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

World stocks mixed ahead of Fed chief testimony
BANGKOK (AP) -- World stock markets were mixed Wednesday, hours before Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is to deliver remarks before Congress on the state of the U.S. economy.... 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

All 28 bodies recovered from Indonesian mine room
TIMIKA, Indonesia (AP) -- Rescuers on Wednesday recovered the last of 28 miners killed last week when an underground room of a giant Indonesian gold and copper mine collapsed, the operator of the U.S.-owned facility said.... 5/22/2013 5:21 AM

Syrian opposition urges rebels to join key battle
BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria's main opposition group is urging rebels to come from around the country to reinforce Qusair, a western town under attack by Syrian troops and members of Lebanon's Hezbollah group.... 5/22/2013 5:14 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 5:06 AM

Chinese premier begins 2-day visit to Pakistan
ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Pakistan says it shares "identical views" on foreign policy with China, whose premier is beginning a two-day visit to Islamabad in the latest sign of the tight relationship between the two Asian powers.... 5/22/2013 4:14 AM

Japan watchdog: Nuke plant sits atop active fault
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's nuclear watchdog has endorsed a panel's conclusion that a seismic fault running underneath an atomic plant in western Japan is active, making the plant's restart virtually impossible.... 5/22/2013 4:07 AM

Ai Weiwei uses music to mock state power in China
BEIJING (AP) -- Two emotionless prison guards watch Ai Weiwei as he eats, sleeps, paces, showers - and even sits on the toilet - in the Chinese artist's new obscenity-filled, metaphor-rich music video mocking state power.... 5/22/2013 3:47 AM

Kerry praises $2.1 billion Raytheon deal in Oman
MUSCAT, Oman (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Wednesday with officials in Oman to discuss their plans to buy a $2.1 billion air defense system from American manufacturer Raytheon.... 5/22/2013 3:43 AM

Weak yen a help for Japan, but headache elsewhere
TOKYO (AP) -- A steady decline in the yen is proving a godsend for exporters such as Toyota and has won solid support from Japan's main trading partners, who are betting the impact on their own currencies will be offset by gains from a recovery in the world's third-largest economy. It's not such good news for entrepreneurs like Thamonwan Thawornthaweewong, whose Angry Bird fish balls, squid rings and other products now cost more to sell in Japan.... 5/22/2013 3:38 AM