The prime minister appealed Wednesday to Iraqis to stand by their security forces, even as angry lawmakers demanded answers and called on top officials to resign following the third massive attack against government sites since summer. Read More

Guinea's military junta has suspended negotiations with the opposition on the country's political crisis until the return of its wounded leader, a junta spokesman said Wednesday. Read More

The Red Cross says they need $32 million to feed 220,000 Zimbabweans who cannot access hard currency in the collapsed economy. Read More

An al-Qaida offshoot that has claimed responsibility for kidnapping three Spaniards and a Frenchman in West Africa last month said Wednesday the four Europeans were in good health and treated according to Islamic laws. Read More

Officials have postponed the rocket launch of a military observation satellite for France's defense ministry. Read More

A Venezuelan court has issued a warrant for the arrest of an ally-turned-critic of President Hugo Chavez. Read More

A man who was presumed dead in this week's string of attacks in Baghdad stunned neighbors Wednesday when returned to his toppled home _ and then he drew more stares as he cuddled his pet dog that was remarkably unharmed in the blast. Read More

The mayor of Kabul continued to run Afghanistan's capital Wednesday despite being sentenced to four years in jail on corruption charges, raising questions about President Hamid Karzai's campaign to prove he's serious about tackling graft and bribery in the government. Read More

The No. 2 commanding general in Afghanistan acknowledged Wednesday that a NATO-led attack the day before in eastern Afghanistan possibly resulted in civilian deaths. Read More

Although he doesn't show up at the Copenhagen climate talks until next week, U.S. President Barack Obama won't be far from global warming issues when he lands in Oslo Thursday to collect his contentious Nobel Peace Prize. Read More

Members of a regional government in Russia overseeing a town hit by a deadly nightclub blaze resigned Wednesday as the death toll from the fire rose to 125. Read More

Indian children are increasingly caught in the middle of fighting between the government and communist rebels in impoverished rural areas, with at least 42 schools attacked in the past year, a human rights group said Wednesday. Read More

Beware of police roadblocks in Nigeria: If you cannot pay a bribe, you can end up dead, according to an Amnesty International report published Wednesday. Read More

Iran claimed Wednesday that a newly built U.N. station to detect nuclear explosions was built near its border to give the West a post to spy on the country. Read More

Philippine police on Wednesday named 161 suspects in the massacre of 57 people last month in the country's worst election violence, including government militiamen led by members of a powerful clan facing murder and rebellion charges. Read More

Amanda Knox is counting on an appeals trial to regain her freedom after a court sentenced her to 26 years in prison for murdering her British roommate, an Italian lawmaker who visited the American student said Wednesday. Read More

Detained Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was taken from her home Wednesday into unannounced talks with a junta official, the first in two months, officials said. Read More

Israel's parliament has given preliminary approval to a piece of legislation that would require a national referendum on any peace deal that gives up control of east Jerusalem or the Golan Heights. Read More

A statue of President Barack Obama as a 10-year-old wearing shorts and a T-shirt has been erected in a Jakarta park to inspire children in the country where he lived as a boy, officials said Wednesday. Read More

When he was a Roman Catholic bishop, Fernando Lugo taught liberation theology to uplift the poor. Now president, he is in the uncomfortable position of sending special forces into Paraguay's northern forests to hunt kidnappers whose leaders include a former student and his former altar boy. Read More