An official at Brazil's Supreme Court says a ruling could come Tuesday that a U.S. father hopes will reunite him with his young son after a five-year custody battle. Read More

Cuba's foreign minister called President Barack Obama an "imperial and arrogant" liar Monday for his conduct at the U.N. climate conference, a reflection of the communist island's increasingly fiery verbal attacks on the U.S. government. Read More

North and South Korea plan to open modernized military hot lines next week to help facilitate border crossings by officials and workers from the South to a joint industrial complex in the North, an official said Tuesday. Read More

Ugly words on the playground were his first hurtful clue. Read More

Almost all of the 47,000 residents living on the slopes of a rumbling volcano in the central Philippines have moved to emergency shelters, and lava and earthquakes Tuesday heralded what officials say could be a major eruption. Read More

Her dream of becoming the youngest person to sail solo around the world shattered and under scrutiny over her quest, Dutch teenager Laura Dekker ran away from home _ to the Caribbean 5,000 miles away. Two days after she was reported missing, police managed to track the 14-year-old girl down on the island of St. Maarten. Read More

Marathon top-level Israeli meetings ended early Tuesday without announcement of a decision over whether to accept Islamic militants' demand to swap 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for a lone Israeli serviceman. Read More

Just in time for Christmas, archaeologists on Monday unveiled what may have been the home of one of Jesus' childhood neighbors. The humble dwelling is the first dating to the era of Jesus to be discovered in Nazareth, then a hamlet of around 50 impoverished Jewish families where Jesus spent his boyhood. Read More

A court has sentenced a man to 12 years in jail for killing a rare tiger in southwestern China. Read More

Visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping thanked Cambodia on Monday for deporting 20 Muslim asylum-seekers while handing the country $1.2 billion in aid , the government spokesman said. Read More

China dismissed Tuesday a British editorial accusing it of "hijacking" the U.N.-sponsored climate talks in Copenhagen as baseless and politically motivated. Read More

As of Monday, Dec. 21, 2009, at least 857 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Monday at 10 a.m. EDT. Read More

Colombia's defense chief joked Monday that Venezuelan troops might have mistaken Santa's sleigh for a spy plane, dismissing accusations by President Hugo Chavez about drones flying over Venezuela. Read More

Colombia's defense chief joked Monday that Venezuelan troops might have mistaken Santa's sleigh for a spy plane, dismissing accusations by President Hugo Chavez about drones flying over Venezuela. Read More

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned Guatemala for failing to seek justice in the 1982 massacre of more than 200 villagers during the country's civil war, according to a ruling released Monday. Read More

U.N. investigators say there is sufficient reason to believe that Guinea's wounded junta leader is directly responsible for the mass killings and rapes of protesters in September, which they consider crimes against humanity, a U.N. diplomat said Monday. Read More

Mexico City lawmakers on Monday made the city the first in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, a change that will give homosexual couples more rights, including allowing them to adopt children. Read More

Britain's three major political parties have agreed to participate in an unprecedented series of U.S.-style television debates, a coalition of broadcasters said Monday. Read More

A huge funeral procession for Iran's most senior dissident cleric became a show of defiance against the country's rulers Monday as mourners flashed green protest colors and chanted against the Islamic leadership in Iran's holy city of Qom. Read More

The three pieces of the infamous sign proclaiming "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work Sets You Free)" will be welded together and restored to the main gate at the former Auschwitz death camp after an improved security system is put in place to guard against another theft. Read More