02/23/12 04:39 AM UTC AP

Former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo pleaded not guilty to an electoral fraud charge Thursday at the opening of a landmark trial that is seen as a key test of her reformist successor's campaign to stamp out corruption. Arroyo, president from 2001 to 2010, is accused of rigging the results of senatorial polls in 2007 to favor her candidates. The electoral sabotage charge is the first of several criminal cases being prepared against her.

02/23/12 03:28 AM UTC AP

President Hugo Chavez has never been one to share decision-making authority. Now, the voluble socialist strongman and acerbic critic of the U.S. may have no choice but to designate a successor. His announcement that he will go to Cuba to remove a growth that he says is likely malignant could not come at a worse moment for the leader who is working to transform Venezuela with what he calls "21st century socialism."

02/23/12 02:52 AM UTC AP

Indian army officials say two avalanches in snowbound regions of Indian-controlled Kashmir have killed at least three soldiers. Several more are feared trapped in a military camp that was partially buried under snow. Col. K.S. Grewal said Thursday that three soldiers were killed in an avalanche in the mountainous area of Sonamarg. A second avalanche took place in Dawar, a town close to the militarized line of control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Part of a massive army camp in Dawar was buried.

02/23/12 02:35 AM UTC AP

Prime Minister Julia Gillard put her job on the line Thursday, announcing a leadership ballot in hopes of quashing a comeback by the premier she ousted in a Labor Party coup. But Kevin Rudd's supporters said that even if Gillard survives Monday's vote, the turmoil surrounding her unpopular government will continue until she is out. Rudd, who resigned as foreign minister Wednesday during an official visit to the U.S., told reporters in Washington that night that he thinks Labor will lose next year's elections if Gillard remains leader, and that government colleagues are encouraging him to run. But he would not say whether he would challenge Gillard in the leadership ballot of Labor lawmakers until he returns to Australia on Friday.

02/23/12 02:29 AM UTC AP

Syrian gunners pounded an opposition stronghold where the last dispatches from a veteran American-born war correspondent chronicled the suffering of civilians caught in the relentless shelling. An intense morning barrage killed her and a French photojournalist — two of 74 deaths reported Wednesday in Syria. "I watched a little baby die today," Marie Colvin told the BBC from the embattled city of Homs on Tuesday in one of her final reports.

02/23/12 02:09 AM UTC AP

U.S. and North Korea envoys reopen nuclear talks Thursday, seeking ways for Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear programs in return for much-needed aid. The countries were on the verge of a deal to have Washington provide food if Pyongyang suspends its uranium enrichment program when the agreement was upended by the death of the country's longtime leader Kim Jong Il on Dec. 17.

02/23/12 01:52 AM UTC AP

Japan's crown prince believes efforts should be made to reduce the burden on his ailing father, Emperor Akihito, as the 78-year-old monarch recovers from heart bypass surgery. Crown Prince Naruhito said that as Akihito gets older it is increasingly important to ensure that his official duties are not too heavy. Naruhito, the heir to the throne, made the comment in a news conference to mark his 52nd birthday on Thursday.

02/23/12 12:49 AM UTC AP

The first two cars were packed as usual for the morning rush, so tightly that people stood pressed flesh to flesh, sandwiched between bicycles and the few seats, many without so much as a strap to hold onto. This train didn't lurch, though. It had trouble stopping at all, overshooting platform after platform and missing at least one station entirely as it rushed toward the end of the line.

02/22/12 10:22 PM UTC AP

Russia said Wednesday the world should not draw "hasty conclusions" over Iran's most recent rebuff of U.N. attempts to investigate allegations the Islamic Republic hid secret work on atomic arms, but the U.S. and its allies accused Tehran of nuclear defiance. Under international pressure to show restraint, Israel, which has warned repeatedly that it may strike Iran's nuclear facilities, pointedly urged major world powers to mind their own business, saying it alone would decide what to do to protect the Jewish state's security.

02/22/12 09:49 PM UTC AP

Sen. John McCain urged Libya's militias on Wednesday to integrate themselves into the country's new national army and called for the reported abuse of prisoners held by the ex-rebels to stop. McCain, a strong advocate of U.S. intervention to stop deposed leader Moammar Gadhafi's crackdown on the country's 2011 uprising, spoke to reporters after meetings with former rebel commanders and the chairman of the ruling National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, in Tripoli.

02/22/12 10:06 PM UTC AP

Researchers have found a flaw in the technical setup of an experiment that startled the science world last year by appearing to show particles traveling faster than light. The problem may have affected measurements that clocked subatomic neutrino particles breaking what Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein considered the ultimate speed barrier.

02/22/12 08:47 PM UTC AP

Multiple explosions rocked a highway checkpoint in Nigeria's second-largest city, witnesses said Wednesday, just over a month after a radical Islamist sect claimed an attack there that left at least 185 people dead. The attacks raise fears that the sect, Boko Haram, is taking root in the northern city of Kano.

02/22/12 08:53 PM UTC AP

It took Dutch tourist Adriaan little time after landing in Rio to pick out his favorite spot during Carnival, the five-day party that officially ended Wednesday. A 35-year-old graphic designer, he found his niche at the gay meeting point on Ipanema beach, where palm fronds and rainbow flags wave in the balmy ocean breeze, and tanned, well-muscled young men strut about in swim suits that reveal more than they conceal. Conversation failed to distract the tall, blond visitor from his careful perusal of the bathers rinsing off salt water at an open-air shower in a ritual that was equal parts bathing and public display of bodies toned to perfection.

02/22/12 08:31 PM UTC AP

She was instantly recognizable for the eye patch that hid a shrapnel injury — a testament to Marie Colvin's courage, which took her behind the front lines of the world's deadliest conflicts to write about the suffering of individuals trapped in war. After more than two decades of chronicling conflict, Colvin became a victim of it Wednesday, killed by shelling in the besieged Syrian city of Homs.

02/22/12 08:27 PM UTC AP

Israel gave preliminary approval on Wednesday to a plan to build 600 new homes in a settlement deep inside the West Bank, a move that drew rebukes from the United Nations and Palestinians and threatened to raise tensions with the U.S. as the prime minister prepares to head to the White House. Israeli officials tried to play down Wednesday's decision, saying construction was years away at best.

02/22/12 08:06 PM UTC AP

French police released former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Wednesday after nearly 30 hours in custody for questioning about a suspected hotel prostitution ring. Strauss-Kahn, 62, is expected to be summoned again next month by judges who will decide if there is enough evidence to press charges in the case, judicial officials said.

02/22/12 08:08 PM UTC AP

Clashes between Afghan troops and protesters angry over the burning of Muslim holy books at a U.S. military base left at least seven people dead and dozens wounded Wednesday as anger spread despite U.S. apologies over what it said was a mistake. The demonstrations across four eastern provinces illustrated the intensity of Afghans' anger at what they saw as foreign forces flouting their laws and insulting their culture.

02/22/12 07:47 PM UTC AP

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is officially in Senegal to observe this weekend's contentious election, met opposition candidates Wednesday in an effort to mediate a growing political standoff in this normally peaceful nation. The retired leader, who has helped mediate conflicts elsewhere in Africa, had told reporters upon his arrival Tuesday that Senegal "is a very beautiful country and nothing should be done to destroy it."

02/22/12 07:31 PM UTC AP

An Egyptian judge on Wednesday set June 2 as the date for the verdict and sentencing in the trial of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, which could put the man who spent nearly 30 years as one of the Arab world's key strongmen on death row. Mubarak is accused of complicity in the killing of protesters during the 18-day popular uprising that pushed him from power in February of last year. More than 800 people were killed during the uprising, many of them demonstrators shot dead by security forces.

02/22/12 07:26 PM UTC AP

Divers searching the capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship found eight bodies Wednesday on one of the passenger decks, including that of a missing 5-year-old Italian girl, authorities said. Italy's national civil protection agency, which is monitoring the operation off a Tuscan island, said four of the bodies had been recovered — those of a woman, a girl, a man and a person whose sex could not immediately be determined. Because of worsening weather, the divers were unable to immediately remove the other four bodies. That operation will resume Thursday, if seas are calm.

02/22/12 06:59 PM UTC AP

The U.S. and the Afghan governments are considering pushing through a long-delayed partnership agreement by moving the contentious issues of night raids and control over detainees to separate negotiations, officials from both countries said. The two governments have been working for about a year to nail down the terms of a strategic partnership document that would govern U.S. operations in Afghanistan after 2014, when the Afghan government is expected to take charge of security countrywide.

02/22/12 06:54 PM UTC AP

Police escorted bloodied passengers up to ambulances, cordoned off the street near a stricken London subway station and rushed off to find an half-exploded knapsack. But it was all just an Olympic security drill.

02/22/12 06:16 PM UTC AP

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced the unwelcome possibility of a coalition crisis on Wednesday after Israel's Supreme Court, in a landmark decision, overturned a law that has helped ultra-Orthodox Jewish men avoid military service. The ruling addresses an issue that is at the center of a simmering cultural war between religious and secular Jews, and adds to Netanyahu's headaches as he prepares to travel to the White House for critical talks about Iran's nuclear program.

02/22/12 06:15 PM UTC AP

Estonian prosecutors said Wednesday that a longtime security official and his wife have been detained on suspicion of passing classified information and state secrets to Russia, a case likely to add to longstanding tensions between the two countries. Prosecutors said Aleksei Dressen — a staffer at the Estonian Security Police — and his wife, Viktoria Dressen, were arrested at Tallinn Airport as she was boarding a flight to Moscow. Aleksei Dressen had gone to the airport to give his wife a folder that contained classified information, said Kadri Tammai, a spokeswoman for the prosecution.

02/22/12 06:03 PM UTC AP

Microsoft on Wednesday lodged a formal complaint with the European Union's competition regulator against Motorola Mobility and its soon-to-be owner Google, saying Motorola's aggressive enforcement of patent rights against rivals breaks competition rules. The complaint follows a similar step by Apple against Motorola last week.

02/22/12 05:08 PM UTC AP

U.S. troops helping in the fight against a brutal rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army are now deployed in four Central African countries, the top U.S. special operations commander for Africa said Wednesday. The U.S. announced in October it was sending about 100 U.S. troops — mostly special operations forces — to Central Africa to advise in the fight against the LRA and its leader Joseph Kony, a bush fighter wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

02/22/12 05:03 PM UTC AP

Somalia's fragile leadership, its neighbors and international allies are meeting in London in the hope of speeding the troubled east African nation's progress toward a stable government and containing the threat from Islamic militants who some fear could export terrorism to Europe and the United States. About 50 nations and international organizations will attend the one-day summit Thursday, including Somalia's Western-backed transitional government, officials from the northern breakaway republic of Somaliland, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

02/22/12 05:07 PM UTC AP

A small Ukrainian nationalist party came under fire Wednesday after a high-profile member suggested a singer of African descent was a bad choice to represent the country in the Eurovision song contest. Pop star Gaitana, 32, who was born in Kiev to a Congolese father and Ukrainian mother, was chosen last week to represent Ukraine at this year's Eurovision contest in May in Baku, Azerbaijan.

02/22/12 04:56 PM UTC AP

Israel's foreign minister says the Jewish state will not bow to foreign pressure in deciding whether to attack Iran. In an interview Wednesday with Israeli Channel 2 TV News, Avigdor Lieberman rebuffed suggestions that American and Russian warnings against striking Iran would affect Israeli decision making, saying the decision "is not their business."

02/22/12 04:39 PM UTC AP

Greece scrambled Wednesday to push through a batch of emergency laws that will further cut incomes and state spending, a day after securing a new bailout and debt relief deal designed to stave off bankruptcy. The new austerity measures demanded by creditors in return for the rescue loans follow two years of deepening misery, with the Greek economy in freefall, unemployment at a record high and the state of the public finances in worse shape than previously forecast.

02/22/12 04:00 PM UTC AP

The European Commission, facing opposition in city streets, on the Internet and in the halls of parliament, has suspended efforts to ratify a new international anti-counterfeiting agreement, and instead will refer it to Europe's highest court to see whether it violates any fundamental EU rights. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht asserted Wednesday that an opinion from the European Court of Justice would clear away the fog of misinformation surrounding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, known as ACTA.

02/22/12 03:48 PM UTC AP

The leadership of the Islamic militant Hamas on Wednesday settled internal disagreements and approved a unity deal with its political rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a senior official said. Hamas' political bureau, the group's top decision-making body, met in Cairo and signed off on the deal after more than 12 hours of talks over two days, said Izzat al-Rishq, an aide to Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal.

02/22/12 03:22 PM UTC AP

A U.S. congressman has sparked outrage in Pakistan by calling for the secession of the country's largest province, further complicating Washington's efforts to resuscitate its vital anti-terrorism alliance with Islamabad. Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican from California, proposed a nonbinding resolution last week stating that the Baluch people, who live in Pakistan's Baluchistan province and also in parts of Iran and Afghanistan, "have the right to self-determination and to their own sovereign country."

02/22/12 03:16 PM UTC AP

He has never worked outside the home or seen a doctor, and until Wednesday, he had never left his remote mountain village in western Nepal. So 72-year-old Chandra Bahadur Dangi only recently learned he might be the world's shortest man. Dangi says he's only 22 inches (56 centimeters) tall — about the size of a toddler — and he's hoping to claim the title. Guinness World Records said in an email Wednesday that its officials would arrive in Nepal's capital Sunday to measure Dangi.

02/22/12 03:00 PM UTC AP

As families of the 185 people killed in the Christchurch earthquake marked the one-year anniversary of the disaster Wednesday, signs of a city still broken were all around them. Hundreds of wrecked buildings downtown are still waiting to be torn down so reconstruction can begin in earnest — many of them within sight of the morning ceremony at Latimer Square.

02/22/12 02:34 PM UTC AP

A Pakistani government official says 17 health workers have been fired for allegedly participating in a CIA scheme to confirm the presence of Osama bin Laden in a northwestern town. Zafeer Ahmed said Wednesday the workers, 16 women and one man, were dismissed because they failed to inform authorities they were helping Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi with a fake vaccination program meant to obtain the al-Qaida chief's DNA.

02/22/12 02:29 PM UTC AP

PSA Peugeot Citroen is in talks over a possible alliance with Detroit-based General Motors, a deal that could dwarf France's leading car maker's existing partnerships with BMW, Mitsubishi Motors and Toyota. Peugeot Citroen shares surged on news of the talks, which were confirmed Wednesday by France's labor minister.

02/22/12 02:20 PM UTC AP

Police don't travel far to monitor the goings-on at the Gami Temple at the edge of the Tibetan plateau. The police station sits inside the monastery, just outside the gates to the main prayer hall. Smothering security has become a fact of life in China's Tibetan areas, from police stationed around monasteries to document checks at roadblocks. The heavy policing is driving some to radical acts to protest Chinese rule.

02/22/12 01:59 PM UTC AP

A strike at Frankfurt airport that has led to hundreds of flight cancellations is being halted ahead of new talks aimed at defusing a bitter pay dispute, a union said Wednesday. The strike at Europe's third busiest airport "will be halted with the beginning of the night shift" Wednesday, said Matthias Maas, a spokesman for the GdF union.

02/22/12 01:56 PM UTC AP

Occupy London protesters braced for eviction Wednesday after a court ruled that local authorities can remove their four-month-old camp from outside St. Paul's Cathedral. Officials said they would now enforce an order allowing them to take down the dozens of tents — though it did not say when the eviction would start.