AP - Investigators examined the scorched hull of a jetliner Wednesday to determine what caused the plane to veer off a runway and burst into flames, killing at least 30 people, officials said.

AP - The sun is low in the mountains as Wang Wenying fries up potatoes, beans and chunks of braised duck over an outdoor wood fire.

AP - U.S.-led forces killed Pakistani troops in an airstrike along the volatile Afghan border that Pakistan's army condemned on Wednesday as "completely unprovoked and cowardly."

AFP - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Wednesday denied snubbing the Dalai Lama, who is in Australia on the second leg of a five-nation tour which has brought protests from Beijing.

Reuters - Japan's unpopular prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, suffered an unprecedented censure in parliament's upper house on Wednesday, but the embarrassing opposition move was not expected to force him to resign or call a snap poll soon.

Reuters - A Sudanese airliner coming from Amman and Damascus burst into flames after landing in Khartoum on Tuesday night, killing at least 33 of the 217 people on board, officials and witnesses said on Wednesday.

AP - Manuel Uribe, who once weighed a half ton but has slimmed down to about 700 pounds, celebrates his 43rd birthday on Wednesday with a simple wish for the coming year: to be able to stand on his own two feet to get married.

AP - Iraqi police say a roadside bomb has killed five people riding minibuses in Baghdad.

Reuters - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday he looked with "measured optimism" at relations with the United States despite differences over European security.

AP - South Korea's president said Wednesday that his government will make a fresh start, hours after an estimated 80,000 people gathered in the South Korean capital in the largest demonstration yet against the planned resumption of U.S. beef imports.

AP - President Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel both want to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons but they're standing on opposite sides of a revolving door. He's on his way out of office. She's trying to stay in.

AP - Evacuees hauled mattresses and carts down from temporary camps in the hills Wednesday after Chinese authorities declared the flood threat over from an earthquake-formed lake that was drained the day before.

AP - Investigators searched for a passenger list and examined the scorched hull of a jetliner Wednesday to determine what caused the plane to veer off a runway and burst into flames after landing in a thunderstorm in Sudan's capital.

AP - The sun is low in the mountains as Wang Wenying fries up potatoes, beans and chunks of braised duck over an outdoor wood fire.

AFP - China declared victory on Tuesday in its spectacular battle to drain a quake lake that threatened more than one million people, after finally engineering a controlled release of the water.