MEXICO CITY Mexico sent home the first group of illegal Cuban migrants under a new accord aimed at cutting off an increasingly violent human-trafficking route to the United States, the government said Thursday.
VENICE, Italy The luxury Bauer hotel was inundated by calls of concern and cancellations this week - but was spared the floodwaters that swamped most of the city.
VILSECK, Germany A defense lawyer told a military court Thursday that witnesses had provided insufficient evidence to support charges that a U.S. Army sergeant was involved in killing four Iraqi men found bound, blindfolded, shot and dumped in a Baghdad canal.
LONDON Europe's top human rights court Thursday struck down a British law that allows the government to store DNA and fingerprints from people with no criminal record - a landmark decision that could force Britain to destroy nearly 1 million samples on its database.
Key events in life of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej:
MOSCOW Russia does not need to build permanent naval bases in Cuba or Venezuela, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, speaking amid a Kremlin push to increase Moscow's influence in Latin America.
KABUL, Afghanistan U.S.-led troops killed 14 militants in two days of clashes in southern Afghanistan, U.S. military statements said Friday.
BADABER, Pakistan Brothers Mushtaq and Ishaq Ali left the police force a month ago, terrified of dying as their colleagues had - beheaded by militants on a rutted village road before a shocked crowd.
BERLIN Knut the superstar polar bear turns two on Friday looking nothing like the button-eyed ball of white fluff who captured hearts around the world.
OSLO, Norway Ninety-three countries signed a treaty banning cluster bombs Thursday, as diplomats accepted the wishes of victims who begged them to bar the weapons that kill and maim civilians long after the conflicts end.
LONDON A mother who tearfully appealed for her missing daughter's return was found guilty Thursday of staging her disappearance in a kidnapping that prosecutors said was committed to claim a reward.
MOGADISHU, Somalia They dodged firefights on their way to school, maneuvering through one of the world's most violent cities. Yet on Thursday, 20 men and women accomplished something that nobody in Somalia has done in nearly two decades: They graduated from medical school.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands Prosecutors said Thursday they have dropped their murder investigation and will not press charges against a Dutch woman who had a late-term abortion in Spain.
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia deployed some 100,000 security personnel to keep order as Muslim pilgrims flooded into the holy city of Mecca in preparation for the annual hajj, beginning on Saturday.
BEIJING China's military-backed space program will send scientists on future manned missions as its demand for technical expertise rises, state media reported Friday.
BAGHDAD A security pact that sets a timetable for troops to leave Iraq requires a shift in how the U.S. carries out combat missions during its remaining time in the country, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq said Friday.
BEIJING A Chinese general has called for the country's navy to join the fight against Somali pirates, saying the mission would boost China's international stature and give its sailors valuable experience in fighting open ocean combat operations far from their home ports.
HEBRON, West Bank The Israeli government has arrested Jewish settler Itamar Ben Gvir more than 300 times by his own count.
HEBRON, West Bank Israeli soldiers and police stormed a disputed building in the biblical city of Hebron on Thursday, dragging out 250 young settlers in a raid meant to send a warning to Jewish extremists fighting to keep what they see as God-promised land.
BRUSSELS, Belgium An EU court ruled Thursday for the third time that European Union countries must stop freezing the funds of an Iranian opposition group that has been placed on the bloc's list of terrorist organizations.
BAGHDAD Iraq's three-member presidential council on Thursday approved a security pact with the United States that sets out a three-year timeframe for the full withdrawal of American troops, a spokesman said.
HELSINKI, Finland Russian plans for a European security pact drew a cool response from a long-established, trans-Atlantic group Thursday, with the U.S. saying there was no need for a new "security architecture."
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Israel on Thursday lifted a four-week ban on international journalists entering Gaza and temporarily eased a blockade on shipments of goods to the coastal strip.
POTSDAM, Germany A German court on Thursday rejected a compensation claim for thousands of acres of family land by the grandson of a German aristocrat who took part in a 1944 plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
MOSCOW In a commanding, czar-like performance, Vladimir Putin held a live televised question-and-answer session Thursday which indicated once again that he considers himself Russia's leader, even though he now holds its No. 2 position.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa South Africa is sending more military doctors to its northern border to treat Zimbabwean cholera victims who have fled their collapsing homeland to get help, the government said Friday.
KABUL, Afghanistan A small golden Quran helped Afghan authorities identify the body of a president killed in a coup three decades ago that led to 10 years of Soviet domination, officials said Thursday.
LONDON Europe's top human rights court Thursday struck down a British law that allows the government to store DNA and fingerprints from people with no criminal record - a landmark decision that could force Britain to destroy nearly 1 million samples on its database.
BELGRADE, Serbia Masked policemen scoured the Belgrade home of Ratko Mladic's son and four other sites in the capital on Thursday in an intensified hunt for the fugitive genocide suspect.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Pakistan's leaders know what's at stake after the terror attack in Mumbai and have acknowledged their duty to evict terrorists and prevent future attacks, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.
