CAIRO - Egyptian officials Friday arrested 12 Palestinians who were armed and suspected of preparing an attack on Israelis vacationing in Sinai, a report said.An official said the men were arrested near a transport tunnel which leads to Sinai vacation resorts on the coast, The Jerusalem Post reported Friday.Some of the suspects are members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the newspaper said.Egyptian officials proposed a cease-fire with Hamas and Israel, which included stopping a group ... [full story]

NEW DELHI - Interpol, the international police agency, has issued warrants for two Indian doctors who allegedly organized a ring that stole human kidneys for transplant. Police in India charge that the group victimized 500 poor Indians during the past decade, taking their kidneys by force or fraud and transplanting them into foreigners or Indians who could afford to pay.Indian police requested the "red corner" notices for Amit Kumar and his brother, Jeevan, from the ... [full story]

JERUSALEM - An Israeli government-appointed commission has criticized Israel's use of cluster bombs in civilian areas of Lebanon during the 2006 border war.The five-member commission, in the exhaustive, long-awaited report on Israel's conduct during the 34-day war, cited lack of discipline, control and oversight though it did not challenge directly the use of the bombs. The panel, however, raised questions about where they were used, the Los Angeles Times said Friday.At issue was the army's ... [full story]

TORONTO - A strong winter storm that roared across the U.S. Midwest and northern states Friday slammed into Canada, closing schools and snarling traffic.High winds and blowing snow prompted all major colleges and universities in the Toronto area to close for the day and racing was canceled Friday evening at Woodbine race track, The Toronto Star reported. The storm was expected to drop up to 8 inches of blowing snow before the precipitation turned to ... [full story]

OTTAWA - An Algerian-born Canadian originally jailed for being a terrorism risk has been freed temporarily in Ottawa but only under a strict set of conditions.Mohamed Harkat was jailed in 2002 on a security certificate requested by Canadian intelligence but the evidence for such certificates is not released.Federal agents raided his house this week and took him into custody for allegedly violating his bail, the Ottawa Citizen reported, but Friday Justice Eleanor Dawson ordered him ... [full story]

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - A proposed alcohol ban on Canadian Indian reservations is receiving a tepid response from leaders who question its potential effectiveness.The debate comes after it was revealed that a Saskatchewan reservation where two children died this week had tried to prohibit alcohol a year earlier.Two girls froze to death in the snow on the Yellow Quill First Nation after their father had been hospitalized after reportedly a daylong bender. The man was walking ... [full story]

AUSTIN, Texas - Police in Austin, Texas, were trying to find out how a 7-year-old boy at a charter school became suspended from a hook, leaving him in critical condition.A teacher found the boy Wednesday, a few minutes after he was excused from an assembly to use the bathroom. He is a student at the Magnolia McCullough campus of Nor Your Ordinary School.At a news conference Thursday, police Lt. Mark Spangler said that the boy ... [full story]

JOLIET, Ill. - Two of Kathleen Savio's siblings, preparing to sue her former ex-police officer husband Drew Peterson in Illinois, petitioned to reopen their sister's estate.The late Savio's brother, Henry, and her sister, Anna Marie Doman, are planning to initiate a wrongful death case in Joliet, Ill., against Peterson, a petition filed in Will County civil court states.Savio, Peterson's third wife, was found dead at 40 in a dry bathtub at her home in March ... [full story]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - U.S. President George Bush urged the U.S. Senate to pass an economic stimulus package quickly to help "deal with this period of uncertainty."Commenting on the Department of Labor's report on the lost of 17,000 jobs in January, Bush said, "I think government can take decisive action to help deal with this period of uncertainty."Even though the January unemployment rate fell from the December rate, Bush said, "for the first time in ... [full story]

SACRAMENTO - California voters were reminded Friday that independents could vote in the upcoming Democratic presidential primary but not the Republican contest.California is holding a semi-open primary on Super Tuesday, meaning that the Democrats have agreed to allow independents to vote for a candidate but the Republicans have not."If I didn't like any of the candidates on the Democratic ticket, I wouldn't hesitate to choose a Republican candidate. However, I'm not allowed that option," Monterey ... [full story]