Eastern Sri Lanka residents voted Saturday in their first major election, less than a year after the separatist rebels lost control of the region. The poll was hailed as a democratic milestone but marred by a rebel attacks, one that left 11 people dead.
BAGHDAD | The U.S. military Friday denied Iraqi government claims that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was captured.
BANGKOK, Thailand | The military leaders of Myanmar have promised to allow the first air shipment of relief aid for victims of a devastating cyclone from the Pentagon on Monday.
BEIRUT, Lebanon | Hezbollah fighters seized control of much of western Beirut on Friday, patrolling the deserted streets.
BAGHDAD | Staff Sgt. Luis Falcon, 38, was patrolling the streets of Baqouba, north of Baghdad, when he saw Shahad Abbas.
Cuba's Central Bank is urging the government to gradually unify the island's two parallel currencies and cut back on "indiscriminate" subsidies, according to an internal report obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.
An international banker nominated to be Haiti's next prime minister said Friday that Haiti must concentrate on long-term strategies to help the millions pushed deeper into misery by higher food prices.
President Felipe Calderon said Friday the killing of an acting federal police chief was an attempt by weakened gangs to counter his fight against drug trafficking.
BEIRUT, Lebanon | Running gunbattles raged in parts of Beirut on Thursday after the leader of Hezbollah accused Lebanon’s Western-backed government of declaring war on his Shiite militant group.
BAGHDAD | Iraqi police commandos captured the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq in a raid in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said Thursday.
BEIRUT, Lebanon | Battles raged Thursday in Beirut after the leader of Hezbollah accused Lebanon’s government of declaring war on his Shiite militant group. | A12
BAGHDAD | Iraqi security forces, after more than of 40 days of intense fighting, on Thursday told residents to evacuate their homes in the Baghdad Shiite Muslim slum of Sadr City.
ZIGUINCHOR, Senegal | Armed men rounded up about 20 villagers and sliced off their left ears with machetes before releasing them, villagers and officials said Thursday.
YANGON, Myanmar | After snubbing a U.S. aid offer, Myanmar indicated today that it wants foreign relief — but not foreign workers — to help recover from a devastating cyclone.
MOSCOW | When Boris Yeltsin left the Kremlin eight years ago, he gave Vladimir Putin the pen he had used to sign decrees, a gesture symbolizing the transfer of power.
FRANKFURT, Germany | Josef Fritzl, the 73-year-old Austrian who imprisoned and raped his daughter for nearly a quarter-century, said he knew his actions were wrong.
Police and soldiers cleared the last remaining people from the shadow of a Chilean volcano on Thursday after a strong, overnight explosion spewed glowing-hot rocks from its crater.
President Hugo Chavez says Venezuela will not tolerate a movement for secession in Bolivia's eastern lowland states. Chavez says his government has not meddled in the domestic affairs of other Latin American nations, but would if Bolivian states now seeking greater autonomy from Bolivia's central government push for total independence.
Iran said Thursday that a bomb, not an accident, caused last month's explosion in a mosque that killed 14 people and injured more than 200.
Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi formed Italy's 62nd postwar government on Wednesday for his third stint as premier.
Unchallenged by Lebanon's army, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah routed Sunnis loyal to the U.S.-allied government and seized control of large swaths of Beirut's Muslim sector Friday in a telling demonstration of its military prowess.
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More aid is on the way to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar - but so is the heavy rain. A week after Cyclone Nargis flattened low-lying villages and killed whole families at a time, the military junta finally agreed Friday to allow a U.S. cargo plane to bring in food and other supplies to the isolated country. Myanmar gave the green light after confiscating other shipments, prompting the U.N. to order a temporary freeze in shipments.
North Koreans are dying because of food shortages in rural areas, and a massive famine is just a matter of time, a South Korean aid group said Friday.
Voting began this city near Yangon and other parts of cyclone-ravaged Mayanmar Saturday on a referendum for a controversial constitution - but the balloting was delayed for two weeks in the hardest hit areas, including the capital.
Zimbabwe's opposition declined to meet with visiting South African President Thabo Mbeki on Friday and said that he should be replaced as mediator in the country's political crisis.
Gaza attackers sent mortar shells crashing into a border community late Friday, killing an Israeli in his garden and wounding three others, officials said. Israel retaliated with missile strikes that left five Hamas militants dead.
A rare international alert seeking a man shown in dozens of raw child porn images quickly led to the arrest of a small-time actor, who painted faces at children's parties and performed as "the best Santa Claus anyone has ever seen."
Eastern Sri Lanka residents voted Saturday in their first major election, less than a year after the separatist rebels lost control of the region. The poll was hailed as a democratic milestone but marred by a rebel attacks, one that left 11 people dead.
Calls for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's resignation mounted on Friday as police probed allegations that he accepted hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars in cash-stuffed envelopes from a U.S. citizen.
President Felipe Calderon said Friday the killing of an acting federal police chief was an attempt by weakened gangs to counter his fight against drug trafficking.
Russia showcased its military might and youthful new president to the world Friday, as heavy tanks and missile launchers rumbled across Red Square in a Victory Day parade for the first time since the Soviet era.
An international banker nominated to be Haiti's next prime minister said Friday that Haiti must concentrate on long-term strategies to help the millions pushed deeper into misery by higher food prices.
In the eyes of Myanmar's military rulers, everyone is a potential enemy. Even foreign aid workers.
The leader of the last remaining pre-Columbian tribe in the eastern Caribbean says outlawing marriage to outsiders can save Dominica's dwindling indigenous population, but legislators are balking at deciding who can marry whom.
Bangladesh's military-backed government should lift emergency rule to facilitate open elections that it has promised to hold by the end of the year, a State Department official said Friday.
The British Broadcasting Corp. says a rocket hit the building housing its Baghdad bureau, causing damage but no injuries.
Wheat futures fell sharply Friday after the government forecast increased U.S production and a record global crop, while corn futures surged to a new high on lingering concerns about the weather.
Democrats' plans to help hundreds of thousands of homeowners struggling with rising subprime mortgage rates and plummeting house values could be sidetracked by President Bush's threatened veto and the opposition of many congressional Republicans.
Authorities quarantined a train in Ontario Friday after a woman died and several others reported being ill. But a doctor later ruled out a serious infectious disease and said the train would likely soon resume its journey.
Palestinian militants fired four mortar shells at Israel from the Gaza Strip late Friday, killing an Israeli man and wounding three other people, police and rescue officials said.
