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Associated Press: World News

2 minutes ago

(AP) Iran began enriching uranium to a higher level Tuesday over the vociferous objections of the U.S. and its allies who fear the process could eventually be used to give the Islamic republic nuclear weapons.State television announced that the process began in the presence of inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog ...

Asia

Afghan avalanches kill at least 28, strand 1,500

7 minutes ago

(AP) Avalanches roared down a mountain pass north of Afghanistan's capital killing at least 28 people and stranding another 1,500 in their vehicles on snow-blocked roads, officials said Tuesday.Another 70 people were injured and transported to hospitals as the military and police continued rescue efforts to dig out those trapped in ...

NATO warns Afghans to 'keep your heads down'

7 minutes ago

(AP) NATO and Afghan officials Tuesday urged Taliban militants holding a southern town to lay down their arms and warned civilians to "keep your heads down" as U.S. and Afghan troops prepare their first major offensive of the American surge.Authorities were prepared to deal with an influx of refugees who may ...

Africa

Nigeria: Lawmakers empower vice president

9 minutes ago

(AP) Nigeria's National Assembly has empowered Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to take over for the ill and absent president of oil-rich Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.Both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed measures Tuesday calling on Jonathan to take over for President Umaru Yar'Adua until he returns from Saudi ...

Zimbabwean law to require black business ownership

9 minutes ago

(AP) White businesspeople in Zimbabwe who don't cede control of their companies to black partners could face jail under a law going into effect next month.An official notice Tuesday says the law will be enforced from March 1, and includes jail penalties of up to five years. It gives companies worth ...

Middle East

Iran begins controversial new nuclear process

36 minutes ago

(AP) Iran's state TV says the country started enriching its uranium to a higher level of 20 percent, over the objections of the international community.The Tuesday report said enrichment began after Iranian scientists injected 25 kilograms of 3.5 percent enriched uranium gas into a cascade of centifuges in a laboratory in ...

Latin America

UN slams Haitian hospitals for charging patients

37 minutes ago

(AP) The United Nations has warned that it will cut off shipments of free medicine beginning immediately to any Haitian hospitals that it finds are charging patients.When the catastrophic earthquake struck Jan. 12, authorities immediately decided to make all medical care free. More than 200 international medical relief groups have sent ...

Europe and Russia

Scottish man's terror conviction overturned

38 minutes ago

(AP) The conviction of a man accused of wanting to become a suicide bomber was overturned Tuesday after a court in Scotland ruled that the trial judge did not properly instruct the jury.Prosecutors indicated they will not seek new charges against Mohammed Atif Siddique, 24, who was sentenced to eight years ...

Tymoshenko camp vows to challenge Ukraine vote

1 hour, 11 minutes ago

(AP) Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko plans to legally challenge the results of the presidential runoff that opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych is leading, her campaign said Tuesday.Tymoshenko's allies say she will not concede until appeals have run their course and recounts have taken place at a number of disputed polling stations.According ...

Africa

Nigerian Senate votes to empower vice president

1 hour, 15 minutes ago

(AP) The Nigerian Senate voted Tuesday to empower the vice president to take over for the nation's ill and absent president, potentially ending a constitutional crisis that has engulfed Africa's most populous nation.The Senate voted to authorize Goodluck Jonathan to take over as president and commander in chief while President Umaru ...

Middle East

Netanyahu govt steps in to save settler house

1 hour, 41 minutes ago

(AP) The Israeli government has stepped in to try to save a house built illegally by Jewish settlers in a volatile Palestinian neighborhood in east Jerusalem.The case is complicating already troubled U.S. efforts to renew Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.The maneuver could ease settler anger over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to slow Jewish ...

Europe and Russia

European stocks up cautiously on hopes for Greece

1 hour, 43 minutes ago

(AP) European stocks rose cautiously Tuesday on hopes that EU officials will provide Greece with some form of support to handle its mountain of debt and keep the market crisis from spreading to other vulnerable countries.Although the European Investment Bank said Tuesday it would not be able, according to its own ...

Asia

UN appeals for $538M in Pakistan humanitarian aid

1 hour, 45 minutes ago

(AP) Aid groups in Pakistan need nearly $538 million over the next six months to help hundreds of thousands of people displaced by army clashes against the Taliban, the U.N. said in an international appeal Tuesday.The appeal comes as much of the world's attention is focused on helping earthquake-devastated Haiti and ...

Afghan avalanches kill at least 28, strands 1,500

2 hours, 17 minutes ago

(AP) Avalanches on a mountain pass north of Kabul have killed at least 28 people, with another 1,500 stranded in their vehicles on snow-blocked roads, Afghan officials said Tuesday.The Afghan Defense Ministry released a statement saying another 70 people have been injured and transported to hospitals as the military and police ...

Anti-whalers, Japanese fleet fire water cannons

2 hours, 17 minutes ago

(AP) Activists vowing to stop the killing of whales exchanged water-cannon fire with a Japanese whaling fleet they are tailing in the Antarctic Ocean, as sea confrontations that have led to collisions and a sunken vessel continue.The Sea Shepherd conservation group said its ships, the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker, ...