Israel closes West Bank for Sukkot holiday
Al-Maliki British troops not necessary
Al-Maliki British troops not necessary in Iraq
Official Gunmen shoot at US consulate in Mexico
Gunmen open fire on US consulate in Mexico
15 reported killed in Pakistan fighting
5 more Taliban killed in Afghanistan clash
Philippine leader wants summit to tackle economy
No Internet access for 911 defendants at Gitmo
Gunmen kill 6 at party in northern Mexico

By Ahn Young-joon (AP)

South Korea is considering expanding cross-border projects with North Korea following major progress in an international standoff over the communist country's nuclear program, an official said Monday.

On Saturday, the United States removed North Korea from its terrorism blacklist, saying Pyongyang agreed to all Washington's nuclear inspection demands. The North welcomed the delisting, saying it would resume disabling its main nuclear facilities and allow international inspections there.

Meanwhile, conservative protesters took to the streets in Seoul to denounce the...

By Eugene Hoshiko (AP)

A dairy ensnared in China's chemical-tainting scandal says it was a victim of unscrupulous behavior by the independent providers from whom it buys raw milk.

Speaking on a television talk show late Sunday, the president of Bright Dairy said his company, one of the largest in the Chinese dairy industry, had been "too nice" toward milk collection stations that bought milk from farmers.

The comments appeared aimed at restoring consumer confidence in the wake of the scandal that has dinged the reputation of some of China's best-known food companies.

"We thought they were o...

By Junko Kimura (AP)

Tepid public support for Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has fallen further in the weeks since he took office and voters now want help for the country's economy to take priority over domestic politics, according to a poll published Monday.

Support for Aso's administration has fallen to 46 percent, down almost 4 percentage points from a survey taken just after he took power and picked his Cabinet three weeks ago, reported the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest newspaper by subscribers.

It also showed that 70 percent of voters feel a stimulus package for Japan's lagging economy...

By MINDAUGAS KULBIS (AP)

A conservative opposition party was ahead in Lithuania's parliamentary election, but strong support for populist groups set the stage for tricky coalition talks, partial results showed Monday.

The vote, which came as the Baltic country's economy slumps after years of spectacular growth, appeared to spell the end for Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas' centrist coalition government.

With three-fourth of the precincts counted, the conservative Homeland Union was in first place with nearly 18 percent of the vote _ a signal that Lithuanians wanted change, party leader Andrius Kubi...

By HADI MIZBAN (AP)

Suicide car bombers struck twice Sunday in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least six people and wounding dozens of others, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. A car bomb killed seven other people in Baghdad.

Two Iraqi soldiers were killed by snipers in separate attacks Sunday in the capital's Yarmouk district, police said.

Also Sunday, the government announced new security measures to protect Christians in Mosul after a spate of attacks against them by Sunni religious extremists.

The series of attacks shows the ongoing security challenges facing Iraq as the U.S....

By Tom Hanson (AP)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is gambling that an opposition pushing an unpopular carbon tax will steer Canadian voters to the right in Tuesday's election and bolster his hold on power.

If the polls are any indication, though, Canada's third national ballot in just over four years will give the country yet another minority government.

Harper's Conservatives did not win an outright majority in the 308-seat Parliament in the 2006 election. As a minority government in the previous Parliament, the Conservatives had to rely on the opposition to pass budgets and legislation.

...

By HADI MIZBAN (AP)

Suicide car bombers struck twice Sunday in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least six people and wounding dozens of others, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. A car bomb killed seven other people in Baghdad.

Two Iraqi soldiers were killed by snipers in separate attacks Sunday in the capital's Yarmouk district, police said.

Also Sunday, the government announced new security measures to protect Christians in Mosul after a spate of attacks against them by Sunni religious extremists.

The series of attacks shows the ongoing security challenges facing Iraq as the U.S....

By (AP)

A conservative opposition party received the most votes in Lithuania's election Sunday, but it was unlikely to match the combined strength of two rival populist groups, an exit poll indicated.

The poll, released on Lithuania's TV3 network moments after voting ending, showed the conservative Homeland Union with 21 percent in the Baltic country's parliamentary vote, while two allied populist parties _ Order and Justice and the Labor Party _ mustered a combined 25 percent.

The results could suggest a lengthy battle for the next government, with the conservatives vying with the p...

By Guillermo Arias (AP)

Norbert dissipated into a tropical depression over the northern mountains of mainland Mexico on Sunday, after ripping off roofs and forcing thousands to seek shelter in Baja California.

The storm's remnants are expected to reach New Mexico and waterlogged western Texas Sunday afternoon. State and local officials in Texas plan to activate an emergency operations center Monday in Presidio, where an earthen levee is struggling to hold back the swollen Rio Grande.

Norbert hit mainland Mexico's Sonora coast early Sunday as a Category 1 hurricane with winds near 85 mph (140 kph)...

By HADI MIZBAN (AP)

While the rest of the world faces a financial meltdown, the Iraq Stock Exchange index has soared nearly 40 percent during September, boosted by increasing confidence in security gains.

The ISX is only open two hours a day, three days a week and brokers track trading activity on the floor with colored markers and white bulletin boards instead of computers. But investors are seeing gains, especially in the hotel sector, even as markets elsewhere are taking a tumble.

"I don't think that the current financial crisis will hurt our economy and especially this market because we are...

By Musadeq Sadeq (AP)

The top NATO general in Afghanistan on Sunday rejected the idea that NATO is losing the Afghanistan war to an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency.

But U.S. Gen. David McKiernan also said he needs more military forces to tamp down the militants, and he depicted a chaotic Afghan countryside where insurgents hold more power than the Afghan government seven years after the U.S.-led invasion. He said better governance and economic progress were vital.

"It is true that in many places of this country we don't have an acceptable level of security. We don't have good governance. We...

By (AP)

North Korea said Sunday it will resume disabling its key nuclear complex after the U.S. dropped the country from a terrorism blacklist _ a breakthrough expected to help energize stalled talks aimed at ending the country's atomic ambitions.

The spat was the latest of many between Pyongyang and Washington that threatened to scuttle progress before eventually being settled since the international talks aimed at dismantling the communist country's nuclear program began five years ago.

This weekend's developments raised hopes that stalled international nuclear talks could quickly ...

By HADI MIZBAN (AP)

Suicide car bombers struck twice Sunday in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least six people and wounding dozens of others, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. A car bomb killed seven other people in Baghdad.

The series of attacks shows the ongoing security challenges facing Iraq as the U.S. shifts responsibility to this country's own soldiers and police following the sharp decline in violence since last year.

The first attack in Mosul occurred when a suicide car bomber attacked a U.S. patrol, the U.S. military said. There were no American casualties, but five Iraqis were...

By Hasbunallah Khan (AP)

The latest in a barrage of suspected U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan's northwest killed five people, but none was believed to be a foreign al-Qaida fighter, officials said Sunday.

Two drone aircraft were seen above the town of Miran Shah in the North Waziristan tribal region minutes before missiles hit a house near a matchbox factory Saturday, two intelligence officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. They said reports from local informants said there were no foreigners among the...

By Gert Eggenberger (AP)

Far-right politician Joerg Haider was speeding at more than twice the posted limit before the car crash that killed him, investigators said Sunday as his grief-stricken party appointed a successor.

Flowers, notes and other tributes piled up at the scene of the crash that killed the former leader of the Freedom Party, whose anti-immigration stance and provocative praise of the Nazi era once led the European Union to slap Austria with diplomatic sanctions.

Police reconstructing Saturday's accident in the southern province of Carinthia, where Haider was governor, said the...

By (AP)

China's ruling Communist Party on Sunday said it would seek to expand its massive internal market to counter the global economic slowdown that has reduced international demand for Chinese goods.

The party, led by President Hu Jintao, released a statement at the end of a four-day meeting of its Central Committee where it also approved a plan aimed at doubling rural incomes by 2020.

"We should step up efforts to boost domestic demand, particularly domestic consumption and keep the economy, the financial sector and the capital market stable," the party said in a statement releas...

By Dmitry Lovetsky (AP)

A Soyuz spacecraft with two Americans and a Russian on board lifted off from Kazakhstan on Sunday for the international space station.

The Soyuz TMA-13 capsule carrying American computer game millionaire Richard Garriott soared into a clear sky atop a Russian rocket as the latest paying space traveler's family watched from a viewing platform. Also aboard were U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.

The rocket lifted off on schedule at 1:01 p.m. (3:01 a.m. EDT), sending an orange flare behind it as it streaked upward. The craft entered orbit about...

By MUHAMMAD SAJJAD (AP)

The latest in a barrage of suspected U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan's northwest killed five people, but none was believed to be a foreign al-Qaida fighter, officials said Sunday.

Two unmanned airplanes were seen above the town of Miran Shah in the North Waziristan tribal region minutes before missiles hit a house near a matchbox factory Saturday, two intelligence officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. They said local informants reported no foreigners among the dead.

Army spokesmen could not...

By STR (AP)

In polarized Lebanon, flaunting a political leader's poster can be enough to spark a gunfight. So shopkeepers on Beirut's al-Maamoun Street are breathing a little easier now that "poster disarmament" has been declared.

Most of the posters once plastered on Beirut's walls and lampposts have come down by agreement between the main factions of Shiite and Sunni Muslims _ part of a broader attempt to ease nearly three years of sectarian and political tensions that almost dragged the country back into civil war.

The move is giving a new look to a city where political posters and ...

By JEFF PACHOUD (AP)

The president of the European Commission said he was very hopeful that a meeting of European leaders Sunday would take an important step toward a coordinated response to the global financial crisis.

Some European officials said one of the proposals on the table would be governments guaranteeing interbank loans in order to unfreeze credit markets locked up by fear and uncertainty among lending institutions.

Such broads guarantees would follow the lead of Britain, which also has moved toward partial bank nationalization, another idea that could be taken up by the summit of 15...

By Petty Officer 2nd Class Jason R. Zalasky (AP)

Somali forces raided one of the many ships hijacked off the country's coast Sunday as a deadline loomed in a standoff aboard another, arms-laden vessel, officials said.

Troops in northern Somalia's semiautonomous Puntland region unsuccessfully tried to take back a ship that was taken over by pirates on Thursday, said Ali Abdi Aware, Puntland's foreign minister. He said two pirates were killed.

The vessel, which carrying cement, is believed to have Syrian and Somali crew on board.

"Our forces are chasing the ship and we hope to rescue it," Aware said in a telephone int...

By Bassem Tellawi (AP)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday the rift between his mainstream Palestinian faction and archrival Hamas must end. The Hamas leader, meanwhile, said the time is right for reconciliation.

Fatah and Hamas have been at odds since the latter's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Following the takeover, Abbas dissolved the Hamas-led government from his base in the West Bank and formed a new administration excluding the more radical group.

Abbas was in the Syrian capital for a two-day visit to brief the Syrian leadership, which holds enormous sway with...

By Dmitry Astakhov (AP)

President Dmitry Medvedev watched a missile soar from Russia's rain-soaked northern forests toward a target thousands of miles away on Sunday, capping a weekend of launches reminding audiences at home and abroad about the country's nuclear might.

Prominent coverage of the tests on state-controlled television also seemed designed to boost the bookish Medvedev's credentials as commander-in-chief in the eyes of the Russian populace.

On Sunday, Medvedev saw what officials said was the successful test-firing of a 21-year-old Topol intercontinental ballistic missile. The missile hi...

Indian army works to rescue boy trapped in well
Fire burns 750 acres, 2 homes northeast of LA
Biden decries ugly inferences against Obama
Obama asked about help for struggling families
McCain vows to whip Obamas you know what
Govt eyes plan to take ownership stakes in banks
Chihuahua fetches $17.5M, remains top movie dog
Canadian leader gambles for majority government
Biden decries unbecoming personal attacks
Insulated from global woes, Iraqi stocks soar