At least three loud explosions have shaken central Baghdad. Read More

Tens of thousands of students, many shouting "Death to the Dictator!" and burning pictures of Iran's supreme leader, took to the streets on more than a dozen campuses Monday in the biggest anti-government protests in months. Read More

Four people died in Russian hospitals overnight, bringing the death toll from last weekend's nightclub fire to 117, an emergency official said Tuesday. Read More

Police say a bomb has exploded near an intelligence office in the central Pakistani city of Multan. Read More

Police say explosion hits central Pakistani city of Multan near an intelligence office. Read More

President Barack Obama's envoy began a rare trip to North Korea on Tuesday for the highest-level talks with the communist nation in more than a year as a senior U.S. official warned of strong sanctions against Pyongyang unless it rejoins international nuclear talks. Read More

Eight youths were killed and 26 injured when students descending a crowded staircase after evening classes at a school in central China lost their footing amid a crush of bodies, state media and the local government reported Tuesday. Read More

Australia was accused of censorship Tuesday after it denied visas to North Korean artists invited to a rare international exhibition of their work, saying their studio is a propaganda tool of their country's communist government. Read More

Two members of the Afghan parliament say President Hamid Karzai will propose a full new Cabinet to lawmakers Saturday in what will be the first test of his commitment to clean up graft in his government. Read More

He's already done the Vatican. So don't be surprised if Milan's famed La Scala opera house doesn't turn up in Dan Brown's next thriller. Read More

A former Indonesian army colonel has told a magazine that soldiers deliberately killed five Western journalists in East Timor in 1975 _ contradicting the government's longstanding assertion that the deaths were accidental. Read More

An Australian coroner said Tuesday that participation in an intense self-help course led a woman to suffer a psychotic breakdown before she stripped naked and leaped to her death from an office window in front of horrified co-workers. Read More

A Thai man went on trial Tuesday for allegedly spying on Thailand's former prime minister while he was in Cambodia as a guest of the government, a case that threatens to worsen a diplomatic feud between the two nations. Read More

Amnesty International called on the Philippine government Tuesday to revoke martial law in a southern province, where troops cracked down on a powerful clan and its armed supporters blamed for the massacre of 57 people. Read More

Venezuela's attorney general contends exiled opposition leader Manuel Rosales has violated his asylum in Peru by speaking out in Washington about Venezuelan issues. Read More

President Hugo Chavez said Monday that Venezuela has received thousands of Russian-made missiles and rocket launchers as part of his government's military preparations for a possible armed conflict with neighboring Colombia. Read More

South Korea's president offered Tuesday to send swine flu medication to North Korea amid reports that the virus killed dozens of people and is spreading fast in its impoverished communist neighbor. Read More

A coroner said Tuesday that participation in an intense self-help course led a woman to suffer a psychotic breakdown before she stripped naked and leaped to her death from an office window in front of horrified co-workers. Read More

As of Monday, Dec. 7, 2009, at least 853 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. EST. Read More

The Philippine government and a Muslim separatist group Tuesday resumed peace talks that collapsed 16 months ago, restoring formal efforts to end a decades-long rebellion that has claimed at least 120,000 lives. Read More