Clashes in Lebanon feed fear of Syria spillover
BEIRUT (AP) -- Lebanese supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad fired heavy machine guns and lobbed mortar shells at each other Thursday in some of the worst fighting in the port city of Tripoli in years....

US, Israel raise hopes for Mideast peace restart
JERUSALEM (AP) -- The United States and Israel raised hopes Thursday for a restart of the Middle East peace process, despite little tangible progress so far from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's two-month-old effort to get Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table....

WHO: Scientific red tape mars efforts vs. virus
GENEVA (AP) -- International efforts to combat a new pneumonia-like virus that has now killed 22 people are being slowed by unclear rules and competition for the potentially profitable rights to disease samples, the head of the World Health Organization warned Thursday....

Sweden's riots raise questions about inequality
HUSBY, Sweden (AP) -- Sweden has long been a bastion of generous social welfare and an egalitarian political culture. So many people were shocked when scores of youths hurled rocks at police and set cars ablaze during rioting in several largely immigrant areas near Stockholm this week....

Pakistan arrested American who was killed by drone
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- An American citizen killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in 2011 was arrested by Pakistani authorities three years earlier but escaped after being released on bail, officials said Thursday....

Military calls UK attack victim a model soldier
LONDON (AP) -- The soldier brutally murdered in a suspected terrorist attack in London was a popular 25-year-old ceremonial military drummer and machine gunner, a father and a passionate fan of the Manchester United soccer team, the British military said Thursday....

Muslim hard-liners ID suspect in London attack
LONDON (AP) -- A man seen with bloody hands wielding a butcher knife after the killing of a British soldier on the streets of London was described as a convert to Islam who took part in demonstrations with a banned radical group, two Muslim hard-liners said Thursday....

Stricken Japan nuke plant struggles to keep staff
TOKYO (AP) -- Keeping the meltdown-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in northeastern Japan in stable condition requires a cast of thousands. Increasingly the plant's operator is struggling to find enough workers, a trend that many expect to worsen and hamper progress in the decades-long effort to safely decommission it....

Chinese media: North Korea envoy offers talks
BEIJING (AP) -- A North Korean envoy, on the second day of his fence-mending visit to ally China, heeded Beijing's wishes by offering to renew nuclear disarmament talks, Chinese state media said....

Extremists claim responsibility for Niger attacks
NIAMEY, Niger (AP) -- Suicide bombers in Niger detonated two car bombs simultaneously, one inside a military camp in the city of Agadez and another in the remote town of Arlit at a French-operated uranium mine, killing 26 people and injuring 30, according to officials in Niger and France. A surviving attacker took a group of soldiers hostage, and authorities were attempting to negotiate their release....