Toronto Mayor Rob Ford reads a statement to the media at City Hall on Friday, May 24, 2013 in Toronto. Ford denied that he smokes crack cocaine and says he is not an addict after a video purported to show him using the drug. Ford did not say whether he has ever used the drug. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young)
 
by Rob Gillies
TORONTO (AP) - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denied that he smokes crack cocaine and said he is not an addict, breaking a week of silence over reports of a video purportedly showing him using the drug. Critics were not appeased, with one city councilor questioning whether the mayor told "the whole truth" and another calling on him to resign.

The controversy has drawn comparisons to the 1990 arrest of then-Washington Mayor Marion Barry, who was videotaped smoking crack cocaine in a hotel room during an FBI sting operation. Barry served six months in federal prison on a misdemeanor drug possession conviction and later won a fourth term as mayor in 1994.

This undated photo provided by the lawyer of Dimyana Abdel-Nour, shows Abdel-Nour, 24, a Coptic Christian teacher in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor in a family photo. (AP Photo)

by Maggie Michael

CAIRO (AP) — The pale, young Christian woman sat handcuffed in the courtroom, accused of insulting Islam while teaching history of religions to fourth-graders. A team of Islamist lawyers with long beards sang in unison, "All except the Prophet Muhammad."

CHUKA UMUNNA

by Robbie Corey-Boulet

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — A rising star in Britain's Labour Party, described by some as the "British Barack Obama," Chuka Umunna urged the United Kingdom to more aggressively forge ties with West Africa's fast-growing economies.

Riot police try to stop members of Golden Dawn party to unload a vehicle with food in central Athens, on May 2. (AP Photo/ Newsbeast/ Yannis Kemmos)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Police on Thursday arrested two Greek men on suspicion of attacking a Cameroonian national and setting fire to his coffee bar in a central Athens neighborhood that has become a flashpoint for racist violence.