Thousands of mourners filed past the open casket of former Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin today as his body lay in state in Moscow's main cathedral, which was demolished in Soviet times and rebuilt under his rule. >>

Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip fired a barrage of rockets and mortars into Israel on Tuesday, declaring an end to a five-month cease-fire. >>

An Al Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility today for a suicide car bomb that killed nine U.S. soldiers and wounded 20 others in one of the deadliest single attacks against American troops. >>

MOSCOW — Boris N. Yeltsin, the burly, bearish peasant who struck the deathblow that shattered the Soviet Union and served as the first president of the shrunken, disorderly Russia that emerged, died Monday. He was 76. >>

If lawmakers decide this week to legalize the procedure, it could signal the demise of a thriving herbal, medicinal and surgical black market. >>

Garcia says he'll press Congress for passage of a free-trade accord. >>

The structure, meant to separate Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods, isn't permanent, Iraqi and U.S. spokesmen say. >>

The Defense secretary says he is optimistic after meeting with Putin about U.S. plans in Poland and the Czech Republic. >>

A bomb in Muqdadiya kills a 10th soldier. A member of the British army is slain in Basra. >>

International condemnation of the presidential vote continues. Election violence has left 200 dead, EU reports. >>

Reynaldo Bignone allegedly took children of 'dirty war' victims. >>

Ahmadinejad calls for a debate on 'global issues' and insists that the media should attend. >>

OSLO — Three men who worked together to steal Edvard Munch's masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna" were sentenced Monday to prison for their roles in the brazen daylight heist carried out by masked gunmen. Both paintings were recovered but had been damaged. >>

A Tokyo court acquitted a Japanese real estate developer in the death and dismemberment of a British bar hostess, but sentenced him to life in prison for a series of rapes, a court official said. >>

Somalis fled a sixth day of shelling in Mogadishu, desperate to leave a capital where a rights group said allied Somalian and Ethiopian troops killed 37 people in an offensive against Islamist rebels. >>

A veteran dissident leader who wrote a book about Cuban prison conditions while behind bars was freed over the weekend after serving his entire 17-year sentence, rights groups said. >>

Ecuador's top court reinstated 50 opposition lawmakers who were expelled from Congress last month. >>

An Indonesian court today acquitted a U.S. executive and his company, Newmont Mining Corp., of dumping dangerous levels of toxins into a bay and sickening villagers. >>

The nation's new capitalists are paying top ruble for paintings of Socialist Realism -- glorified renderings of happy, toiling Soviet peasants. >>

A younger generation of leaders, including a woman, will square off. >>

Economic reform has not led to political change. Sunday's election offers many candidates, but few real alternatives. >>

Azmi Bishara, a key minority leader, says he will stay abroad to avoid any travel restrictions. >>

The slayings follow a Yazidi woman's stoning death. Maliki pledges to stop a security wall project in Baghdad. >>

Observers, opposition parties call for a do-over of balloting that was seen as a test of democratic development. >>

Seven people are still missing after they were also swept off by waves. >>

More than 10% of China's farmland is contaminated, threatening the ability of the world's most populous nation to feed itself, the official New China News Agency reported. >>

At least 11 people were killed and 10 wounded in a suicide blast and bomb explosions in Afghanistan, officials said. >>

Hamas militants called for a fresh wave of attacks against Israel after troops killed nine Palestinians in weekend fighting, straining a 5-month-old truce in the Gaza Strip. >>

South Korea agreed to send 400,000 tons of rice to North Korea despite the North's failure to meet a deadline to shut down its nuclear reactor. >>

A fast-moving fire at an orphanage in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, killed five babies and injured a nurse and 17 children, officials said. >>