New rice contamination reported in China
BEIJING (AP) -- Authorities are investigating rice mills in southern China following tests that found almost half of the staple grain in one of the country's largest cities was contaminated with a toxic metal....
Top figures barred from Iran's June ballot
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's state TV says overseers of next month's presidential election have rejected a top aide of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a former president who revived hopes of reformers....
Peace Corps to accept same-sex couples
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Peace Corps says it will begin accepting applications from same-sex domestic partners who want to serve together as volunteers overseas....
SAfrican court acquits brother of Oscar Pistorius
JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- One Pistorius brother is free of charges - acquitted Tuesday of culpable homicide in the death of a woman in a road accident. The famous younger brother, Olympian double-amputee Oscar Pistorius, still must face his day in court for shooting and killing his girlfriend....
Israel warns Syria against attacks on Golan
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli and Syrian troops exchanged fire across their tense cease-fire line in the Golan Heights on Tuesday, prompting an Israeli threat that Syria's leader will "bear the consequences" of further escalation and raising new concerns that the civil war there could explode into a region-wide conflict....
Syrian, Hezbollah troops fight rebels in key town
BEIRUT (AP) -- Backed by elite troops of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, Syrian government forces fought rebels in a strategic opposition-held Syrian town near the Lebanese border for the third straight day Tuesday....
US lawmakers seek Asia missile defense safeguard
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lawmakers are seeking to prohibit the U.S. from removing missile defense equipment from East Asia, even if the threat posed by a nuclear-armed North Korea is eliminated....
Egyptian troops mistakenly fire on a Sinai funeral
CAIRO (AP) -- Egyptian officials say troops and police mistakenly fired on a Bedouin funeral in the Sinai during a sweep searching for security personnel kidnapped by suspected militants....
Suicide at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris
PARIS (AP) -- Some 1,500 visitors were cleared out of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after a man put a letter on the altar of the 850-year-old monument Tuesday, pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head....
