In Berlin, Obama renews call for reductions to US, Russian nuclear stockpiles
BERLIN (AP) -- President Barack Obama is calling for a one-third reduction of the world's nuclear stockpiles....

Al-Qaida-linked fighters attack UN compound in Somalia; 3 foreigners believed dead
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Al-Qaida-linked militants detonated several bombs and breached the main U.N. compound in Somalia's capital Wednesday, sparking gun battles that killed at least 12 people. A U.N. official said at least three foreigners were believed to be among the dead....

Karzai says no peace talks with the Taliban unless only Afghans involved and violence ends
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghanistan's president said Wednesday he will not pursue peace talks with the Taliban unless the United States steps out of the negotiations, while also insisting the militant group stop its violent attacks on the ground after it claimed responsibility for a rocket attack that killed four Americans....

Obama says NSA surveillance programs have saved lives, averted at least 50 terror threats
BERLIN (AP) -- Trying to tamp down concerns about government over-reach, President Barack Obama on Wednesday defended U.S. Internet and phone surveillance programs as narrowly targeted efforts that have saved lives and thwarted at least 50 terror threats....

Hoping to engage a cynical public, China's Communists launch 1-year campaign echoing Mao
BEIJING (AP) -- China's new leader Xi Jinping is commanding wayward Communist Party cadres to purify themselves of corruption, and he's summed it up in a pithy slogan as Mao Zedong might have done: Look in the mirror, take a bath....

AP PHOTOS: 3 little liligers _ father lion, mother liger _ explore their home at Russian zoo
The zoo in Novosibirsk, Russia's third-largest city, is home to a unique animal - the liliger. That's a big cat breed where the father is a lion and the mother is a lion-tiger hybrid, called a liger....

Turkey's 'standing man' to join ranks of history's iconic symbols of human drama?
The image was stark: a silent, solitary figure standing in passive defiance to the Turkish prime minister's demand for protesters to clear Taksim Square in central Istanbul....

Syrian troops backed by Hezbollah fight rebels in Damascus suburb housing major Shiite shrine
BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian troops backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters clashed Wednesday with rebel forces south of a Damascus suburb that is home to a major Shiite Muslim shrine, in an attempt to secure the area surrounding the revered site, activists said....

Gaffes on social networks by top Japanese officials spark concern about lack of sensitivity
TOKYO (AP) -- On the Internet, no one can save you from yourself. That is a lesson many Japanese politicians have learned recently in painful, awkward and at times costly fashion....

Iraqi officials say suicide bomber kills politician, 4 relatives in northern Ninevah province
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi officials say a suicide attack has killed a local political leader and four of his relatives in northern Iraq....