Updated: Thu, May 23, 2013

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. Tripoli has...

Updated: Thu, May 23, 2013

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. Ingrid Loyau-Kennett got off a bus and tried to reason with the two attackers after she tried to help the...

Updated: Thu, May 23, 2013

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — An 80-year-old Japanese man who has had four heart operations in recent years became the oldest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest on Thursday — although his record may last only a few days. An 81-year-old Nepalese man, who held the previous record, plans his...

Updated: Thu, May 23, 2013

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say gunmen have shot dead four soldiers at an army checkpoint north of Baghdad. Two police officers say four others were wounded in the Thursday morning attack in the town of Taji. The militants fled the area after a brief clash without suffering casualties. A...

Published: Thu, May 23, 2013

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. Thursday's statement by chief of Russia's military General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, appeared to signal the...

Updated: 14 min ago

MOSCOW (AP) — Beatles frontman Paul McCartney has asked a Russian judge to release members of the Pussy Riot punk group from prison. In letters dated Monday and posted online by the group's supporters, McCartney asks for parole to be granted to Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova,...

Updated: 16 min ago

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. Choe Ryong Hae, at a meeting with Communist Party official Liu Yunshan, praised China's work on...

Updated: 43 min ago

PRAGUE (AP) — An American man suspected of killing four people is on the run in the Czech Republic and likely armed, officials said Thursday. Brno Police spokeswoman Petra Vedrova identified the man as Kevin Dahlgren, born in 1992, and released his photograph. A Facebook page showing the same...

Updated: 44 min ago

JERUSALEM (AP) — The United States and Israel raised hopes Thursday for a restart of the Middle East peace process, despite little tangible progress so far from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's two-month-old effort to get Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. As they...

Published: Thu, May 23, 2013

LONDON (AP) — British official: Both suspects in London attack were part of earlier security services probes.