AP - President Felipe Calderon on Wednesday unveiled plans for 53 billion pesos ($4.4 billion) in emergency spending on roads, schools, hospitals and an oil refinery next year to help Mexico combat the world financial crisis.

AP - Two American journalists vacationing in Lebanon have not been heard from since Oct. 1 and are believed missing, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday, appealing for information on their possible whereabouts.

AFP - The trial of a teenager accused of murdering 11-year Rhys Jones in Liverpool last year is set to start on Thursday.

AP - Most years the big questions preceding the Nobel Prize in literature are, will it be a man or woman, poet or novelist?

AP - An explosives-laden vehicle blew up an anti-terrorist squad building and wounded at least nine people Thursday in a heavily guarded police complex in Pakistan's capital, officials and a witness said.

AP - The leaders of Thailand's anti-government protesters said Thursday they will surrender to police after a court dropped treason charges against them, but vowed to continue their sit-in at the prime minister's office after posting bail.

AP - The United States on Thursday will push NATO allies to order their troops to target Afghanistan's thriving heroin trade in a bid to stem the flow of drug money to the widening insurgency against the troubled international military mission.

AFP - A computer glitch may have caused a Qantas jet to plunge mid-flight, an investigator said Wednesday as passengers told how they were slammed against the cabin roof in the terrifying drama.

AP - Gaza's smugglers are going legit: Owners of the scores of tunnels running under the Gaza-Egypt border have registered with the Hamas authorities, pledged to pay workers' compensation and hooked up their operations to the electricity network.

AFP - The head of the French military General Jean-Louis Georgelin on Wednesday backed comments by a senior British military officer's view that the war in Afghanistan was unwinnable.

AP - An Iraqi archbishop expressed concern Wednesday over what he called a "campaign of killings and deportations" against Christians in the northern city of Mosul after police reported seven Christians killed in separate attacks this month.