Muslim pilgrims holding white umbrellas against the blazing sun clambered up a rocky desert hill for prayers Thursday during the annual hajj, a day after torrential rains that killed at least 77 people. Read More

Iran brought new espionage charges against an Iranian-American scholar who was already convicted of spying and sentenced to 15 years in prison in the country's crackdown following June's disputed presidential election, a human rights group said Thursday. Read More

A journalist known for his critical stance toward Tunisia's government was sentenced to six months in prison Thursday for what his lawyer called a trumped-up assault charge. Read More

Namibia's longtime ruling party is expected to return to power in Friday elections but its hold on this desert nation may weaken with the emergence of a new opposition party. Read More

STAR CITY, Russia (AP) _ There is no space for tourists wishing to fly to the International Space Station, a top Russian space official said Thursday. Since the space station's crew doubled to six people earlier this year, there is no longer room for tourists who pay tens of millions of dollars for a trip on a Russian spacecraft from Earth, said Sergei Krikalyov, the chief of the Cosmonaut Training Center. Read More

China announced plans Thursday to cut its carbon emissions by up to 45 percent as measured against its economic output _ a commitment from the world's largest polluter that builds momentum ahead of a widely anticipated climate conference in Copenhagen next month. Read More

A scion of a powerful pro-government clan has turned himself in and will face murder charges for allegedly leading the massacre of 57 people in an election caravan in the southern Philippines, the chief prosecutor said Thursday. Read More

Thailand has issued rules making sex change surgery more difficult _ including a requirement that potential candidates cross-dress for a year _ over fears that some patients are rushing into the operation, a medical association said Thursday. Read More

Prosecutors to file multiple murder charges against suspect in Philippine massacre on Friday. Read More

A Russian prison official reportedly admitted Thursday that harsh prison conditions are partially to blame for the death last week of a lawyer being held in a Moscow detention center. Read More

Norway's Foreign Ministry says it has lodged a formal complaint with Iran after authorities there confiscated human rights activist Shirin Ebadi's Nobel Peace Prize medal. Read More

A gunman opened fire in a Hungarian university classroom Thursday, killing one student and leaving three people seriously injured, the state-run news agency said. Read More

Iraq's prime minister on Thursday warned that a political dispute likely to postpone January elections was a threat to security, but said American troops would not have to delay their timetable for leaving because of the vote. Read More

A United Nations human rights official says a three-member U.N. commission has arrived in this West African nation to investigate the September massacre in which troops fatally shot pro-democracy demonstrators and raped women in broad daylight. Read More

A helicopter chartered by an international military contractor has disappeared in Afghanistan, officials said Thursday. Read More

The Roman Catholic Church in Dublin covered up decades of child abuse committed by priests because bishops wanted to protect the church's reputation at the expense of victims, an expert commission reported Thursday after a three-year probe into previously secret church records. Read More

Georgia is very worried about the possible sale of French warships to Russia and intends to press the issue of security guarantees in France, the country's foreign minister said Thursday. Read More

Police broke up a protest by the environmental group Greenpeace against deforestation on the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Thursday, arresting 12 foreign and six Indonesian demonstrators, an official and an activist said. Read More

The queen of England will still rule _ formally at least _ over the eastern Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Read More

Who killed Victor Jara? Read More