MOSCOW (AP) — Thousands of Russian opposition activists marched through Moscow on Wednesday, decrying President Vladimir Putin's authoritarian rule and calling for the release of people they consider political prisoners.
The march on Russia Day, a national holiday, was to show support for 27 people arrested after a protest turned violent on the eve of Putin's inauguration more than a year ago. Sixteen of the defendants have remained in jail pending trial on charges that...
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has started a two-day visit to Poland that is steeped in symbolism, focusing on the Jewish people's painful history there as well as the strong relations between Poland and the Jewish state today.
Netanyahu will meet with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw on Wednesday before heading off south to visit on Thursday the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz. He will inaugurate there a new pavilion meant...
MAASTRICHT, Netherlands (AP) — Owners and staff of three cannabis-selling cafes went on trial Wednesday in the southern Netherlands charged with selling weed to foreigners, in a case both sides of a heated drug debate in this border city hope will clarify the legality of a clampdown on so-called "coffee shops."
Maastricht is using new national legislation banning coffee shops from selling cannabis and marijuana to people who don't live in the Netherlands as a way of...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea dismantled the meeting table, pulled down the placards and rolled up the red carpet. Its intended guest, North Korea, has stopped answering the phone.
The cancellation of the rivals' much-anticipated meeting, felled at the last minute by a protocol dispute, shows the Koreas' deep mutual mistrust. Still, they may have more reasons than not to eventually unpack the meeting gear and get back to negotiations.
South...
BANGKOK (AP) — Oil prices rose Wednesday as energy traders distanced themselves from the debate over whether the U.S. central bank might begin to scale back its monetary policy.
Benchmark oil for July delivery rose 24 cents to $95.62 per barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 39 cents to close at $95.38 per barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.
Investors have been trying to guess...
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Former President Nelson Mandela began responding better to treatment Wednesday morning for a recurring lung infection following "a difficult last few days," South Africa's president said.
President Jacob Zuma told parliament that he is happy with the progress that the 94-year-old is making following his hospitalization on Saturday.
Mandela spent a fifth straight day Wednesday in a Pretoria hospital, where he was visited by one of...
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Georgia said Wednesday that the country has closed two of its bases in Afghanistan after 10 of its soldiers were killed by militant attacks within the last four weeks, but it will not reduce the number of troops serving there.
The announcement by Defense Minister Irakli Alasania came five days after he visited Afghanistan to meet with his country's contingent in the U.S-led coalition in the aftermath of the attacks. A massive truck bomb killed...
MADRID (AP) — Spain's Interior Ministry says authorities have arrested five Tunisian men living in Barcelona after they were discovered spreading terror propaganda on social media networks.
The five were detained on accusations of praising terrorism after they allegedly put on the Internet speeches by Osama Bin Laden, explanations on how to make bombs and videos showing Islamic terrorists training and firing weapons and carrying out executions.
The...
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's government on Wednesday offered a first concrete gesture aimed at ending nearly two weeks of street protests, proposing a referendum on a development project in Istanbul that triggered demonstrations that have become the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's 10-year tenure.
Protesters expressed doubts about the offer, however, and continued to converge in Taksim Square's Gezi Park, epicenter of the anti-government protests...
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels, including Sunni extremists, stormed a village and battled pro-regime militiamen, killing more than 60 Shiite fighters and civilians in an attack steeped in the sectarian hatreds that increasingly characterize the civil war, activists said Wednesday.
In the raid, which comes at a time when the West is worried that extremists are increasingly joining the rebellion, the victorious fighters raised black Sunni Islamist flags over the eastern...
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