The husband of an internationally known dissident Cuban blogger is challenging the presumed state security agents who roughed up his wife to a verbal duel on a Havana street corner. Read More

Government leaders are defending the reliability of Brazil's power grid after a huge blackout left nearly 60 million people in the dark and raised concerns about its ability to guarantee electricity for a surging economy. Read More

Palestinian election officials on Thursday recommended calling off January's presidential vote, a step that could result in embattled President Mahmoud Abbas staying in office indefinitely. Read More

President Barack Obama's delay in deciding U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan has found an echo chamber in Europe, where coalition leaders in NATO are weighing whether to send more help or bow to public demands for a speedy exit. Read More

A Norwegian freelance journalist kidnapped a week ago in eastern Afghanistan has been released along with his Afghan interpreter, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday. Read More

Otty Sanchez got two weeks in a state mental hospital after she was found wandering around a drug store last year, shopping for an imaginary trip to China. Read More

In Washington, the ultimate Pakistani nightmare is that the country's nuclear arsenal could fall into the hands of Taliban militants or rogue soldiers. Read More

The Australian government on Thursday approved the extradition of an alleged Nazi collaborator accused by Hungary of a World War II killing. Read More

A spokesman for a Tennessee father arrested in Japan when he snatched his children from his ex-wife says authorities are dropping the case. Read More

Denmark's premier sent invitations Thursday asking 191 world leaders to attend next month's U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, saying their presence was "pivotal" to its success. Read More

A female Palestinian student who says she was handcuffed, blindfolded and hauled off to the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army in the middle of the night late last month asked Israel's supreme court Thursday to let her return to her studies in the West Bank. Read More

Iran's recently revealed uranium enrichment hall is a highly fortified underground space that appears too small to house a civilian nuclear program, but large enough to serve for military activities, diplomats told The Associated Press on Thursday. Read More

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday vowed support for the Philippine fight against al-Qaida-linked militants and highlighted the U.S. military's role in helping the country recover from deadly typhoons. Read More

North Korea threatened to punish South Korea following their brief-but-bloody naval firefight, though analysts said Thursday that chances of retaliation appeared slim ahead of planned talks between the U.S. and Pyongyang. Read More

Pretrial hearings in the case of a Serb accused of beating a fellow student into a coma in the United States will begin in December, a Serbian court said Thursday. Read More

Italy's top security official said Thursday that authorities have smashed an international terror cell with the arrest in Italy and elsewhere in Europe of 17 Algerians who were raising money to finance terrorism. Read More

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says there is no place for full face and body veils such as the burqa, or for the debasement of women, in France. Read More

A cargo ship has delivered a Russian research module to the International Space Station. Read More

Tens of thousands of well-wishers gathered outside Japan's moat-ringed Imperial Palace _ many shouting "Banzai," a traditional wish for long life _ to mark Thursday's 20th anniversary of Emperor Akihito's coronation to the world's oldest throne. Read More

Thousands of mourners lit candles, sang hymns and prayed in East Timor on Thursday, honoring the victims of a massacre of pro-independence demonstrators by Indonesian troops 18 years ago. Read More