BEIJING (AP) -- The most prominent of five recently released Chinese women's rights activists feels her dedication to the cause has grown stronger after spending 37 days in detention with interrogators who blew smoke onto her face and insulted her sexual orientation, her girlfriend and her lawyer said.Li Tingting, 25, an openly lesbian campaigner for women's issues, has been at the center of an international outcry over China's detention of activists. Her girlfriend, who spoke to The Associated

ROME (AFP) -- Seven hundred people are feared to have drowned when a fishing boat smuggling migrants to Europe capsized off Libya, the UN's refugee agency said Sunday, in what could be the deadliest Mediterranean migrant disaster yet.Only 28 people survived the capsize, UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami told the Skytg24 news channel in Italy. The survivors indicated there had been more than 700 on board, she said.The Maltese navy put the numbers on board at around 650 and said an alert had come in

BAGHDAD (AP) -- A United Nations humanitarian agency says more than 90,000 people have fled the Islamic State group's advance in Iraq's western Anbar province, which has set off fierce fighting in and around the provincial capital Ramadi.The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Sunday that civilians are fleeing Ramadi as well as three nearby villages captured by the IS group a few days ago.OCHA says in a statement that humanitarian agencies have moved quickly to provide assis

BEIJING (AFP) -- China's central bank announced Sunday it would cut the level of funds that commercial banks must hold in reserve by one percentage point, the second such move this year to boost lending.The move, effective Monday, comes days after the world's second largest economy reported its worst quarterly growth figure for six years.In a statement on its website, the People's Bank of China said the cut would "further enhance the ability of financial institutions to support restructuring".Th

DAMASCUS  (AFP) -- Militants from the Islamic State jihadist group seized control of most of the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus Wednesday, a local Palestinian official told AFP."Fighters from IS launched an assault this morning on Yarmuk and they took over the majority of the camp," said Anwar Abdel Hadi, director of political affairs for the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Damascus. Fighting was continuing inside the camp, he said.The Syrian Observatory for Human Righ

TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's defense minister says security forces have achieved a ``magnificent victory'' over the Islamic State group in Tikrit. Khalid al-Obeidi said Wednesday that security forces have ``accomplished their mission'' in the monthlong offensive to rid Saddam Hussein's hometown of the militant group. The U.S. launched airstrikes last week in support of Iraqi ground forces. The battle for Tikrit, 130 kilometers north of Baghdad, is seen as a key step toward eventually driving the

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- President Barack Obama on Wednesday authorized imposing economic sanctions on US and foreign hackers, allowing the government to block the assets of persons involved in cyber attacks on US targets."Cyber threats pose one of the most serious economic and national security challenges to the United States, and my administration is pursuing a comprehensive strategy to confront them," Obama said as he issued the executive order.Under the order, the US Treasury would be able to fre

    GENEVA (AFP) -- Physicists have fixed a short-circuit at the world's largest proton smasher, making the particle-hunting machine ready for a restart "within days' time" after a two-year shutdown.A fragment of metal in one of the Large Hadron Collider's magnet circuits that had delayed putting the machine back into service was removed on Monday, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research said."The largest collider in the world should be ready for beam (operations) in a few days' time," CE

ISTANBUL  (AFP) -- Turkish authorities on Wednesday rounded up over 30 suspected members of the radical leftist group behind a bloody hostage standoff that left a top Istanbul prosecutor dead and shocked the country.Funeral ceremonies were being held for prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz, who had been investigating the politically-sensitive case of a teenager who died of injuries inflicted by police during anti-government protests in 2013.Police late on Tuesday launched an operation to free Kiraz af

THE HAGUE (AFP) -- Palestine formally joined the International Criminal Court on Wednesday, a move the Palestinians hope could open the door to the possible prosecution of Israelis for alleged war crimes.The accession was marked at a closed-door ceremony at ICC headquarters in The Hague, exactly 90 days after Palestine joined the court's founding Rome Statute.The Palestinians called on Israel to also join the global court, which was set up in 2002 to try crimes against humanity, war crimes and g

SANAA, Yemen (AP) -- Saudi-led warplanes bombed Shiite rebel positions in both north and south Yemen early on Wednesday, setting off explosions and drawing return fire from anti-aircraft guns. Airstrikes also hit a factory in a western port city and 35 workers died there, according to witnesses and officials.The bombings came as the Saudi-led coalition's campaign against Yemen's Shiite rebels known as Houthis entered its seventh day. The campaign aims to weaken the Iran-backed rebels who are als

LE VERNET, France (AFP) -- The heads of Lufthansa and Germanwings paid their respects Wednesday near the crash site of the plane that slammed into the French Alps, after reports a video had emerged showing the final terrifying seconds in the cabin.Carsten Spohr and Thomas Winkelmann's visit comes at a time of intense scrutiny on Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings and has revealed it was aware that the co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing the airliner had suffered from severe depression.Luf

HONG KONG (AFP) - Picasso masterpiece "Les Femmes d'Alger" went on show for the first time in Hong Kong Wednesday ahead of an auction where it is tipped to smash the world record price for a painting.The 1955 piece depicts women in a harem and is the final work in a 15-painting series which pays homage to the 19th century artist Delacroix, who Picasso admired.It is billed to fetch an estimated $140 million when it goes on sale at Christie's in New York in May -- but the auction house says the pr

BEIJING (AFP) -- Taiwan is welcome to participate in the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Bank if it does so "under an appropriate name", Chinese state media quoted officials as saying Wednesday.Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory and opposes international recognition for the island, often curtailing its involvement in global agreements. The two split in 1949 at the end of the Chinese civil war.But Taipei on Tuesday issued a letter of intent to join the AIIB, a Beijing initiative see

More than three decades ago, a 3-year-old South Korean boy and his sister flew to the U.S. to become the adopted children of American citizens, but their life together didn't last long.They were abandoned, sent into foster care and separated even though he was dependent upon her.A family adopted the girl, and got her citizenship. The boy, named Adam Crapser, wasn't as fortunate: The parents he had were abusive, and never sought the green card or citizenship for him that they should have.Now, at

PARIS (AFP) -- Foreign ministers from Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France gathered Tuesday to try to revive a shaky ceasefire in eastern Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin ruled out an "apocalyptic scenario" of all-out war.Top diplomats from the four countries, whose leaders hammered out the initial peace plan in the Belarussian capital Minsk 12 days ago, met in Paris, with Kiev accusing Moscow and pro-Russian rebels on the ground of torpedoing the truce."The Minsk agreements are not be

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Divided Republicans are searching for a way out of an impasse over immigration that is threatening to shut down the Homeland Security Department within days.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Monday he would separate language overturning President Barack Obama's contested immigration measures from the department's funding bill.The move seemed aimed at pressuring Senate Democrats who have opposed the legislation because of a dispute over Obama's executive actions

COPENHAGEN (AFP) -- Over 1,000 mourners turned out Tuesday for the funeral of the first victim of the Copenhagen shootings amid reports the filmmaker had died trying to stop his killer from spraying a cultural centre with bullets.At least 40 heavily armed police officers guarded the church in the northwest of the city as Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt joined the mourners to bid farewell to 55-year-old Finn Noergaard.Organiser Kirsten Weiss Mose told AFP 1,200 people attended the ceremony,

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Greece's creditors in the 19-country eurozone appeared Tuesday to be heading toward a positive assessment of a list of reform measures Athens has sent in order to get a 4-month extension to its bailout, which would keep the country afloat. An encouraging initial reaction from the so-called institutions -- the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund -- needs to be backed up by the eurozone for the bailout extension to be granted. Eurozone financ

After eight years of joint security operations and intelligence sharing with Israel that have kept tensions in the West Bank from erupting most of the time, Palestinian leaders are weighing an end to the arrangement.Ties with Israel are on the brink of a “comprehensive confrontation,” said Jibril Rajoub, a close adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and one of the architects of security coordination in its first phase after the 1993 Oslo peace accords. “We will not be an insurance compa