CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Opponents of President Nicolas Maduro poured into the streets Friday to condemn the surprise arrest of Caracas' mayor for allegedly participating in a U.S.-backed plot to overthrow his government.     The protests came a day after an armed commando unit dressed in camouflage raided Mayor Antonio Ledezma's office and hauled him away. The detention, recorded by security cameras, set off a wave of spontaneous demonstrations in middle-class neighborhoods loyal to the oppos

 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The French interior minister says he has asked Google, Facebook and Twitter to work directly with French officials during a live investigation and to immediately remove terrorist propaganda when authorities alert them to it.French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve met Friday with representatives from the search engine and social networks during a one-day visit to the Silicon Valley and San Francisco.Cazeneuve says he hopes the meeting is the first step in building a stro

ROCKHAMPTON (AFP) - Australia was clearing up Saturday after two severe cyclones left a trail of destruction, wrecking hundreds of homes and cutting electricity to tens of thousands, even as authorities warned of more flooding and gusty winds to come.Tropical Cyclone Marcia barrelled through the northeastern state of Queensland Friday at the highest-rated category five, ripping apart houses, uprooting trees and bringing down power lines.The severe system hit hours after category four Tropical Cy

LOS ANGELES, (AFP) -- US West Coast dockworkers and port operators have reached a tentative deal on a new labor contract, a source close to the negotiations said late Friday, averting a shutdown that would have hit about half the country's trade.The new agreement could free up operations at the ports that have slowed significantly since the labor contract expired in July at key ports for trade with Asia.A source close to the investigation confirmed the deal to AFP, but details were not immediate

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- One of the world's tallest residential towers caught fire early Saturday in Dubai's Marina district, sending bright yellow flames several stories high, but there were no reports of casualties, civil defense officials said.The fire broke out at about 2 a.m. in the 86-story Torch tower on the northeastern end of the densely populated district, which is packed with multi-story skyscrapers.  Debris from the fire cluttered nearby streets after the blaze appeared to

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki has been named the new communications director for President Barack Obama after serving as the face of the department for more than two years.Psaki will take over the White House job on April 1, replacing Jennifer Palmieri, who is leaving reportedly to join Hillary Clinton's campaign."Jen worked on both my campaigns. She's served in the White House, and she's traveled the world as an adviser to Secretary Kerry," Obama said in a statement. "I fully trus

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected an artillery and landing exercise by front-line units deployed near the Yellow Sea, Pyongyang's media reported Saturday.The drill, joined by artillery forces of the 4th Corp. and island defense units, focused on training for "striking and seizing an island," said the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected an artillery and landing exercise by front-line units deployed near the Yellow Sea, Pyongyang`s

HONG KONG, (AFP) -- Investors in a Hong Kong-based Bitcoin trading company fear they have fallen victim to a scam after it closed down, a lawmaker said Monday, adding losses could total HK$3 billion ($387 million).Leung Yiu-chung said his office recently received reports from dozens of investors in Hong Kong who paid a total of HK$40 million ($5.16 million) into the scheme run online by MyCoin, but the total loss may be vastly more."The number of cases is increasing. These two days I received ca

JAIPUR, India (AP) -- Police were searching Monday for a man who raped a Japanese student sightseeing in northern India, while elsewhere they announced the arrest of eight men suspected of brutally raping and killing a Nepalese woman, as authorities continue to struggle with a spate of attacks on women. The 20-year-old student attacked Sunday is the second Japanese woman raped in India in recent months. The man had met her in Jaipur and offered to act as her tour guide, according to police inspe

JAKARTA (AFP) -- The mothers of two Australian drug smugglers on death row in Indonesia tearfully begged authorities on Monday to "spare our sons' lives", as their lawyer revealed plans for a last-gasp legal bid. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug smuggling gang, were arrested in 2005 and sentenced to death the following year after being caught trying to traffick heroin out of Indonesia.They lost a legal bid last week to have their cases reviewed, eff

The deployment of an advanced U.S. missile-defense system in South Korea could seriously undermine Sino-Korean ties, a Chinese scholar warned Monday, echoing a chorus of concerns from Beijing officials. In an op-ed published by the state-run Global Times newspaper, Li Kaisheng, research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, also publicly admitted that China opposes deploying the U.S. missile-defense system in South Korea because it could hurt

Newly-elected president of Hana Bank, South Korea's fourth-largest lender, said Monday he will do his best to complete the stalled merger with the Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) as soon as possible.Kim Byoung-ho, 54, former vice president and acting president of Hana Bank, was named the new head at the bank's board and shareholders meetings. He will start his two-year term from Tuesday.He has been the acting president since November last year when his predecessor Kim Jong-jun stepped down."I will cre

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Monday called on South Korea to enhance its transparency in taxes and regulatory policies to better attract overseas investment that can breathe new life into the country's economy.The Going for Growth 2015 report released by the Paris-based organization said "sustained rapid growth" has brought the country's GDP per capita to within a quarter of the upper half of other OECD members. It, however, pointed out the productivity is

NEWCASTLE, (AFP) - Australian surfers and swimmers defied beach closures on the country's east coast Saturday, taking to the water despite repeated shark sightings over the past week and an attack on a teenage spearfisher.Beaches in the eastern city of Newcastle, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Sydney, were closed for a record eighth-straight day Saturday after two sharks were spotted off the coast.One shark, believed to be a great white, was estimated to be five metres  (16 and a half

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- A Canadian tourist with records of several previous child sex offenses has been arrested in Nepal on charges that he lured a 9-year-old boy to his hotel room and had sex with him, police official said Saturday.Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh, 71, was arrested at a hotel in Lalitpur, a suburb south of the capital, Kathmandu. He was ordered detained by the district court until the charges can be further investigated, Lalitpur's police chief Pushpa Ranjit said. Officials were not

A South Korean man went missing in a Turkish town bordering with Syria recently with a local media report suspecting that he might have joined the extremist Muslim militant group IS, the Korean embassy in Istanbul said Saturday.Earlier, Milliyet, a local daily newspaper, reported that a Korean man, whose identity has yet to be confirmed, might have crossed the border with Syria and joined IS, citing some undisclosed sources. He is reportedly in his teens.The report claimed the young man, who is

BEIJING (AP) -- Officials and state media say 21 people have been confirmed dead in a tugboat capsizing in eastern China after the vessel was lifted to the surface and dragged to shallow waters of the Yangtze River.The state-run Xinhua News Agency said Saturday that one person remains missing from Thursday's trip to test the newly built tugboat in the river's Fubei Channel in the eastern province of Jiangsu.The ship's owner, parts suppliers and engineers were among 25 people aboard for the test,

WASHINGTON,  (AFP) - The United States on Friday condemned as "tragic irony" the International Criminal Court's decision to open a preliminary probe into possible war crimes committed by Israeli forces against Palestinians."We strongly disagree with the ICC prosecutor's action today," State  Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said in a statement."It is a tragic irony that Israel, which has withstood thousands of  terrorist rockets fired at its civilians and its neighborhoods, is now being scrutini

Commercial satellite imagery shows no signs of preparations for a nuclear blast at North Korea's underground test site, the website 38 North said Friday."As a result, a fourth nuclear test seems unlikely in the near-term, for at least the next two to three months," the website said. "However, it is quite possible that one or more tunnels at the facility are sufficiently complete to be readied for another nuclear test should Pyongyang make the political decision to move forward."The North has so

South Korea started to enforce a halt in the movement of all poultry, farmers and related equipment on Saturday in a bid to stem the further spread of avian influenza (AI), the agriculture ministry said.The ban went into effect on 6 a.m. on Saturday and will be in place for 36 hours until 6 p.m. on Sunday, the ministry said. Those subject to the ban include poultry farms and people involved in the business, including truck drivers and vets. Some 106,000 people related to the poultry business wil