EU leaders dine, but offer nothing new for their troubled economies

European leaders concluded the latest round of talks over their prolonged economic crisis early Thursday morning but emerged still divided over how to boost a eurozone that faces a dizzying array of problems. | 05/23/12 20:45:03 By - By Shashank Bengali

In Luxor, Egypt’s tourism center, voters shun Muslim Brotherhood candidate

Of the 13 candidates’ names on the ballot, the ones voters mentioned most were the pro-reform Islamist Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, Mubarak’s last prime minister, Ahmed Shafik, and the Arab nationalist Hamdeen Sabahi. Conspicuously unpopular in Luxor was the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi. Voters said they shied away from him out of fear that an Islamist president would scare off foreign tourists. | 05/23/12 18:58:21 By - By Hannah Allam

2 Western health workers kidnapped in northern Afghanistan

The women were working for Medair, a Switzerland-based nongovernmental organization, and were traveling by horseback when they were kidnapped. The company asked that their nationalities not be publicized. | 05/23/12 17:46:38 By - By Jon Stephenson

China inquiry into British man's death may include blood samples

The sensational Chinese murder investigation in which the wife of an ousted Politburo member stands accused of poisoning a British expatriate may include evidence from blood samples taken from the victim's body before cremation, according to people familiar with the case. | 05/23/12 13:53:23 By - By BARBARA DEMICK

One thing certain as Egyptians vote for president: The outcome will be a surprise

In poor Cairo neighborhoods, where residents might be expected to pick Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi, many instead said they’d voted for Ahmed Shafik, a former air force commander who was Mubarak’s last prime minister. Hamdeen Sabahi, who espouses the Arab nationalist philosophy of the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser, appeared to be the preferred candidate in some parts of the country. Reports of irregularities were few. | 05/23/12 19:21:33 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Hannah Allam

Dr. Shakil Afridi, who helped CIA track bin Laden, sentenced for treason in Pakistan

Dr. Afridi was sentenced in a tribal court under colonial-era laws even though his alleged offense, running a fake vaccination campaign intended to capture DNA from residents of bin Laden’s compound, was committed in Abbottabad, where tribal laws don’t apply. | 05/23/12 16:36:28 By - By Saeed Shah

UN panel queries Havana on human rights abuses, prison deaths

A U.N. panel on torture Tuesday demanded that Cuba provide information on the deaths of several political prisoners, the repression of dissident groups such as the Ladies in White and the 2,400 arrests of government critics reported last year. | 05/23/12 06:32:04 By - Juan O. Tamayo

Shafik? Aboul Fotouh? Morsi? Who knows? Egyptian outcome really is uncertain

Egypt has experienced many historic events since Hosni Mubarak was toppled from the presidency 446 days ago, but Wednesday marks a true first — the first presidential election in Egypt’s history where voters don’t already know who the winner will be before they cast their ballots. | 05/22/12 20:37:41 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Amina Ismail

Russia lawmakers advance bill on penalties for protesters

Stiff new penalties aimed at opposition protesters were given preliminary approval Tuesday by Russian lawmakers loyal to President Vladimir Putin, the target of mass rallies and demonstrations before his March election victory. | 05/22/12 19:44:12 By - By SERGEI L. LOIKO

After bombing, Yemen’s Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi watches Unity Day ceremony from behind barrier

Yemen’s top officials attended a somber ceremony commemorating the country’s 1990 unification Tuesday, a day after a suicide attack killed nearly 100 soldiers in one of the bloodiest days in the nation’s history. | 05/22/12 19:36:19 By - By Adam Baron

OECD predicts European recession, raising pressure on leaders to act

With the United States and financial markets pressing for decisive action, European leaders will meet Wednesday on their region’s widening debt crisis amid a new forecast that suggests the broad eurozone will finish the year in recession. | 05/22/12 19:00:04 By - By Shashank Bengali and Kevin G. Hall

Former Haitian telecom official gets 9 years in prison for bribery

A federal judge Monday sentenced a former top official of Haiti's state-owned telephone company to nine years in prison, after describing as "ludicrous" his testimony that the bribes he took from two Miami businesses were gifts for doing such a good job for them. | 05/22/12 06:27:04 By - Jay Weaver

Al Qaida-linked group claims massive Yemen bombing; dead were rehearsing for Unity Day parade

A rehearsal for a military parade to mark Yemen’s national day turned into a scene of bloody carnage Monday when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the presidential palace, killing nearly 100 soldiers and wounding scores more in one of the deadliest attacks in this conflict-wracked nation’s recent history. | 05/21/12 18:45:05 By - By Adam Baron

Scientists work to bridge political gap between Cuba, U.S.

Cuban and American scientists have joined forces in an effort to protect baby sea turtles and endangered sharks. They’re studying Caribbean weather patterns that fuel the hurricanes that have devastated the Southeastern United States. | 05/21/12 18:59:40 By - By Franco Ordonez

Voices from Afghanistan: Few expect miracles from NATO

As NATO leaders met Monday in Chicago to discuss the alliance’s exit from Afghanistan and their commitment to the restive nation afterward, Afghans expressed a mixture of optimism, cynicism and fatalism about the future of their country. | 05/21/12 15:42:49 By - By Jon Stephenson

NATO leaders endorse Obama's Afghanistan exit plan

NATO leaders on Monday adopted President Barack Obama’s exit strategy from the nearly 11-year-old U.S.-led intervention in Afghanistan, cementing an “irreversible” pullout of foreign combat troops that will leave Afghan security forces with the leading role in combat operations by the summer of 2013. | 05/21/12 19:47:04 By - By Jonathan S. Landay and Steven Thomma

Muslim Brotherhood’s grip on Egypt in doubt on eve of presidential vote

Conventional wisdom in Cairo says the Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party won’t be able to overcome their candidate’s lack of charisma, and polls predict that he won’t get enough votes to make it into a June runoff. But analysts caution against writing off the Brotherhood’s powerful organization, born of decades of underground work when the group was outlawed under Hosni Mubarak. | 05/21/12 14:18:22 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Remnants of Haiti's army march in capital; two Americans among those arrested

Two American men have been arrested by Haitian authorities for allegedly helping members of Haiti's rogue army, the country's chief prosecutor told The Miami Herald. | 05/21/12 06:33:38 By - Jacqueline Charles

Pakistan blocks Twitter

Pakistan's decision to block access to the online social network Twitter on Sunday drew sharp criticism from human rights activists, who called it an "ill-advised" attempt at censorship. | 05/21/12 06:28:13 By - Alex Rodriguez

4 Egyptian voters offer 4 viewpoints on who should be next president

Turmoil has prevailed in the 15 months since Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign after three decades of ruling Egypt with unchecked power. | 05/21/12 00:00:00 By - By Hannah Allam

In Egypt’s Sinai, tribesmen remain hostile to upcoming presidential vote

Last Wednesday, a pickup truck loaded with masked men raced past a major security checkpoint on the coastal highway near this northern Sinai town and opened fire. Soldiers and police officers fired back, and gunfire echoed for about 10 minutes before the shooting came to an end. | 05/20/12 15:45:24 By - By Mohannad Sabry

Afghanistan toll as NATO leaders gather: 13 dead in suicide bombing Saturday; 2 U.S. troops killed Friday

_ As NATO leaders prepared for a two-day summit in Chicago to plot their armed forces’ exit from Afghanistan in less than two years, a suicide bomber on Saturday detonated his explosive vest at a police checkpoint in eastern Khost province, killing 10 civilians, including two children, and three Afghan policemen. | 05/19/12 17:38:16 By - By Ali Safi and Jon Stephenson

World leaders get down to business, in camp casual, at G8 summit

The global economy will top discussions today at Camp David, President Obama said as world leaders allowed cameras into the Laurel Lodge for a few remarks. | 05/19/12 12:30:25 By - McClatchy Newspapers

Ahmed Shafik, Mubarak’s last prime minister, is the surprise contender in Egypt’s presidential race

Egyptian presidential hopeful Ahmed Shafik, written off by many as a contender because of his service as Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister, is enjoying renewed buzz around his candidacy, helped by favorable coverage on state TV, the results of a survey in a respected Cairo newspaper, and what appears to be growing disenchantment with his Islamist rivals. | 05/19/12 11:31:37 By - By Hannah Allam

China’s Chen Guangcheng is safe in U.S., but worry persists for friends, family

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, whose daring escape to the American embassy in Beijing last month sparked a diplomatic crisis, flew out of China Saturday, arriving 13 hours later in Newark, N.J., to begin a fellowship at New York University. | 05/19/12 21:25:10 By - By Tom Lasseter

World powers forge joint approach to Iran talks

The United States and five other countries have agreed to offer a joint proposal to Iran at a high-level meeting next week in an effort to open a path for negotiations to curtail Tehran's disputed nuclear program and to ease the threat of war. | 05/19/12 08:43:01 By - By PAUL RICHTER

Gallup survey finds support in Egypt for Muslim Brotherhood dropping as presidential vote nears

Support for Egypt’s Islamist political parties has plummeted ahead of this country’s presidential election next week, a Gallup survey released Friday has found, while early returns showed the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, thought to be Egypt’s dominant political group, running third among Egyptians voting overseas. | 05/18/12 18:29:37 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Security cordon still rings blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng’s home village of Dongshigu

Blind legal advocate Chen Guangcheng is 400 miles away in a Beijing hospital, waiting for his passport to travel to the United States, but the extensive network of guards put in place to keep supporters from visiting him in his home village is still in place. Chen says it’s because local officials don’t want word to spread of how he and his family had been abused before he fled to the U.S. Embassy last month. | 05/18/12 14:57:13 By - By Tom Lasseter

U.S. lacks comprehensive plan to deal with tsunami debris, panel told

It's been 14 months since a massive tsunami swept over parts of Japan, but federal officials still lack a comprehensive plan for detecting and disposing of the resulting debris that is expected to make landfall on the West Coast by sometime next year, a Senate panel was told Thursday. | 05/18/12 06:31:30 By - Kyung M. Song

As NATO prepares to meet, Taliban attack reminder of volatility in Afghanistan

Three days ahead of a summit meeting in Chicago of NATO leaders to plot their countries’ departure from Afghanistan, the Taliban on Thursday provided a stark reminder of the challenges that lie ahead. | 05/17/12 14:01:24 By - By Ali Safi

Insurgents storm governor's office in western Afghanistan

Four suspected insurgents stormed the governor’s compound in the capital of western Farah province Thursday morning, killing six policemen and a civilian. | 05/17/12 08:25:40 By - Ali Safi

New Haiti prime minister touts anti-poverty, pro-business agenda

Haiti's latest prime minister is a tech-savvy, driven decision-maker who is determined to drag this pen-and-paper society into modernity as he breaks the cycle of misery. | 05/17/12 06:31:55 By - Jacqueline Charles

Cuban universities cut enrollment; foreign investors are leaving

Cuban universities have slashed enrollment by nearly 26 percent, apparently because of deep cuts in government spending, while several foreign investors are leaving the island, according to official and news media reports. | 05/17/12 06:31:55 By - Juan O. Tamayo

G-8 meeting at presidential retreat at Camp David, Md.

U.S. presidents have long sought relief from battles inside the Beltway and have entertained visiting heads of state at Camp David, the presidential retreat nestled in a mountain range in nearby Maryland. | 05/16/12 19:55:42 By - Lesley Clark

Survivors recall horror of night Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly shot up Afghan village

The story that Rafiullah and Haji Mohammad Naim told McClatchy is the first public account by survivors in their village of the March night when a man shot and killed 17 people in two Afghan villages. U.S. officials have accused Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales of the massacre. | 05/16/12 16:39:34 By - By Jon Stephenson

Amnesty International report says Mali facing its worst crisis in 50 years

Mali is confronting its worst challenges since independence in 1960, including a severe humanitarian emergency, human rights abuses committed by government troops and rebel militias, and international isolation after a military coup two months ago, Amnesty International said in a report released Wednesday. | 05/16/12 16:09:02 By - By ROBYN DIXON

Iconic Cuban cigar goes un-smoked at home

The elderly cigar maker sits at a rustic table next to a tobacco field and a barn filled with hanging rows of aging tobacco and meticulously selects the brown leaves, rolling the most tender ones carefully for the center of the world’s most celebrated tobacco product: the Cuban cigar. | 05/16/12 14:31:36 By - By Maria Recio

US changes requirements for some Cuba trips

The U.S. Treasury Department has tightened a few of its restrictions on trips to Cuba by non-Cuban Americans on so-called "people to people" visits, saying that the revisions will "help to deter abuses." | 05/16/12 06:41:47 By - Juan O. Tamayo

2 killed in Colombia bombing that targeted former Interior minister

Colombian authorities were hunting for the culprits behind a brazen daytime bombing in the capital that killed at least two and left 39 wounded, including former Interior Minister Jose Londono. | 05/16/12 06:41:47 By - Jim Wyss

Germany, with its economy booming, has little sympathy for Greece

The fortunes of Germany and the eurozone it leads have taken sharply divergent paths. As the euro crisis deepens, and more and more neighbors slip down the path toward economic perdition, it is increasingly obvious that the German economy is growing healthier. | 05/15/12 16:02:36 By - By Claudia Himmelreich

Europe’s path uncertain as Hollande takes office in France, new elections set for Greece

The financially besieged European Union embarked on an uncertain path Tuesday, with a new president in France and a call for new elections in Greece, developments that are certain to change the way Europe handles its economic crisis. | 05/15/12 19:20:44 By - By Frederic Castel

Pakistan agrees to reopen NATO supply route to Afghanistan, but for a fee

The cost of the U.S.-led war effort in Afghanistan is about to rise by $365 million annually under an agreement that would reopen a key NATO supply route through Pakistan that’s been closed for nearly six months. | 05/15/12 18:29:02 By - By Saeed Shah

Haiti's parliament votes in a new government

Haiti ended another prolonged period of political uncertainty Monday as the country marked the end of President Michel Martelly's first year in office by ushering in a new government. | 05/15/12 06:37:35 By - Jacqueline Charles

Key Afghanistan peace envoy, Mawlawi Arsala Rahmani, gunned down in Kabul

Unknown assailants on Sunday shot and killed a senior Afghan peace negotiator, government officials said, in the latest major blow to President Hamid Karzai’s two-year-old effort to negotiate a truce with insurgents. | 05/13/12 15:36:30 By - By Ali Safi

Two NATO soldiers killed by men in Afghan police uniforms in latest ‘green-on-blue’ attack

A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force, the official name of the U.S.-led coalition, told McClatchy that one of the attackers was killed when coalition forces returned fire. A hunt is underway for the second attacker, who escaped. | 05/12/12 20:18:26 By - By Jon Stephenson

Israeli activists worry that Netanyahu’s new majority will mean new measures against dissent

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cemented his power this week with a strategic coalition shift that makes him the most powerful head of government Israel has seen in nearly three decades. | 05/11/12 17:28:43 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Case of Chen Guangcheng, blind legal activist, raises question of who really runs China

The plight of a blind man whose only obvious crime was advocacy on behalf of his fellow Chinese is a reminder of a question that remains unanswered about the way China is governed: Why doesn’t Beijing stop the rampant abuse of power by local officials? Are they acting at the behest of the central government, driven to maintain order at any cost? Or are some local powerbrokers left to develop their own fiefdoms, which simply get out of hand? | 05/11/12 16:53:55 By - By Tom Lasseter

British rock star Phil Collins collector of Alamo artifacts

Sandwiched between two respected Texas historians on a hard church pew, the compact Englishman looks nervous, stroking his stubbled chin as he eyes 60 or so people crowded into the Buffalo Gap Chapel waiting for the sound of that voice they couldn't have escaped hearing over the last 40 years. | 05/11/12 16:36:39 By - Steve Campbell

Tiny Guinea-Bissau has big role in drug smuggling, and seems likely to keep it

Guinea-Bissau, on the west coast of Africa, is one of the smallest and poorest countries in the world, but it has a big claim to fame: It’s become a key hub for South American drug traffickers looking to make a few hundred million dollars a year shipping their goods to Europe via West Africa. Protecting the drug trade is thought to have been one of the primary motives behind a military coup here last month. | 05/11/12 15:54:53 By - By Chris Collins

China's artist/activist Ai Weiwei works on exhibit in D.C. museums

If your concept of Chinese art is delicately painted screens and fragile porcelain cups, prepare for your world to be upended on a visit to Washington, D.C. This month, Ai Weiwei, the prolific Chinese artist and political activist, will have two shows on display, and a huge 40-piece retrospective of his work is coming in October. | 05/11/12 12:09:27 By - Tish Wells

For first time ever, Egyptians sees competing candidates debate

Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, 60, a former member of the once outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and Amr Moussa, 75, the former secretary-general of the Arab League, dealt with many of the major issues that will face Egypt’s new leader: the role of religion and state; funding for the ruling military; and how to improve Egypt’s faltering economy. Throughout, each candidate asserted that he was the only proper custodian of the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak. | 05/10/12 19:11:43 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Greece edges closer to default as latest attempt at coalition government fails

Another attempt to assemble a new coalition government in Greece collapsed Thursday, adding to concerns that the country won’t be able to continue with European Union-mandated austerity measures and instead will be forced into default and even expulsion from the euro currency zone. | 05/10/12 17:35:57 By - By Apostolis Fotiadis and Roy Gutman

Palestinians press case of hunger strikers in Israeli prisons

There is no official word on how many Palestinian prisoners are now observing hunger strikes _ estimates vary from 1,500 to over 2,500 _ but there is little doubt that they account for a substantial minority, if not a majority, of the 4,700 Palestinians currently held by Israel. Two, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahlah, are listed in critical condition after going without food for 72 days. | 05/10/12 17:10:46 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Twin car bombs devastate key Syrian intelligence agency in Damascus

A pair of bombings Thursday outside one of the most feared branches of the Syrian intelligence services killed more than 55 people, the Syrian government said. It was the deadliest act of violence in the country’s nearly 14 months of political upheaval. | 05/10/12 17:09:00 By - By David Enders

Experts: Euro was troubled from birth

From its inception, Europe’s move to a common currency was not as much about money as about political unity and guarding against another European conflict. The economics were always known to be, at best, difficult. | 05/10/12 17:01:49 By - By Matthew Schofield

Egyptian candidates’ tough words on peace turn Israel wary

With less than two weeks to go before the first round of Egyptian presidential elections, many in both Israel and Egypt are wondering if peace will hold. Every Egyptian presidential candidate has publically questioned the peace deal, leaving many in both countries to wonder if an arrangement that ousted President Hosni Mubarak defended for three decades isn’t about to fade away. | 05/10/12 15:33:31 By - By Sheera Frenkel and Mohannad Sabry

Use of white noise to block sound at Guantanamo 9/11 hearing was an error, Pentagon says

The Pentagon on Wednesday acknowledged that a court security officer at Guantanamo last weekend erred when he activated a button that cut the audio feed during a hearing for five men accused of plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks. | 05/09/12 20:17:39 By - By Mark Seibel

Syrian troops say cease-fire hasn’t stopped rebel attacks

With a United Nations-sponsored peace plan nearly one month old, Syrian soldiers in the country’s north say rebel forces trying to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad are continuing to launch attacks on their positions daily in apparent violation of a cease-fire and are strong enough that government troops cannot enter several towns and villages near this city. | 05/09/12 16:52:35 By - By David Enders

Mexico looks at rival Brazil and rues its fate

In a spate of self-reflection engendered by election season, Mexico’s politicians are repeatedly taking public measure of their nation against Brazil, a perennial rival in Latin America, and finding themselves coming up short. | 05/09/12 13:19:44 By - By Tim Johnson

Radical Left asked to form government in Greece, but prospects seem grim as New Democracy says no

After making a stunning gain in Sunday’s national elections, Greece’s leading leftist party on Tuesday appeared to run aground in its attempt to form a coalition government, adding to the turmoil in stock markets and raising the prospect that Greek voters will be back at the polls next month. | 05/08/12 19:09:13 By - By Roy Gutman

China expels Al Jazeera correspondent; news channel closes its English bureau in Beijing

A reporter for Al Jazeera’s English-language channel with a reputation for hard-hitting journalism has been expelled from China, the station announced on Tuesday. It was believed to be the first expulsion of a foreign correspondent from China in almost 14 years. | 05/07/12 23:00:33 By - By Tom Lasseter

Neo-Nazi party plots rise as first effort to form new Greek government fails

Greece’s major parties were still in shock Monday from the drubbing voters dealt them in Sunday’s national elections, and it seemed increasingly unlikely they could form a new government. Antonis Samaras, whose right-of-center New Democracy party finished a weak first place, abandoned an attempt to form a new coalition government after just six hours Monday. The far-right Golden Dawn was among the few parties celebrating Sunday’s results. | 05/07/12 19:33:34 By - By Roy Gutman

Europe elections aside, experts say austerity is far from dead

Even as France’s Francois Hollande proclaims that pro-growth measures can help rescue Europe from economic crisis, experts say that only Germany has the money needed to launch a major round of stimulus spending across the euro zone - and it has no intention of sending that much money around the continent. | 05/07/12 19:09:09 By - By Matthew Schofield

Hollande likely to stick with Sarkozy policies on Iran, Syria, but 2012 Afghan withdrawal expected

French President-elect Francois Hollande is likely to speed up the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan and won’t support U.S. efforts to deploy a missile-defense system in Europe, policy changes that would affect France’s position on key international security issues. | 05/07/12 17:55:02 By - By Frederic Castel

Syrian views vary over value of parliamentary elections

Nearly 15 million Syrians were eligible to vote in Monday’s parliamentary vote, according to the government, though it seemed likely that only a fraction of those would actually cast ballots. | 05/07/12 17:00:25 By - By David Enders

Blind lawyer Chen says Chinese officials have promised to issue passports so he can study at NYU

American diplomats were not allowed to meet with blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng over the weekend, but Chinese authorities on Monday told him they will issue the documents he needs to leave the country so that he can study in the United States, Chen told McClatchy. | 05/07/12 15:54:56 By - By Tom Lasseter

Kidnapped American, Warren Weinstein, pleads for his life in new video

An American aid worker kidnapped last year by al Qaida militants in Pakistan has made an impassioned video appeal to President Barack Obama to save his life. | 05/07/12 15:40:15 By - By Saeed Shah

Egyptians wonder if a Muslim Brotherhood president would serve party or country

The Muslim Brotherhood, the most influential political bloc in Egypt, is confronting a new worry among some voters as the country’s presidential election nears: Would a president with Brotherhood roots be subservient to the group’s mourshid, or supreme leader, rather than to the interests of Egypt’s population of more than 80 million? | 05/07/12 01:27:28 By - By Mohannad Sabry and Hannah Allam

9/11 defense attorneys denounce Guantanamo court system as 'rigged,' 'unjust'

The five men accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks used their weekend war court appearances to stage “peaceful resistance to an unjust system” being used for political reasons, defense lawyers said Sunday — a day after the 9/11accused turned the judge’s plans to hold a simple arraignment into a 13-hour marathon of prayer and protest. | 05/06/12 16:53:32 By - By Carol Rosenberg

Parliamentary vote in Syria can’t cover up country’s violent divisions

Nationwide parliamentary elections are scheduled for Monday in Syria, but in this city not far from the border with Lebanon, the only posters on the walls bear the faces of the dead. | 05/06/12 18:16:11 By - By David Enders

Austerity backlash: Sarkozy out in France, ruling parties lose in Greece

French and Greek voters delivered a sharp rebuff to their governments in national elections Sunday, raising questions about the viability of the European Union’s austerity program intended to preserve the euro as Europe’s dominant currency. | 05/06/12 19:50:44 By - By Roy Gutman

Sarkozy loses in France; Greek voters also turn on leaders

Voters in France and Greece delivered a harsh judgment on their ruling parties in elections Sunday, ousting President Nicolas Sarkozy from power in France and severely punishing the two leading parties in Greece. | 05/06/12 12:08:38 By - By Roy Gutman

Guantanamo court hearing for accused 9/11 plotters becomes a 12-hour marathon

“Why is this so hard?” the judge, Army Col. James L. Pohl, declared in exasperation afters hours in which the alleged co-conspirators refused to answer his questions and read while the proceeding took place. The hearing for the five defendants was prolonged by the insistence of one that the charges against him be read aloud and by interruptions for prayer. | 05/05/12 22:30:32 By - By Carol Rosenberg

9/11 case finally gets heaaring at Guantanamo; accused plotters take defiant stand before judge

Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators put on a defiant show at their war court arraignment Saturday, refusing to listen to the proceedings through a headset, causing at least an hour-long stalemate. | 05/05/12 10:44:14 By - By Carol Rosenberg

In voting Sunday, Greece and France are expected to reject austerity measures, roiling Europe’s leaders

French and Greek leaders who backed the European Union’s severe austerity measures are likely to take a drubbing when both countries hold national elections on Sunday, raising pressures on EU leaders to ease the tough fiscal constraints they adopted to head off the euro crisis. | 05/04/12 18:11:14 By - By Roy Gutman

Rioting Egyptians at Defense Ministry say street protests are more effective than elections

The Egyptian military, which has ruled this country by decree for 15 months, “only responds to protests,” Emad Behnessy, 38, a nutritionist, said Friday as protesters and security forces clashed outside the Ministry of Defense. Nearly 300 people were injured and a soldier killed in the melee. | 05/04/12 17:14:19 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng can apply for visa to study abroad as U.S., China reach deal

It remained to be seen how China’s rulers would handle their end of the bargain – state media on Friday called Chen “a tool and a pawn” of the West. But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin also released a statement saying that Chen could submit an application to study overseas “like any other Chinese citizen,” an apparently positive signal about his prospects of leaving for America. | 05/04/12 15:45:15 By - By Tom Lasseter

Spain’s closed Don Quijote airport helps explain Europe’s economic crisis

Aeropuerto Don Quijote in Ciudad Real, Spain, was built in hopes that a theme park based on the medieval classic tale would draw masses of people to the La Mancha region and fuel an employment boom. Instead, the $650 million airport closed last month, another symbol of overspending and misguided planning in one of Europe’s troubled economies. | 05/03/12 18:16:25 By - By Roy Gutman

More Mexican journalists found slain in Veracruz

Police on Thursday found the mutilated bodies of at least two journalists _ and maybe a third _ along a canal in Veracruz, the latest macabre attack on the media in less than a week in the Mexican Gulf coast state. | 05/03/12 18:14:06 By - Tim Johnson

Mexico’s PRI, leading to retake presidency, vows not to return to old ways

The Institutional Revolutionary Party, known by its Spanish initials as the PRI, ruled Mexico for 71 consecutive years before it lost the presidency 12 years ago. Now, with its candidate the front-runner in the July 1 presidential election campaign, it’s trying to recast itself as no longer the corrupt, opaque and repressive machine that gripped Mexico for much of the 20th century in one-party rule. | 05/03/12 16:43:23 By - By Tim Johnson

Osama bin Laden was angry, increasingly irrelevant in final years, letters show

Seventeen letters seized from Osama bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout by the Navy SEALs who found and killed him there last May expose the international terrorist icon in his final years as increasingly irrelevant to his own movement. | 05/03/12 18:07:13 By - By Matthew Schofield

Chen Guangcheng in Beijing hospital says he’d like to leave China, but U.S. options are few

As American officials scrambled Thursday to manage an embarrassing and potentially damaging crisis arising from a deal with Chinese authorities over the fate of blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, a key question came to the fore: Had American officials abandoned Chen by allowing him to leave his refuge at the U.S. Embassy without any way of ensuring that China would treat him well? | 05/03/12 19:32:01 By - By Tom Lasseter

‘Thugs’ attack Islamists outside Egypt’s Defense Ministry, killing 11

In the deadliest outbreak of violence in weeks, at least 11 protesters were killed and at least 150 wounded early Wednesday outside the Defense Ministry in Cairo in clashes with civilian attackers, putting Egypt’s presidential election and already-fragile democratic transition in further turmoil. | 05/02/12 17:38:07 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Amina Ismail

Supporters of Chen Guangcheng say U.S. abandoned him by letting him leave embassy

A U.S.-brokered deal for crusading Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng to leave the protection of the American Embassy in Beijing appeared to be headed for disaster Wednesday night as allegations surfaced that he did so only because China’s government used his family as hostages. The turn of events had many human rights observers questioning a deal that relied on trusting China to protect a dissident whom its officials had abused for years. | 05/02/12 17:02:56 By - By Tom Lasseter

Taliban attack follows Obama’s bid to close Afghanistan war

President Barack Obama sought to use a surprise visit to Afghanistan to start lowering the curtain on the longest war in U.S. history. But as Taliban-led insurgents showed only hours after Obama flew home Wednesday, the bloodletting appears far from over. | 05/02/12 16:46:12 By - By Jonathan S. Landay and Ali Safi

Afghan army members prefer light touch of U.S. to Soviets' heavy hand

How to live easy in China on $475 a month

Young consumers in today’s China, while facing a constantly changing economic landscape, are reaping the benefits of their giant nation’s continuing rise, and they seem well aware of it. | 05/01/12 18:56:28 By - By Mark Melnicoe

Colombian woman at center of Secret Service scandal may get photo spread

Dania Suárez, the Cartagena woman who three weeks ago unleashed the sex scandal that shook the U.S. Secret Service and military, may be trying to sell her exclusive story to magazines such as Playboy or Hustler, according to rumors that have surfaced in this city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. | 05/01/12 18:04:26 By - Alfonso Chardy

Sandinista leader Tomas Borge dies in Nicaragua

Tomas Borge Martinez, the last surviving founder of Nicaragua’s Sandinista Front and a hero of the 1979 revolution that toppled the decades-long Somoza family dynasty, has died at age 81, and the government Tuesday convoked tens of thousands of its followers to a rally that began three days of national mourning. | 05/01/12 17:05:08 By -

In Afghanistan, Obama says wars of 9/11 nearing an end

President Obama told Americans Tuesday that after a decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, “we can see the light of a new day,” even as he signed an agreement that extended the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan. But deadly suicide bombings hours after Obama left underscored Kabul's continued vulnerability. | 05/01/12 20:24:38 By - By Jonathan S. Landay and Lesley Clark

Afghan general says 'Americans work side by side' to build Kabul command

Soviets shaped the Afghan army that Maj. Gen. Mohammad Hashim remembers from his days as an up-and-coming officer. They tended to give the orders, as if his countrymen were working for the Russians. The Americans assisting him today use a lighter touch as they aim to restore a different kind of army, he said. | 05/01/12 07:38:34 By - Adam Ashton

With activist's escape, human rights abuses are at center of U.S.-China talks

The daring escape of a legal activist from extrajudicial house arrest apparently to American diplomatic protection is likely to force U.S. and Chinese officials to confront a subject this week that both sides have approached only cautiously in recent years: China’s abysmal record on human rights. | 04/30/12 16:35:06 By - By Tom Lasseter

A year after bin Laden raid, Pakistan still harboring U.S.’s biggest enemies

A year after Osama bin Laden was found and killed, Pakistan still harbors, willingly or unwillingly, America’s greatest enemies: current al Qaida chief Ayman al Zawahiri and Afghan insurgent leaders Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Mohammad Omar. | 04/30/12 17:34:38 By - By Saeed Shah

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng escapes house arrest, activists say

A Chinese legal crusader, blind since childhood, has escaped from extrajudicial house arrest in eastern China and has been smuggled to Beijing, according to a rights group that has tracked his case closely and claimed to be in contact. | 04/27/12 15:52:00 By - By Tom Lasseter

After Osama bin Laden, al Qaida still a many-headed threat

A year ago, U.S. Navy SEALs slipped into a heavily fortified compound in Pakistan and killed the face of international terrorism. There is a growing fear, however, that Osama bin Laden’s death didn’t even seriously wound the international terror threat. | 04/26/12 17:00:00 By - By Matthew Schofield

Final Egyptian candidates named, but election clouds remain

After weeks of disputes over candidate eligibility, Egypt’s election commission on Thursday announced the final list of names that will appear on the ballot next month in the first presidential election since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak last year. | 04/26/12 16:54:56 By - By Hannah Allam and Mohannad Sabry

Details of Secret Service sex scandal in Colombia still emerging

The investigation is hardly over of a scandal that’s added a new issue to the presidential campaign and raised questions in Congress about whether contact with prostitutes by members of the team preparing for Obama’s attendance at the Summit of the Americas compromised his security. One taxi driver said a man who identified himself as a U.S. investigator had approached him with pictures of women who might have slept with agents. | 04/26/12 16:22:26 By - By Alfonso Chardy

Conviction of Pakistan leader roils new democracy

Pakistan was thrown into fresh political turmoil Thursday after the prime minister was convicted of contempt of court. | 04/26/12 16:54:52 By - By Saeed Shah

Is International Criminal Court the best way to stop war crimes?

The International Criminal Court has completed only one trial since it was created 10 years ago to prosecute the perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. That’s raised questions about whether the court, born in the wake of atrocities in Bosnia and Rwanda, is the best way to stop genocide. | 04/26/12 15:24:39 By - By Roy Gutman

Chinese village leader gets life sentence for assault in Liuzhangzi Township

The Chinese village leader who assaulted local officials and burned down a township government building this January has been given a life sentence, according to his family and lawyer. | 04/25/12 14:39:01 By - By Tom Lasseter

Son of Bo Xilai defends his record, lifestyle at Harvard

The son of disgraced former Chinese Communist Party leader Bo Xilai publicly defended his record and pushed back against rumors of a lavish lifestyle in a statement to the Harvard University student newspaper. | 04/25/12 14:37:44 By - By Tom Lasseter

Israel’s new ties to Azerbaijan worry neighboring Iran

The burgeoning relationship between Israel and Azerbaijan is raising eyebrows throughout the Middle East, not least of all because Azerbaijan is Iran’s neighbor to the north and shares close cultural and demographic ties with Iran. | 04/25/12 20:03:17 By - By Sheera Frenkel

20 years after war began, Bosnia grows more divided

Twenty years ago this month, fighting erupted in Bosnia in what became Europe’s deadliest post-World War II conflict. Now the country is more divided than at any time since the war ended. | 04/25/12 15:57:57 By - By Jonathan S. Landay

Chinese village leader gets life sentence for assault in Liuzhangzi Township

Son of Bo Xilai defends his record, lifestyle at Harvard

Amid allegations of family corruption, the son of disgraced former Chinese Communist Party leader Bo Xilai publicly defended his own record and pushed back against rumors of a lavish lifestyle in a statement to the Harvard University student newspaper, saying that his expensive education was paid by scholarships and savings. | 04/25/12 12:04:09 By - By Tom Lasseter

In Cuba, young people long for a way to access Facebook

The Cuban government is slowly introducing modern technology into society, possibly at its own peril. Young Cubans say they’re frustrated they can’t use Facebook and other programs like their peers around the world, especially since they can’t travel. | 04/24/12 15:47:51 By - By Franco Ordonez

Obama announces new sanctions on Syria and Iran

President Barack Obama took aim Monday at Syria and Iran, imposing new sanctions on the two regimes as well as the “digital guns for hire” that develop technology enabling the two governments to monitor, track and harass their own people. | 04/23/12 18:25:57 By - By Lesley Clark

Carter Center among 8 U.S. NGOs Egypt says it won’t license to work there

Egypt’s caretaker government on Monday denied licenses to eight U.S.-based civil society groups, effectively suspending their work here, on grounds that their activism posed a threat to national sovereignty. | 04/23/12 18:04:58 By - By Hannah Allam

Rare inside view of Syria’s rebels finds a force vowing to fight on

The story of the Katiba Farouq, or the Farouq Brigade, has been eclipsed over the past year by news coverage that’s remained focused on the Syrian government’s shelling of urban neighborhoods. But in the months since they took up arms last August, Farouq fighters have discovered the Syrian military’s weaknesses, and despite some reversals, still appear capable of inflicting heavy casualties whenever the Syrian army attempts to enter rebel-held areas. | 04/23/12 18:30:06 By - By David Enders

Sudan's Bashir, in Heglig, vows no peace talks as jets hit Bentiu in South Sudan

Sudanese war jets launched four missiles into this key South Sudanese state capital Monday, killing at least one and wounding 10 others as tensions continued to rise along the disputed South Sudan-Sudan border. | 04/23/12 16:04:36 By - By Alan Boswell

Egypt reportedly cuts natural gas supply to Israel

Egypt has terminated its contract to supply natural gas to Israel, ending a joint venture that served as a cornerstone of the peace process between the neighbouring states. | 04/22/12 18:28:56 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Sudan launches major attack on South Sudan

Sudanese forces launched a major attack along the border with South Sudan after the South Sudanese army withdrew from a disputed oil field on Friday, signaling that the recent border war between the two countries is not yet over and might be entering a new phase. | 04/22/12 18:03:59 By - By Alan Boswell

U.S. and Afghanistan agree on strategic partnership

President Hamid Karza's government announced on Sunday that it has finalized an agreement on a long-term Afghan-U.S strategic partnership. | 04/22/12 16:09:35 By - By Ali Safi

Colombians say Secret Service sex scandal tarnishes nation’s image, but blame U.S. men

Surrounded by wall-mounted flat screens playing continuous deafening music videos, male patrons at La Dolce Vita nightclub face rows of young women in high heels and miniskirts sitting or standing by the bar, some swaying to the salsa songs. | 04/21/12 18:59:17 By - By Alfonso Chardy

South Sudan, reeling from Sudan counterattack, says it will withdraw from Heglig

South Sudan announced Friday that it will pull its forces from the disputed border territory of Heglig, a move that from the ground appeared more like a retreat intended to cover up a military thrashing at the hands of a Sudanese counterattack. | 04/20/12 20:19:20 By - Alan Boswell

Colombia probes whether women in Secret Service sex scandal were under age

Colombian authorities have opened a preliminary investigation into the U.S. Secret Service prostitution scandal out of concern that underage women might have been involved, a Colombian government official told McClatchy on Friday. | 04/20/12 19:51:32 By - By Alfonso Chardy

In Bo Xilai scandal, China’s national leaders fear their undoing

On the day the Chinese Communist Party announced that Bo Xilai had been removed from all his party posts and that his wife, Gu Kailai, was suspected in the murder of a British businessman, a mob of at least 10,000 people took over the streets of sprawling Chongqing’s distant districts. It was timely remind of the peril the Communist Party confronts. | 04/20/12 18:22:17 By - By Tom Lasseter

As divided as ever, Egypt’s revolutionaries return to Tahrir Square

From a distance, the massive demonstration Friday in Tahrir Square recalled what Egyptians consider the good old days of their uprising: thousands of protesters, Islamists and liberals alike, converging to demand the ouster of outdated authoritarians. | 04/20/12 17:58:08 By - By Hannah Allam

Best course for Iranian nuclear talks: Take it slow, say experts

Whether a deal comes off next month to end a 10-year-long international standoff with Iran depends on whether both sides can put aside their historical complaints against each other and focus instead on immediate, concrete confidence-building steps, according to experts in and out of government. That means accepting that whatever those steps may be, they’ll like be baby ones. | 04/20/12 16:31:12 By - By Roy Gutman

Airliner crashes in Pakistan, killing all 127 aboard

An airliner on a domestic flight crashed Friday near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad with 127 people on board after trying to land in stormy weather, officials and news reports said. | 04/20/12 20:58:54 By - By Saeed Shah

Lewis-McChord unit enters Taliban 'homeground' in Afghanistan

The 3,500 soldiers in a Joint Base Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade are taking on new territory in Afghanistan this week, absorbing one of the war’s most challenging corners as they cover more ground than they’ve ever covered on this or their three Iraq combat tours. | 04/20/12 07:22:03 By - Adam Ashton

UN's Ban Ki-moon calls South Sudan's capture of Heglig an 'illegal act'

The secretary-general of the United Nations on Thursday blasted U.S. ally South Sudan for seizing an oil town on its border with Sudan, calling the military move “an illegal act” and demanding that the country, which split from Sudan last year under a U.S.-brokered peace accord, withdraw its troops. | 04/19/12 19:42:45 By - Matthew Schofield

Syria’s Farouq rebels battle to hold onto Qusayr, last outpost near Lebanese border

As representatives of the more than 70 countries dubbed Friends of Syria met in Paris Thursday to discuss aid to the country’s opposition, some of the rebel fighters in Qusayr wondered if it might already be too late. The fighters had fled Homs in late February. Now they worry they won’t be able to withstand Syrian army forays into Qusayr, a city that once held 35,000 people but is now largely abandoned. | 04/19/12 18:08:55 By - By David Enders

Egypt’s Salafists on edge of political exile as their candidates are disqualified

For the past year, Egypt’s ultra-conservative Salafist movement has been riding a rising wave of political influence. Then this week, the country’s election commission disqualified the candidates Salafists found most attractive. Now analysts are wondering how the Salafists will react. | 04/19/12 17:48:23 By - By Hannah Allam

Afghan insurgents post propaganda videos on latest attacks

Videos and pictures that the Taliban have posted online purportedly show the insurgents who staged this week’s attacks in Kabul and three provinces, with two fighters declaring that the suicide missions were to avenge the inadvertent burning of Qurans and the alleged massacre of villagers by U.S. troops. The material is highly stylized, perhaps indicating that the operations were more for propaganda purposes than military gain. | 04/19/12 16:53:47 By - By Ali Safi and Jonathan S. Landay

In Israel, remembering the forgotten survivors of the Holocaust

According to the Israeli government, roughly 30 percent of Holocaust survivors in Israel live below the poverty line. There are still 198,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel, but every hour another one of them dies, say government officials. It’s an outrage to many Israelis that many survivors can’t live out their last days in dignity. | 04/19/12 15:48:48 By -

New Afghanistan war photos part of a long, controversial tradition

The photos released Wednesday of U.S. service members posing with fallen enemies in Afghanistan are ‘morally repugnant,’ officials say, but hardly the first to show soldiers behaving badly in wartime. | 04/19/12 14:21:51 By - By Matthew Schofield

Syrian rebels, but not residents, have returned to contested area

When the Syrian government stepped up its offensive against rebels before a cease-fire took effect a week ago, the towns between Homs and the Lebanese border were hit especially hard. Thousands fled as the army pushed to cut rebels’ supply lines. Now, as the cease-fire sputters, the rebels have returned, but not many civilians or any semblance of normal life. | 04/18/12 05:00:00 By - By David Enders

Syrian army, rebels trade blows at Qusayr in cease-fire breach

Rebels at the city of Qusayr fought the military in a breach of a U.N.-sponsored cease-fire that was rare primarily because an independent journalist witnessed it. | 04/18/12 05:00:00 By - By David Enders

In Pakistan, Hafiz Saeed protests $10 million U.S. bounty for his capture

Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the Pakistani Islamist leader on whom the United States placed a $10 million bounty earlier this month, filed a court challenge Wednesday demanding that the Pakistani government provide him security and pressure Washington to lift the reward for his capture. | 04/18/12 05:00:00 By - By Saeed Shah

U.S. envoy: South Sudan’s capture of Heglig went “beyond self-defense”

The seizure by South Sudan troops of an oil town inside Sudan has put Washington in a difficult position. U.S. policy has long favored South Sudan over Sudan, partly in response to a pro-South Sudan lobby in the U.S. that sees South Sudanese as victims of Sudan’s northern, Arab elites. But special envoy Princeton Lyman said South Sudan’s capture of Heglig went “beyond self-defense.” | 04/18/12 17:12:01 By - By Alan Boswell

Egyptian panel confirms Suleiman, Shater and Abu Ismail can’t run for presidency

Egypt’s election commission on Tuesday upheld a ban on the country’s three leading presidential candidates - a former spy chief, a Muslim Brotherhood stalwart and a right-wing cleric - in a decision that immediately triggered demonstrations by some furious supporters. | 04/17/12 17:49:45 By - By Hannah Allam and Mohannad Sabry

Did a business deal gone wrong lead to China murder case?

A sign of how strange things have become in Chongqing and China, in general: One can ask, out loud and with a straight face, “Did the wife of a disgraced Chinese official, or her butler, poison a dashing British businessman at the Lucky Holiday Hotel?” | 04/17/12 17:14:02 By - By Tom Lasseter

Pakistan deports bin Laden’s family to Saudi Arabia

Pakistan early Wednesday was scheduled to deport the 14 members of Osama bin Laden’s family who had lived with him in a garrison town near Islamabad until U.S. forces killed him in a raid in May 2011. | 04/17/12 16:26:01 By - By Tom Hussain

For an American, Havana is filled with contradictions

Classic cars, decaying mansions and revolutionary signs fill almost every corner of Havana. Once one of the richest cities in Latin America, Havana now seems frozen in time, as if it’s been locked away in a misplaced time capsule from a bygone era — or an old ‘50s movie set in desperate need of repairs and a paint job. | 04/17/12 15:54:00 By - By Franco Ordonez

Ban on Egypt’s top 3 presidential candidates gives hope to Hamdeen Sabahi’s campaign

Hamdeen Sabahi’s presidential campaign was considered unlikely to succeed, until Saturday, when the three leading candidates for Egypt’s top job were banned from the race. Now Sabahi may have a chance, as might several other candidates who were considered second tier. | 04/17/12 06:23:23 By - By Mohannad Sabry

Colombian escort industry still abuzz over summit sex scandal

U.S. Secret Service agents and military personnel are under investigation for allegedly taking prostitutes to a Cartagena hotel but the Colombian city has “tolerance zones’’ where prostitution is legal. | 04/16/12 20:59:26 By - By Jim Wyss

Final volume in CIA's official history of Bay of Pigs invasion still in dispute

More than 50 years after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, the CIA is fighting a lawsuit filed by The National Security Archive seeking release of the final volume of its official history. | 04/16/12 20:52:58 By - By Mimi Whitefield

Amid a trail of corpses, little doubt that Sudan, South Sudan are now at war

Nine months after Sudan split into two nations in search of a peace brokered by the United States, it is now clear that the two sides are at war. | 04/16/12 19:13:08 By - By Alan Boswell

Guinea-Bissau coup leaders close borders, airport

Four days into a military takeover of the tiny West African nation of Guinea-Bissau, coup leaders suspended the constitution, dissolved Parliament and sealed the borders. The leading candidate for the presidency remained under arrest. | 04/16/12 18:59:38 By - By Chris Collins and Amadu Uri Djalo

Did U.S. miss 2010 chance for Iran nuke deal? Turkey says yes

The United States missed an opportunity to ease concerns about Iran's nuclear program nearly two years ago when it rejected a carefully negotiated deal that would have allowed Western powers to provide Iran uranium for its nuclear reactors, interviews and new research suggest. | 04/16/12 12:03:31 By - Roy Gutman

Regional summit’s future in doubt without Cuba

Although President Juan Manuel Santos declared a summit of 30 nations from the Americas a success because thorny issues, including Cuba, were discussed with “frankness,” the leaders’ failure to reach agreement cast doubt on the future of such regional meetings. | 04/16/12 15:35:39 By - By Sibylla Brodzinsky

Taliban lead attacks on U.S. bases and government sites across Afghanistan

Taliban-led insurgents opened a spring offensive Sunday with a wave of coordinated suicide missions, firing at embassies and government offices from seized buildings in Kabul and attacking U.S. bases and police stations in three eastern provinces. | 04/15/12 17:51:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay and Ali Safi

Reforms come slowly in post-Saleh Yemen

Seven weeks after the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule, what is the fate of the movement that spurred the end to his three decades in power? | 04/15/12 15:29:00 By - Adam Baron

In Cuba, baby steps on the long road to economic reform

Sergio Luis Suarez, 24, is among the new faces of Cuba's budding business class. He used to cut hair for profit before it was legal, but now he's licensed by the government and has transformed the front of his mother's apartment into a makeshift salon. His monthly profit: about $25, at 50 cents a cut. | 04/15/12 14:11:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Agreement reached with Iran on formal nuclear talks in May

Opening a new chapter in their long, stormy relationship with Iran, the United States and five other major powers agreed Saturday to sit down with the Tehran government in six weeks for formal talks aimed at ensuring that its nuclear program will not lead to nuclear weapons. | 04/14/12 19:52:00 By - Roy Gutman

Egypt election officials bar 3 top candidates from presidential race

In a move that could rechart the course of Egypt's landmark presidential polls, the election commission late Saturday barred the top three candidates from the race for failing to meet eligibility criteria. | 04/14/12 18:06:00 By - Hannah Allam and Mohannad Sabry

Sudan bombards Bentiu as clashes with South Sudan escalate

Sudanese war planes on Saturday bombed a key state capital in South Sudan for the second time in three days in the latest escalation of a border conflict that has pushed the two old foes the closest that they've been in years to all-out war. | 04/14/12 15:45:00 By - Alan Boswell

Burhanuddin Rabbani's son named to restart Afghanistan peace efforts

The eldest son of the slain former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani was chosen Saturday to replace his father as head of the council charged with overseeing reconciliation with the Taliban-led insurgency. | 04/14/12 14:22:00 By - Ali Safi and Jonathan S. Landay

Did effort to stop drug payoffs to military trigger Guinea-Bissau coup?

One day after the military in this tiny West African nation shelled a presidential candidate's home and sealed this capital city from outsiders, it was still unclear Friday who, exactly, was in charge. | 04/13/12 18:32:00 By - Chris Collins

Cease-fire survives as Syrians protest without major bloodshed

Thousands of people held street rallies across Syria on Friday to protest the government of President Bashar Assad, the first test of a U.N.-brokered ceasefire that went into effect Thursday. By most accounts, the cease-fire held. | 04/13/12 17:41:00 By - David Enders

In Cuba, international businesses abound - just not from the U.S.

Leaving Jose Marti International Airport in this capital city, a billboard reminds vividly of the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. It shows a noose with the phrase, "Blockade: The Longest Genocide in History." The embargo, partially imposed in 1960 and fully in place two years later, is not a blockade. That's clear by the abundance of foreign goods and investment in Cuba. | 04/13/12 14:51:00 By - Kevin G. Hall and Franco Ordonez

Vatican and Oxford libraries announce joint digital conversion of some manuscripts, books

More world literature just got its door kicked open digitally. For the first time scholars will be able to compare material kept in the separate collections for centuries. | 04/13/12 12:49:47 By - Tish Wells

For Lewis-McChord troops, restoring Afghan sovereignty means locals make decisions

When U.S. forces depart this rural district, home to the tribe of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, they’ll leave behind small monuments to their shifting strategies in 11 years of fighting here. | 04/13/12 07:28:24 By - Adam Ashton

Rocket launch failure has some questioning North Korea's next move

After the embarrassment of a controversial North Korean rocket launch ending in explosion on Friday morning, observers are now left to wonder what Pyongyang might do next. | 04/13/12 06:46:42 By - Tom Lasseter

Tiny Guinea-Bissau becomes latest West African nation hit by coup

The military here took control of the national radio station Thursday night and raided the headquarters of the country's ruling party, raising fears that another coup is unfolding in West Africa. | 04/12/12 19:56:00 By - Chris Collins

Egyptian lawmakers move to block former spy chief's presidential bid

Egyptian lawmakers voted Thursday to disqualify presidential candidates who served in senior positions in Hosni Mubarak's government, reflecting the anxiety in political circles over the campaign of Omar Suleiman, the country's longtime spy chief and a CIA ally. | 04/12/12 17:41:00 By - Hannah Allam and Mohannad Sabry

Now the debate begins: Is UN's Syria cease-fire working or not?

Syrian government forces appeared Thursday largely to have ended their attacks on anti-government strongholds, adhering to a United Nations-brokered cease-fire. | 04/12/12 17:06:00 By - David Enders

In Sudan's Nuba Mountains, rebels roll up string of victories

The war between the rebels in Sudan's Nuba Mountains — most of them African Christians or animists — and the Arab Muslim government of Sudanese President Omar al Bashir in Khartoum has raged for decades. Hundreds of thousand have died, and Sudan's South Kordofan state is a humanitarian wasteland, where aerial bombing by government planes has driven thousands of villagers into the countryside. | 04/12/12 16:28:00 By - Alan Boswell

After Himalayan avalanche, many in Pakistan call for patching ties with India

The probable loss of an entire garrison of Pakistani troops to a Himalayan avalanche on the country's disputed border with India has firmed national support for settling the longstanding political disputes between the nuclear-armed neighbors. | 04/12/12 14:45:00 By - Tom Hussain

Karzai says he's considering early presidential election

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that he is considering moving the election for his successor up by a year to avoid complicating the drawdown of U.S.-led NATO forces due to be completed by the end of 2014. | 04/12/12 08:54:00 By - Ali Safi

Confusion reigned in aftermath of Afghanistan massacre

One month after Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly went on a killing spree here in southern Afghanistan, the saying that "the first casualty of war is truth" continues to hold true in the deaths of eight adults and nine children in the villages of Najiban and Alkozai. | 04/11/12 17:00:00 By - Jon Stephenson

Accusations of massacres and continued fighting as Syria deadline looms

Syrian security forces on Wednesday undertook fewer military operations involving armor and heavy artillery ahead of Thursday's cease-fire deadline but conducted raids and arrests in the country's northern and central regions that left at least five people dead. | 04/11/12 15:53:00 By - David Enders

China carefully managing public reaction to Bo Xilai's downfall

China's Communist Party sought Wednesday to manage a high-stakes balance between announcing the removal of a once-rising political star from his position and the investigation of his wife in a homicide case with the risk of that news creating public unease. | 04/11/12 11:13:00 By - Tom Lasseter

As North Korea readies rocket test, U.S. policy faulted

As North Korea said Tuesday that it was ready to launch a long-range rocket later this week, prompting stern criticism from U.S. officials, experts said the planned launch revealed weaknesses in American policy toward the rogue nation. | 04/10/12 18:13:00 By - Matthew Schofield

Violence drops in Syria, but cease-fire success far from certain

A U.N.-sponsored plan to end the violence in Syria got off to a rocky start Tuesday, with Syria's foreign minister claiming that soldiers had begun to pull out of urban areas while anti-government activists charged that military operations were continuing throughout the country. | 04/10/12 18:00:00 By - David Enders

Wife of ex-top China official Bo Xilai suspected of killing Briton Neil Heywood

In a stunning twist to one of China's biggest scandals in decades, state media confirmed Tuesday that Bo Xilai, once seen as a rising political star, has been suspended from his seat on the nation's politburo and his wife is a suspect in the killing of a British businessman. | 04/10/12 17:01:00 By - Tom Lasseter

Bosnians watching Syria with a sense of having been there

When snipers fired into a crowd of peaceful demonstrators in the capital of the newly declared state of Bosnia-Herzegovina in April 1992, few Bosnians imagined it would be the start of a 3 1/2 year war in which 11,541 men, women and children would die in the siege of Sarajevo alone. | 04/10/12 16:43:00 By - Roy Gutman

On the road in Cuba, tales of woe and yearning

If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Ostensibly, I was in Cuba to cover Pope Benedict XVI's visit. Waiting for my small rental car at the Havana airport, the overworked rental agent finally offered me a huge diesel-powered vehicle if I'd get on my way. I spent most of the following week offering ordinary Cubans a ride in my gray Hyundai van. | 04/10/12 13:18:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

China fires Bo Xilai from posts, says wife suspected in Briton's murder

Suicide bombings target Afghanistan government offices, kill 19

At least 19 people, most of them police officers, died and dozens of others were injured Tuesday in three suicide attacks on government buildings in western and southern Afghanistan, officials said. | 04/10/12 11:29:48 By - Ali Safi

U.S. and Brazilian presidents talk trade, economics at White House meeting

The leaders of the Americas' two largest democracies met Monday at the White House, with President Barack Obama and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff stressing collaborating in areas such as education, science and technology and discussing the need to strengthen their economic relationship. | 04/09/12 20:07:31 By - Vinod Sreeharsha and Lesley Clark

Muslim Brotherhood candidate Khairat el Shater focused on Egypt's economy

The Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate — a self-made multimillionaire tycoon — on Monday emphasized free-market capitalism and reducing corruption as pillars of his long-term platform toward Egypt's "renaissance." | 04/09/12 17:51:00 By - Hannah Allam

Fighting reported in half of Syria's provinces as ceasefire deadline nears

Syrian soldiers battled anti-government rebels in half of the country's 14 provinces on Monday, three days before a United Nations-backed ceasefire is to take effect, anti-government activists said. More than 100 people were killed across the country Monday, according to the activists. | 04/09/12 17:22:00 By - David Enders

Weapons smugglers thrive in chaos of western Pakistan

The P226, a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol made by the weapons manufacturer SIG Sauer, is a favorite of law enforcement agencies and militaries worldwide, from the FBI and Navy SEALs to NATO troops in Afghanistan and police departments across the United States. | 04/09/12 14:49:00 By - Tom Hussain

What could Obama learn from Brazil president Dilma Rousseff?

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff might not get a formal state visit or even Washington's attention for a full day when she meets President Barack Obama on Monday, but she brings at least one thing the U.S. leader should heed — a 77 percent approval rating and respect from critics. | 04/08/12 17:02:00 By - Vinod Sreeharsha

Afghan forces to lead special operations

All special operations — including night raids — will be led by Afghan security forces, under a deal signed Sunday between the United States and Afghanistan. | 04/08/12 16:18:00 By - Ali Safi

Israel bars German author over poem critical of its nuclear arsenal

Israel's interior minister declared the celebrated German author Gunter Grass "persona non grata" on Sunday, barring his entry to the country, in response to a new poem in which the Nobel laureate called Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal a threat to world peace. | 04/08/12 14:03:00 By - Joel Greenberg

Has Syria really agreed to U.N. cease-fire?

Contradicting reports from the United Nations last week that Syria's government had agreed to a cease fire that would have gone into effect on Thursday, the Syrian government said Sunday it would not withdraw troops from restive areas unless it received "written agreements" from armed rebels dedicated to the ouster of Syrian president Bashar al Assad. | 04/08/12 13:31:00 By - David Enders

Egypt's former spy chief runs for president, Islamist candidate excluded

Deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's longtime spy chief officially joined the country's crowded presidential race Saturday, billing himself as a counterweight to influential Islamist candidates. | 04/07/12 18:18:00 By - Mohannad Sabry

Flights grounded at Yemen airport

Flights from Sanaa International Airport were grounded Saturday, in the wake of fears that forces loyal to recently sacked air force head, General Mohamed Saleh al-Ahmar, half-brother of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, would target civilian planes in retaliation for his replacement. | 04/07/12 16:33:00 By - Adam Baron

Avalanche buries garrison of Pakistani troops

An avalanche Saturday buried alive a garrison of at least 100 Pakistani troops stationed on a glacier high in the Himalayas that has been fought over with India for 30 years. | 04/07/12 14:45:00 By - Tom Hussain

A Syrian rebel commander bemoans lack of international aid

After spending six and a half months in northern Syria commanding a ragtag local resistance force, whose small arms and homemade bombs are no match for the army's tanks, artillery and militia, Abdullah Awdeh crossed the border into Turkey late last month in search of aid. | 04/07/12 14:11:00 By - Roy Gutman

Brazil-U.S. dispute over planes for Afghanistan likely topic of presidential talks

When Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff meets with President Barack Obama on Monday at the White House, the two leaders are likely to publicly use phrases like "deepening friendship" and "partnership" and highlight collaborations in science and education. | 04/06/12 19:45:00 By - Vinod Sreeharsha

Egypt's presidential race shaken over mother's citizenship

Egypt's tumultuous presidential campaign, already roiled by the decision of the conservative Muslim Brotherhood to run a candidate after months of promises that it wouldn't, was in turmoil Friday over the possible exclusion of a popular Islamist candidate because his mother holds an American passport. | 04/06/12 18:29:00 By - Mohannad Sabry

Survivors tell of bloody aftermath to fight in Taftanaz, Syria

Wounded Syrians being treated in hospitals here are providing detailed accounts of a bloody battle for the town of Taftanaz in northern Syria earlier this week that left the town devastated and scores of residents and an unknown number of soldiers dead. | 04/06/12 18:26:00 By - Anand Gopal

With peace deadline nearing, Syria sends helicopters against rebels

The Syrian military stepped up its campaign against anti-government rebels Thursday as a deadline for the government to implement a U.N.-sponsored peace plan approached, while the country's fractured opposition took a step toward unity with representatives of Syria's Kurdish minority. | 04/05/12 16:28:00 By - David Enders

News organizations protest closure of Guantanamo hearing

News organizations including The McClatchy Co., The Washington Post and The New York Times filed an objection Thursday to Pentagon plans to close a terrorism hearing next week where details could emerge of a detainee's mistreatment at secret CIA prisons overseas. | 04/05/12 18:19:00 By - Matthew Schofield

Iraq unstable, sectarian, with signs of authoritarian rule

Iraqi leaders are trying their best to prove wrong all the naysayers who predicted that the U.S. military's withdrawal last December would precipitate the country's immediate collapse and de facto annexation to Iran. However, 10 days in Baghdad, after an absence of more than a year, made it apparent that post-American Iraq remains an unstable, deeply sectarian state that's verging on authoritarianism under the veneer of a U.S.-friendly Muslim democracy. | 04/05/12 17:18:00 By - Hannah Allam

Wealth of Muslim Brotherhood's presidential hopeful worries some Egyptians

The Muslim Brotherhood's decision to nominate a prominent business tycoon, Khairat el Shater, for Egypt's presidency has raised concerns that another economically powerful dictatorship is about to take over the politically volatile nation. | 04/04/12 18:57:00 By - Mohannad Sabry

Israeli police evict Jewish settlers from house in Hebron

Israeli police evicted Jewish settlers Wednesday from a house in this volatile West Bank city, heading off what they feared was an attempt to expand settlement enclaves here. | 04/04/12 17:20:00 By - Joel Greenberg

For Mexican police, splashy arrests trump criminal convictions

It all began with confusion over a name, and it still isn't over for Aldo Christopher Granada Rivera. After eight months in a Mexican prison, he developed a facial tic and flinches at the sound of sirens. | 04/04/12 14:56:00 By - Tim Johnson

In Israeli exhibit, capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann still resonates

The man who was showing a group of school supervisors around the museum exhibit looked unassuming enough, wearing a plaid shirt, gray jeans and black Converse sneakers, a pair of sunglasses perched on his forehead. | 04/04/12 11:48:00 By - Joel Greenberg

3 U.S. soldiers among dead in northern Afghanistan

Three American soldiers were among at least nine people who were killed Wednesday when a suicide bomber wearing civilian clothes blew himself up in the northwestern Afghan province of Faryab, local officials said. | 04/04/12 11:27:17 By - Ali Safi

Lewis-McChord soldiers in Afghanistan see sudden action

The insurgents didn’t have a chance. Helicopter surveillance spotted them moving to a weapons cache and preparing to bury a powerful homemade bomb. It weighed 45 pounds, and they took turns carrying it. | 04/04/12 08:27:26 By - Adam Ashton

Mexican plan for Gulf deepwater wells sparks new worries

Two years after the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, Mexico's state oil company is about to test its hand at drilling at extraordinary depths in the Gulf of Mexico. | 04/03/12 14:17:00 By - Tim Johnson

U.S. announces $10 million reward for Pakistani militant figure

Pakistan was stung Tuesday by the U.S. State Department's announcement of a $10 million reward for the capture or conviction of the founder of a Pakistani militant group that allegedly carried out the November 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai, India's largest city. | 04/03/12 16:49:00 By - Tom Hussain

Only one shooter likely in Kandahar killings, Afghan investigator says

The chief Afghan investigator in last month's slayings of 17 civilians says there's strong evidence that only one killer was involved, a view that puts him at odds with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai. | 04/03/12 16:21:00 By - Jon Stephenson

After sentencing, bin Laden's family might leave Pakistan soon

Pakistan's government might wash its hands of Osama bin Laden's family as early as April 17, after an Islamabad court's decision Monday to impose the lightest possible sentence on his three widows and two teenage daughters for violating minor immigration laws. | 04/02/12 16:36:00 By - Tom Hussain

In rare interviews, Syrian ex-soldiers talk of killing civilians

Former Syrian soldiers who've escaped to northern Iraq are telling grisly stories of how their units executed unarmed civilians for demonstrating against the Assad regime and staged mass reprisals when residents shot back, on one occasion lining up and shooting 30defenseless civilians. | 04/02/12 15:40:00 By - Roy Gutman

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