UK to finalize plans for Afghan interpreters
LONDON (AP) -- Britain is proposing to let 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 7:02 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

Investors edgy ahead of Bernanke testimony
LONDON (AP) -- Investors were edgy Wednesday ahead of the appearance of U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke before lawmakers in Congress.... 5/22/2013 6:52 AM

Irishman charged with 1982 IRA Hyde Park bombing
LONDON (AP) -- A 61-year-old Irishman has been charged with the Irish Republican Army bombing of the queen's ceremonial cavalry in Hyde Park in 1982 that killed four soldiers and seven horses.... 5/22/2013 6:48 AM

Pussy Riot member declares hunger strike in prison
BEREZNIKI, Russia (AP) -- An imprisoned member of the punk band Pussy Riot says she is going on hunger strike after a judge refused to allow her to attend a court hearing where she was seeking release on parole.... 5/22/2013 6:44 AM

Germany backs terror label for Hezbollah militants
BERLIN (AP) -- Germany says it supports adding the military wing of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah to the European Union's list of terrorist groups.... 5/22/2013 6:41 AM

Germany celebrates composer Wagner's 200th
BERLIN (AP) -- Germany on Wednesday celebrated the 200th birthday of Richard Wagner, the 19th-century composer whose music has been hailed as sublime art at the height of Western culture even as he remains tainted by his visceral anti-Semitic views, which later found favor with the Nazis.... 5/22/2013 6:40 AM

Kenya's truth report: Killings, land grabs, graft
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta received a long-awaited Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission report that says his father, the country's first president, presided over a government that was responsible for numerous gross human rights violations, political assassinations and illegal allocation of land.... 5/22/2013 6:37 AM

Chinese premier visits Pakistan, praises ties
ISLAMABAD (AP) -- China's premier began a two-day visit to Pakistan on Wednesday by praising the relationship between the two Asian powers in glowing terms.... 5/22/2013 6:23 AM

EU leaders discuss fight against tax evasion
BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union's leaders are seeking to advance their fight against tax evasion and close loopholes for large corporations' creative tax avoidance schemes.... 5/22/2013 6:20 AM

Octogenarians race to be oldest Everest climber
KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- An 80-year-old Japanese extreme skier who climbed Mount Everest five years ago, but just missed becoming the oldest man to reach the summit, was back on the mountain Wednesday to make another attempt at the title.... 5/22/2013 6:14 AM

Iran's Ahmadinejad denounces election decision
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says a decision by election overseers to disqualify his top aide from an upcoming presidential race is an act of "oppression" and he will take the case to the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.... 5/22/2013 6:13 AM

Diplomats: Iran expands nuke technology
VIENNA (AP) -- Iran is moving ahead to update a program the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Wednesday, despite high-level diplomacy aimed at stopping it from doing so.... 5/22/2013 6:10 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 6:02 AM

Afghan students protest women's rights decree
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Hard-line Islamist students protested Wednesday in the Afghan capital demanding the repeal of a presidential decree for women's rights that they say is un-Islamic. It was the latest sign of a backlash against the legal protections passed in the 12 years since the toppling of the Taliban regime known for its harsh treatment of women.... 5/22/2013 5:50 AM

Oil below $96 before crude stocks report, Fed
BANGKOK (AP) -- The price of oil fell Wednesday as investors waited for a report on U.S. crude stocks and the Federal Reserve's latest views on the U.S. economy.... 5/22/2013 5:41 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 5:35 AM

Monroe's photos for Prague exhibition stolen
PRAGUE (AP) -- A publicist for an upcoming Marilyn Monroe exhibition in Prague says that photographs of the star have been stolen.... 5/22/2013 5:33 AM

Fishermen pay price in Asia's volatile sea rifts
MASINLOC, Philippines (AP) -- Along the northwestern Philippine coast, poor children with claw hammers clamber aboard an abandoned fishing vessel to pry loose and steal rusty nails from its deck. It's become a familiar sight in villages where some fishermen have been forced to give up their livelihoods since China took control of their fishing haven last year.... 5/22/2013 5:31 AM

6 kids among 7 injured in south China attack
BEIJING (AP) -- A mentally ill man attacked six primary school students and a woman with a cleaver in the latest of a string of attacks on Chinese schoolchildren, authorities said Wednesday.... 5/22/2013 5:31 AM