World News

  • Chavez opponent charged for televised remarks
    Venezuelan prosecutors charged a government opponent with conspiracy and other crimes Friday after he said on a television program that the country has become a haven for drug trafficking.
  • 2 familiar faces face off for Colombian pres
    Former Foreign Minister Noemi Sanin has defeated Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's hand-picked successor for the Conservative Party's presidential nomination in a close primary.
  • Army, drug gangs battle in Mexico amid blockades
    A shootout in the northern city of Monterrey killed two suspected drug cartel gunmen and wounded a soldier Friday. Suspected gang members also blocked roads in the city for the second day, in a bold attempt to impede security patrols.
  • An up close look at the military life in Marjah
    EDITOR'S NOTE - Associated Press photographer David Guttenfelder was embedded with U.S. forces during the offensive in Marjah, Afghanistan. Here is his account of some of the photos he made of the soldiers' daily lives.
  • Minister: Sierra Leone rattled by disaster hoax
    A top official in Sierra Leone's government said he raced to a town in the country Friday after news reports said at least 200 people had been killed in a mining accident there, only to find out it was a hoax.
  • UN report: Overall number of slum dwellers up
    The number of people living in slum conditions increased by 51 million during the past 10 years, despite global efforts to halt poverty, according to a United Nations' report released Friday.
  • In tight Iraq parliament vote, upsets point to future battles
    The count in the Iraqi elections isn't yet over, but tallies released this week reveal upsets in restive provinces that portend a weak and fractious Iraq with battles looming on several fronts: Arab-Kurd rivalries, an internecine Shiite Muslim power struggle and what role Sunni Arabs will play in the next government.
  • Pope's Irish letter faces critical Catholic world
    Pope Benedict XVI addresses Ireland on Saturday in a letter apologizing for the sex abuse scandal here - a message being watched closely by Catholics from Boston to Berlin to see if it also acknowledges decades of Vatican-approved cover-ups.
  • Air Canada supports pilot caught in dispute
    Air Canada is standing by a pilot whose co-workers refused to fly with him, fearing he was suicidal and accusing him of threatening to ditch his aircraft in the Atlantic Ocean.
  • Is that fare? Steep fee to ride with UK's Brown
    Britain's national debt is the key theme in the country's looming national election - but it's now news organizations, not just the country's government, racking up huge bills to meet the cost of covering the campaign.
  • Pakistan arrests halt UN contacts with Taliban
    The arrests of top Taliban figures in Pakistan abruptly halted secret U.N. contacts with the insurgency at a time when the efforts were gathering momentum, the U.N.'s former envoy to Afghanistan said Friday.
  • Malawi churches: same sex acts "sinful"
    Malawi church leaders say that homosexuality is "sinful" and urge Western nations to withdraw threats to halt aid to this southern Africa country over a court case that could send two gay men to jail for up to 14 years.
  • Heavy rains swamp camps holding Haiti's homeless
    One of the heaviest rainfalls since Haiti's Jan. 12 earthquake swamped homeless camps Friday, sweeping screaming residents into eddies of water, overflowing latrines and panicking thousands.