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L’AQUILA, Italy – A strong tremor has shaken quake-hit areas of central Italy and sent rescuers and residents fleeing from damaged buildings in L’Aquila. Chunks of concrete dropped from the buildings there and the shock was felt as far away as Rome. Firefighters were attempting Tuesday to reach four students …

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday he is willing to debate his prominent critics, including Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa and other visiting Latin American intellectuals. Chavez invited the group to debate Saturday on live television at the presidential palace during his program “Hello President.” “Seriously, gentlemen …

MOSCOW – Russia’s civil servants must now publish their yearly incomes, according to a series of decrees signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev aimed at uprooting corruption. Those applying for public office must also reveal their incomes, the Kremlin said in a statement. Details of officials’ incomes and property will …

PARIS – A French judge has ordered off newsstands a magazine that published a cover photo of a Jewish man who was allegedly tortured by a group of people now on trial for their role in his death. The magazine, “Choc,” which means shock in French, must be withdrawn by …

MINGORA, Pakistan – Thousands of Pakistanis skirted burning military trucks Thursday as they fled clashes between Taliban militants and the army in the northwest, adding a humanitarian emergency to the nation’s daunting challenges. Refugees overwhelmed camps and hospitals to the south of the fighting, leading Pakistan’s prime minister to make …

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. – A suburban Philadelphia man asked a judge to perform a wedding ceremony while the jury in the man’s criminal trial was still deliberating the verdict. Twenty-year-old Timothy Zalut, of Doylestown, was on trial on assault charges this week in Bucks County Court. When it appeared that he …

MOSCOW – Workers rallied Friday in European cities to mark May Day, with tens of thousands of demonstrators across Russia supporting or slamming the government amid growing unemployment and economic troubles. In Turkey — which only last week declared the international labor day a public holiday — union workers held …

Sleepless in Seattle? Hardly. West Virginia is where people are really staying awake, according to the first government study to monitor state-by-state differences in sleeplessness. West Virginians’ lack of sleep was about double the national rate, perhaps a side effect of health problems, like obesity, experts said. Nearly 1 in …

LOS ANGELES – A UCLA professor said he warned a university administrator almost a year ago of his concerns about the mental health of a student now accused of brutally stabbing a fellow student in the throat in a chemistry lab. UCLA history professor Stephen Frank said he met the …

A magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit Panama Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The center of the quake was 120 miles south of the city of David. Panama City residents told Reuters they didn’t feel any movement.