Caribbean talks conservation on Branson's island
NECKER ISLAND, British Virgin Islands (AP) -- Surrounded by a turquoise sea and a menagerie of exotic animals on a billionaire's private island, political and business leaders gathered Friday to back an initiative aimed at expanding protection for the Caribbean's imperiled coasts and waters....
French president signs gay marriage into law
PARIS (AP) -- French President Francois Hollande has signed a law authorizing gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples, after months of nationwide protests and wrenching debate....
Weinstein showcases Grace Kelly, Mandela flicks
CANNES, France (AP) -- The Weinstein Company's fall slate of awards contenders will feature a glamorous Grace Kelly, a brawny Nelson Mandela and a mysterious J.D. Salinger....
Rights groups: Syria holds thousands incommunicado
BEIRUT (AP) -- About 30 security agents showed up just after midnight, breaking down the door to an apartment in the town of Daraya near the Syrian capital of Damascus. They grabbed a 24-year-old university student and drove off....
A look at `enforced disappearances' worldwide
The U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances is pressing governments to provide information about open cases. Over the past two decades, it received nearly 54,000 cases, of which nearly 43,000 in 84 states remain unsolved. The number of cases is believed to be only a fraction of those who disappeared after being taken by security forces....
Venezuela's military enters high-crime slums
PETARE, Venezuela (AP) -- Stern-looking soldiers clutching assault rifles wave down the beat-up Chevy Caprice entering this sprawling slum on the outskirts of Caracas....
AP PHOTOS: Cuba's LGBT community celebrates
HAVANA (AP) -- A week of drag shows, colorful marches and social and cultural events in Havana culminates Friday with celebrations of the International Day Against Homophobia....
Egyptians targeted with blasphemy charges
CAIRO (AP) -- The pale, young Christian woman sat handcuffed in the courtroom, accused of insulting Islam while teaching history of religions to fourth-graders. A team of Islamist lawyers with long beards sang in unison, "All except the Prophet Muhammad."...
Woman describes Berlusconi's 'bunga bunga' parties
MILAN (AP) -- Silvio Berlusconi's private disco featured not only aspiring showgirls performing striptease acts as sexy nuns and nurses, but one woman dressed up as President Barack Obama and a prominent Milan prosecutor whom the billionaire media mogul has accused of persecuting him, according to the first public sworn testimony by the Moroccan woman at the center of the scandal....
Gunmen raid home in Iraq, kill 5 people
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi authorities say gunmen have broken into the house of an anti-terrorism police officer in the southern suburbs of Baghdad, killing five people including him and his sleeping family....
