AP - Brick by brick and one cinderblock at a time, the residents of this Euphrates River village about 45 miles southwest of Baghdad are rebuilding homes that the U.S. military says al-Qaida destroyed while they occupied the area in 2006.
AP - Beijing's Olympic shutdown begins Sunday, a drastic plan to lift the Chinese capital's gray shroud of pollution just three weeks ahead of the games.
AP - Pope Benedict XVI used some of the strongest language yet in his apology Saturday for the sexual abuse of children by Australia's Roman Catholic clergy, but his words were just more of the same for the victims.
AP - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday, the first stop on a campaign-season tour of war zones, a spokesman said.
AP - SYDNEY, Australia — Pope Benedict XVI told representatives of Islam and other faiths that they must unite to combat religion's role in "sinister and indiscriminate" violence.
AFP - China's Liang Wen-chong successfully made the halfway cut in his British Open debut on Friday and hoped it would provide the inspiration for others in China to follow in his footsteps.
AP - A South African judge who was the first black woman to serve on her country's highest court will be the next U.N. human rights commissioner, diplomatic and U.N. officials said Friday. -- read full article
AP - President Cristina Fernandez canceled a widely protested farm export tax hike on Friday following months of protest and a stunning rejection by the Senate.
AP - Iraqi soldiers took up positions on rooftops and military helicopters hovered overhead Friday in a show of strength in a Baghdad district where Shiite militiamen once ruled the streets. There were no reports of violence.
AP - It took a few months. But the economic woes touched off by soaring oil prices and the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States are finally engulfing Europe.
AP - Two months after an earthquake ravaged much of Sichuan province, workers are diligently salvaging bricks to restore a 6th century Taoist temple damaged in the disaster.
AP - Nelson Mandela celebrated his 90th birthday Friday by urging the wealthy to share their prosperity with the less fortunate and by saying he wished he had been able to spend more time with his family during the anti-apartheid struggle.
