Updated: Thu, May 23, 2013

OGIDI, Nigeria (AP) — Writer Chinua Achebe shunned Nigeria's corrupt politicians and twice turned down national honors, never fearing to criticize those he felt ruined his country. On Thursday, however, the lawmakers and the country's elite came to praise him. Hundreds attended Achebe's...

Updated: Thu, May 23, 2013

LONDON (AP) — A man seen with bloody hands wielding a butcher knife after the killing of a British soldier on the streets of London was described as a convert to Islam who took part in demonstrations with a banned radical group, two Muslim hard-liners said Thursday. Police raided houses in...

Updated: 4 min ago

GENEVA (AP) — International efforts to combat a new pneumonia-like virus that has now killed 22 people are being slowed by unclear rules and competition for the potentially profitable rights to disease samples, the head of the World Health Organization warned Thursday. Dr. Margaret Chan, in a...

Updated: 1 hr ago

LONDON (AP) — The soldier brutally murdered in a suspected terrorist attack in London was a popular 25-year-old ceremonial military drummer and machine gunner, a father and a passionate fan of the Manchester United soccer team, the British military said Thursday. Lee Rigby, of 2nd Battalion...

Updated: 1 hr ago

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil's Federal Police say nine people have been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing Indians girls in the northern state of Amazonas. The force says two women and seven men in the city of Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira are in custody for the alleged sexual exploitation and...

Updated: 1 hr ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Minimum and maximum temperatures in Fahrenheit, precipitation in inches and weather conditions as recorded for the previous day and forecast for the current and following day in each city as of 2000 GMT: ;MIN;MAX;COND;PRECIP;MIN;MAX;COND;MIN;MAX;COND...

Updated: 1 hr ago

CANNES, France (AP) — Ladies? Don't make him laugh. Asked who his favorite female comics were Thursday at a Cannes Film Festival press conference, Jerry Lewis listed Cary Grant and Burt Reynolds. He then added: "I don't have any." In 1998, Lewis famously said that watching women do comedy...

Updated: 1 hr ago

TORONTO (AP) — Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, caught up in a scandal over a video purportedly showing him smoking crack cocaine, fired his chief of staff on Thursday. A statement from the mayor's office gave no reason for Mark Towhey's dismissal. Towhey, who was escorted from City Hall by security,...

Updated: 2 hr ago

HUSBY, Sweden (AP) — Sweden has long been a bastion of generous social welfare and an egalitarian political culture. So many people were shocked when scores of youths hurled rocks at police and set cars ablaze during rioting in several largely immigrant areas near Stockholm this week. Few...

Updated: 2 hr ago

A look at the key known facts about attack in south London in which two men killed a British soldier near military barracks Wednesday. Q: What happened? A: Two men with butcher knives, a machete and a meat cleaver attacked and killed a soldier near military barracks in the south London...