AMSTERDAM ( AP) — A Dutch prince struck by an avalanche while skiing offtrail in Austria last week suffered massive brain damage and may never regain consciousness, his doctors said today. Johan Friso, 43, is the second of Dutch Queen Beatrix’s three sons. Dr. Wolfgang Koller, head of trauma at the Innsbruck hospital where Friso […]

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s al-Qaida branch has claimed responsibility for the latest wave of bombings and other attacks that killed dozens in Baghdad and across the country, raising concerns over the government’s ability to provide security after the U.S. troop pullout. The Islamic State of Iraq said in an Internet message late Thursday that it […]

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan made its first public appeal today for the Taliban to participate in peace talks with the Afghan government, a potentially significant move given Islamabad’s perceived influence over the militants. The Pakistani prime minister’s call will be welcomed by Afghanistan and the United States, which have long demanded Islamabad push Taliban leaders […]

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden’s newborn princess and future monarch has a name: Estelle Silvia Ewa Mary. King Carl XVI Gustaf announced his granddaughter’s name, and said the baby girl, who was born Thursday to Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel, will receive the title Duchess of Ostergotland, a province in southeast Sweden. As Victoria’s first- […]

HAVANA ( AP) — Cuban state media says a pair of senior U.S. senators have met with Cuban President Raul Castro in the first such highlevel meeting between the Cold War enemies in nearly a year. Communist Party daily Granma reported that Sens. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, and Richard Shelby, a Republican from […]

DUBLIN (AP) — The outlawed Irish Republican Army has apologized for its 1973 killing of a 9- year- old boy who stumbled across an IRA bomb while playing in his back yard. The IRA issued its statement today after the victim’s parents called on Sinn Fein politician Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, to tell […]