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 7:36 AM

IMF calls on Britain to do more for growth
LONDON (AP) -- The International Monetary Fund has called on the British government to do more to support the country's recovery now that it has started to ease the pace of its budget austerity measures.... 5/22/2013 7:35 AM

Mortar lands in Congo as UN chief arrives
GOMA, Congo (AP) -- A spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo says that a mortar landed in a neighborhood of Goma, a major city in eastern Congo, which last year was briefly overrun by a rebel group. The explosion comes as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Congo's distant capital for a two-day visit that is expected to take him to Goma.... 5/22/2013 7:28 AM

North Korean leader sends special envoy to China
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- After months of ignoring China's warnings to give up its nuclear program, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a high-level confidant to Beijing on Wednesday, in a possible effort to mend strained ties with its most important ally and the latest sign that Pyongyang may be giving diplomacy a chance.... 5/22/2013 7:24 AM

Life-saving face transplant performed in Poland
WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Doctors in Poland say they have performed an urgent total face transplant on a 33-year-old man whose face was torn off in an accident which also crushed his jaws.... 5/22/2013 7:19 AM

Japan watchdog: Nuclear plant sits on active fault
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's nuclear watchdog on Wednesday endorsed a panel's conclusion that a seismic fault running underneath one of two reactors at an atomic plant in western Japan is active, making the reactor's restart virtually impossible.... 5/22/2013 7:18 AM

US parents quit Singapore inquest into son's death
SINGAPORE (AP) -- The parents of an American software engineer who believe their son was murdered last year in Singapore withdrew from the inquest Wednesday, saying they have no confidence in the city-state's legal process.... 5/22/2013 7:14 AM

Vatican releases 1st report of financial watchdog
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican has taken another step in trying to show greater financial transparency by publishing a first annual report from its new financial watchdog agency.... 5/22/2013 7:12 AM

Riots in Stockholm spread to more suburbs
STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Groups of youth have smashed shop windows, set cars ablaze and burnt down a cultural center as the riots that started in one Stockholm suburb after a fatal police shooting spread to other low-income areas of the Swedish capital.... 5/22/2013 7:11 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 7:06 AM

Mais non! French universities may teach in English
PARIS (AP) -- France's National Assembly is taking up an education reform bill that would allow public universities to hold some courses - like science or economics classes - in English, a plan that has alarmed language purists and the political far-right alike.... 5/22/2013 7:06 AM

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