Updated: Mon, May 20, 2013

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic's controversy-courting new president is under fire for refusing to grant a university professorship to one of his critics and hinting that it is because the man is a gay rights activist. In what is normally a formality, Czech presidents appoint the country's...

Updated: Mon, May 20, 2013

LONDON (AP) — A first edition copy of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" that contains author J.K. Rowling's notes and original illustrations is going on sale at a charity auction. The personal annotations from the best-selling author included comments on the process of writing and a...

Published: Mon, May 20, 2013

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — The head of Algeria's main Islamist political party has called for the country's ailing president to appear on television to dispel rumors over his health after a three week absence. Abderrazzak Mukri, the leader of the Movement of Society for Peace, warned that if the...

Updated: Mon, May 20, 2013

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) — Two bombs exploded outside a court building in Russia's restive province of Dagestan on Monday, killing at least four people and wounding dozens of others, officials said. The first bomb exploded in a parked car and the second went off in a trash bin about 15...

Updated: Mon, May 20, 2013

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's counterterrorism agency said Monday that its special forces killed two militants and detained a third believed to have been planning a terrorist act in Moscow. A spokesman for the National Anti-Terrorist Committee, known as NAK, said on state television that the...

Updated: Mon, May 20, 2013

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea continued firing short-range weapons over its own eastern waters Monday after a weekend of what it called "rocket launching tests" intended to bolster deterrence against enemy attack. South Korean officials were investigating exactly what it was that the...

Updated: Mon, May 20, 2013

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The Arab Spring uprisings that toppled four Arab leaders have forced Mideast governments to allow more freedom of expression and of the press, Jordan's prime minister said Monday, but critics charged that Jordan itself is not doing enough. Abdullah Ensour told a meeting...

Updated: Mon, May 20, 2013

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's election overseers said Monday they will bar candidates who are physically weak from running in next month's presidential election, a reference to a former leader seen as a threat to hard-liners. Ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's entry in the race scrambled...

Updated: Mon, May 20, 2013

LONDON (AP) — A retired Church of England priest was jailed for 10 years Monday after a jury found him guilty of 36 separate sex offenses against children in the 1960s and 1970s. Prosecutors said Gordon Rideout, 74, abused his position of trust and assaulted children he met over the years. A...

Published: Mon, May 20, 2013

GOMA, Congo (AP) — Clashes erupted Monday in eastern Congo between government troops and a rebel group believed to be backed by neighboring Rwanda, escalating to the use of mortars and rocket launchers in the first fighting between the groups since the M23 rebels overtook and later retreated...