WASHINGTON , Senate Republicans blocked Democratic-backed legislation requiring organizations pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into campaign ads to disclose their top donors and the amounts they spend. GOP opposition prevented Democrats from getting the 60 votes needed to bring what is known as the Disclose Act to the Senate floor. The vote was 51-44.
International Top Stories from Associated Press (AP)
BEIRUT , Syrian President Bashar Assad said in a newspaper interview Saturday he won't step down and will instead "face the storm," raising new doubts about a U.S-Russian effort to get Assad and his opponents to negotiate an end to the country's civil war.
TRIPOLI, Libya , Libyan officials say explosions went off in the capital Tripoli and the restive eastern city of Benghazi, but no casualties were reported. A security official says one bombing targeted an abandoned church in Benghazi that had been previously damaged by fire. The explosion damaged only a car parked outside.
KABUL, Afghanistan , Religious lawmakers in Afghanistan blocked legislation on Saturday aimed at strengthening provisions for women's freedoms, arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles and encourage disobedience.
SEOUL, South Korea , North Korea fired three short-range guided missiles into its eastern waters on Saturday, a South Korean official said. It routinely tests such missiles, but the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing tensions.
MALMO, Sweden (AP) , Flashy skirts, fake tans, fur and feathers: It's the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. The televised extravaganza, with an audience of 125 million worldwide, is now in its 58th year. Once again without fail, it has produced a mix of bubble-gum pop songs, somber ballads, bagpipes, accordions and bizarrely kitsch musical productions.
BERLIN (AP) , Engineering a financial bailout for Cyprus in March was such a chaotic process that top European officials say it is time to rethink how the region manages its crisis , and who should be involved. Officials say the International Monetary Fund, which has contributed financial expertise and billions in emergency loans, may no longer be needed as a key decision-making partner.
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.
LIMA, Peru (AP) , An Organization of American States study released Friday is calling for a serious discussion on legalizing marijuana. Drug policy reform advocates called the report historic, though it made no specific proposals and said there was "no significant support" among the OAS' 35 member states for legalizing cocaine, the illicit drug with the greatest impact on Latin America.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) , Former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, who took power over Argentina in a 1976 coup and led a military junta that killed thousands of his fellow citizens in a dirty war to eliminate so-called "subversives," died quietly in his sleep Friday while serving life in prison for crimes against humanity. He was 87.
TORONTO (AP) , A video purportedly of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack has caused an uproar in Canada. Ford on Friday called the allegations "ridiculous." The video has not been released publicly, and there is no way to verify whether it is authentic. Reports by gossip website Gawker and the Toronto Star said it was taken by a man who claimed he had sold crack to Ford.
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. Hundreds of activists have taken part in the activities organized by a sex education center headed by first daughter Mariela Castro.
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. Flashlights in his face, the driver steps out and places his hands on the roof while the soldiers frisk him for drugs and weapons.
LONDON (AP) , A clutch of Twitter accounts and a blog maintained by the Financial Times were hacked Friday, the latest in a series of cyberattacks claimed by the Syrian Electronic Army, a pro-government group which has regularly targeted media organizations it sees as sympathetic to the country's rebels.
PARIS (AP) , Thieves ripped a safe from the wall of a hotel room near the Cannes Film Festival and made off with around $1 million worth of jewelry, in a brazen late-night burglary just hours after the screening of a film about break-ins at the homes of Hollywood celebrities, French officials said Friday.
MILAN (AP) , Silvio Berlusconi's private disco featured not only aspiring show girls performing striptease acts as sexy nuns and nurses, but also dressed 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.
The pro-Syria regime group, Syrian Electronic Army, hacked into the news site and Twitter feed of the Financial Times on Friday. The group, which supports President Bashar Assad, uploaded a video purportedly showing members of the rebel group, Nusra Front , tied to al Qaeda , blindfolding and executing soldiers with the Syrian army, Newsmax reported.
The U.S. military could blind Syria's air defenses, as it would need to do to establish a 'no-fly' zone over rebel held areas, without firing a shot, using new and highly secret cyberattack capabilities, according to USA Today.
A man who claimed to be a Salafist-Wahhibist cleric put the word out on Twitter that women should not flip on air conditioners at home because it sends the signal they're home and that could lead to...
PARIS (AP) , Suspected thieves ripped out a small safe from the wall of a hotel room near the Cannes Film Festival and made off with about $1 million worth of jewelry inside, a French police official said Friday. Cmdr.
BAGHDAD , Twin explosions ripped through a crowd of Sunni worshippers outside Baghdad on Friday, an attack which, combined with a second deadly bombing at a Sunni funeral to the south of the capital, deepened fears Iraq may be headed toward a new round of sectarian conflict.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) , Across Europe, gay couples are scared of publicly engaging in even the most basic expression of their affection: Holding hands. Released Friday, the largest ever...
Witches in Swaziland , where witchcraft is serious business , aren't cleared to fly their broomsticks higher than 150 meters and violators may be arrested and fined. The clarification comes from Civil Aviation Authority marketing and corporate affairs director Sabelo Dlamini, reports the Sun, a U.K. tabloid. Witches are still free to fly lower than 150 meters, or about 500 feet, he said.
Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel rallied against a new plan to force them to serve in the nation's military , a law they say violates their religious beliefs. Currently, ultra-Orthodox Jews are exempted from Israel's draft, even while most others ages 18 and older , including females , are required to serve. Men have to serve three years; women, two.
The U.S. military has a new set of orders in its pursuit of the terrorists who are guilty of killing four Americans in the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi: Capture or kill. The plan includes a scenario that places U.S. troops on ground in Libya, CNN reported. The White House would have to first order the ground troops, however.
Russia has sent more than a dozen war ships to patrol the waters near Syria, U.S. military spokesmen said on Friday. The country also gave Syria supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles, model P-800 Onika, United Press International reported. The message: Moscow is fully supportive of Syrian President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials believe.
MUMBAI, India (AP) , In the early morning heat and dust, daily practice at the Rambo Circus is in full swing. A trapeze creaks as two performers perfect their throws. A Colombian daredevil shouts to his colleagues scrambling atop a giant set of spinning wheels called the Ring of Death.
BEIRUT (AP) , A six-member U.N. team led by a former Syrian planning minister is drawing up a comprehensive postwar reconstruction plan even as the country's civil war rages on with no apparent end in sight.
The tragedy of Benghazi, where a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed, seemed a cut-and-dried story in the days after a mob attacked the State Department's mission in eastern Libya. From President Obama on down, the recap was simple: A crowd of demonstrators angry over an obscure YouTube video that denigrated Islam's Prophet Muhammad spontaneously stormed the complex.
ANALYSIS/OPINION The Arab Spring that prompted the ouster of authoritarian regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya also led to the rise of Islamists who are bent on creating Islamic states that adhere to Shariah law , and that fate could await Syria after dictator Bashar Assad falls. The democratically elected governments of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya are either led or beset by Islamists.
ANALYSIS/OPINION Rising persecution of minority religious communities in Pakistan, Iran and Syria , and other nations , is a serious threat to stability in those countries and their neighbors, a panel of specialists said at a Hudson Institute forum this week, showing how religious tensions can have larger political ramifications in hot spots around the world.
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