World Wires

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  • FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2012 file photo, a man transports a new Chinese made refrigerator in the trunk of a old car in Havana, Cuba. Cuba has authorized individual imports of appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators and microwave ovens, lifting a ban imposed in 2005 amid a wave of energy shortages and blackouts. Islanders can now bring up to two such appliances per person into the country for noncommercial purposes, according to a law enacted with its publication Monday, May 20, 2013 in the Official Gazette. The list of approved items includes air conditioners with a capacity of less than 1 ton, ovens that consume less than 1,500 watts and microwaves under 2,000 watts. It also covers things including water heaters, toasters and irons.

    Cuba lifts ban on energy-hogging appliances

    Cuba has authorized individual imports of appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators and microwave ovens, lifting a ban imposed in 2005 amid a wave of energy shortages and blackouts.

  • Hezbollah fighters in their military uniform, foreground, carry the coffin of Hezbollah fighter Hassan Faisal Shuker, 18, who was killed in a battle against Syrian rebels in the Syrian town of Qusair, during his funeral procession in his hometown of Nabi Sheet in the eastern Bekaa valley, Lebanon, Monday May 20, 2013. Fierce street fighting in Qusair, Syria, near the Lebanese border has killed at least 28 elite members of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, activists said Monday, as Syrian government forces pushed deeper into the strategic, opposition-held town. The barefaced Hezbollah involvement -- several funerals for group members were held in Lebanon Monday -- edges the war further into a regional sectarian conflict pitting the Middle East’s Iranian-backed Shiite axis against Sunnis.

    Syria opposition signals tough line on peace talks

    Despite recent rebel setbacks in Syria's civil war, the main opposition bloc signaled a tough line Tuesday on attending possible peace talks with President Bashar Assad's regime. Photo Gallery Available

  • Koji Otani, a lawyer representing hundreds of residents and evacuees from just outside Fukushima, points at the Hippo district of Miyagi prefecture as he speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. The residents said Tuesday they have been unfairly denied full compensation despite high radiation levels in their area caused by Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster. Nearly 700 residents from Hippo, just northeast of Fukushima, are demanding equal compensation to the residents of Fukushima prefecture who are in similar environment after the accident occurred. They demanded that the nuclear plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., pay them an additional 70 million yen ($690,000) in damages from the Fukushima Dai-ichi meltdowns and radiation fallout.

    Hundreds seek compensation in Japan nuclear crisis

    Hundreds of people living just outside Japan's Fukushima prefecture say they have been denied adequate compensation after the country's 2011 nuclear disaster despite suffering elevated radiation levels.

  • Ugandan Police surround the offices of the Daily Monitor newspaper, preventing all journalists from leaving according to the paper's political editor, in Kampala, Uganda Monday, May 20, 2013. Ugandan police forcibly entered the premises of the independent newspaper to look for evidence against an army general who recently questioned the president's alleged plan to have his son succeed him, witnesses said Monday.

    Uganda leader's legacy at stake in general's case

    An army general's concern that officials are at risk of assassination if they oppose President Yoweri Museveni's alleged plan to have his son succeed him has stirred controversy in Uganda because it challenges the popular view of Museveni as a moderate leader, analysts said Tuesday.

  • Massive power failure strikes southern Thailand

    A massive power failure has affected more than 8 million people in Thailand's 14 southern provinces, including popular tourist areas such as Koh Samui and Phuket, in one of the country's biggest blackouts in recent memory.

  • Oman proposes ban on niqab veils for women drivers

    A Saudi online newspaper says Oman is proposing that women be banned from wearing face veils when driving.

  • An Egyptian Army vehicle with a tank heads to the closed Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza strip, in Sheikh Zuweyid, northern Sinai, Egypt, Monday, May 20, 2013. Security officials said 17 military and more than 20 police armored vehicles were deployed in northern Sinai Monday as a response to the kidnapping by suspected militants of six policemen and a border guard there last Thursday. It was not clear if they deployed to rescue the hostages, to make a show of force to intimidate their captors, or for another reason. (AP Photo/Roger Anis, El Shorouk Newspaper) EGYPT OUT

    More troops arrive in Egypt's Sinai over hostages

    Egyptian security officials say they have deployed additional military and police, along with helicopters and rocket launchers, to the northern Sinai Peninsula as part of a buildup in response to the kidnapping of security forces there.

  • UN: Drop in Syrians reaching Jordan, unclear why

    U.N. officials said Tuesday that the number of Syrian refugees arriving in Jordan has suddenly fallen from an average of 2,500 a day to fewer than 20, and they are trying to quickly figure out why.

  • FILE - In this Friday, Dec. 7, 2012 file photo former Georgian Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili, center, leaves the Interior Ministry after being interrogated in Tbilisi, Georgia. Prosecutors in Georgia say Tuesday May 21, 2013, that the country's former prime minister has been detained and charged with abuse of office and misappropriation of property.

    Georgian ex-PM detained on abuse of office charge

    Allies of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili - a former prime minister and a provincial governor - were charged on Tuesday with embezzlement and abuse of office in another sign of an ongoing power struggle between the country's top two officials. Photo Gallery Available

  • South Korean Army soldiers patrol along a barbed-wire fence near the border village of the Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Monday, May 20, 2103. North Korea fired short-range projectiles into its own eastern waters Monday for a third straight day, Seoul officials said. The North said it was bolstering deterrence against enemy attack.

    Court rules against man for emailing NKorean spy

    South Korea's Supreme Court has upheld a ruling sentencing a man to a year and half in prison for exchanging emails with an alleged North Korean spy and praising Pyongyang on his website.

  • FILE - In this November 30, 2012 file photo, M23 rebels withdraw from the Masisi and Sake areas in eastern Congo. Fighting between M23 rebels and the army continued for a second day Tuesday, May 21, 2013, near Congo's eastern provincial capital of Goma, in clashes that have so far killed 20 people, all of them either soldiers or rebels, officials said. Peace talks reached a dead end in recent weeks, and after a six-month lull, the Congolese army and the M23 started fighting again on Monday.

    Fighting for 2nd day between army, rebels in Congo

    Fighting between the M23 rebels and the army continued for a second day Tuesday near Congo's eastern provincial capital of Goma, in clashes that have so far killed 19 people, all of them either soldiers or rebels, officials said. Photo Gallery Available

  • New rice contamination reported in China

    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.

  • FILE -- In this Saturday, May 11, 2013 file photo, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 78, waves to media, as he registers his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election, at the election headquarters of the interior ministry in Tehran, Iran. Iran’s election overseers say they will bar physically weak hopefuls from running in next month presidential election, a direct hint at Rafsanjani. Iran's Constitution doesn't set any age limit for presidential candidates.

    Top figures barred from Iran's June ballot

    Iran's election overseers removed potential wildcard candidates from the presidential race Tuesday, blocking a top aide of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a former president who revived hopes of reformers. Photo Gallery Available

  • Press gather outside the Soweto, South African home of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former wife of former president Nelson Mandela, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. A scheduled auction to sell items belonging to Madikizela-Mandela came and went without a single bid. Court sheriff John Maluleke and two other officials joined reporters gathered outside the gated home where some of her items were expected to be sold to cover an old debt she owes for school fees for her grand-niece, but were denied entry despite officials repeatedly banging on the gate. (AP Photo) SOUTH AFRICA OUT

    South Africa: Winnie Mandela forced auction flops

    There were no bidders and no locksmiths willing to force entry for a scheduled auction Tuesday to sell artworks and other belongings of Nelson Mandela's ex-wife.

  • Mouaz al-Khatib, former chief of the Syrian National Coalition, left, shakes hands with Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo on his arrival at the foreign ministry in Madrid, Spain Tuesday May 21, 2013. Syrian opposition groups meeting in Spain say they oppose all negotiation with President Bashar Assad's government unless it is aimed at his giving up of power. Some 80 opposition representatives from inside and outside the country concluded a two-day meeting Tuesday, saying Assad would neither form part of any transition government nor have any role in Syria's future.

    Spain backs sending defensive arms to Syria rebels

    Spain favors a partial lifting of sanctions against Syria that would allow the delivery of "defense material" to rebel groups to help protect the population, its foreign minister said Tuesday. Photo Gallery Available

  • Bulgaria: Socialist elected as parliament speaker

    Bulgaria's newly seated parliament has elected Socialist Mihail Mikov as its speaker during what is proving to be a turbulent stretch in the economically struggling country's politics.

  • Group: More Afghan women jailed for 'moral crimes'

    The number of Afghan women and girls jailed for "moral crimes" has risen dramatically in the past 18 months, raising concerns that gains in women's rights might be reversed with the withdrawal of most international troops next year, a rights group said Tuesday.

  • Bus collides with truck in India, killing 11

    Police say a bus has collided with a truck in northern India, killing 11 people including seven members of a wedding party.

  • Police officers stand guard in a street during a riot in Stockholm, Sweden, Monday, May 20, 2013. Gangs of youth apparently angered by the police shooting death of an elderly man hurled rocks at police and set cars and buildings on fire in a Stockholm suburb, forcing the evacuation of an apartment block. (AP Photo Johan Nilsson) SWEDEN OUT

    2nd day of riots in Stockholm suburb shakes Sweden

    Some 200 youths hurled rocks at police and set cars ablaze in a largely immigrant suburb of Stockholm on Tuesday, the second day of rioting triggered by the fatal police shooting of a man wielding a knife. Photo Gallery Available

  • This image from video provided by E. Wayne Ross shows an Anatolian Balloons Company hot air balloon crashing near Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia in central Turkey, Monday May 20 2013. Two hot air balloons collided in mid-air during a sightseeing tour of volcanic rock formations in Turkey on Monday, causing one of them to crash to the ground, officials said. One Brazilian tourist was killed while 24 other people on board were injured.

    Death toll in Turkish balloon crash reaches 3

    Officials say another Brazilian tourist has died of injuries sustained after a hot air balloon crashed to the ground, raising the number of tourists killed to 3. Photo Gallery Available

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