Malaysian charged with sedition, 3 more arrested
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Malaysian authorities detained three anti-government figures, charged a student activist with sedition and seized hundreds of opposition newspapers Thursday, raising political tensions after recent national elections triggered claims of fraud.... 5/23/2013 9:11 AM

Report: Rafsanjani blasts Iran's rulers
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has blasted the Islamic Republic's clerical rulers, declaring it impossible for them to do a worse job running the country, an Iranian pro-reform website reported Wednesday.... 5/23/2013 9:07 AM

5 dead in Lebanon clash of Assad foes, backers
BEIRUT (AP) -- Opponents and supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad traded heavy machine gun fire and mortar shells in the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, leaving five people dead in what was described as some of the heaviest fighting there in years, officials said Thursday.... 5/23/2013 9:07 AM

German opposition party marks bittersweet 150th
BERLIN (AP) -- Germany's main opposition party marked a bittersweet 150th birthday on Thursday - trailing badly in polls ahead of September elections and hearing praise for its efforts to reform Europe's biggest economy from French President Francois Hollande, a recent left-wing winner who has lost his luster.... 5/23/2013 9:04 AM

Iran denies its drone entered Bahrain's airspace
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- An Iranian semi-official news agency reports the country is denying that an unmanned drone violated the airspace of Bahrain, the strategic Gulf kingdom that hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.... 5/23/2013 9:04 AM

Restaurant torched in 4th night of Sweden riots
STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Groups of youths have burnt down a restaurant, torched more than 30 cars and injured three police in a fourth night of riots in suburbs of the Swedish capital that started following a fatal police shooting.... 5/23/2013 8:58 AM

Father of man shot in Boston probe shares regrets
GROZNY, Russia (AP) -- The father of a Chechen immigrant shot dead by U.S. law enforcement agents while being questioned about his ties to a Boston Marathon bombings suspect said Thursday that he regrets allowing his son to go to the United States.... 5/23/2013 8:54 AM

El Salvador presses pope on Romero beatification
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- El Salvador's president gave Pope Francis a relic of assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero on Thursday amid mounting indications that the Vatican might soon move to beatify him.... 5/23/2013 8:49 AM

Britain: Soldier slaying suspects had been probed
LONDON (AP) -- Two men accused of butchering a British soldier had featured in previous investigations by security services, a British official said Thursday, as investigators searched several locations and tried to determine whether the men were part of a wider plot to instill terror on the streets of London.... 5/23/2013 8:48 AM

Russian court denies Pussy Riot's Alekhina parole
MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian court has denied parole to a member of the Pussy Riot punk group.... 5/23/2013 8:47 AM

Russia wary of deeper nuclear arms cuts
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's top military officer has voiced skepticism about deeper nuclear arms cuts, saying they should require parallel cuts in non-nuclear precision weapons.... 5/23/2013 8:42 AM

Car bomb kills 12 in southwest Pakistan
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -- A Taliban car bomb targeting a police vehicle killed 11 policemen and one civilian Thursday in an area of southwest Pakistan wracked by Islamic militancy and a violent separatist insurgency, police said.... 5/23/2013 8:38 AM

North Korea envoy awaits chat with China's leader
BEIJING (AP) -- On a visit to repair ties with China and waiting to meet its leader, a North Korean envoy Thursday paid deference to its chief ally's hopes for renewed multinational nuclear talks.... 5/23/2013 8:30 AM

20 killed in 2 simultaneous car bombs in Niger
NIAMEY, Niger (AP) -- Niger's defense minister announced that 20 Nigerien soldiers were killed and another 16 injured when a suicide bomber detonated a car loaded with explosives inside a military installation in the city of Agadez on Thursday.... 5/23/2013 8:23 AM

IMF head Lagarde in court in fraud probe
PARIS (AP) -- International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde is facing questions at a special Paris court Thursday over her role in the 400 million euro ($520 million) pay-off to a controversial businessman when she was France's finance minister.... 5/23/2013 7:57 AM

Brave woman tried to reason with London attackers
LONDON (AP) -- A brave scout leader who may have prevented further violence has emerged as an unlikely hero in the apparent terror attack that left one man dead on the streets of London.... 5/23/2013 7:57 AM

Bulgaria: Ex-PM fails to form new government
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) -- A former prime minister whose party won Bulgaria's May 12 election says his party doesn't have enough seats in parliament to form a stable government.... 5/23/2013 7:38 AM

Gunmen kill 4 Iraqi soldiers north of Baghdad
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi officials say gunmen have shot dead four soldiers at an army checkpoint north of Baghdad.... 5/23/2013 7:38 AM

Japanese climber, 80, becomes oldest atop Everest
KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- An 80-year-old Japanese man who began the year with his fourth heart operation became the oldest conqueror of Mount Everest on Thursday, a feat he called "the world's best feeling" even with an 81-year-old Nepalese climber not far behind him.... 5/23/2013 9:14 AM

Czech police seek US man suspected of 4 murders
PRAGUE (AP) -- An American man suspected of killing four people is on the run in the Czech Republic and likely armed, officials said Thursday.... 5/23/2013 7:27 AM