International Top Stories from Associated Press (AP)

An American veteran planning a 6-day vacation with his wife in Turkey who collected stones as a hobby was detained Sunday and faces trial for attempting to smuggle "historical artifacts" from the country. Jason Dement, of Purvis, Miss., was taken into custody at Antalya airport because two pieces inside a bag of stones appeared to be artifacts.

After a new strand of bird flu previously unseen in humans killed 17 of the 87 people it has infected, Chinese officials are looking into the possibility of human-to-human transmission of the H7N9 strain.

California State University's Los Angeles campus was evacuated Thursday after a bomb threat, a local television station reported. ABC affiliate KABC tweeted shorty before 4 p.m., "#BREAKINGNEWS Campus of @CalStateLA has been evacuated due to bomb threat, according to Cal State Office of Regents."

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jonathan Papelbon, a World Series-winning right-hander with the Boston Red Sox in 2007, stole headlines Thursday , not for his earned run average, but rather for his political views. "Today's day and age has gotten so crazy," he said, as Politico reported. "Shoot man, Obama wants to take our guns from us and everything. You got all this stuff going on.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano dismissed a question "not worthy of an answer" by Rep. Jeff Duncan during a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday, who asked about the alleged deportation of a Saudi national who was questioned as a witness in the Boston bombings.

Federal authorities officially charged Paul Kevin Curtis on Thursday with threatening the life of President Obama and a U.S. senator, saying he's the person who tried to send letters laced with the poison ricin to the White House and the Capitol.

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) , You meet someone, there's chemistry, and then come the introductory questions: What's your name? Come here often? Are you my cousin? In Iceland, a country with a population of 320,000 where most everyone is distantly related, inadvertently kissing cousins is a real risk.

A stern warning by Allen West went viral Wednesday after the former representative posted to Facebook that "it is a promise" he will take action against the "left-wing groups" allegedly harassing his wife. "I completely understand the Alinsky tactics and have no issue with the insidious and incessant personal attacks by the left against me," he wrote.

As the drone boom unfolds, one key lawmaker warns we could eventually see science-fiction style warfare over America. "I can envision drone fights in the air, drones cracking into each other," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, during a Senate subcommittee hearing on the funding for the Federal Aviation Administration.

SHENYANG, China (AP) , The Chinese student killed in the Boston Marathon blasts grew up in an intellectual family in a northeastern Chinese city with gritty, industrial roots, and graduated from a highly competitive high school that routinely sends students abroad.

The Senate dealt a major blow to new gun controls on Wednesday when senators voted to defeat the background check proposal that had become the center of the post-Newtown firearms debate. The 54-46 vote...

BAGHDAD (AP) , Iraq has executed 21 prisoners convicted on terrorism charges and links to al Qaeda, the Justice Ministry said Wednesday, setting off fresh criticism from a human rights expert over Baghdad's insistence on enforcing capital punishment.

Gay-rights advocates celebrated at New Zealand's Parliament Wednesday night as the country become the 13th in the world to legalize gay marriage. People watching from the gallery immediately broke...

Amid confusion about an arrest, multiple news sources are reporting that a suspect has been identified in the Boston Marathon bombing investigation, based on surveillance footage from a Lord and Taylor department store and TV footage.

The lawmaker behind a controversial cybersecurity bill found himself the focus of a Twitter campaign Wednesday, as the House girded for a debate on a proposed law to immunize companies that share cybersecurity information with the U.S. government.