UK eyes giving visas to 600 Afghan interpreters
LONDON (AP) -- Britain is proposing to give around 600 Afghan interpreters who worked alongside its troops the right to settle in the U.K. in recognition of the risks to their personal safety.... 5/22/2013 8:28 AM

Irishman charged with 1982 IRA Hyde Park bombing
DUBLIN (AP) -- A 61-year-old Irishman was charged in Britain Wednesday with the Irish Republican Army bombing of the queen's ceremonial cavalry in Hyde Park in 1982, a strike at a top London tourist attraction that killed four soldiers and seven horses.... 5/22/2013 8:19 AM

Iraqi PM orders army shakeup after deadly attacks
BAGHDAD (AP) -- An Iraqi government spokesman says Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered changes in senior ranks of the military in the wake of bloody attacks that have killed dozens of people in the past few days.... 5/22/2013 8:05 AM

EU bid to label Hezbollah wing terror group
BRUSSELS (AP) -- Two officials say Britain has launched a bid to formally have the European Union declare the Lebanese party Hezbollah's military wing a terrorist organization.... 5/22/2013 8:04 AM

7 Egyptian security men kidnapped in Sinai freed
CAIRO (AP) -- Six Egyptian policemen and a border guard kidnapped by suspected militants in the volatile Sinai Peninsula last week were freed by their captors Wednesday after successful mediation, the country's military spokesman said.... 5/22/2013 8:03 AM

Iceland forms new center-right government
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) -- Progressive Party leader Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson has been chosen as Iceland's new prime minister.... 5/22/2013 8:03 AM

Syrian opposition urges rebels to join key battle
BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria's main opposition alliance on Wednesday urged fighters to come from around the country to reinforce a rebel-held town under attack by President Bashar Assad's troops and their allies from the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.... 5/22/2013 7:58 AM

Iran's Ahmadinejad denounces election decision
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that a decision by election overseers to disqualify his top aide from next month's presidential race is an act of "oppression" and that he will take the case to the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.... 5/22/2013 7:54 AM

Trial for captain in deadly shipwreck in Italy
ROME (AP) -- A judge in Italy has ordered the captain of the Costa Concordia to stand trial in the shipwreck of the cruise liner, which struck a reef off Tuscany last year, killing 32 people.... 5/22/2013 7:53 AM

Japan approves joining int'l child abduction pact
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's parliament on Wednesday approved joining an international child custody treaty amid foreign pressure for Tokyo to address concerns that Japanese mothers can take children away from foreign fathers without recourse.... 5/22/2013 7:36 AM

IMF calls on Britain to do more for growth
LONDON (AP) -- The International Monetary Fund has called on the British government to do more to support the country's recovery now that it has started to ease the pace of its budget austerity measures.... 5/22/2013 7:35 AM

Mortar lands in Congo as UN chief arrives
GOMA, Congo (AP) -- A spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo says that a mortar landed in a neighborhood of Goma, a major city in eastern Congo, which last year was briefly overrun by a rebel group. The explosion comes as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Congo's distant capital for a two-day visit that is expected to take him to Goma.... 5/22/2013 7:28 AM

North Korean leader sends special envoy to China
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- After months of ignoring China's warnings to give up its nuclear program, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a high-level confidant to Beijing on Wednesday, in a possible effort to mend strained ties with its most important ally and the latest sign that Pyongyang may be giving diplomacy a chance.... 5/22/2013 7:24 AM

Life-saving face transplant performed in Poland
WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Doctors in Poland say they have performed an urgent total face transplant on a 33-year-old man whose face was torn off in an accident which also crushed his jaws.... 5/22/2013 7:19 AM

Japan watchdog: Nuclear plant sits on active fault
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's nuclear watchdog on Wednesday endorsed a panel's conclusion that a seismic fault running underneath one of two reactors at an atomic plant in western Japan is active, making the reactor's restart virtually impossible.... 5/22/2013 7:18 AM

US parents quit Singapore inquest into son's death
SINGAPORE (AP) -- The parents of an American software engineer who believe their son was murdered last year in Singapore withdrew from the inquest Wednesday, saying they have no confidence in the city-state's legal process.... 5/22/2013 7:14 AM

Vatican releases 1st report of financial watchdog
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican has taken another step in trying to show greater financial transparency by publishing a first annual report from its new financial watchdog agency.... 5/22/2013 7:12 AM

Riots in Stockholm spread to more suburbs
STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Groups of youth have smashed shop windows, set cars ablaze and burnt down a cultural center as the riots that started in one Stockholm suburb after a fatal police shooting spread to other low-income areas of the Swedish capital.... 5/22/2013 7:11 AM

Mais non! French universities may teach in English
PARIS (AP) -- France's National Assembly is taking up an education reform bill that would allow public universities to hold some courses - like science or economics classes - in English, a plan that has alarmed language purists and the political far-right alike.... 5/22/2013 7:06 AM

Death toll rises to 23 in China factory blast
BEIJING (AP) -- The death toll from a massive blast at an explosives plant in eastern China has risen to 23 with 10 people still missing.... 5/22/2013 6:55 AM