Russia: McDonald's food has 'too many calories'
MOSCOW (AP) -- Nearly a quarter-century after McDonald's startled and delighted Soviets with their first taste of American fast-food culture, the company's now facing a suit that could ban it from selling some of its signature products.... 7/25/2014 4:49 PM

Teams converge on remote site to probe plane crash
PARIS (AP) -- Aviation experts, criminal investigators and soldiers began converging Friday on an isolated patch of restive Mali to search for clues that might explain why an Air Algerie jetliner fell from the sky in a storm and apparently disintegrated on impact.... 7/25/2014 4:23 PM

Ukrainian president: Confidence vote Thursday
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko says the government of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk will face a vote of confidence in a special session of Parliament next week.... 7/25/2014 4:21 PM

Kerry says no deal yet for 7-day truce in Gaza
JERUSALEM (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that more work was needed to reach a deal between Israel and Hamas for a seven-day truce in the Gaza war. Israel's defense minister warned that the military may soon broaden its ground operation "significantly."... 7/25/2014 4:11 PM

US: Russia is firing across border into Ukraine
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Russia is launching artillery attacks from its soil on Ukrainian troops and preparing to move heavier weaponry across the border, the U.S. and Ukraine charged Friday in what appeared to be an ominous escalation of the crisis.... 7/25/2014 3:58 PM

What happened? The day Flight 17 was downed
SNIZHNE, Ukraine (AP) -- It was lunchtime when a tracked launcher with four SA-11 surface-to-air missiles rolled into town and parked on Karapetyan Street. Fifteen hundred miles (2,400 kilometers) to the west, passengers were checking in for Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.... 7/25/2014 3:53 PM

Yemen's Shiite rebels pull out of northern city
SANAA, Yemen (AP) -- Yemen's Shiite rebels battling their conservative Sunni rivals from one of the country's largest tribes have pulled out of a northern city they captured earlier this month, the rebels' spokesman said Friday.... 7/25/2014 3:53 PM

Nigeria arrests 1 connected to Kaduna bombings
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- Nigerian security forces are holding one man connected to the Wednesday double bombings in the northern city of Kaduna that targeted a former head of state and a prominent moderate Muslim cleric and killed at least 44 bystanders, according to a defense ministry statement on Friday.... 7/25/2014 3:49 PM

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli defense minister tells troops Israel might significantly widen Gaza ground operation.... 7/25/2014 3:31 PM

US fighter jets escort plane back to Toronto
TORONTO (AP) -- Two U.S. F16 fighter jets escorted a Panama-City bound plane back to Toronto on Friday after a passenger threatened the aircraft.... 7/25/2014 3:01 PM

Afghan Taliban leader warns against pact with US
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- In a blow to hopes for peace talks, the Taliban's reclusive leader warned Friday that a bilateral security pact allowing thousands of U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan beyond the end of this year will mean more fighting.... 7/25/2014 2:57 PM

AP ANALYSIS: Old story, new twists in Gaza war
CAIRO (AP) -- The third Gaza war is playing out much like the first one more than five years ago: The harrowing civilian toll in Gaza is now at the center of the discourse, eclipsing the rocket attacks by Hamas militants that were the stated reason for the Israeli assault.... 7/25/2014 2:56 PM

Nigeria confirms first Ebola death
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- Nigerian officials say a Liberian man died of Ebola in a Lagos hospital Friday after arriving in the country on Tuesday. It is the first case of Ebola to be confirmed in Nigeria since the current outbreak began in West Africa earlier this year.... 7/25/2014 2:48 PM

Bayreuth Wagner fest starts with stage malfunction
BERLIN (AP) -- Bayreuth's annual opera festival has gotten off to an unexpectedly dramatic start, with a technical malfunction forcing an interruption shortly after the opening performance of Richard Wagner's "Tannhaeuser" kicked off.... 7/25/2014 2:44 PM

In Gaza, pediatrics wing crowded with war wounded
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- The pediatrics wing of the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip is filled with the youngest victims of more than two weeks of Israel-Hamas fighting.... 7/25/2014 2:16 PM

Gunmen kill 2 senior officers in Egypt's Sinai
EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) -- Gunmen shot and killed two senior Egyptian officers in the country's volatile Sinai Peninsula where the military has been trying to quell a spreading insurgency by Islamic militants, a security official said.... 7/25/2014 1:43 PM

Venezuela official seeks immunity in Aruba ruling
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- A judge in Aruba is expected to rule today whether the highest-ranking Venezuelan official ever arrested on a U.S. warrant will remain in jail pending an extradition request.... 7/25/2014 1:40 PM

Jordan shoots down 'aerial target' near Syria
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Jordan's air force shot down an "aerial target" near the Syrian border on Friday, a Jordanian military official said. Eyewitnesses said the object was a drone.... 7/25/2014 1:32 PM

Hezbollah leader vows to support Gazans
BEIRUT (AP) -- The leader of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group vowed on Friday to support Palestinian militants battling Israeli troops in Gaza, even as his own fighters are bogged down in the war in neighboring Syria.... 7/25/2014 1:22 PM

Taiwan plane survivor crawls out, phones dad
XIXI, Taiwan (AP) -- The 10 survivors of Taiwan's worst air disaster in more than a decade include a 34-year-old woman who called her father after scrambling from the wreckage and seeking help at a nearby home.... 7/25/2014 1:05 PM