Liberia commission recommends warlord prosecution
Italy hopes for quake reconstruction pledges at G8
World health officials tackle swine flu challenges
Possible Michelangelo self-portrait revealed
A look at North Koreas missile arsenal
OAS No negotiations on Honduras president return
Chronology of North Koreas missile program
Britain braces for 100,000 swine flu cases a day
A look at poppy production in southern Afghanistan
Rumors swirl over who will fill Jacksons O2 dates

By CLAUDE PARIS (AP)

First there was smoke, then flames burst out of the aircraft engine. But I was having difficulty communicating with the Mozambican flight attendant who was fussing with warm sodas and soggy sandwiches and did not speak English.

I got up, pulled on her arm and pointed at the fire.

It's been 30 years _ and many more brushes with disaster in the air over Africa and other third world spots where poverty, war, extreme weather and corruption continue to plague airline safety.

It's a problem that grabbed the world's attention when a Yemenia airlines jetliner crashed into the I...

By Miguel Alvarez (AP)

Investigators have released new evidence that points to suicide in the death of Managua Mayor and boxing great Alexis Arguello.

The rising star of the governing Sandinista party died at his home of a single gunshot to the chest. Arguello once bitterly opposed the leftist movement.

Assistant judicial police chief Glenda Zavala says traces of gunpowder were found on the 57-year-old Arguello's hands, suggesting he shot himself.

Zavala says there were no other signs of violence on the body or in the room where he was found.

Nicaraguans formed long lines Thursday at an...

By Lee Jin-man (AP)

North Korea fired a barrage of short-range missiles off its east coast Thursday, a possible prelude to the launch of a long-range missile toward Hawaii over the July Fourth holiday.

Firing a ballistic missile on Independence Day would be a challenge to Washington, which has been rallying international support for enforcement of U.N. sanctions imposed against Pyongyang following a May 25 nuclear test. North Korea is banned from testing ballistic missiles under U.N. resolutions.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said Thursday that a long-range missile launch this...

By (AP)

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein stayed in Baghdad until he saw "the city was about to fall." Months later, he was caught hiding at the same farm where he had fled in 1959 after taking part in an attempt to kill the country's prime minister.

Unclassified FBI interviews conducted during his incarceration at a U.S. detention center offered new details Thursday about the late Iraqi dictator's life on the run _ both before and after he was ousted.

The documents also confirm previous reports that Saddam falsely allowed the world to believe Iraq had weapons of mass ...

By Esteban Felix (AP)

The head of the Organization of American States is warning that sanctions may be in store for Honduras.

OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza says the international community has done "practically everything that can be done" to persuade interim leaders to give up power and restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

Insulza said at a news conference in Guyana on Thursday it will be "very hard to turn things around" by a Saturday deadline set by his organization. He says the OAS will discuss sanctions over the weekend.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon fo...

By Khalid Mohammed (AP)

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Iraq on Thursday to visit U.S. soldiers, just two days after all American combat troops withdrew from Baghdad and all of Iraq's cities and towns.

During his visit, Biden will meet with Iraqi leaders, including President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

A White House statement said Biden will reiterate the U.S. commitment to carry out President Barack Obama's plan to withdraw combat forces. He also will press Iraqi leaders to make more progress toward political reconciliation. It was his first trip to Iraq as vice...

By Ng Han Guan (AP)

Until last week, Alice Li's summer plans were simple: work part-time at a convenience store, study for graduate exams and go to the amusement park with friends.

The upcoming celebration of 60 years of communist rule in China has changed all that. For many students in Beijing, the summer holidays will instead center around government-mandated drills for an elaborate parade to mark the Oct. 1 event.

Li, a third-year student at the Capital Institute of Physical Education, will have to quit her job and put everything else on hold to attend practice. For now, the sessions before...

By Khalid Mohammed (AP)

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Iraq on Thursday to visit U.S. troops and meet with Iraqi leaders, including President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

A White House statement said Biden will reiterate the U.S. commitment to carry out President Barack Obama's plan to withdraw combat forces. He also will press Iraqi leaders to make more progress toward political reconciliation. It's his first trip to Iraq as vice president.

Biden arrived just two days after U.S. combat troops withdrew from Baghdad and all of Iraq's cities and towns. Al-Maliki named J...

By Saurabh Das (AP)

New Delhi's gay community celebrated a landmark court ruling Thursday that decriminalizes homosexuality _ a decision that could end widespread police harassment and be a harbinger for gradual acceptance for homosexuals across this deeply conservative country.

The Delhi High Court ruled that treating consensual gay sex between adults as a crime is a violation of fundamental rights protected by India's constitution. The ruling, the first of its kind in India, is not binding outside New Delhi.

Hours after the ruling was issued dozens of members of New Delhi's gay community _ som...

By Sajjad Safari (AP)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.

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Iran on Thursday announced more arrests in the post-election turmoil, detaining seven alleged provocateurs of violence it says were linked to Iranian exiles. The move underlines authorities' drive to portray protests as the work of outsiders rather than a reflection of widespread popular...

By HENRIK MONTGOMERY / SCANPIX (AP)

The European Union demanded on Thursday that Iran release all detained British Embassy staff amid disagreement over how many there were and discussion of a British proposal for the bloc to jointly withdraw all 27 of its ambassadors from the country.

Recalling the diplomats would be an extraordinary move and a powerful signal of EU unity in the wake of Tehran's postelection crackdown.

But punishing the regime too harshly also risks spoiling chances of making headway on the critical issue of Iran's disputed nuclear program.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt suggested...

By Esteban Felix (AP)

International diplomats who have threatened and isolated Honduras' coup-spawned government said Thursday they would travel to Honduras in an attempt to persuade the interim leaders to restore the president they ousted.

It was a difficult balance for the Washington-based Organization of American States, which has taken the lead in international efforts to reverse the military overthrow of President Manuel Zelaya: It needs to engage the interim government to get Zelaya back, but can't be seen as compromising with a government it doesn't recognize.

OAS Secretary General Jose Mig...

By (AP)

British researchers have announced the discovery of a rare original copy of America's Declaration of Independence _ just in time for the Fourth of July.

Katrina McClintock, a spokeswoman at the National Archives, said Thursday that a researcher accidentally discovered the "Dunlap print," named after a printer, several months ago. The find was announced only after it could be properly catalogued.

Edward Hampshire, the National Archives' specialist in colonial materials, said the find was "incredibly exciting."

"It is likely that only around 200 of these were ever pri...

By (AP)

A battered young girl believed to be the only survivor of an Indian Ocean plane crash flew back to Paris on Thursday to be embraced gently by her father, who tried to lift her spirits with a joke.

Bahia Bakari, 14, returned to France from the Comoros Islands on a French government plane. The Falcon-900 jet with medical facilities left the archipelago nation, a former French colony, and arrived at Le Bourget airport just north of Paris.

Yemenia Flight 626 crashed Tuesday morning off Comoros amid heavy winds, and Bahia, described by her father as a fragile girl who could barely...

By LORENZO GALASSI (AP)

Italian officials say the death toll from a train explosion in Tuscany has risen to 19, with 25 people injured.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi says 11 of the injured are in very serious condition.

A train carrying liquefied gas derailed around midnight Monday in the seaside town of Viareggio, setting off a massive explosion that consumed nearby homes.

The Viareggio health director Giancarlo Sassoli says only 10 of the dead have been identified.

Berlusconi said Thursday the government will investigate whether the international rules governing the rail transport of such...

By Esteban Felix (AP)

International diplomats who have threatened and isolated Honduras' coup-spawned government took a softer approach on Thursday, trying to coax the interim leaders into agreeing to restore the president they ousted.

Officials from the Washington-based Organization of American States were expected to travel to Honduras, possibly as early as Thursday, to open the first face-to-face discussions with people involved in toppling President Manuel Zelaya, according to Ramon Velasquez, vice president of Honduras' legislature.

OAS officials, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the...

By Eduardo Verdugo (AP)

Honduras' interim leader accused Venezuela's Hugo Chavez of instigating his nation's crisis and lawmakers tightened a curfew aimed at stemming unrest, as coup leaders showed few signs of bending to international pressure to restore the exiled president.

Roberto Micheletti, who was named by Congress to replace President Manuel Zelaya after his ouster, has fought a largely losing battle to win international support for his government. The Organization of American States has given him until Saturday to step aside before Honduras is suspended from the group. The Obama administration ha...

By Hadi Mizban (AP)

There is no place outside Iran that has closer links to Tehran's ruling establishment than Iraq's holy Shiite city of Najaf, where the silence during Iran's post-election crisis says much about the deep complexities of their cross-border bonds.

"Simply put, the whole affair does not concern Najaf," said Sheik Ali al-Najafi, son of and spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Bashir al-Najafi, one of the city's four top Shiite clerics. "We will not interfere in the internal affairs of a dear, next door neighbor."

The four _ who include Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Si...

By Otavio de Souza (AP)

An intact Air France Flight 447 slammed belly first into the Atlantic Ocean at a very high speed, a top French investigator said Thursday, adding that problems with the plane's speed sensors were not the direct cause of the crash.

Alain Bouillard, who is leading the investigation into the June 1 crash for the French accident agency BEA, says the speed sensors, called Pitot tubes, were "a factor but not the only one."

"It is an element but not the cause," Bouillard told a news conference in Le Bourget outside Paris. "Today we are very far from establishing the causes of the...

By Hans Punz (AP)

The 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency chose a veteran Japanese diplomat as the agency's next head on Thursday, in a tight vote reflecting stubborn North-South divisions of the U.N. nuclear monitoring organization.

Yukiya Amano collected 23 votes, compared to 11 for Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa, with one abstention, barely giving him the two-thirds majority needed for victory.

Even that tight margin came only after hard-fought preliminary sessions. A March vote between the two men _ Amano, backed by the U.S. and like-minded countries, Minty...

By David Guttenfelder (AP)

U.S. Marines hiked through searing heat and took fire from small pockets of militants Thursday after landing in this Taliban-controlled southern region of tree-lined fields, mud homes and crisscrossing waterways in the first major operation under President Barack Obama's strategy to stabilize Afghanistan.

Elsewhere, the U.S. military announced that insurgents were believed to have captured an American soldier missing in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday. The missing soldier was not involved in Operation Khanjar, or "Strike of the Sword," under way in southern Afghanistan.

The so...

By Vincent Thian (AP)

Bombs targeting police and employees of a Pakistani nuclear facility killed two people and wounded scores more Thursday _ the latest attacks to hit Pakistan as it battles Taliban insurgents near the border with Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, a prominent militant commander in the northwest reportedly agreed to halt attacks on security forces there, a move that could help the army in its efforts to eliminate the Taliban leadership in the region.

The attack on a bus carrying workers from Pakistan's main nuclear facility took place in Rawalpindi, which lies next to the capital and is...

By Otavio de Souza (AP)

Air France Flight 447 plunged vertically into the Atlantic Ocean intact at a very high speed, a top French investigator said Thursday, adding that problems with the plane's speed sensors were not the direct cause of the crash.

Alain Bouillard, who is leading the investigation into the June 1 crash for the French accident agency BEA, says the sensors, called Pitot tubes, were "a factor but not the only one."

"It is an element but not the cause," Bouillard told a news conference in Le Bourget outside Paris. "Today we are very far from establishing the causes of the accident....

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