KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s president on Tuesday endorsed a “code of conduct” issued by an influential council of clerics that activists say represents a giant step backward for women’s rights in the country. President Hamid Karzai’s Tuesday endorsement of the Ulema Council’s document, which allows husbands to beat wives under certain circumstances and encourages segregation of the sexes, is seen as part of his outreach to insurgents like the Taliban. Both the U.S. and Karzai hope that the Taliban... Read more

DUBLIN (AP) — Northern Ireland’s police force says a firebomb has been safely defused outside an apartment block in a Catholic district of Belfast. No paramilitary group claimed responsibility for the bomb found Tuesday morning in the Cliftonville district of north Belfast. British Army experts using a remote-controled robot dismantled the small incendiary device. Extremists on both sides of Northern Ireland’s divide still use these homemade weapons despite the prevailing cease-fires by major paramilitary groups. Irish Republican Army splinter groups... Read more

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s prime minister on Tuesday promised to protect the country’s largest religious minority after 25 houses mostly belonging to Alevi Muslims were vandalized, raising fears for their safety. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said an investigation was launched into the vandalism in the southeastern city of Adiyaman. Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin earlier said children were believed to be behind the marking of the houses with red paint. The incident has stoked fears of violence in Adiyaman since... Read more

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A Saudi diplomat was shot and killed on a residential street in Bangladesh’s capital early Tuesday, and authorities say the gunman and a motive were unknown. However, if the killing is not deemed a street crime, speculation could turn to Iran, which has been blamed for other international attacks as it struggles against Saudi Arabia for dominance in the Middle East. Shortly after midnight, Khalaf bin Mohammed Salem al-Ali was found just 30 yards (meters) from... Read more

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — India’s governing Congress party was badly beaten in a key state election Tuesday, a sharp rebuke that could cripple the already embattled national government over the final two years of its term. With early returns showing Congress coming in fourth place in the Uttar Pradesh polls, party icon Rahul Gandhi admitted defeat. Gandhi, seen as his party’s likely next prime ministerial candidate, had put his reputation on the line by campaigning relentlessly across India’s most populous... Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Police Department’s commissioner plans to meet with Muslim leaders amid criticism of police monitoring of Muslims after the Sept. 11 attacks. Sheik Moussa Drammeh says he received a phone call asking him to meet with Commissioner Raymond Kelly on Tuesday. The founder of the Islamic Leadership School in the Bronx says he’s not sure what the meeting is about. Several other Muslim leaders were invited. It’s unclear how many will attend. The police... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans in 10 U.S. states will vote in the so-called “Super Tuesday” balloting that could be decisive in the battle between front-running candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum for the nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in November. New polling showed Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and venture capitalist, pulling even with Santorum in the all important primary in Ohio, a state where voters have an uncanny history of picking winners in presidential politics. Romney already has... Read more

CRANSTON, R.I. (AP) — Officials at a Rhode Island public high school have taken down a prayer banner that a federal judge ordered removed. The state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued over the banner’s constitutionality, says the display at Cranston West High School was permanently removed. Executive Director Steven Brown says the ACLU has agreed to allow more time to settle the issue of legal fees. ACLU lawyers who sued on behalf of 16-year-old Jessica Ahlquist... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — A lawmaker from Egypt’s most conservative Islamist party resigned from parliament after he was caught lying to cover up a nose job, claiming the injuries to his heavily bandaged face were from a carjacking and beating. Parliament member Anwar al-Balkimy represented the Al-Nour party, whose members known as Salafis follow a strict interpretation of Islam that forbids cosmetic surgery as meddling in God’s work. The party said Monday that he had resigned and Al-Nour was forced to... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s ultraconservative Islamic Al-Nour party said Monday one of its lawmakers has resigned from parliament because he got a nose job and then lied about it, claiming he was beaten. Lawmaker Anwar al-Balkimy told police he was attacked last week during an attempt to steal his car while he was driving on a highway on Cairo’s outskirts. He said his attackers also robbed of him more than $16,000. That led to an outcry against Egypt’s government for... Read more