Canadian federal officials were well aware of allegations of abuse in Afghan jails as the Canadian military was handing over detainees to Afghanistan's intelligence service in 2006, Canada's former top official on Afghanistan said Thursday. Read More

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip will visit Canada for a weeklong visit starting in late June. Read More

A 16-year-old Christian girl from southern Sudan said Friday she was lashed 50 times for wearing a skirt deemed indecent by authorities in the north who enforce a strict version of Islamic law. Read More

Costa Rica promised to restore ties with the Honduras after it elects a new president on Sunday, joining other nations in rejecting ousted President Manuel Zelaya's insistence that recognizing the vote would legitimize a June coup. Read More

A lawyer representing the family of a British college student who was slain in Italy is seeking euro25 million ($37 million) in damages from an American and two other defendants accused in the 2007 killing. Read More

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas dismissed an Israeli plan to temporarily halt new construction of West Bank settlements as insufficient on Friday, saying Palestinians don't accept Israel's tack in trying to restart peace negotiations. Read More

The U.N. nuclear watchdog's board censured Iran on Friday, with 25 nations backing a resolution demanding that Tehran immediately freeze construction of its newly revealed nuclear facility and heed Security Council resolutions to stop uranium enrichment. Read More

Ukrainian nationalists hurled red paint at a restored monument to Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin moments after it was unveiled Friday, sparking a street brawl and revealing the bitter divisions over the legacy of communism in Ukraine. Read More

Light ash has fallen over the capital of Montserrat after the Caribbean island's temperamental volcano hurled another round of hot rocks and gases. Read More

Iran summoned Norway's ambassador Friday and said the country had no right to criticize the Islamic Republic for confiscating Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi's medal. Read More

An approaching global climate summit has raised the temperature at what is usually a low-key meeting of leaders from Britain's former colonial empire. Read More

Vast crowds of pilgrims cast stones at walls representing the devil on the third day of the annual hajj on Friday as Muslims around the world began celebrating Eid al-Adha, the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar. Read More

Undeterred by the deadly attack that killed 57 in a campaign convoy, Ismael Mangudadatu filed to run for governor of Maguindanao province Friday, heavily guarded by police and soldiers. Read More

Three Ukrainians were killed when a helicopter operated by an international military contractor crashed in eastern Afghanistan. Read More

Poland's president has approved legislation that allows for people to be fined or even imprisoned for possessing or buying communist symbols, two decades after communist rule ended. Read More

Drawing his .40-caliber pistol, Severiano Pontes dashes across the steaming, muddy jungle floor, a hunch telling him what he would find around a bend. Read More

Germany's labor minister resigned Friday after conceding that he didn't see a military report on a deadly September airstrike in northern Afghanistan while he held the government's defense portfolio. Read More

A new panel of judges will formally open Premier Silvio Berlusconi's bribery trial on Dec. 4, more than a year after it was frozen by a now-defunct immunity law. Read More

After claiming to feel great remorse for his part in Khmer Rouge atrocities, the defendant in Cambodia's first genocide trial on Friday surprised the court with a last-minute plea for his freedom, saying he should not have been prosecuted and has already spent ten years in jail. Read More

Equatorial Guinea _ a violent land of coups, petrodollar wealth and killer poverty _ is holding a presidential election Sunday that its leader of 30 years says he will win by more than the 97 percent garnered in the last widely criticized vote. Read More