TOKYO (AFP) ― Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company on Tuesday said its plan to end the crisis at its stricken nuclear plant was on schedule, despite signs that damage to the facility was worse than initially thought.The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station said it still expected to reduce radiation leaks by July and bring its reactors to a stable cold shutdown by January at the

Looser controls on food reporting could signal broader media reformBEIJING (AP) ― Toxic bean sprouts, filthy cooking oil, drug-tainted pork: The relentless headlines in Chinese media have churned up queasy feelings for months about the dangers lurking in the nation’s dinner bowls.The stories are grim reading but show China’s usually strict censors are allowing the press more latitude to help it mo

JERUSALEM (AP) ― Masked Palestinians whirling slingshots clashed with Israeli riot police in two Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem on Saturday after the shooting death of a teenage stone thrower. It was a sign of rising tensions on the eve of Palestinian commemorations of their uprooting during Israel’s 1948 creation.The possibility of escalation comes at a critical time for U.S. Mideast policy. Pre

Diary shows Osama eyed new targets, big body countWASHINGTON (AP) ― Osama bin Laden kept pressing followers to find new ways to hit the U.S. while he was deep in hiding and his terror organization was becoming battered and fragmented, officials say, citing his private journal and other documents recovered in last week’s raid.Strike smaller cities, bin Laden suggested. Target trains as well as plan

Analysts say choice depends on how the organization views it’s goal in post-bin Laden ageBAGHDAD (AP) ― A week after the death of Osama bin Laden, his longtime deputy is considered the front-runner to succeed the iconic al-Qaida founder. But uprisings in the Middle East and changing dynamics within the group could point to another scenario: a decision not to appoint anyone at all to replace the wo

BAGHDAD (AP) ― Al-Qaida’s front group in Iraq reaffirmed its support Monday for the terror network’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, a week after U.S. commandos killed Osama bin Laden.Al-Qaida has not yet announced a successor and there is some uncertainty about whether al-Zawahri will indeed take over for bin Laden.In a statement posted on an insurgent website Monday, the Islamic State of I

 

U.S. urges Pakistan to investigate helperWASHINGTON (AP) ― Osama bin Laden benefited from “some sort of support network” inside Pakistan, President Barack Obama said in a Sunday broadcast interview, but he added it is not clear whether government officials knew the terrorist leader was living inside their country when U.S. commandos killed him in a raid last weekend.“We don’t know whether there mi

Inter-faith violence kills 12 and injures more than 100CAIRO (AP) ― Relations between Egypt’s Muslims and Christians degenerated to a new low Sunday after riots overnight left 12 people dead and a church burned, adding to the disorder of the country’s post-revolution transition to democracy.The attack on the church was the latest sign of assertiveness by an extreme, ultraconservative movement of M

SINGAPORE (AP) ― Singapore’s long-time ruling party won an overwhelming parliamentary majority in elections in the Southeast Asian city-state, but the opposition made historic gains after mounting its biggest challenge since independence in 1965, according to returns released early Sunday.The ruling People’s Action Party won 81 of the 87 parliament seats as it captured 60 percent of the 2 million

Residents form human chains in desperate bid to halt military operationDAMASCUS (AFP) ― Syrian forces rained gunfire on Banias Saturday as they pushed ahead with an assault on the restive port, killing six people, activists said, as President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents called for elections to end the crisis.Activists said dozens of tanks and armored vehicles entered Banias, on the Mediterranean c

WASHINGTON (AP) ― President Barack Obama said Wednesday he has decided not to release death photos of terrorist Osama bin Laden because their graphic nature could incite violence and create national security risks for the United States. Separately, officials told the Associated Press that the Navy SEALs who stormed bin Laden’s compound shot him dead after they saw him appear to lunge for a weapon.

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Osama bin Laden was unarmed when Navy SEALs burst into his room and shot him to death, the White House said Tuesday, a change in the official account that raised questions about whether the U.S. ever planned to capture the terrorist leader alive.The Obama administration, meanwhile, was still debating whether to release gruesome images of bin Laden’s corpse, balancing efforts to d

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan (AP) ― When a woman involved in a polio vaccine drive turned up at Osama bin Laden’s hideaway, she remarked to the men behind the high walls about the expensive SUVs parked inside. The men took the vaccine, apparently to administer to the 23 children at the compound, and told her to go away.The terror chief and his family kept well hidden behind thick walls in this northwester

No casualties reported; tensions high between Libya regime and Western powersTRIPOLI (AP) ― Angry mobs attacked Western embassies and a U.N. office in Tripoli Sunday after NATO bombed Moammar Gadhafi’s family compound in an attack officials said killed the leader’s second youngest son and three grandchildren, ages six months to two years.Russia said the Western alliance exceeded its U.N. mandate o

TOKYO (AP) ― Criticism of the Japanese government’s handling of the crisis at a radiation-spewing nuclear power plant increased Saturday, with a new poll indicating three-quarters of the people disapprove and a key adviser quitting in protest.A Kyodo News service poll released Saturday showed that Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s support ratings were plunging.The poll reported that 76 percent of the res