A prominent opponent of President Hugo Chavez accused the socialist leader's government on Wednesday of turning a blind eye to leftist Colombian rebels taking refuge in border areas of Venezuela. Read More

Venezuelan authorities have destroyed more than 30,000 illegal firearms as part of an effort to combat soaring crime. Read More

A 79-year-old Irish Roman Catholic priest abducted in the Philippines a month ago was freed early Thursday and neither country paid any of the kidnappers' $2 million ransom demand, Irish and Filipino authorities said. Read More

As of Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, at least 836 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 Tuesday at 10 a.m. EST. Read More

North Korea warned South Korea on Thursday that it could face consequences over a naval clash that occurred between the rival countries off their west coast earlier this week. Read More

Japan's Emperor Akihito, marking the 20th anniversary of his coronation Thursday, says he is concerned young people are forgetting their history. Read More

A newly discovered dinosaur species that roamed the Earth about 200 million years ago may help explain how the creatures evolved into the largest animals on land, scientists in South Africa said Wednesday. Read More

Haiti's new prime minister was inaugurated Wednesday and promised to attract more investment and create jobs, while forging good relations with lawmakers who have ousted two heads of government in as many years. Read More

Camps for people uprooted by natural disasters or armed conflict inside their own country can stir envy among locals and become a recruiting ground for armed groups, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned Thursday. Read More

A man from Tajikistan seeking his freedom from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is challenging a practice among federal judges here who are short-circuiting the cases of some long-time detainees. Read More

Warlords helped drive the Russians from Afghanistan, then shelled Kabul into ruins in a bloody civil war after the Soviets left. Now they are back in positions of power, in part because the U.S. relied on them in 2001 to help oust the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks. Read More

Israel displayed for the first time Wednesday a collection of rare coins charred and burned from the Roman destruction of the Jewish Temple nearly 2,000 years ago. Read More

Mexico's third-largest city has fired almost a quarter of its traffic police for failing tests designed to detect corruption and ineptitude. Read More

Eight American scientists, including Nobel laureate in chemistry Peter Agre, are in Havana to engage in "science diplomacy." Read More

In a Nov. 9 story about native tongues at risk in Latin America, The Associated Press incorrectly reported the total number of indigenous languages spoken in the region. There are 420 languages, not 557, which is the number of distinct ethnic communities in the region, according to the "Socio-Linguistic Atlas of Latin America's Indigenous Peoples" being published by UNICEF this month. Read More

An Ivory Coast election official says this month's presidential vote will not occur as planned. Read More

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, at odds over Jewish settlements, made no apparent dent in the dispute as they sought to find ways Wednesday to revive Mideast peace efforts. Read More

Military divers have found the body of a U.S. paratrooper who disappeared last week along with another soldier as the two tried to retrieve airdropped supplies from a river in western Afghanistan, NATO said Wednesday. Read More

The tens of thousands of Palestinians who thronged Yasser Arafat's grave Wednesday to mark the fifth anniversary of his death had a lot more to mourn than just their late leader. Read More

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defended Brazil's friendly relations with Iran on Wednesday, saying such ties are necessary to build lasting peace in the Middle East. Read More