Sweden's riots raise questions about inequality
HUSBY, Sweden (AP) -- Sweden has long been a bastion of generous social welfare and an egalitarian political culture. So many people were shocked when scores of youths hurled rocks at police and set cars ablaze during rioting in several largely immigrant areas near Stockholm this week.... 5/23/2013 3:32 PM

Appellate court: Berlusconi ran illegal scheme
MILAN (AP) -- Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday called "surreal" the judicial reasoning behind an appellate court's decision to uphold his guilty verdict and four-year jail term in a tax fraud case.... 5/23/2013 3:32 PM

Canada terror suspect: Lawyer must use 'holy book'
TORONTO (AP) -- A man accused of plotting to derail a train in Canada with support from al-Qaida asked Thursday to be represented by a defense attorney willing to use the "holy book" as a reference in his case.... 5/23/2013 3:26 PM

Clashes in Lebanon feed fear of Syria spillover
BEIRUT (AP) -- Lebanese supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad fired heavy machine guns and lobbed mortar shells at each other Thursday in some of the worst fighting in the port city of Tripoli in years.... 5/23/2013 3:15 PM

Turks and Caicos recovers cash, land amid probe
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Officials in the Turks and Caicos Islands have recovered $19.5 million and more than 2,500 acres (1,000 hectares) of real estate as they continue to seize assets improperly obtained by corrupt politicians.... 5/23/2013 3:15 PM

Greeks to see no tax relief until budget improves
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greece's conservative-led government can't lower taxes before the public deficit falls further, the prime minister said Thursday, but he pledged to eventually slash the corporate tax rate to a flat 15 percent.... 5/23/2013 3:03 PM

Embattled Toronto mayor fires chief of staff
TORONTO (AP) -- City officials say Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has fired his chief of staff.... 5/23/2013 3:03 PM

Military calls UK attack victim a model soldier
LONDON (AP) -- Britain's military says the soldier brutally murdered in a suspected terrorist attack was a popular drummer and machine gunner, a father, and a passionate fan of Manchester United.... 5/23/2013 2:55 PM

Israel to discuss military draft reform proposal
JERUSALEM (AP) -- An Israeli committee has handed the government its proposal for ending a system granting Jewish ultra-Orthodox seminary students automatic exemptions from military service.... 5/23/2013 2:46 PM

Muslim hardliners ID London terror suspect
LONDON (AP) -- Two Muslim hardliners say the man seen wielding a bloody butcher's knife after the killing of a British soldier is a Muslim convert who took part in demonstrations with the banned radical group al-Muhajiroun.... 5/23/2013 2:34 PM

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 2:28 PM

Cannes crime: 2nd jewel theft during film festival
PARIS (AP) -- Thieves outsmarted 80 security guards in an exclusive French Riviera hotel and made off with a necklace that creators say is worth a staggering 2 million euros ($2.6 million) - in the second such jewelry heist during this year's Cannes Film Festival.... 5/23/2013 1:59 PM

Writer Chinua Achebe honored in Nigeria funeral
OGIDI, Nigeria (AP) -- Writer Chinua Achebe shunned Nigeria's corrupt politicians and twice turned down national honors, never fearing to criticize those he felt ruined his country. On Thursday, however, the lawmakers and the country's elite came to praise him.... 5/23/2013 1:54 PM

Israel says Iran unaffected by world pressure
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's prime minister says a new report by the U.N. atomic agency shows that international pressure is having no effect on halting Iran's suspect nuclear program.... 5/23/2013 1:53 PM

AP PHOTOS: Egypt's languishing Islamic antiquities
CAIRO (AP) -- Cairo, the Arab world's most populated city, is often referred to as an open-air museum of Islamic antiquities and the city of 1,000 minarets.... 5/23/2013 1:47 PM

15 injured in clash with security forces in Guinea
CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) -- A government spokesman says at least 15 people were injured, four of them by bullet wounds, during a protest in Guinea's capital between opposition parties and security forces. The clashes are the latest iteration in the ongoing fight between the country's opposition and the ruling party over the details of a much-delayed parliamentary election.... 5/23/2013 1:40 PM

WHO: 22 deaths worldwide from coronavirus
GENEVA (AP) -- World Health Organization officials said Thursday that their probe into the deadly new coronavirus that has now claimed 22 lives is being delayed because of a dispute over the ownership rights to a sample - a claim disputed by the researcher at the center of the issue.... 5/23/2013 1:38 PM

Turkey debates alcohol sales and ad restrictions
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkish lawmakers on Thursday began debating a bill that bans all alcohol advertising and tightens restrictions on sales of such beverages - a proposal the government insists is aimed at protecting the young from the ills of spirits but which secularists say is an example of the Islamic-based ruling party's encroachment on personal freedoms.... 5/23/2013 1:35 PM

S. Sudan leader: Int'l court 'humiliates' Africa
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) -- South Sudan's president is criticizing the International Criminal Court, saying the court is designed to humiliate African leaders.... 5/23/2013 1:32 PM

Iran's Rafsanjani blasts clerics, says report
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Banned from upcoming elections, Iran's former president has leveled harsh criticism at the Islamic Republic's clerical rulers, saying they are doing a poor job running the country, an Iranian pro-reform website reported late on Wednesday.... 5/23/2013 1:30 PM