Officials in the southern Iraqi province of Basra have lifted a four-month-old ban on alcohol in a move hailed as an affirmation of personal freedoms in the country's second-largest city, a provincial spokesman said Tuesday. Read More

President Barack Obama is asking European members of the military alliance to contribute up to 10,000 new troops to the international force in Afghanistan, NATO officials said Tuesday. Read More

Honduras should return ousted President Manuel Zelaya to power, leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal said at a summit Tuesday. Read More

The top Pakistani court says it has taken up petitions challenging the amnesty from graft charges granted to more than 8,000 people, including President Asif Ali Zardari. Read More

Italian police have broken up a major mafia clan, arresting 74 people and seizing businesses, land, race horses and a London-based online betting company, officials said Tuesday. Read More

In a lengthy videoconference call on Tuesday, President Barack Obama shared his new U.S. strategy for Afghanistan with President Hamid Karzai, spending an hour discussing troops levels, security, political and economic elements of his revised war plan. Read More

Britain's top law enforcement official says he will allow the extradition of a Briton accused of hacking into U.S. military computers in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Read More

Russia's top investigator was injured by a bomb that went off as he and colleagues scoured the wreckage of a passenger train derailed by an earlier explosion, his office said Tuesday. Read More

The weak to moderate El Nino weather system in the tropical Pacific Ocean has strengthened considerably and could create droughts and floods around the world until May, a U.N. agency said Wednesday. Read More

Sri Lanka gave permission Tuesday to nearly 127,000 Tamil refugees to leave squalid and overrun government camps where they have been detained since the country's civil war ended six months ago, an official said. Read More

Israel sternly warned the European Union on Tuesday against recognizing east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, saying such a move would damage Europe's credibility as a Mideast mediator. Read More

Officials say Obama is asking NATO allies for 5,000 to 10,000 troops for Afghanistan. Read More

The U.N.'s environment chief said Tuesday he is optimistic that the climate change talks beginning in Copenhagen next week will reach a deal setting firm targets to cut carbon emissions. Read More

A decade after NATO airstrikes ended Serbia's bloody crackdown on its rebellious province, Kosovo told the U.N.'s highest court Tuesday its independence is irreversible and warned that any attempt to cancel it could set off a renewed conflict. Read More

Britain's High Court dealt a blow to the government Tuesday by ruling that terror suspects cannot be denied bail on the basis of secret evidence. Read More

Tehran warned on Tuesday that it will take strong action against five detained British sailors if it is proven they had "bad intentions" when their racing yacht entered Iran's Persian Gulf waters and was seized. Read More

Astronauts from Canada and Belgium and a Russian cosmonaut landed safely on the Kazakhstan steppes on Tuesday following a six-month stint on the International Space Station. Read More

Lawyers for a man accused of murdering Dutch civilians while part of a Waffen SS hit squad says his trial constitutes double jeopardy under a new EU charter and should be halted. Read More

Two former Guantanamo detainees who will be tried in Italy on terrorism charges have been linked to an Islamic center in Milan described by U.S. authorities as al-Qaida's main station house in Europe before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, officials said Tuesday. Read More

The United Nations called Switzerland's ban on new minarets "clearly discriminatory" and deeply divisive, and the Swiss foreign minister acknowledged Tuesday the government was very concerned about how the vote would affect the country's image. Read More