Dreaded hyacinth returns to Lake Victoria, wreaks havoc
Experts blame a mix of sediment in the water and climatic changes, in the form of unusually heavy rains that helped the water hyacinth, a moss-green carpet, to proliferate. To scientists, it's another threat to one of Africa's most important natural resources | 10/14/07 07:00:58 By - Shashank Bengali
After erecting Three Gorges dam, China warns of its perils
Nearly a year and a half after it was completed, the Chinese government still touts the $26 billion Three Gorges Dam as a showcase project that limits disastrous seasonal flooding and generates vast amounts of electricity. But authorities now admit that the dam is generating major problems. | 10/12/07 07:04:17 By - Tim Johnson
Some Ramadan beggars aren't that innocent, or that poor
In Cairo, street begging increases exponentially during Ramadan, when the destitute emerge from the shadows to cash in on the holiday spirit. Among the true have-nots, however, are sophisticated professional begging networks that make many Muslims think twice before donating. | 10/11/07 16:52:00 By - Hannah Allam and Miret el Naggar
All's quiet on the Golan Heights, for now
Israel captured the mountainous Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed them in 1981, and Syria has made their return the central demand in peace talks. Israeli troops on the Heights have spent the last year preparing for a battle with Syria that few people want, but that could be sparked by a mistake or a military miscalculation. | 10/11/07 11:42:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
Gates: British drawdown in Iraq due to improved conditions
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and his British counterpart Thursday defended Britain's decision to pull half of its troops out of Iraq, saying that it was due to improved conditions in Iraq, not mounting domestic political pressures. | 10/11/07 10:29:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef
After disdaining arms control, Bush seeks to engage Moscow
President Bush took office disavowing the complex treaty negotiations with Moscow that consumed years of Cold War diplomacy, saying that Russia and the United States had moved beyond decades of nuclear rivalry into an era of cooperation. | 10/10/07 19:19:22 By - Jonathan S. Landay
Natural disasters are up, but deaths in them are down
Reported deaths in natural disasters worldwide are down tenfold since the '60s, even though the number of natural disasters is up sharply, according to Princeton University geoscientists. | 10/10/07 17:55:00 By - Frank Greve
As the worm turns: Mezcal no longer rotgut, but fine brandy?
Centuries before anyone ever heard of a margarita machine, before tequila shots became a rite of passage and "with or without salt" entered the bartending lexicon, Mexicans were distilling the exotic fruit of the agave plant. They didn't call it tequila back then. They called it mezcal. | 10/11/07 06:51:36 By - Jay Root
Argentine court convicts priest of complicity in 'dirty war' deaths
| 10/09/07 21:32:00 By - Vinod Sreeharsha
Skepticism, rancor scuttle half of twin Mideast peace concerts
It might sound like an inspirational convergence along the lines of John Lennon's antiwar ballad "Give Peace a Chance": twin concerts in which thousands of Israelis join thousands of Palestinians to call for an end to a demoralizing conflict that often looks as if it will go on forever. Except that this is the Middle East, where even a peace concert can become a raucous political battleground. | 10/08/07 18:37:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
Change in Iraqi province obvious in rare drive
A few months ago, no American would have been foolish enough to do what I had just done: drive from Baghdad west through Iraq's Anbar province, long the hotbed of the country's Sunni Muslim insurgency, and into Jordan. But western Iraq has changed, and the drive last Sunday was proof of that. | 10/07/07 07:01:58 By - Leila Fadel
Turkish envoy warns against U.S. genocide resolution
Approval of an Armenian genocide resolution by the House of Representatives would have "very, very unfortunate" consequences for U.S.-Turkish relations, Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy warned Friday. | 10/05/07 17:07:00 By - Michael Doyle
As Internet censorship tightens in China, private firms pitch in
China has refined a unique model of policing the Internet in which private business self-censors nearly as much as state censors themselves. The largest private Chinese Internet companies now employ their own teams of monitors to enforce often-vague state guidelines about what's permitted. Censors are quick to delete posts they consider touchy, and commercial Internet portals and blog-hosting sites enforce controls with vigor, lest their licenses get pulled. | 10/05/07 15:43:00 By - Tim Johnson
Gallup releases first survey of well-being worldwide
The United States fares well but hardly stars in a new kind of Gallup global survey released Thursday that measured personal well-being in 131 countries using questions such as, "Did you learn or do something interesting yesterday?" and "Do you have confidence in your local police?" | 10/04/07 17:29:00 By - Frank Greve
Nuclear accord with North Korea hailed by U.S.
North Korea has pledged to provide a "complete and correct declaration" of its nuclear program and to disable its main nuclear complex by the end of December, according to an agreement released Wednesday on behalf of six nations. | 10/03/07 00:47:00 By - Warren P. Strobel and Tim Johnson
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