through Dec. 15. Senate Democrats said they will reject the plan, and President Barack Obama said he would veto it. "I've been elected to fight for th

DAMASCUS (AFP) -- International chemical weapons experts were preparing to launch an ambitious and dangerous disarmament mission in Syria on Sunday even as its relentless conflict raged on.In the latest violence, an air strike on a high school in a rebel-held city of northern Syria killed 12 people, most of them students, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.And ahead of the start of the disarmament mission on Tuesday, UN chemical arms investigators left their Damascus hotel to carry out

TEHRAN (AFP) -- Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday Iran is monitoring developments involving ally Syria after a Russian initiative for Damascus to give up its chemical weapons led to postponement of US strike plans."If this recent approach is serious, it will translate to a return from the headstrong and wrong approach" the United States had adopted by threatening to attack Syria, Khamenei said in remarks on state television."The Islamic Republic of Iran is carefully monitoring

BEIJING (AFP) -- Apple's lower-cost iPhone 5C will retail for more than $700 in China, putting it out of reach of most consumers and raising questions over the firm's ability to build sales in the world's biggest mobile market.The iPhone 5C is seen as part of the US tech giant's bid to counter cheaper handsets from rivals, particularly in China where it  has only a five percent share of the smartphone market.But the new phone will retail in China for 4,488 yuan ($733) for the 16GB version, accor

BEIJING (AFP) -- The number of dollar billionaires in mainland China has passed 300 for the first time, an annual ranking of wealth in the world's second-largest economy showed Wednesday.The Hurun Report, a luxury magazine publisher, named property tycoon Wang Jianlin as China's new richest person, saying he had more than doubled his worth to $22 billion.There were a total of 315 dollar billionaires in the country, it said, up 64 from a year ago.The average fortune of the top 1,000 stood at $1.0

PARIS (AFP) -- Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said Wednesday that France would fail to reach the deficit target it agreed with the EU for this year and lowered the government's growth forecast for 2014.Moscovici said France's 2013 public deficit will come in at 4.1 percent of GDP, higher than the 3.9 percent agreed with the European Union.But he said the 2014 deficit will come in at 3.6 percent and that France plans to push it back under the EU ceiling of 3.0 percent of GDP in 2015, which is

BARCELONA, Catalonia (AFP) -- As Catalans rallied Wednesday for a dramatic 400-kilometre (250-mile) independence protest, their zeal to break from the rest of recession-hit Spain was being fed by deep resentment over Madrid's economic policies.Many in Catalonia, renowned as Spain's industrial heartland, hold a grudge against the Spanish government, which they accuse of imposing unfair taxes and failing to fulfil promises of public investment.Catalan regional president Artur Mas protested the "un

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia could expand arms sales to Iran and revise the terms of U.S. military transit to Afghanistan if Washington launches a strike on Syria, a senior Russian lawmaker said Wednesday.Alexei Pushkov, the Kremlin-connected chief of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of parliament, told lawmakers that Moscow hopes that the U.S. will back Russia's proposal for Syria to put its chemical weapons under international control for their subsequent dismantling.During Wednesday'

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- A powerful car bomb exploded Wednesday near Libya's Foreign Ministry building in the heart of the eastern coastal city of Benghazi, security officials said, exactly one year after an attack there killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.The early morning blast targeted a building that once housed the U.S. Consulate under the rule of King Idris, who former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi overthrew in a 1969 bloodless coup. The explosion caused no serious casualt

BEIJING (AP) -- Premier Li Keqiang said Wednesday the basis of China's economic recovery is still fragile and promised to promote growth by opening markets to private competition and improving the investment climate for foreign companies.China's economic fundamentals are stable but the global economy faces a "complex situation," said Li in a speech at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in the northeastern city of Dalian. His comments were broadcast live on national television."The foundation

PARIS (AP) -- Tense negotiations have begun on a proposed U.N. resolution that would put Syria's chemical weapons under international control and end a diplomatic stalemate over a deadly Aug. 21 poison gas attack, a French official said Wednesday.The plan for Syria to relinquish its chemical weapons, initiated by Russia, appeared to ease the crisis over looming Western strikes against Bashar Assad's regime in Damascus, only to open up new potential for impasse as Moscow rejected U.S. and French

NEW DELHI (AP) -- Saying their crime shocked the conscience of India, the prosecutor in the fatal New Delhi gang rape called Wednesday for all four convicted rapists to be hanged, while one of the defendants shouted out his innocence as police drove him into the courthouse.It was not clear which of the four men was shouting, because his face was obscured behind the police van's heavy metal mesh, but he repeatedly called out, "I am innocent! I am innocent!" as the van drove past a scrum of report

MOSCOW (AFP) -- Greenpeace said Wednesday that Russia had denied its ship access to Russian Arctic waters to hide the extent of its lucrative energy exploration work in the fragile ecosystem.The global environmental lobby group said its Arctic Sunrise icebreaker intended to enter the Northern Sea Route to protest at work being conducted jointly by Russia's Rosneft energy giant and its US partner ExxonMobil.Arctic Sunrise confronted the Rosneft-contracted Akademik Lazarev last week near the Baren