Brazil officials reverse subway, bus fare hike
SAO PAULO (AP) -- Leaders in Brazil's two biggest cities said Wednesday that they reversed an increase in bus and subway fares that ignited anti-government protests that have spread across the nation in the past week.... 6/19/2013 6:50 PM

John Paul II moves a step closer to sainthood
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope John Paul II has moved a step closer to sainthood.... 6/19/2013 6:37 PM

US and Cuba agree to resume migration talks
HAVANA (AP) -- The United States and Cuba have agreed to resume bilateral talks on migration issues next month, a State Department official said Wednesday, the latest evidence of a thaw in chilly relations between the Cold War enemies.... 6/19/2013 6:28 PM

US tries saving Taliban talks after Karzai objects
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Hopes dimmed for talks aimed at ending the Afghan war when an angry President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday suspended security negotiations with the U.S. and scuttled a peace delegation to the Taliban, sending American officials scrambling to preserve the possibility of dialogue with the militants.... 6/19/2013 6:14 PM

Magnitude-5.7 quake shakes central Chile
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- A magnitude-5.7 earthquake shook central Chile on Wednesday, causing buildings to sway in the capital but apparently causing no major damage.... 6/19/2013 6:09 PM

Tropical Storm Barry forms off Mexican coast
VERACRUZ, Mexico (AP) -- Tropical Storm Barry formed off Mexico's Gulf Coast on Wednesday, prompting Mexican authorities to ready hundreds of shelters.... 6/19/2013 6:09 PM

Bus falls into river in Peru, killing at least 30
LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Police in central Peru say a bus veered off a highway and fell into a river, leaving at least 30 people dead and nine missing.... 6/19/2013 6:00 PM

Top UK court overturns sanctions on Iranian bank
LONDON (AP) -- Britain's Supreme Court quashed sanctions against an Iranian bank penalized over its alleged links to Iran's nuclear weapons program, saying Wednesday that Bank Mellat had been arbitrarily singled out.... 6/19/2013 5:32 PM

New MERS virus spreads easily, deadlier than SARS
LONDON (AP) -- A mysterious new respiratory virus that originated in the Middle East spreads easily between people and appears more deadly than SARS, doctors reported Wednesday after investigating the biggest outbreak in Saudi Arabia.... 6/19/2013 5:23 PM

Militants storm UN compound in Somalia; 20 killed
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Seven al-Qaida-linked militants on a suicide mission attacked the U.N. compound Wednesday with a truck bomb and then poured inside, killing at least 13 people before dying in the assault.... 6/19/2013 5:22 PM

WHITE HOUSE NOTEBOOK: Obama ditches jacket
BERLIN (AP) -- President Barack Obama invoked President John F. Kennedy's famous Cold War speech in Berlin 50 years ago in his Brandenburg Gate speech Wednesday. But he was not trying to best him. Not when his crowd of 4,500 was one one-hundredth the size of Kennedy's.... 6/19/2013 5:19 PM

Greek coalition talks drag on to end TV crisis
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greece's governing coalition failed to end a political crisis triggered by the closure of state broadcaster ERT, but said talks would continue Thursday to try to avoid a snap election that could delay vital economic reforms and disrupt the country's bailout program.... 6/19/2013 5:17 PM

Italian icons find no respite from tax man
MILAN (AP) -- Sophia Loren wore green silk and sunglasses for her date with the taxman, Luciano Pavarotti a suit and sneakers. Diego Maradona gave up his diamond stud earring to pay off a tax debt.... 6/19/2013 5:09 PM

Syria troops fight rebels near major Shiite shrine
BEIRUT (AP) -- Hezbollah fighters joined Syrian forces in battling rebels in a Damascus suburb that is home to a revered Shiite Muslim shrine, in a push to secure the area around the ornate, golden domed mosque.... 6/19/2013 4:40 PM

UK banking commission urges better standards
LONDON (AP) -- British bankers could soon be facing harsher penalties for behaving badly.... 6/19/2013 4:23 PM

Obama urges 'bold' nuclear cuts in Berlin speech
BERLIN (AP) -- Summoning the harsh history of this once-divided city, President Barack Obama on Wednesday cautioned the U.S. and Europe against "complacency" brought on by peace, pledging to cut America's deployed nuclear weapons by one-third if Cold War foe Russia does the same.... 6/19/2013 4:18 PM

Syrian exiles get taste of home: Beloved ice cream
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- For Syrians, no visit to Damascus' Old City is complete without a stop at a more than century-old ice cream parlor in its main souq where you can watch them make their distinctive desert by pounding it into shape with giant wooden mallets, then enjoy a bowl of it sprinkled with pistachios.... 6/19/2013 4:10 PM

Former Hungarian prime minister Gyula Horn dies
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) -- Gyula Horn, a former Hungarian prime minister who played a key role in opening the Iron Curtain, has died at the age of 80.... 6/19/2013 4:09 PM

Syria infiltrators, Jordan military clash, 1 dead
ZAIN, Jordan (AP) -- Jordan's military says infiltrators from Syria have clashed with Jordanian soldiers near the border. One infiltrator was killed and two wounded.... 6/19/2013 4:07 PM

Militants kill 6 soldiers in northwest Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- A senior police official says militants attacked a military convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and other heavy weapons in northwest Pakistan, killing six soldiers.... 6/19/2013 3:48 PM