AFP - Australian 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.

AP - Afghan counternarcotics officials said Wednesday that they uncovered 260 tons of hashish hidden in 6-foot-deep trenches in southern Afghanistan in what one DEA official said appears to be the world's biggest drug bust.

AP - Israeli leaders decided Wednesday against mounting a major attack on militants in the Gaza Strip, saying they would give Egypt more time to broker a truce with the territory's Hamas rulers.

Reuters - Cristiano Ronaldo, tipped by many to become Euro 2008's player of the tournament, scored one goal and made another to give Portugal a 3-1 win over Czech Republic in Group A on Wednesday.

AP - Evacuees hauled mattresses and carts down from temporary camps in the hills Wednesday after Chinese authorities declared that an earthquake-formed lake drained the day before was no longer a flood threat.

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.