Russia worries about its high inflation
Larissa Vasilyeva wound her way through a bustling outdoor food market in a working-class neighborhood in southwest Moscow, tallying in her head the rubles and kopecks she had left to spend for the week and wondering how much more food she should buy. A year ago, Vasilyeva said, she spent about 1,500 rubles a week on groceries, some $59 at the time. Now, she spends 2,000 to 2,500, about $107 at the high end. | 07/17/08 16:58:00 By - Tom Lasseter
Olympic traffic restrictions slow China's booming commerce
Road checkpoints erected this week around Beijing to boost security for the Olympic Games have put a chokehold on regional commerce and created ripples likely to reach as far as U.S. store shelves. Long lines of trucks formed at dozens of highway checkpoints around China's capital, leaving many drivers grumbling that they were unable to make deliveries. | 07/17/08 15:04:00 By - Tim Johnson
Argentine Senate rejects disputed tax; farmers rejoice
In a stunning blow to President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina's Senate early Thursday morning narrowly defeated a controversial increase in grain export taxes that's sparked four months of paralyzing protests by farmers. | 07/17/08 10:46:00 By - Peter Hudson and Jack Chang
Cuban workers allege they were virtual slaves in Curacao
Documents filed in an ongoing 2006 lawsuit against a Curacao drydock company show that employment terms normally kept secret between the Cuban government and the firms with which it does business sometimes involve unpaid labor. Instead of a salary, the Cubans working at the shipyard in Willemstad, Curacao, got money for food and 400 Cuban pesos a month — about $18. They also got two pairs of overalls, a set of sturdy boots, and a helmet. Their wages went to pay of Cuban government debt. | 07/17/08 06:49:16 By - Frances Robles
In major shift, U.S. diplomat to join Iran nuclear talks Saturday
Diplomats in Vienna, home of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and in Washington doubt that Iran will engage in real bargaining until Bush leaves office. But Bush's decision to send a senior U.S. envoy to Europe for the first face-to-face talks with Iran on its nuclear program represents a step away from military confrontation. | 07/16/08 18:47:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel
Chile's right wing, out for 18 years, is making a comeback
When democracy returned to Chile nearly two decades ago, politicians from the left and center realized they needed to work together to make sure the bad old days of political polarization didn't return. Their efforts succeeded — until now. A new poll shows Sebastian Pinera, the likely candidate of the conservative Alliance for Chile, handily beating any of the ruling coalition's candidates. | 07/16/08 15:51:00 By - Jack Chang
Sikhs losing tradition in translation
Over the last two decades, the Valley's Indian immigrants have built at least a dozen Sikh temples to serve a growing community. But many temples are often short of one thing: young adults, some of whom say they feel like outsiders. | 07/16/08 06:46:18 By - Vanessa Colon
Jubilant Lebanese welcome home man Israelis say killed 3
As an Israeli military convoy carrying two flag-wrapped coffins wound slowly through Israel on Wednesday, convicted killer Samir Kuntar walked down a red carpet in a Lebanese village where he waved to throngs of jubilant supporters after spending nearly three decades in Israeli prisons. | 07/16/08 03:05:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum and Mohammed Ali Nayel
Israel pardons notorious Lebanese killer as part of swap
Israeli President Shimon Peres said the pardon of Samir Kuntar on Tuesday was a "a bitter, unbearable pain." Kuntar was captured nearly three decades ago during a botched raid on an Israeli town during which Israeli officials said he beat a girl to death after shooting the girl's father. Kuntar is to be returned to Lebanon, perhaps as soon as Wednesday, in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in 2006. | 07/16/08 00:28:02 By - Dion Nissenbaum
Is 'Sesame Street' toy made in a Chinese sweatshop?
The National Labor Committee, a New York-based foreign-labor watchdog, released a report Monday claiming that some 600 workers — many of them teens — put in 15-hour days for weeks at a time making "Sesame Street" toys. But officials at U.S. toy companies named in the committee's report disputed its accuracy. | 07/15/08 18:29:00 By - Kat Glass
Europeans join court pleas for halt to military commission trial
The 265 current or former members of the British Parliament and 111 current or former members of the European Parliament have filed court papers in Washington asking that a federal judge stop Salim Hamdan's military commission trial. U.S. District Judge James Robertson will hear arguments on Thursday and has told lawyers he may rule immediately. | 07/15/08 17:37:00 By - Michael Doyle
Interrogation video: teenage detainee pleaded for help
Omar Khadr was 16 years old when the video was shot as he was being questioned by Canadian intelligence agents at Guantanamo in 2003. A Canadian court ordered Canadian intelligence to surrender the video to Khadr's attorneys, who released a portion. Amnesty International called for Khadr's immediate release. | 07/15/08 13:36:38 By - Mark Seibel
For Americans abroad, bridges symbolize their Obama hopes
From Australia to South Africa, from the Bosporus to northern France, American fans of Barack Obama have been staging rallies abroad at world-famous bridges to show support for the Democratic presidential candidate and his pledge to span old political divisions. Organizers have filmed bridge rallies in at least 34 countries, including Australia, South Africa and Turkey. | 07/14/08 18:01:00 By - Julie Sell
Sudan's president charged with genocide over Darfur
Describing a systematic government campaign to decimate the people of Darfur, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor on Monday charged the president of Sudan, Omar al Bashir, with genocide and war crimes and called for his arrest. | 07/14/08 14:43:00 By - Shashank Bengali
China tries to ease Olympic worries about tainted food
Food safety is a sensitive subject as China hosts the Olympics. It weathered global concerns last year about the safety of its exports, amid scandal over tainted pet food and toothpaste, and now China is striving to ensure that the food served to 16,000 athletes in the Olympic Village is healthy and free of contaminants. | 07/14/08 00:01:00 By - Tim Johnson
Hate Crime Killings in Russia on the Rise
Artur Ryno had a knife and was looking to kill foreigners. He slipped into the space between two buildings near downtown Moscow and walked toward a janitor who was standing alone in the night air in April 2007. By the time the frenzy of hacks and thrusts was over, Khairullo Sadykov, a Tajik, lay crumpled on the ground with dozens of stab wounds. About three hours later, Ryno stabbed to death an Karin Abramyan, an Armenian businessman. It's a familiar story. | 07/13/08 06:00:00 By - Tom Lasseter
China tries to ease Olympic worries about contaminated food
Security guards watch the perimeters of vegetable farms and pork for Olympic athletes comes from 10 secret pig farms set up far away from cities. But still the U.S. is shipping in 27,400 pounds of food, though U.S. officials are quick to say they have full confidence in the Chinese food system. | 07/13/08 13:45:00 By - Tim Johnson
U.N. agrees to launch international probe of Bhutto assassination
The United Nations has agreed to a request by the Pakistan government to launch an international investigation into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto — raising the possibility of international scrutiny of the Pakistan army and its alleged links to Islamic extremists. | 07/11/08 18:07:00 By - Saeed Shah
Colombia's president has a problem — his supporters are corrupt
Thirty-three members of Colombia's Congress — about 10 percent — are in prison for colluding with paramilitary groups that terrorize rural areas and control profitable cocaine-trafficking routes. Another 10 percent are under investigation, including the Senate president. The extent of the corruption has wide implications — nearly every tainted member of Congress is a strong supporter of President Alvaro Uribe, the Bush administration's strongest ally in Latin America. | 07/11/08 15:08:00 By - Tyler Bridges
Once again, Israel cuts a deal with its worst enemies
In the first hours after Hezbollah fighters captured two Israeli soldiers in a 2006 cross-border raid from Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made it clear that he wouldn't bargain for their freedom. In the coming days, if all goes as planned, Israel will complete a deal that does just that. | 07/10/08 15:22:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
How Brazil became the world leader in unneeded C-sections
When Joyce Provedel went into labor with her first child, she'd planned on giving birth the age-old way, no matter how long it took or how much pain it meant. Her doctor, however, had his own ideas. He worked for one of Rio de Janeiro's most popular maternity hospitals, and doctors there delivered babies almost only by Caesarian section, whether the mothers needed it or not. | 07/09/08 20:30:00 By - Jack Chang
Despite Iran missile tests, some see signs of moderation
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was among those trying to tamp down war fever. "I think what we're seeing is a lot of signaling going on," he said at a Pentagon briefing. Israel also issued a measured response to the missile test, and officials said it didn't surprise them. Iran has sent mixed signals in recent weeks. | 07/09/08 19:05:00 By - Warren P. Strobel
Expert blames poison in 1982 death of Chile's President Frei
The finding by a forensic expert commissioned by Chile's Supreme Court adds to the legacy of assassination that took place during the regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Former President Eduardo Frei Montalva died in 1982 after undergoing a simple hernia operation in a military hospital. Pinochet officials said he died of an infection. | 07/09/08 17:05:51 By - Jack Chang and Helen Hughes
Pre-Olympics security sweep nets foreigners, Chinese alike
The expulsion of Dechen Pemba, who's of Tibetan descent, is part of a broader campaign to sweep away anyone deemed a potential troublemaker before the Aug. 8-24 Olympic Games. Under the slogan "Peaceful Beijing," security forces wield what human rights monitors call an unprecedented mandate to rid the city of anyone they deem undesirable. | 07/09/08 14:23:00 By - Tim Johnson
Betancourt ally, a former hostage, flees Colombia
Former Colombian senator Luis Eladio Perez, who was freed by FARC rebels last February, fled the country for the United States on Wednesday after death threats made it clear staying in Colombia imperiled his life. ."It's a very sad situation," Perez told McClatchy from a safe house Tuesday night in Bogota. "I was just getting re-established here." | 07/09/08 00:43:00 By - Tyler Bridges
From air, Colombia's FARC rebels are urged to surrender
The Colombian military operation is part of a psy-ops campaign to persuade the estimated 60 rebels who were guarding Betancourt, three American contractors and 11 other hostages to desert the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC — the oldest and largest active insurgency in Latin America. | 07/09/08 07:25:04 By - Matthew Bristow
As Pakistan's Taliban take control of town, military stays in fort
The Taliban fighters were sitting in the back of a pickup, parked right outside the army fort in Darra Adam Khel, a wild town in Pakistan's troubled northwest that's famous for its arms bazaar. The Islamic militia, linked with al Qaida, has controlled Darra for about six months. Wrapped in head scarves, with just their eyes showing, and bristling with weaponry, its members patrol the streets and impose their own austere rules. | 07/09/08 00:53:00 By - Saeed Shah
G-8 leaders aim to halve emissions by 2050
WASHINGTON — Leaders of the Group of 8 leading industrial nations on Tuesday set a goal of cutting global emissions of greenhouse gases in half by 2050 and said that all major economies should join the effort. | 07/08/08 16:09:00 By - Renee Schoof
Ancient grave artifacts to be returned to Colombia
For centuries, the dead guarded precious objects in their graves: painted terra cotta dishes, figurines, gold ornaments and other pre-Columbian artifacts. For the dead, they were offerings and objects for the afterlife, a sign of their prestige. For looters and an Italian smuggler caught in South Florida, they were prime merchandise. On Tuesday, the artifacts were headed home. | 07/08/08 16:09:05 By - Laura Isensee
Kenya's president lost disputed election, poll shows
Six months after a deeply flawed election triggered a wave of ethnic killings in Kenya, a U.S. government-funded exit poll suggests that the wrong candidate was declared the winner. | 07/08/08 13:59:00 By - Shashank Bengali
U.S. commander in Kirkuk lowers profile, raises popularity
For the past 11 months Col. David Paschal has back-slapped, noogied and high-fived his soldiers. He's been kissed on both cheeks by local Iraqis, and he's upbraided or atta-boyed his counterparts in the Iraqi army and police. He's sent his gunfighters after the "bad guys." He's balanced that with a reconciliation program for about 350 former insurgents, a six-step process that's becoming something of a model for other provinces. | 07/08/08 08:36:58 By - Mike Tharp
Former U.S. hostages denounce Colombian rebels
The first public appearance of three Americans free from Colombian rebels last week was supposed to be brief, but the men instead denouned their captors after South Florida resident Marc Gonsalves asked his Army hosts: "May I please break with the program?'' | 07/08/08 07:31:46 By - Susana Hayward
With a month to go until Olympics, China grows anxious
These will be no ordinary Olympic Games. They will be the most extravagant ever put on, designed to dazzle the world and display China's reclaimed status as a major world power. Reaching into its deep pockets, China has erected awe-inspiring new buildings and sports venues, spending an estimated $40 billion, or three times as much as Athens did four years ago. | 07/07/08 19:08:55 By - Tim Johnson
Now free, Betancourt shuns bitterness, seeks to heal Colombia
Ingrid Betancourt, the famed hostage of Colombia's largest guerrilla group, lived the last six years chained to trees in the jungle. She nearly died from tropical diseases that left her despondent and emaciated. Yet since her spectacular release last Wednesday, Betancourt has emerged preaching not hate and bitterness, but peace and national reconciliation for her war-weary nation. | 07/07/08 17:47:00 By - Tyler Bridges
Ex-hostage Betancourt's comments on the future
McClatchy interviewed ex-hostage Ingrid Betancourt. Here's a transcript of that conversation. | 07/07/08 17:47:00 By -
Colombians in FARC-controlled areas fear reprisals
With FARC's most valuable hostages now free, residents of FARC-controlled regions of Colombia are bracing for a FARC backlash as the rebels try to recover their military pride. Police say they're checking into reports that the guerrillas already have executed 16 of their own people. | 07/06/08 17:51:03 By - MATTHEW BRISTOW
Suicide bomber in Pakistan kills at least 15 at Red Mosque
The attack came after a highly charged day that saw thousands of fervent Muslims gather at the Red Mosque, in central Islamabad, to commemorate the day a year ago when the army moved against extremists who'd taken control of the mosque. According to the authorities around 100 died in that military operation. | 07/06/08 17:05:00 By - Saeed Shah
Hamas, long the peace spoiler, finds it hard to halt attacks
On June 19, the Islamist group Hamas entered into a ceasefire agreement with Israel in which it pledged to halt rocket and mortar attacks if Israel would reopen the Gaza border and allow goods in. Since then, militants have defied Hamas 11 times to fire rockets or mortars into Israel. | 07/05/08 15:06:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
Bush's final G-8 appearance starts Sunday in Tokyo
President Bush will continue his formal exit from the world stage when he arrives in Japan on Sunday for his final annual meeting with leaders from seven of the world's other top economic powers. With the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido as a backdrop, Bush and the other heads of the so-called "Group of Eight" nations will wrestle over what to do about the unsettled international economy, high oil prices and climate change. | 07/05/08 06:00:00 By - William Douglas and Kevin G. Hall
After 42 months in Iraq, soldier still feels guilty he's not there
As Command Sgt. Maj. Philip Johndrow was getting off the airplane at the end of his third tour in Iraq, his wife, Vickie, simply said: "We have to talk." Johndrow had served 42 months, about three-fourths of the Iraq war, on the ground, more combat time than almost any other American soldier. | 07/04/08 23:06:33 By - Nancy A. Youssef
Deception and infiltration helped win freedom for FARC hostages
The final stages of Operation Check-Mate began early Wednesday morning as the guerrilla group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia gathered 15 of their most valuable hostages in an isolated forest of the southern province of Guaviare. | 07/04/08 11:08:11 By - Tyler Bridges and Jack Chang
First Algerian detainees repatriated from Guantanamo
In a first, the Pentagon said this week it sent home two Algerians from the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The latest transfer operation from the remote U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba reduced the prison camp population to ''approximately 265,'' according to a Pentagon statement. It made no mention that this was the first repatriation of an Algerian citizen since the Defense Department opened the prison camps in January 2002. | 07/03/08 21:18:22 By - Carol Rosenberg
In Colombia, ex-hostage Betancourt's every move captures a nation
Ingrid Betancourt went from jungle captive to national heroine within a dizzying 24 hours, as Colombians hailed the newly freed hostage Thursday for her courage and her every public move was carried live on television. | 07/03/08 18:56:00 By - Tyler Bridges
Bhutan woos high-end tourists
Bhutan is looking for a few good tourists — and put the emphasis on "a few," please. A Buddhist nation squeezed between India and China in the high Himalayas, its 680,000 residents had no television until 1999. Smaller than West Virginia, it's got just one cross-country road, barely a lane and a half wide, that takes two days to drive. And the government measures the impoverished country's success not by Gross Domestic Product but by a Gross National Happiness index. | 07/03/08 18:19:00 By - Kat Glass
Hostage release surprises American families
For the families of three American defense contractors held hostage for five years by Colombian narco-guerrillas, the release of their loved ones came as an unexpected and welcome surprise. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has been holding them since February 2003, refusing to negotiate their release .
Coverage continues at the Miami Herald | 07/02/08 20:30:01 By - Kevin G. HallDaring rescue frees hostages from jungles of Colombia
Three American defense contractors held since 2003 by narco-guerillas in steamy jungle captivity were choppered to freedom, it was announced Wednesday, in a daring rescue operation that resembled a Hollywood action film. Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said the nation's special forces had rescued 15 hostages, including the three U.S. citizens and a former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, whose captivity had become an international cause celebre. | 07/02/08 19:40:42 By - Tyler Bridges and Kevin G. Hall
Colombia rescues 15 held for years by FARC rebels
Colombia's defense minister announced Wednesday afternoon that special forces earlier that day had rescued 15 hostages whom the country's biggest guerrilla group had held for years, including three Americans and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. | 07/02/08 18:17:00 By - Tyler Bridges
McCain, other senators praise Colombian president
John McCain and two other U.S. senators who accompanied him lavished praise on Colombian President Alvaro Uribe during a 20-hour trip here that ended Wednesday afternoon before the dramatic news that special forces had rescued 15 hostages held by anti-government guerrillas. | 07/02/08 17:57:00 By - Tyler Bridges
Argentine tango veterans revive glory days
As a sold-out crowd in Buenos Aires' historic opera house erupted in applause, veteran tango singer Virginia Luque took the stage backed by some of her country's greatest musicians. The applause trailed off, and a few flirtatious whistles rang out. The 78-year-old was used to such attention, having starred in nearly two dozen tango-themed movies since the 1940s. | 07/02/08 17:26:00 By - Jack Chang
Bulldozer wreaks havoc in Jerusalem before police kill driver
A Palestinian construction worker commandeered a construction vehicle and rampaged through central Jerusalem on Wednesday afternoon, killing three people in what police later described as the spontaneous act of a lone attacker. | 07/02/08 06:17:53 By - Dion Nissenbaum and Cliff Churgin
Chinese, Tibet in first formal talks since riots
Chinese and Tibetan envoys on Tuesday began their first formal talks since bloody protests swept Tibetan areas of western China three months ago, in a dialogue that may affect the Olympic Games next month. | 07/01/08 19:37:47 By - Tim Johnson
Iran 'seriously considering' new international nuclear offer
Iran's senior diplomat said Tuesday that Tehran was seriously considering a new offer from six world powers to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program, and he praised the package as "constructive." The unusually positive remarks by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to a small group of reporters raised hope that a negotiated solution can be found to defuse the crisis. | 07/01/08 19:34:30 By - Warren P. Strobel
Puerto Rico archeological discovery triggers debate
The lady carved on the ancient rock is squatting, with frog-like legs sticking out to each side. Her decapitated head is dangling to the right. That's how she had been, perfectly preserved, for up to 800 years, until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers came upon her last year while building a $375 million dam to control flooding in southern Puerto Rico. Now debates rages around her and other artifacts. | 07/01/08 07:03:34 By - Frances Robles
Criticism grows as Pakistani military pursues limited offensive
Pakistan's fitful military operation against Islamist extremists pushed into its third day Monday, but there was no sign of overt combat — and growing criticism of the army's failure to crack down on the Taliban and al Qaida, which operate out of the country's lawless tribal belt. | 06/30/08 18:21:00 By - Saeed Shah
Drug lord's ranch becomes a theme park
The scavengers have come and gone. The lookout tower sentries have disappeared. The main house lies in ruins. And adorning one decrepit wall are three photos of the ranch's former owner and infamous drug lord. One was said to be Pablo Escobar's favorite picture. | 06/30/08 17:17:55 By - Tyler Bridges
Human toll yet to be counted in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's election may be over — President Robert Mugabe claimed victory Sunday and was immediately sworn in for another five-year term — but the human toll of one of the most brutal political campaigns in recent memory is still being calculated. Opposition leaders and pro-democracy activists think that government militias killed scores of people and abducted perhaps hundreds of others as Mugabe decimated a popular opposition party and extended his 28-year rule over this crumbling southern African nation. This wasn't an election, Mugabe's critics said; it was a war. | 06/30/08 16:37:00 By - Shashank Bengali
Ex-Chilean intelligence chief gets 2 life sentences
A Chilean judge sentenced the former intelligence chief, retired Gen. Manuel Contreras, to two life prison terms Monday for masterminding a double assassination that was one of the most notorious covert operations conducted by this country's military government. The sentence is the biggest to be handed out so far in this country's ongoing human rights prosecutions and should help resolve what was long one of the most painful episodes of dictator Augusto Pinochet's rule. | 06/30/08 16:20:00 By - Helen Hughes and Jack Chang
China scurries to quell social tensions before Olympics
Senior leaders exhorted local officials to deal more quickly with festering social tensions that might tarnish the upcoming Olympics as censors tried to snuff out all news about a weekend riot in southern China. | 06/30/08 10:02:00 By - Tim Johnson
Pakistan claims success in battling militants
Pakistan's new government claimed success Sunday in its first military operation against Islamic extremists, moving against warlords who were threatening to overrun the major city of Peshawar. A paramilitary force took on militants based in the wild Khyber tribal area, just west of Peshawar, the provincial capital of the North West Frontier Province that borders Afghanistan. | 06/29/08 16:35:00 By - Saeed Shah
Mugabe declared winner of discredited Zimbabwe vote
President Robert Mugabe was declared the overwhelming winner Sunday of an election marred by the murders of scores of political opponents, death threats against voters and widespread international condemnation. | 06/29/08 15:58:00 By - Shashank Bengali
Crisis grows in Iraq over U.S. raid that killed Maliki relative
A U.S. Special Forces counterterrorism unit conducted the raid apparently without telling Iraqi officials even though the U.S. had handed control of security in Karbala province to Iraq forces in October 2007. Iraqis said the raid, which killed a relative of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, deepened their reluctance over Iraqi-U.S. talks on a continued U.S. presence in Iraq. | 06/28/08 19:29:01 By - Hannah Allam
In Zimbabwe's political charade, state media plays a key role
The bread lines were longer than the lines at polling stations Friday in Zimbabwe, with apparently few people eager to vote in a blood-soaked race that only President Robert Mugabe was contesting. But that's not what reporters for Zimbabwe's state-run media saw. "Long and winding queues were the order of the day," intoned a radio announcer on Spot FM on Saturday morning. State media continues to play a starring role in Zimbabwe's political theater of the absurd. | 06/28/08 15:34:00 By - McClatchy Newsapers
Colombian president calls for new elections
Colombia plunged into political uncertainty Friday as opponents of President Alvaro Uribe accused him of acting like a ''dictator'' because he called for new elections that could allow him to extend his stay in office beyond the end of his current term in 2010. | 06/27/08 20:11:23 By - Tyler Bridges
Fears rise that key Pakistani city will fall to Islamic militants
Heavily armed Islamic militants have massed on the outskirts of Peshawar, the strategic provincial capital in northwest Pakistan, and the Pakistani government has dramatically stepped up security around the city amid fears that it could fall. It's now threatened from three sides. | 06/27/08 19:10:33 By - Saeed Shah
Argentine farmers at crossroads in export-tax protest
For more than a century, the farmers of central Argentina have prided themselves on growing enough food to feed much of the rest of the world. With world grain and other commodity prices soaring to record highs, farmers have raked in record profits. Now that export model is under pressure as prices of everything from land to fertilizer are soaring. | 06/27/08 17:42:00 By - Jack Chang
Under threat, Zimbabweans vote in one-man election
Bowing to a government campaign of violence and intimidation, Zimbabweans voted Friday in a one-man election that will hand another five-year term to President Robert Mugabe. Gangs of muscled youths ordered people to polling stations, and voters said they'd been threatened with beatings or death if they didn't have red ink on their fingers — evidence that they'd cast ballots. | 06/27/08 11:04:00 By -
How did Bush policy lead to a deal with North Korea?
President Bush began his administration refusing to engage in one-on-one diplomacy with North Korea, a regime he reviled. He ends his presidency tit-for-tat trading North Korea nuclear concessions for U.S. fuel and trade concessions and earning brickbats from one-time political allies. What sparked the change? | 06/26/08 19:07:00 By - Warren P. Strobel
Israeli settlement activity surges despite peace talks
Blue and yellow signs advertising new homes pepper the narrow West Bank roads that wind up to gated hilltop Jewish settlements. "A new stage is on its way," boasts one. In the six months since President Bush launched his late-term diplomatic initiative at Annapolis, Md., Israel has dramatically accelerated the construction of homes on land that's central to any peace deal with the Palestinians. | 06/26/08 18:27:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
Mugabe using force to raise turnout in one-man election, critics say
President Robert Mugabe may be the only candidate contesting Friday's internationally condemned election in Zimbabwe, but opposition party officials said Thursday that militias loyal to him have threatened people across the country: Show up to vote or else. In Chitungwiza, a working-class suburb of the capital, Harare, residents said that men in police uniforms barged into at least 11 homes Wednesday night and warned the occupants to vote. | 06/26/08 17:43:00 By -
In Mexico, doll factory helps counter illegal immigration
In a dusty two-room store near the town square, six women sat on benches at sewing machines, stitching together handmade dolls dressed in regional Mexican gowns. A three-year-old company, named Munecas Mina — "dolls from the mine" — after the abandoned mineshafts that surround the community, has become the women's main source of income. It's also how they hope to keep their children in school instead of following their fathers to the U.S. | 06/26/08 15:24:00 By - Franco Ordonez
3 Marines among dead in attack on Iraqi tribal leaders
An explosion ripped through a gathering of U.S military officials and allied Sunni Muslim tribesmen Thursday, killing three Marines, two interpreters and 20 Iraqis in the rural western town of Karmah, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said. | 06/26/08 12:14:16 By - Hannah Allam and Jamal Naji
Breakthrough: North Korea details nuclear activities
North Korea Thursday handed over a long-overdue disclosure of its nuclear weapons activity, and Washington responded by pledging to give it relief from trade sanctions, stop labeling it a sponsor of terror and make moves to normalize relations. The coordinated actions marked a watershed moment in global efforts to coax reclusive North Korea to get rid of its nuclear weapons in exchange for assistance and recognition. | 06/26/08 07:54:51 By - Tim Johnson
Breakthrough expected Thursday in North Korea talks
North Korea on Thursday will provide a long-awaited declaration detailing its nuclear weapons programs, a potential breakthrough in a 17-year-long effort to rid the Stalinist state of nuclear arms that eventually could lead to the establishment of diplomatic relations with the United States. | 06/25/08 19:01:00 By - Warren P. Strobel
Mugabe presses ahead with controversial election
Despite a growing furor at home and abroad, President Robert Mugabe pressed ahead Wednesday with plans for a controversial election that would extend his 28-year grip on Zimbabwe. Mugabe's rival, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who withdrew from Friday's runoff vote after militants loyal to the government killed at least 86 of his supporters, emerged from the Dutch embassy in Harare, where he had taken refuge Monday. | 06/25/08 16:05:00 By -
Latest no-shows for Beijing Olympics: Tourists
China says the welcome mat remains out for tourists who want to attend the Beijing Summer Olympics, but foreigners apparently view the invitation as a little prickly. Tightened visa regulations, a major earthquake in southern China, unrest over Tibet and a scarcity of tickets to Olympics events have combined to slow the torrent of foreigners once forecast for this summer. | 06/25/08 14:20:00 By - Tim Johnson
Palestinian rocket attacks test Gaza cease-fire
Palestinian militants fired three homemade rockets into southern Israel on Tuesday, jeopardizing Israel's six-day-old cease-fire with Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip. The rockets caused minimal damage but presented an early test for Hamas leaders in Gaza, who'd agreed to halt Palestinian militant attacks on Israel. | 06/24/08 11:47:55 By - Dion Nissenbaum
In a first, court says military erred in a Guantanamo case
A Washington, D.C., appeals court ruled "invalid" the Pentagon's declaration that Guantanamo detainee Huzaifa Parhat was an enemy combatant and ordered that he be set free, sent to a third country, or given a new hearing under procedures acceptable to the court. The court didn't release its full ruling, which was being vetted to remove classified information. | 06/23/08 19:43:59 By - Marisa Taylor
Zimbabwe's opposition leader seeks refuge after police raid
Police under the control of President Robert Mugabe raided the headquarters of Zimbabwe's political opposition Monday, one day after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from this week's runoff election to protest attacks on his supporter. The BBC reported Tsvangirai sought shelter at the Dutch embassy. | 06/23/08 11:58:00 By - Shashank Bengali
Bolivia faces August showdown as autonomy wins again
Voters in the gas-rich province of Tarija overwhelmingly approved an autonomy statute Sunday, but supporters of President Evo Morales, who opposes autonomy, say the real test will come Aug. 10, when voters nationwide will decide whether to recall Morales and the country's governors. Tarija is the fourth province to approve autonomy statutes. | 06/22/08 20:51:41 By - Alex Ayala and Jack Chang
Mugabe's rival pulls out of Zimbabwe vote
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he could no longer participate in a race that's been marred by the widespread intimidation, torture, mutilation and murder of 85 his supporters. The decision effectively hands victory to longtime President Robert Mugabe. | 06/22/08 15:01:00 By - Shashank Bengali
Haditha victims' kin outraged as Marines go free
Khadija Hassan still shrouds her body in black, nearly three years after the deaths of her four sons. They were killed on Nov. 19, 2005, along with 20 other people in the deadliest documented case of U.S. troops killing civilians since the Vietnam War. Eight Marines were charged in the case, but in the intervening years, criminal charges have been dismissed against six. A seventh Marine was acquitted. The residents of Haditha, after being told they could depend on U.S. justice, feel betrayed. | 06/21/08 15:38:00 By - Leila Fadel
China displays iron grip as Olympic torch tours Tibet
BEIJING — Olympic torchbearers trotted through the cordoned streets of the Tibetan capital of Lhasa Saturday as China displayed its tight grip on a region that only three months ago was ravaged by bloody rioting. | 06/21/08 10:37:00 By - Tim Johnson
Israel trying the diplomatic route to isolate belligerent Iran
As Israeli negotiators flew to Turkey for a second round of indirect peace talks with their Syrian counterparts, another Israeli official headed to Germany to consult with intermediaries about a major prisoner exchange with Hezbollah. | 06/20/08 17:38:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
China's president chats online, but skates by tough questions
President Hu Jintao sat down before a computer Friday for a rare live chat session and declared himself a regular, if silent, visitor to Web sites, skirting tough questions posted by surprised Internet users. Hu took only three softball questions in his brief appearance on the Web site of People's Daily, the organ of the Chinese Communist Party. | 06/20/08 14:59:00 By - Tim Johnson
Global quandary: How to feed a growing planet
How to feed humanity in this age of skyrocketing food and energy prices has emerged as one of the biggest challenges facing the planet. The problem is a global one, in which a breakdown anywhere in the food chain sets dire consequences in motion and in which the root causes range from rising consumption in Asia to growing biofuel production in the United States and Europe to dwindling supplies of water in the Middle East. | 06/19/08 18:00:00 By - Jack Chang
As food demand soars, S. American production jumps, but with risks
Global food shortages and the resulting climb in prices have opened a window of opportunity for Boris Pisacco and farmers all over South America, and they've made the most of it by producing more soybeans and other grains than ever. South American countries such as Argentina and neighboring Brazil claim some of the world's best farmland as well as low population densities, giving the region perfect conditions for increasing food production, experts say. | 06/19/08 16:00:00 By - Jack Chang
As Chinese grow richer, hunger for meat strains farms
To understand the changing dietary habits of Chinese, it helps to listen to 6-year-old Lin Xingni talk about her favorite foods. "I like to eat chicken and fish. I also like pork ribs," she said. Chinese are eating more meat than ever. In 1980, the average Chinese ate 44 pounds of meat per year. By 1995, per-capita meat consumption had climbed to 55 pounds. | 06/19/08 18:00:00 By - Tim Johnson
Africa needs a farming revolution, experts say
With the world's appetite for food expanding, sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly two-thirds of people making their living from farming, could be developing into an agricultural powerhouse. But Africa's farms today are only one-fourth as productive as the world average. Populations are growing fast, while food productivity per capita has declined from 30 years ago. During that time, Africa has gone from a continent of food exporters to one that imports some 20 million tons of it every year. | 06/19/08 18:00:00 By - Shashank Bengali
Israel-Hamas ceasefire takes hold as sun rises in Middle East
Whether the Hamas-Israel ceasefire, which began at dawn in the Middle East, will last through the weekend is a critical test. If it does, Israeli officials said they'll begin allowing an increasing amount of fuel, food and other supplies into the Gaza Strip, easing the plight of 1.5 million Palestinians. | 06/18/08 23:01:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
General who probed Abu Ghraib says Bush officials committed war crimes
"There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," retired Army Major Gen. Antonio Taguba wrote in a new report on medical evidence that U.S. troops abused prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account." | 06/18/08 20:31:34 By - Warren P. Strobel
Genocide issue may cloud Armenia envoy nominee's hearing
The career diplomat nominated to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to Armenia almost certainly will avoid using the phrase "Armenian genocide" at her Senate confirmation hearing Thursday. The big question, closely watched by Armenian American activists, is whether the Senate will still let nominee Marie Yovanovitch take her post in Yerevan. | 06/18/08 17:25:45 By - Michael Doyle
Documents confirm U.S. hid detainees from Red Cross
The minutes of an October 2002 meeting, released Tuesday, show that Pentagon and CIA officials openly discussed keeping detainees and their treatment hidden from the Red Cross. One officer acknowledged troops at a base in Afghanistan were using techniques that hadn't been approved. | 06/17/08 20:25:20 By - Warren P. Strobel
'If the detainee dies you're doing it wrong'
Excerpts from some of the documents released today by the Senate Armed Services Committee. | 06/17/08 19:42:00 By -
Accused smuggler of nuclear secrets denies new charges
Rogue Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan on Tuesday angrily rejected chilling new allegations against him that he sold a blueprint for a sophisticated nuclear warhead, claiming that Pakistan did not have the technology to have produced the design. | 06/17/08 16:48:00 By - Saeed Shah
Day 3: Militants found recruits among Guantanamo's wrongly detained
By the time small-time thug Mohammed Naim Farouq was released from Guantanamo in 2003, — after more than 12 months of what he described as abuse and humiliation at the hands of American soldiers — he'd made connections to high-level militants. In fact, he'd become a Taliban leader. | 06/17/08 16:27:22 By - Tom Lasseter
Israel and Hamas on verge of cease-fire in Gaza
After months of Egyptian-mediated negotiations, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire that is set to begin at 6 a.m. local time Thursday (11 p.m. EDT). If the deal holds, Hamas would stop the near-daily Palestinian attacks on Israeli towns and farms along the Gaza Strip border and Israel would end its small-scale military invasions and deadly airstrikes. | 06/17/08 10:42:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
Afghanistan leader threatens to send troops into Pakistan
Afghan President Hamid Karzai Sunday inflamed relations with Islamabad by threatening to send troops into Pakistan to hunt down Taliban fighters who find sanctuary across the border. Karzai alleged that Pakistan was secretly supporting the Taliban, including providing a refuge for the group's leader, Mullah Omar. | 06/15/08 15:45:00 By - Saeed Shah
Day 1: America's prison for terrorists often held the wrong men
An eight-month McClatchy investigation in 11 countries on three continents has found that the U.S. wrongfully imprisoned dozens and perhaps hundreds of men in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments. | 06/15/08 08:58:46 By - Tom Lasseter
Che Guevara, 4 decades later, gets a hometown statue
While Ernesto "Che" Guevara remains the most famous export of this sleepy city, his legacy here has long been a low-key one. That changed Saturday when civic leaders inaugurated the first official monument honoring the revolutionary leader in Argentina, ending decades of government silence about the controversial figure. | 06/14/08 19:03:00 By - Jack Chang
Maliki raises possibility that Iraq might ask U.S. to leave
The Iraqi prime minister said Iraq won't sign a status of forces agreement with the United States if that agreement infringes on Iraq's sovereign rights. His statement came as radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr announced he'll create a special branch of his militia authorized to attack American troops. | 06/13/08 20:56:54 By - Leila Fadel and Mike Tharp
Pakistan rally, unexpectedly huge, presses judges' cause
Mullahs and communists, and it seemed everything in between, came out in Pakistan Friday in a massive rally against President Pervez Musharraf, seeking to force the government to restore the judges fired by the U.S.-backed president. | 06/13/08 19:00:49 By - Saeed Shah
Argentine mood sours despite economic boom
With thousands of protesters blocking roads and people rushing to withdraw their savings, this country at times seems as if it's nearing the kind of economic collapse that sent more than half of Argentines into poverty seven years ago. | 06/12/08 15:29:00 By - Jack Chang
Foreign nations overwhelmingly prefer Obama, survey finds
Foreigners overwhelmingly expect the next American president to change U.S. foreign policy "for the better," the Pew Research Center poll found. The survey, of 24,700 people in 24 countries, also found that much of the world is closely following the contest to replace President Bush. | 06/12/08 15:35:22 By - Warren P. Strobel
Vote in Ireland could determine EU's future
A national referendum by one of Europe's smallest countries could breathe new life into the European Union or kill prospects for a constitution for years to come. | 06/11/08 18:22:00 By - Julie Sell
Strike on Iran nuclear sites under discussion again
Six months ago, an American intelligence report declared that Iran had shelved its nuclear-weapons program, making the likelihood of a U.S. or Israeli military strike on Iran seem remote. But Israelis have been pushing harder than ever on the subject. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have met twice in recent weeks and U.S. intelligence chief Mike McConnell has traveled to Israel for private briefings. | 06/11/08 16:41:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
As U.S. economy sours, Mexicans send less money home
More than a decade has passed since Petra Chavolla's children began leaving. Like most kids from this impoverished patch of Michoacan, they followed friends and relatives to Texas, where jobs and a better future awaited. But she knew times had changed this past Mother's Day. Instead of the extra cash she almost always received from her children, she got a phone call. | 06/11/08 15:34:00 By - Jay Root and Constanza Morales
Pakistan says U.S. deliberately killed paramilitary troops
Eleven paramilitary troops were killed in what Pakistan called an "unprovoked" and "senseless" air strike Tuesday night on their post just inside Pakistan's mountainous border with Afghanistan. The incident is likely to cause further damage to the fraying relationship between the U.S. and the Pakistani military. | 06/11/08 00:10:00 By - Saeed Shah and Jonathan S. Landay
U.S. security talks with Iraq in trouble in Baghdad and D.C.
A proposed U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that would set the conditions for a defense alliance and long-term U.S. troop presence appears increasingly in trouble, facing growing resistance from the Iraqi government, bipartisan opposition in Congress and strong questioning from Barack Obama. | 06/11/08 07:56:21 By - Leila Fadel and Warren P. Strobel
Some Cubans find life is better at home than in U.S.
Despite the freedom Jorge enjoyed and the ability to earn a better living as a school custodian in Miami Beach, Jorge returned to Cuba in 2002 to face a government that mistrusted him, a year of probation and friends who assume he is a member of the intelligence service. He said he is one of a growing number of émigrés who after years of living abroad yearn for the sounds and familiarity of home. | 06/11/08 06:43:45 By - Miami Herald staff
Darfur conflict stokes Chad-Sudan tensions
Last month the Justice and Equality Movement, the most powerful rebel group in Darfur, launched a brazen drive to Sudan's distant capital for the first time in the five-year war, nearly reaching the city before being repelled by government soldiers. | 06/10/08 16:37:00 By - Shashank Bengali
Medellin, once Colombia's drug capital, has been reborn
Medellín, believed to have been the world's most violent city during the 1980s heyday of cocaine cartel boss Pablo Escobar and for a few years after his death in 1993, when right-wing death squads ran amok, is undergoing a renaissance. Violence has dropped and services have improved. | 06/10/08 07:21:33 By - Tyler Bridges
U.S. seeking 58 bases in Iraq, Shiite lawmakers say
The Iraqi government rejected the proposal during talks on a Status of Forces Agreement that would allow the U.S. to stay in Iraq after its U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year. Another U.S. demand the Iraqis say was rejected would let the U.S. decide when a hostile act had been committed against Iraq. Lawmakers said they feared it would trap them in a war between Iran and the U.S. | 06/09/08 19:13:00 By - Leila Fadel
Young Pakistani girls traded as settlement in tribal feud
It began with an errant dog. It culminated with the betrothal of 15 girls, some of them as young as three, as compensation. Under a brutal custom called Vani, the girls are being traded to settle the long-running dispute. The practice isn't uncommon in rural parts of Pakistan. | 06/08/08 20:30:57 By - Saeed Shah
Pakistani leader says Obama must change course
Embattled, U.S.-backed Pakistani Pres. Pervez Musharraf Saturday warned Barack Obama that if he wins the White House, he'd have to change his policies towards Pakistan, which President Bush considers one of America's closest allies in the war on terror. | 06/07/08 15:48:00 By - Saeed Shah
After quake, Chinese open wallets, a few of them under pressure
Chinese citizens have opened their wallets to the victims of last month's savage earthquake, but not all their generosity has been voluntary. At some companies, bosses have put up lists of names of employees who've donated and how much they've given. Pressure is high to pony up. | 06/06/08 15:16:00 By - Tim Johnson
Did Iranian agents dupe Pentagon officials?
Pentagon counterintelligence investigators in 2003 urged a comprehensive probe into whether Iran might have used a small group of defense officials' contacts with an Iranian exile to influence U.S. policy toward Iraq and Iran. But a senior aide to then-defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld shut the investigation down, and there was no followup. The counterintelligence investigators' suspicions were revealed in a Senate Intelligence Committee report released Thursday. | 06/05/08 22:25:05 By - John Walcott
Former Nicargauan guerrilla fears return of dictatorial past
MANAGUA — A veteran guerrilla leader who helped spark a revolution in Nicaragua 30 years ago is again putting her life on the line to protest a government she claims is returning Nicaragua to its dark, dictatorial past. | 06/05/08 21:09:33 By - Tim Rogers
Al Qaida's attack on Danes reveals its grip on Pakistan
On Thursday, al Qaida took responsibility for an attack on the Danish Embassy in Pakistan, chillingly warning that the blast will "only be the first drop of rain." The statement is sure to increase U.S. dismay over the Pakistani government's peace talks with the Taliban. | 06/05/08 17:21:00 By - Saeed Shah
China likely to beat U.S. back to the moon, NASA says
The goal of NASA's Constellation program is to return astronauts to the moon by 2020. The head of NASA's moon program says Chinese astronauts are on schedule to beat that goal by two or three years. The Chinese lead will be even longer if the American schedule slips, as some space experts predict. | 06/04/08 21:11:35 By - Robert S. Boyd
Alleged 9/11 plotters finally to answer for that traumatic day
On Thursday, a new chapter opens for family members of 9/11 victims who've been seeking justice for their love ones: Alleged al Qaida kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four others will be arraigned as co-conspirators in the attacks before a military commission in distant Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. For survivors and the country, the hearing is certain to reopen the trauma of that day. | 06/04/08 13:49:34 By - Carol Rosenberg
Pakistani nuclear scientist denies selling bomb secrets
In his first interview with an American news organization, A.Q. Khan, the renegade nuclear scientist from Pakistan who once admitted helping Iran and Libya obtain nuclear-weapons technology, told McClatchy that Western businessmen, not he, provided the technology and know-how those rogue states used to develop nuclear-weapons programs. | 06/04/08 00:45:00 By - Saeed Shah
Transcript: Renegade Pakistani offers view of weapons proliferation
This interview with A.Q. Khan was conducted by McClatchy special correspondent Saeed Shah in Islamabad. It was edited for brevity. | 06/04/08 00:02:00 By - Saeed Shah
New satellite photos show Amazon deforestation exploding
New satellite photographs show that the destruction of Brazil's fragile Amazon rainforest has exploded this year, fueling fears that the government's efforts to stop deforestation have been fruitless. That's raised red flags among environmentalists. | 06/03/08 20:22:28 By - Jack Chang
Restaurateur defies Baghdad bombers
American restaurateurs gripe about how much fat comes with their free-range chickens. Or how there's been a run on their Pinot Noir. Or how a diner won't get off her cell phone. At the Al Sa'ah restaurant in Baghdad, manager Anwar Mohammed deals with a whole different set of problems. | 06/03/08 16:32:00 By - Jenan Hussein
North Korea faces fear of famine as food shortages mount
Food rations across much of North Korea have been slashed, and the country's 1.1 million strong military reportedly halted major exercises so that soldiers could help raise crops. After a three-year hiatus, the Bush administration is resuming food aid, but a ship on the way with bulk grain won't have much impact. | 06/03/08 08:32:52 By - Tim Johnson
Donors weigh cash, food in aid for Haiti
Is it better to provide food directly to the hungriest, cash to groups that best know the local needs or cash to governments for subsidized food staples? It's a policy debate that swirls around efforts by Haiti and other countries battling skyrocketing food prices.' | 06/03/08 07:03:10 By - Jacqueline Charles
Pagan sect at Pakistan border lives amid conservative Muslims
On the northwest tip of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan's Nuristan province, the inaccessible Chitral district has long been thought to be a possible refuge for Osama bin Laden. Chitral is also the home of the Kalasha, a unique pagan civilization that's lived in the area for 2,000 years or more, now boxed in by an increasingly militant Islam. | 06/02/08 16:58:00 By - Saeed Shah
Cartoons may have prompted bombing of Danish embassy in Pakistan
A car bomb ripped through the street outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad, killing at least six, in an apparent act of revenge against cartoons of the prophet Muhammad published in Danish newspapers in 2005. | 06/02/08 16:57:00 By - Saeed Shah
OAS convenes in Medellin in bid to show it can be effective
Long derided as ineffective, the 34-nation Organization of American States is getting another chance to show its relevance as the 38th annual OAS General Assembly began Sunday night in Colombia's second-biggest city. The biggest immediate issue for the OAS is whether the 34 foreign ministers can broker the restoration of diplomatic ties between Ecuador and Colombia. | 06/02/08 10:36:52 By -
Two more provinces in Bolivia approve autonomy statutes
Two more Bolivian provinces appear to have approved statutes that would grant them autonomous powers, but both had large numbers of voters not show up for votes on the new laws. The autonomy votes are part of a rebellion by some Bolivian provinces against the central government led by President Evo Morales. | 06/01/08 22:00:24 By - Alex Ayala and Jack Chang
More Latin American immigrants going home
No hard figures exist, but various surveys and anecdotes from immigrants, their advocates and consular officers in Miami suggest that more Latin Americans are voluntarily heading back home, the apparent result of the U.S. economic downturn and anxiety generated by a federal crackdown on illegal immigration. | 06/01/08 08:14:14 By - Andres Viglucci, Melissa Sanchez and Jack Chang
Venezuelans select pro-Chavez candidates Sunday
CARACAS -- More than a million Venezuelans are expected to go to the polls Sunday to choose candidates for President Hugo Chavez's newly formed United Socialist Party, in what experts say is a well-orchestrated strategy to win races in a national election later this year. | 05/31/08 20:17:33 By - TYLER BRIDGES
Many Cubans don't work, at least officially
As Raul Castro embarks on an ambitious plan to kick-start the communist nation's economy, he faces daunting challenges: Many Cubans simply do not work. Decades of measly salaries and vast government subsidies have kept many young people off the labor rolls because it's more lucrative to hustle on the street. Others live comfortably enough off remittances from Miami and elsewhere. | 05/30/08 19:38:29 By -
Bush backs Musharraf as Pakistani leader's support wanes
President Bush reached out Friday to support longtime ally Pervez Musharraf, calling the embattled Pakistani president to assure him of continued U.S. backing. Musharraf's demise is now considered almost a foregone conclusion in Pakistan, but Bush's intervention appeared to be a powerful signal that Washington wouldn't welcome Musharraf's exit. | 05/30/08 18:10:00 By - Saeed Shah
Two more Bolivian provinces weigh autonomy
Political tensions in this divided country threaten to deepen Sunday when voters in two Bolivian provinces decide whether to declare themselves autonomous from the leftist government of President Evo Morales. | 05/30/08 18:08:00 By - Alex Ayala and Jack Chang
Ethiopian children go hungry as government response faulted
A serious drought and the worldwide surge in food prices are fueling one of Ethiopia's gravest hunger crises in years, with 6 million children younger than five urgently needing food, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF. Relief workers say scores of children already have died. | 05/30/08 16:02:00 By - Shashank Bengali
Is Pentagon pushing for 9/11 trial during presidential campaign?
Defense lawyers for the alleged 9/11 conspirators on Thursday accused the Pentagon prosecutor of rushing to begin the complex Sept. 11, 2001, mass murder trial in the height of the presidential campaign season. | 05/29/08 20:28:36 By - Carol Rosenberg
Latin America's economies spared — for now
When the U.S. economy sneezes, Latin American economies catch colds, according to an old saying. Not this time — at least for now. The U.S. crisis triggered by subprime mortgages and rising energy costs will spare most economies in Latin America, experts said Thursday. | 05/29/08 18:28:00 By - Federica Narancio
Actress Sharon Stone apologizes to China
In an era when China is intensely sensitive to its global image, even the utterances of Hollywood actors can draw pronouncements from the Foreign Ministry. The latest to come under fire is actress Sharon Stone, who recently suggested that the May 12 earthquake that killed 68,500 people in southwest China might have been the result of bad “karma” over its treatment of Tibet. | 05/29/08 11:05:04 By - Tim Johnson
Iraqis claim Marines are pushing Christianity in Fallujah
Residents said some Marines at the western entrance to their city have been passing out coins imprinted with a Gospel verse in what they call a "humiliating" attempt to convert them to Christianity. The U.S. military said it is investigating the claims. Such proselytizing would violate military regulations. | 05/29/08 05:24:53 By - Jamal Naji and Leila Fadel
Israel recoils at Olmert testimony, but he's not out yet
Labor Party leader Ehud Barak on Wednesday called on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to step aside, but he didn't set a deadline for pulling out of the coalition government. That allows Olmert to hold on, something he'll be able to do until someone figures out how to position themselves as heir-apparent. | 05/28/08 19:12:11 By - Dion Nissenbaum
North Korean nuclear documents challenge CIA assertions
Thousands of pages of nuclear documents submitted by North Korea earlier this month cast doubt on a U.S. intelligence estimate of how much weapons-grade plutonium the secretive communist country has been able to amass, U.S. officials and a leading private analyst said Wednesday. | 05/28/08 18:34:00 By - Warren P. Strobel
Beijing prepares for any terrorist threats to Olympics
Authorities have given no indication that extremist groups intend to target the Summer Games in Beijing, where security will be tight. But medical teams have been trained in how to deal with radiation and biological attack and doors have been removed from stalls at 200 public toilets near venues for the games. | 05/28/08 10:21:00 By - Tim Johnson
Fearing unrest, bank steps in to help Central America
The Inter-American Development Bank on Tuesday announced a new $500 million line of credit for six Central American nations and the Dominican Republic. Mexico and other countries have taken emergency measures to ensure that anger over rising food prices does not spill onto streets and perhaps send a new wave of immigrants northward. | 05/27/08 16:31:00 By - Kevin G. Hall
Businessman says he gave Israeli leader thousands in cash
Morris Talansky railed against his Israeli interrogators, lectured the judges on American democracy and wept with frustration over his unwelcome role as a pivotal figure in an unfolding corruption investigation that could bring a premature end to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's political career. | 05/27/08 13:17:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
IAEA still seeking answers from Iran on nuclear plans
The International Atomic Energy Agency says in a report that Iran still is withholding information on studies it allegedly conducted as part of a secret nuclear warhead development project. The new report also indicated that Iran has become significantly more proficient at enriching uranium. | 05/26/08 17:34:35 By - Jonathan S. Landay
Jail growth explodes as Feds crack down on illegal migrants
For years, thousands of people caught trying to sneak into the U.S. from Mexico were released for lack of jail space and given a notice to appear in court. Most simply vanished. Now, virtually everybody who's caught is sent to federal court. The result has been an insatiable demand for jail space. The Val Verde Correctional Facility in Del Rio, Texas, has gone from 180 to 1,425 prisoners, and two new prisons are rising along the border at Eagle Pass and Laredo. | 05/26/08 15:51:00 By - Jay Root
FARC confirms that rebel leader is dead
The longtime leader of Colombia's FARC guerrillas is dead, a rebel leader confirmed Sunday, plunging Latin America's oldest and most powerful insurgency into an uncertain future at a time when a government offensive already had the Marxist group on the run. | 05/25/08 22:28:21 By - Tyler Bridges
Lebanon celebrates the election of a new president
Beirut was adorned with cedar flags and portraits of Gen. Michel Suleiman in his military uniform as the Lebanese parliament met to formally name him president. After his swearing-in, Suleiman gave an inaugural speech that called for Lebanese unity. | 05/25/08 15:41:00 By - Mohamad-Ali Nayel and Hannah Allam
Lebanon finally picks president; Beirut's mood festive
Beirut was adorned with cedar flags and portraits of Gen. Michel Suleiman in his military uniform as the Lebanese parliament met to formally name him president. After his swearing-in, Suleiman gave an inaugural speech that called for Lebanese unity. | 05/25/08 14:39:06 By - Mohamad-Ali Nayel and Hannah Allam
Commentary: Obama's done his homework on Latin America
When Andres Oppenheimer of The Miami Herald interviewed Obama 10 months ago him about U.S.-Latin American relations, Obama had trouble naming any head of state south of the U.S. border and looked like a deer in the headlights when asked about the region's headlines of the day. Oppenheimer found a different candidate when he interviewed Obama on Friday. | 05/25/08 11:20:50 By - Andres Oppenheimer
Basra sings again as Iraqi army patrols the streets
For the past three years, musicians have lived in fear in Basra, Iraq's second largest city. Shiite Islamist groups enforced their version of morality with grenades, guns and closed fists. But the Islamists are now in hiding, thanks to a government offensive, and musicians are celebrating in a city known as "the mother of the lute." | 05/25/08 01:42:42 By - Leila Fadel
FARC's top leader is dead, Colombia says
Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told the Colombian weekly Semana in an interview published Saturday that Manuel ''Sure Shot'' Marulanda died March 26. He cited a confidential source "who has never failed us." If true, it would be the latest and most severe blow to Latin America's largest rebel group. | 05/24/08 20:28:27 By - Tyler Bridges
Pakistan's People's Party proposes stripping Musharraf of power
The move could create further instability in the country and is likely to heighten US concerns that political infighting is taking attention away from the anti-terror fight. American officials have repeatedly warned that the next terrorist attack on U.S. soil is likely to come from extremists based in Pakistan's wild tribal region. | 05/24/08 16:08:00 By - Saeed Shah
Mideast negotiations now bypassing Washington
In a week of dramatic developments in the Middle East, the most dramatic development of all may have been the fact that the United States, long considered the region's indispensable player, was missing in action. Analysts said Middle East leaders are now calculating with an eye to the era after President Bush. | 05/23/08 17:47:00 By - Warren P. Strobel and Hannah Allam
In first, Guantanamo inmate calls home to find a lawyer
Within hours of a judge's order, an accused al Qaeda conspirator from Sudan got a call from home Thursday to consult with his family on how they might hire him a lawyer, at their own expense. Ibrahim al Qosi, 47, had earlier fired his U.S. military lawyer and threatened to boycott his war crimes trial. | 05/23/08 08:13:02 By - Carol Rosenberg
Iraq's ports thriving, now that the government's in charge
Since government troops seized control of southern Iraq's three ports, through which the government, commodities producers, and private companies import and export products, including food rations, extortion and looting has dropped. | 05/22/08 19:06:34 By - Leila Fadel
China won't rebuild town that earthquake hit hard
Officials have determined that the town of Beichuan, the picturesque one-time home of 20,000 people, is located in too unstable a region atop the Longmen Fault to be restored. Instead, they're contemplating creating a vast memorial park, with the towering rubble of Beichuan's ruined buildings as a permanent reminder of the quake's power. | 05/22/08 12:08:06 By - Tim Johnson
After Kenya's violence abates, victims wait for justice
John Oloo, a mechanic with big, calloused hands, hoped that after Kenya's political rivals formed a coalition government three months ago, the cop who fired without warning at his son from the street below would be identified and face justice — or at least be made to apologize. But despite reports of hundreds of such police killings, only one police officer has been arrested, and there have been no apologies. | 05/21/08 19:06:36 By - Shashank Bengali
Israel-Syria peace deal could threaten Iran, Hezbollah
Syria and Israel have been at war for 60 years and the peace talks they announced Wednesday face daunting odds. But a breakthrough could bring fundamental change to the Mideast by returning the Golan Heights to Syria, cutting off support for Hezbollah in Lebanon, and diminishing Iran's influence. | 05/21/08 18:29:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
Angry parents protest collapse of China's schools
Parents seething over the earthquake-triggered collapse of school buildings that killed their children are starting to take action. The incipient protests, if they grow, could prove embarrassing for officials worried that a spotlight may be placed on shoddy construction of schools that led to the deaths of thousands of students in a May 12 earthquake. | 05/21/08 13:43:00 By - Tim Johnson
Syria, Israel announce search for 'comprehensive peace'
With Turkey serving as a mediator, Israeli and Syrian negotiators have spent more than 15 months quietly laying the groundwork for the new negotiations. If successful, the talks could lead to a shift in regional dynamics by returning the Israeli-held Golan Heights to Syria, cutting off critical support for Hezbollah in Lebanon, and diminishing the influence of Iran. | 05/21/08 08:20:49 By - Dion Nissenbaum
Lawyer: Detainee dropped from 9/11 case tried to kill self
Mohammed al Qahtani, 29, cut himself repeatedly and had to be hospitalized after he learned that the Pentagon was seeking the death penalty against him and five others for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Last week, the Pentagon dropped Qahtani from the case. | 05/20/08 17:20:48 By - Carol Rosenberg
China quake: Trapped doctors, optimism, and a thirst for Coke
When an earthquake jolted Sichuan Province, physicians Xie Shouju and Tang Xiong could not tend to the injured. They were trapped themselves. Their apartment building collapsed around them, and the husband and wife team of doctors lay buried under rubble — she for three days, and he for six. | 05/20/08 15:09:00 By - Tim Johnson
Iraqi troops welcomed in Sadr City for first time
Iraqi security forces entered Baghdad's Sadr City in large numbers on Tuesday for the first time since followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed two weeks ago to allow them in. No U.S. troops accompanied the Iraqi forces. The agreement specifically bars them. | 05/20/08 14:15:51 By - Raviya H. Ismail
Brazil's sugar cane mills race to keep up with ethanol boom
More than 5,000 workers now help Moema in Brazil churn out about 880,000 tons of sugar and 185 million gallons of ethanol every year, working day and night, rain or shine. Nationwide, sugar-cane mills produced nearly 6 billion gallons of ethanol last year, with output projected to jump by 160 percent through 2016. | 05/19/08 19:33:40 By - Jack Chang
Under the Sichuan rubble, a heartbeat summons rescuers
Under a maze of rubble and collapsed concrete, relief workers registered a faint heartbeat Monday on a sophisticated detector. It set off a daylong frenzy of rescue efforts. No one even knew the name of the man with the telltale heart. | 05/19/08 17:37:53 By - Tim Johnson
Fear of disease, infection grows in China's quake zone
Six days after a 7.9-maginitude earthquake struck China's western provinces, causing a death toll that has officially risen to 32,476 but is expected to top 50,000, doctors here are confronting a horrible reality among the ruins: many of those who survived the quake are facing conditions that still threaten their lives _ deep infections, rotted limbs, and a lack of safe drinking water and adequate food. | 05/18/08 16:44:00 By - Tim Johnson
U.S. removes soldier from Iraq after he defaces Quran
U.S. military officials, fearing a backlash as a result of the desecration, moved quickly to resolve the case after Iraqi police found the desecrated book May 11 at a shooting range in western Baghdad. They briefed tribal leaders on their investigation and expressed regret for the damage to the holy book. | 05/18/08 16:22:17 By - Raviya H. Ismail
Bush ends 5-day Middle East trip with few concrete gains
Wrapping up a five-day tour of the Middle East, President Bush on Sunday told his Arab allies that expanding democratic reforms and isolating Iran and Syria were crucial steps to a secure and prosperous future for the region. But Bush heads home to Washington with few, if any, concrete gains on his largely ceremonial tour. | 05/18/08 15:01:00 By - Hannah Allam
As border fence goes up, illegal traffic slows down
The giant border fence going up just north of Rancho Anapra, Mexico, has made it harder than ever to use this once-busy smuggling corridor to reach the United States, residents and law enforcement officials say. | 05/18/08 06:00:00 By - Jay Root
Raul's reforms, as small as they are, stir hope in Cuba
After decades of stagnation in a communist country with an average salary of $17 a month, buses are running, household goods are flying off store shelves, and Cubans are giddily comparing their latest cell phone features. The changes unfurled by new leader Raúl Castro are hardly profound structural reforms needed to reverse decades of economic failure. But they've stirred a new sense of hope. | 05/17/08 23:26:52 By -
Bush says Palestinians' plight "breaks my heart"
President Bush said Saturday that "it breaks my heart" that the Palestinian people have been unable to establish an independent homeland and he vowed anew to try to forge an Israeli-Palestinian agreement by year's end. | 05/17/08 17:32:35 By - Hannah Allam
Bin Laden's driver wins another trial delay
A military commission judge Friday delayed the scheduled trial of Osama bin Laden's driver until after the U.S. Supreme Court has decided another key detainee case.Navy Capt. Keith Allred said delaying the start of Salim Hamdan's trial until July 21 "avoids the potential embarrassment, waste of resources and prejudice to the accused that would" result were the Bush administration to lose the Supreme Court case. | 05/16/08 20:54:00 By - Carol Rosenberg
Bush visit to Israel revives talk of a strike on Iran
President Bush's historic speech to the Israeli parliament was as telling for what it didn't say as for what it did. Bush offered one of the strongest demonstrations of support for Israel ever made by an American president. And he reawakened lingering hopes among hawks in Israel and the United States that the U.S. military would strike to thwart Iran's nuclear program. | 05/16/08 17:44:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
With 175 schools destroyed, China begins to lay blame
During the quake, some huge schools became virtual tombs. The Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan collapsed and buried 900 students under tons of concrete. In Beichuan, northeast of the epicenter, a high school tumbled around 1,000 or so students. At the Yinghua high school in Shifang County, 300 students are yet to be located. Experts say many of the schools were built without steel reinforcement. Correction attached. | 05/16/08 08:02:13 By - Tim Johnson
Like father, like son: Bush pleads for Saudi help, but world oil market has changed
Many Americans grumbling at the gas pump are quick to blame the Saudis for their woes — just as many might be surprised to learn that Saudi Arabia trails Canada and Mexico as the chief suppliers of foreign oil to the United States and isn't far ahead of Venezuela, Nigeria and Angola. | 05/15/08 20:24:42 By - Kevin G. Hall
Despite fragile calm, Lebanese fear a return to civil war
Ordinary Lebanese of all backgrounds said they wouldn't soon forget the savagery of the past week. They also fear that the balance of power has been altered so dramatically that it's a question of when, and not if, fighting resumes and more lives are lost. | 05/15/08 18:21:00 By - Hannah Allam
Interpol: E-mails linking Venezuela, FARC are legitimate
After examining copies of computer hard drives captured in a guerrilla camp, the international police agency said there was no doubt that messages linking Venezuela with the Colombian rebel group were legitimate and had not been altered. The computers were captured by Colombia in a cross-border raid that nearly touched off a South American war. | 05/15/08 16:43:39 By - Alejandra Labanca
McCain predicts victory, with most troops out of Iraq by 2013
McCain has been under attack for weeks by Democrats and liberal interest groups for his remarks that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for 100 years or more. Thursday was the first time he put a timetable on when he thinks most U.S. troops will be out of Iraq if he is elected president. | 05/15/08 14:19:01 By - Matt Stearns
Obama slams Bush for 'appeasement' remark in Israel
President Bush used an address to Israel's Knesset to compare some American political opponents to Nazi appeasers and brand them as too willing to "negotiate with the terrorists and radicals." Barack Obama hit back, saying Bush's policies had stengthened Iran and failed to secure America or Israel. | 05/15/08 14:17:53 By - Dion Nissenbaum and David Lightman
Bush calls possible talks with Iran 'appeasement'
President Bush celebrated Israel's 60th anniversary on Thursday by hailing the Jewish state as a beacon of democracy and denouncing calls for the United States to talk to Iran and other radical forces in the region as a "foolish delusion." | 05/15/08 09:59:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum and David Lightman
Rocket attack on Israel hits during Bush visit
The difficulties facing President Bush in securing a new Middle East peace deal exploded Wednesday when a Palestinian rocket crashed into a southern Israeli medical center as the U.S. president joined world leaders in Jerusalem to celebrate the nation's 60th anniversary. | 05/14/08 17:40:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
China eases Internet controls, and quake news pours out
Chinese witnesses to the devastation of the earthquake in Sichuan Province have flooded Internet websites with homemade videos, filled chat rooms with commentary, and let text messages fly from their mobile phones in a burst of activity that Chinese authorities have made little effort to control. | 05/14/08 09:09:09 By - Tim Johnson
China eases Internet controls, and quake news pours out
Chinese witnesses to the devastation of the earthquake in Sichuan Province have flooded Internet Web sites with homemade videos, filled chat rooms with commentary, and let text messages fly from their mobile phones in a burst of activity that Chinese authorities have made little effort to control. | 05/14/08 15:03:00 By - Tim Johnson
In a surprise, Uribe sends 14 militia leaders to U.S. for trial
CARACAS — Colombian President Alvaro Uribe authorized the extradition to the United States of 14 notorious paramilitary warlords Tuesday to face cocaine-trafficking charges in a move that surprised many. | 05/13/08 21:43:54 By - Jay Weaver and Tyler Bridges
Lebanese Sunnis can't accept loss of Beirut to Shiite Hezbollah
For many Sunni Muslims, including several who took up arms in street battles against Hezbollah-allied gunmen in the past week, the Shiite-led takeover of Beirut is a fait accompli. They sounded like Iraqi Sunnis after the fall of Baghdad and the ensuing rise of Shiite leaders there. | 05/13/08 19:55:00 By - Hannah Allam
Mexico finds it's not easy to end violence against women
More than a year ago, Mexico passed a law requiring police to respond to complaints of violence against women. But that hasn't solved the problem. Nearly one-third of Mexico's states haven't adopted the law, and even where the law's been adopted, it's not being applied. | 05/13/08 16:08:00 By - Franco Ordonez
9,000 still buried in China quake debris; toll at 12,000
Chinese television offered nonstop coverage of the quake aftermath, including striking images of Premier Wen Jaibao looking emotional and urging rescuers on. Censors appeared to ease their grip on the Internet and mobile phone text messaging, allowing informatio