BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists say that government officials have promised to allow food into a rebelheld town that’s been under blockade for months, if residents raise the Syrian national flag and if rebels hand over heavy weapons. Rami Abdurrahman of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and an activist in the town known […]

SALT LAKE CITY A federal appeals court has refused yet again to stop gay marriage in Utah, making it more likely that samesex weddings in the home of the Mormon church are here to stay for the immediate future. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ rejection of Utah’s request for an emergency order to […]

WOOSTER, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio man is set to be arraigned on charges in the rape and strangulation of a 9-year-old girl found dead in a trash bin at the trailer park where they were neighbors. The Wayne County prosecutor’s office says 24-yearold Jerrod Metsker will be arraigned today on charges of aggravated murder, […]

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Newark officials say two teenagers have been shot and killed and a third is in critical condition in the northern New Jersey city. Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray and Newark Police Director Samuel A. DeMaio say a 13- year-old girl and a 14-yearold boy were fatally shot Christmas night. […]

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union says he finds it perplexing that a federal appeals court has rejected a former college student’s lawsuit over his detention at an airport after he was found to be carrying Arabic language flashcards. Nicholas George says the Transportation Security Administration and FBI agents violated […]

CAIRO A bomb blast hit a public bus in the Egyptian capital Cairo today, wounding five people, the Interior Ministry said, in an attack that raised concerns that a wave of violence blamed on Islamic militants that has targeted security forces and military for months is increasingly turning to hit civilians. The blast came a […]

ISLAMABAD A 72-year-old American development worker who was kidnapped in Pakistan by al-Qaida more than two years ago appealed to President Obama in a video released Thursday to negotiate his release, saying he feels “totally abandoned and forgotten.” The video of Warren Weinstein was the first since two videos released in September 2012. Weinstein, the […]