AP - Israel confirmed Wednesday that a cease-fire with the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip will begin Thursday.

AP - Iraq's government vowed Wednesday to defeat "the terrorists" after a car bomb killed at least 51 people on a bustling street in a Shiite area of Baghdad and resolved to defend the security gains of the past year.

AP - Afghan and Canadian forces moved into a series of villages outside of southern Afghanistan's largest city on Wednesday to root out any Taliban who have infiltrated the area, officials said.

AP - Hundreds of security personnel lined the streets to head off any disruption as the Olympic torch relay resumed Wednesday in western China's restive Muslim region of Xinjiang.

AP - Al-Qaida-linked militants freed a popular TV news anchor, her cameraman and a university professor late Tuesday, more than a week after snatching them in the volatile southern Philippines, police said.

AFP - Two Algerian converts to Christianity were due to appear before an Algerian criminal court on Wednesday accused of proselytizing, said head of the country's Protestant church Mustapha Krim.

AP - Iran said Tuesday that it would continue uranium enrichment despite warnings of new European sanctions if it rejects an international incentive package aimed at reining in its nuclear program.

AP - Tents, sacks of food and a replica of a burnt-out village hut appeared in Trafalgar Square on Tuesday as a tourist hotspot became a refugee camp to highlight the plight of millions of people displaced in Darfur and elsewhere.

AP - Taliban fighters destroyed bridges and planted mines after overrunning villages outside southern Afghanistan's largest city, Afghan officials and witnesses said. Hundreds of farm families fled while the Afghan army rushed in troops.

AP - A Chinese forestry official said Tuesday that giant panda habitat in China's Sichuan province, the endangered animal's main preserve, was devastated by last month's massive earthquake.

AP - The architect of Pakistan's nuclear program on Tuesday rejected a report alleging that his network may have shared blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon with countries such as Iran and North Korea.

AP - A car bomb tore through a market area in a mainly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people and wounding dozens, officials said, the deadliest such attack in more than three months.

AP - Gaza's Hamas rulers on Tuesday said they have reached a long-awaited cease-fire with Israel meant to end months of Palestinian assaults on Israeli border towns and bruising Israeli retaliation.