World News

Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star via Getty Images(TORONTO) -- After a week in virtual hiding and refusing to speak to reporters, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford went on the attack vehemently denying he is a drug user. "I do not use crack-cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack-cocaine.  As for a video, I cannot comment on a video that I've never seen or does not exist," Ford told reporters Friday. Ford's been in the storm of controversy fueling Canadian and international headlines ever since the website Gawker and two Toronto Star newspaper reporters say they saw the video allegedly showing the mayor ... Read more!

Jason Reed/Thinkstock(MOSCOW) -- A powerful 8.3 magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s eastern coast Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.The quake’s epicenter was in the Sea of Okhotsk, at a depth of nearly 374 miles.No casualties or significant damage was reported.Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio Read more!

Oli Scarff/Getty Images(LONDON) -- A British Airways flight from London to Oslo made an emergency landing at Heathrow airport Friday morning after a fire broke out shortly after takeoff. Video of the Airbus A319 coming in to land showed smoke streaming from one of the engines. Passenger David Gallagher told ABC News “five minutes after take-off we heard a popping sound. Five minutes after that, the engine was on fire.”Several eyewitnesses on the ground also described seeing an engine on fire. Emergency fire crews were scrambled to meet the aircraft when it landed, and passengers evacuated almost immediately using ... Read more!

iStockphoto(WASHINGTON) -- A 20-year-old American named Kevin Dahlgren accused in the grisly murders of a family of four in the Czech Republic has been arrested in the United States. Czech police had targeted Dahlgren and circulated a picture from his Facebook account to police stations, border posts, immigration counters and media outlets across the country. Authorities in neighboring countries had reportedly been alerted to detain Dahlgren, whose Facebook description says he is from Palo Alto, Calif. Police spokeswoman Petra Vedrova told ABC News the suspect may be armed and dangerous. "Police took measures to stop him from leaving the country, ... Read more!

Comstock/Thinkstock(LONDON) -- Two passengers aboard a U.K.-bound flight from Pakistan were arrested on suspicion of endangering an aircraft following an apparent incident over British airspace Friday.The British Ministry of Defense launched two RAF Typhoon jets to escort the Pakistani International Airways flight to Stansted Airport outside London -- an airport designated for emergencies in the U.K.The flight, carrying 297 passengers, originated in Lahore and was bound for Manchester.The plane landed at Stansted without incident. Upon its arrival, police boarded the aircraft and arrested two men “on suspicion of endangerment of an aircraft.”The nature of the incident ... Read more!

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(DAMASCUS, Syria) -- Any plan to end the long conflict in Syria is worth considering at this point, no matter how far-fetched it might seem. Opposition activist Moaz al-Khatib, who once led the Syrian National Coalition, is proposing that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad be allowed to step down without fear of repercussions. In a Facebook posting, al-Khatib outlined his plan, which would give the embattled Syrian leader three weeks from now to accept "a peaceful transition of authority." When that happens, al-Assad would have a month to hand over the reins of power to either Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi or ... Read more!

Matty Ster/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv via Getty Images(JERUSALEM) -- The U.S. and Great Britain are making a new push to restart peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians that have gone nowhere for the past five years. Secretary of State John Kerry and his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary William Hague, held talks Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Kerry acknowledged the daunting task that lies ahead in getting the two sides to bend after so much intransigence, telling reporters, "I know this region well enough to know that there is skepticism. ... Read more!

iStockphoto(SAYID DKHEEL, Iraq) -- The residents of a southern Iraqi city have to worry about more than a war and deadly militants. The city of Sayid Dkheel is also facing an invasion of snakes, many of them venomous. The snakes, which include cobras, have shown up with the rising temperatures in search of a cooler refuge. Since then, they've reportedly attacked scores of people, leaving 60 dead. To make matters worse, according to residents, the central government in Baghdad has ignored their requests for medicine and proper equipment to treat the often fatal snake bites. Without medical supplies, bites that ... Read more!

Maarten Holl - Pool/Getty Images(LONDON) -- Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, had a mid-air scare Thursday when their helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing.Charles and Camilla were 15 minutes into their flight from London to the Hay Literary Festival in Powys when a “technical fault” aboard the chopper forced the pilot to divert the flight to Denham Aerodrome in Buckinghamshire, according to the Press Association.“The pilot carried out a controlled emergency landing after diverting to the airport,” a spokesman for the royal couple said.An investigation has been opened into what caused ... Read more!

File photo. iStockphoto/Thinkstock(Fjallsárlón, Iceland) -- American tourists dining on a glacier in eastern Iceland found themselves floating away from shore earlier this week, an Icelandic newspaper reported. Four people were rescued from Fjallsárlón glacial lagoon. They had set up a table and chairs with plans for dinner when a gust of wind pushed the ice from the land. They were stranded about 30 feet from shore. One of the diners managed to jump to shore before the ice drifted too far and call for help. The tourists have not been identified, but a photo captured three of the diners sitting ... Read more!