International
Iraq PM back in the lead in vote count
The Iraq's election commission says the prime minister's coalition has retaken the lead from his secular challenger in the preliminary tally of votes from the parliamentary elections. (Updated: 03/17/10 4:30 PM )
Israel lifts closure of West Bank as tensions calm
Israel on Wednesday lifted its tight restrictions on Palestinian access to Jerusalem's holiest shrine and called off an extended West Bank closure after days of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces. (Updated: 03/17/10 4:30 PM )
Parents take back kids they gave to missionaries
Joyful parents on Wednesday recovered the children that they gave to American missionaries about six weeks ago. (Updated: 03/17/10 3:54 PM )
World's richest man visits Lebanon, ancestral home
The world's richest man told a group of university students in Lebanon, his ancestral home, on Wednesday that education and jobs are the best way to fight poverty. (Updated: 03/17/10 3:54 PM )
Kyrgyzstan unveils US military training base plan
Officials in the impoverished Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan say the United States plans to build a $5 million military base for training local troops to assist in the fight against international terrorism. (Updated: 03/17/10 3:24 PM )
DomRep expands 10-year manhunt for US drug kingpin
The Dominican Republic's most wanted man is an American who for 10 years has fed his mystique by pulling off narrow escapes and taunting police. (Updated: 03/17/10 2:54 PM )
Wrong religion: Israeli ruins re-identified
Israeli archaeologists have announced that ruins long thought to be of an ancient synagogue are actually the remains of a palace built by Arab caliphs 1,300 years ago. (Updated: 03/17/10 3:34 PM )
Priests with love lives speak out against celibacy
Leon Laclau shared his life, and often, his bed, with Marga over 20 years - all while serving as a Catholic priest in a town in the French Pyrenees. (Updated: 03/17/10 4:09 PM )
Cuban security agents break up protest march
Uniformed Cuban security agents prevented the mothers and wives of dissidents from marching on the outskirts of the capital on Wednesday to demand release of their loved ones, shoving them into a bus when they lay down in the street in protest. (Updated: 03/17/10 4:39 PM )
Arab world says hopes in Obama are dwindling
Arabs across the Middle East are unconvinced the United States will stand up to Israel despite Washington's rare public outrage over plans to build new Jewish homes in a traditionally Arab part of Jerusalem. (Updated: 03/17/10 2:14 PM )
UN rights chief says Gaza war probes inadequate
The U.N.'s top human rights official criticized Israeli and Palestinian authorities on Wednesday for failing to properly investigate alleged war crimes last year in the Gaza Strip. (Updated: 03/17/10 2:59 PM )
Book makes new claims about Anne Frank
A Holocaust survivor claims in a new book that Anne Frank distracted younger children from the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp by telling them fairy tales - an account disputed by at least one Frank authority and a childhood friend of the diarist. (Updated: 03/17/10 4:30 PM )
Brazilian president places wreath on Arafat's tomb
Brazil's president placed a wreath on the tomb of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Wednesday and sharply criticized Israeli policies, leading Israeli officials to suggest he was not being evenhanded. (Updated: 03/17/10 1:44 PM )
Nigeria's acting president dissolves Cabinet
Nigeria's acting president dissolved the Cabinet on Wednesday, purging top officials loyal to the nation's ill president in his first major act since taking over the young democracy's highest office more than a month ago. (Updated: 03/17/10 3:54 PM )
UK can't guarantee allies don't torture detainees
Britain's government can't completely rule out that its allies torture detainees while seeking to tackle the threat from terrorism, according to an official report released Wednesday. (Updated: 03/17/10 1:14 PM )