US, Israel raise hopes for Mideast peace restart
JERUSALEM (AP) -- The United States and Israel raised hopes Thursday for a restart of the Middle East peace process, despite little tangible progress so far from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's two-month-old effort to get Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table.... 5/23/2013 4:37 AM

5 dead in Lebanon clash of Assad foes, backers
BEIRUT (AP) -- A Lebanese security official says five people have been killed in overnight gunbattles between opponents and supporters of the Syrian regime in the Lebanese city of Tripoli.... 5/23/2013 4:29 AM

Japan stocks dive as benchmark bond yield spikes
BANGKOK (AP) -- Japanese stocks plummeted Thursday after a spike in government bond yields and unexpectedly weak Chinese manufacturing spooked investors sitting atop months of massive gains in share prices. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo nosedived 7.3 percent to close at 14,483.98, its worst drop since the 2011 tsunami.... 5/23/2013 4:26 AM

Brave woman tried to reason with London attackers
LONDON (AP) -- An unlikely hero has emerged from the apparent terror attack that left one man dead on the streets of London.... 5/23/2013 4:26 AM

Malaysian charged with sedition, 3 more arrested
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Malaysian authorities detained three anti-government figures, charged a student activist with sedition and seized hundreds of opposition newspapers Thursday, raising political tensions after recent national elections triggered claims of fraud.... 5/23/2013 4:21 AM

German opposition party marks bittersweet 150th
BERLIN (AP) -- Germany's main opposition party is celebrating a bittersweet 150th birthday, as polls showing it trailing badly in the race for September elections, with a visit from a recent left-wing winner who has lost his luster - French President Francois Hollande.... 5/23/2013 4:19 AM

Stricken Japan nuke plant struggles to keep staff
TOKYO (AP) -- Keeping the meltdown-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in northeastern Japan in stable condition requires a cast of thousands. Increasingly the plant's operator is struggling to find enough workers, a trend that many expect to worsen and hamper progress in the decades-long effort to safely decommission it.... 5/23/2013 4:19 AM

UK emergency committee meets after attack
LONDON (AP) -- The British government's emergency committee is set to meet Thursday after two attackers butchered a man in a brutal daylight attack in London that raised fears terrorism had returned to the capital.... 5/23/2013 4:12 AM

Father of Afghanistan cricket captain abducted
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghanistan's cricket board says gunmen have kidnapped the father of its national team captain.... 5/23/2013 4:10 AM

Brown hounded for calling Manila `gates of hell'
MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Dan Brown's description of Manila as "the gates of hell" in the American novelist's latest book has not gone down well with officials in the Philippine capital.... 5/23/2013 4:04 AM

Bangladesh: Owners' many failings led to collapse
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- The defects and errors that led to the world's deadliest garment-industry accident extend from the swampy ground the doomed Rana Plaza was built on, to "extremely poor quality" construction materials, to the massive, vibrating equipment operating when the eight-story building collapsed, a committee appointed by Bangladesh's government concluded.... 5/23/2013 3:53 AM

Heat wave causes power outages, anger in India
LUCKNOW, India (AP) -- A blistering heat wave has caused massive power cuts and water shortages across much of north and western India, and some people are taking to the streets to express their anger with the government.... 5/23/2013 3:36 AM

IMF head Lagarde in court in fraud probe
PARIS (AP) -- International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde has appeared at a special Paris court to face questioning over a controversial arbitrage deal that she oversaw as French finance minister.... 5/23/2013 3:33 AM

Oil falls below $94 as China manufacturing weakens
BANGKOK (AP) -- The price of oil fell below $94 per barrel Thursday after a private survey showed manufacturing activity in China falling to its lowest level in seven months, a sign that the recovery in the world's No. 2 economy is fading.... 5/23/2013 3:33 AM

Car bomb kills 12 in southwest Pakistan
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -- A car bomb targeting a police vehicle killed 11 policemen and one civilian Thursday in an area of southwest Pakistan wracked by a separatist insurgency and Islamic militancy, police said.... 5/23/2013 3:30 AM

Restaurant torched in 4th night of Sweden riots
STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Groups of youth have burnt down a restaurant, torched more than 30 cars and injured three police in a fourth night of riots in suburbs of the Swedish capital that started following a fatal police shooting.... 5/23/2013 3:08 AM

2011 jail breaks become political issue in Egypt
CAIRO (AP) -- It was one of the most perplexing events of Egypt's revolution: orchestrated attacks on prisons around the country that broke out more than 20,000 inmates while police were tied down with the massive popular protests that swept autocrat Hosni Mubarak from power.... 5/23/2013 2:38 AM

AP NewsAlert
BANGKOK (AP) -- Asia shares slide, Nikkei down 7.3 percent, as Japan bond yields rise, China factories weaken.... 5/23/2013 2:37 AM

Japan bond yields jump following Fed comments
TOKYO (AP) -- Yields on 10-year Japanese government bonds briefly topped 1 percent for the first time in a year on Thursday, unnerving some investors at a time when Japan's already overburdened government finances are vulnerable to rises in interest rates. Japanese shares fell sharply.... 5/23/2013 2:33 AM

Submerged structure stumps Israeli archaeologists
TIBERIAS, Israel (AP) -- The massive circular structure appears to be an archaeologists dream: a recently discovered antiquity that could reveal secrets of ancient life in the Middle East and is just waiting to be excavated.... 5/23/2013 2:28 AM