Spain accepts more political prisoners from Cuba

Cuba ordered the release of at least 37 political prisoners who will arrive in Madrid on Friday with their families on a Spanish government chartered aircraft, bringing the number of opponents expatriated after last summer’s agreement between the Catholic Church and Raúl Castro's government to 115. | 04/07/11 21:52:45 By - Juan Carlos Chavez

Martelly will not face vote challenge for Haiti presidency

Michel Martelly, Haiti's president-elect, will not face a challenge to his election after his main opponent announced that she will not contest the results. | 04/07/11 21:42:53 By - Nadege C. Green and Jacqueline Charles

WikiLeaks cables show U.S. took softer line toward Libya

Dozens of confidential and secret cables sent in recent years by the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli to the State Department describe a softer and gentler Libya that Americans following the bloody crisis there now would have a hard time recognizing. | 04/07/11 19:10:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay

Facing expulsion from church, priest vows to live for peace

Days before his expulsion from both his order and the Roman Catholic priesthood for ordaining women, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois sat in chilly spring sunshine staring at the White House, contemplating what life will be like after he's defrocked. | 04/07/11 15:37:00 By - Halimah Abdullah

Japan hit with magnitude 7.1 aftershock; tsunami warning briefly issued

A magnitude 7.1 aftershock struck northeastern Japan late Thursday night, prompting a brief tsunami warning for areas already ravaged by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami, according to the nation's meteorological agency. | 04/07/11 15:29:40 By - John M. Glionna and Julie Makinen

Sesame Street: A new way to victory in Pakistan?

Funded with a $20 million grant from USAID, the economic assistance arm of the State Department, the Pakistan version of "Sesame Street" will feature new muppets and a Pakistani village setting. The goal: to help reverse Pakistan's descent into religious conservatism, violent extremism and economic stagnation. | 04/07/11 14:43:00 By - Saeed Shah

Japan hit with magnitude 7.1 aftershock; tsunami warning briefly issued

No matter who attacked, airstrike on Libya rebels was NATO mishap

Libyan rebels accused NATO of launching deadly airstrikes on their forces Thursday outside the front-line oil town of Brega, signaling growing confusion in the military effort to thwart Col. Moammar Gadhafi. Rebels blamed the attack on NATO planes, but the commander of the rebel army said it was possible that Gadhafi's air force had evaded the NATO-enforced no-fly zone | 04/07/11 07:48:12 By - Shashank Bengali

Haiti rebuilding funds aren't going to grassroots groups

Almost nine months after a battered Haiti approved a U.S.-backed blueprint for its recovery, small nongovernmental and grassroots community organizations essential to the country’s long-term reconstruction are being left behind in the nearly $2 billion in reconstruction projects that have been approved. | 04/07/11 07:07:05 By - Jacqueline Charles

Small organizations left out of Haiti rebuilding projects

Almost nine months after a battered Haiti approved a U.S.-backed blueprint for its recovery, small non-governmental and grassroots community organizations essential to the country's long-term reconstruction are being left behind in the nearly $2 billion in reconstruction projects that have been approved. | 04/06/11 20:56:36 By - Jacqueline Charles

How Sudan used the Internet to crush protest movement

In Sudan, the "Arab spring" that's shaken most other Arab countries feels like a grim wintry chill. Faced with a clear opening-round defeat, the movement is doing something that questions the assumptions about the role of social media in enabling the Arab revolts: It's going old school, revolutionary-style, and shunning many of the technologies that are credited with mobilizing the other uprisings | 04/06/11 15:32:00 By - Alan Boswell

China's bullet trains separate the rich from the poor

Western analysts often point to projects like high-speed rail as proof of China's seemingly boundless momentum. But as with so much else in China, the bullet trains represent both the excitement of an emerging superpower and, at the same time, the extent to which the nation's unbridled economic progress has cleaved its population on two sides of a deep divide of money and privilege. | 04/06/11 14:02:00 By - Tom Lasseter

U.S. troops repel Taliban attack at eastern Afghan airport

An insurgent attack at the airport in the eastern city of Jalalabad late Tuesday left at least seven militants dead in the latest sign that the Taliban are stepping up assaults as the weather warms. The attack came shortly before midnight as the provincial governor met with other officials at the airport to discuss security. U.S. troops are based at the airport. | 04/06/11 09:19:54 By - Hashim Shukoor

Former Afghan lawmaker Joya says U.S. soldiers disregard lives

A former Afghan lawmaker told an audience of Tacoma, Washington, peace activists Tuesday that photos of Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers grinning over the corpse of a boy they allegedly murdered revealed a disregard for civilian lives among U.S. forces fighting in her country. | 04/06/11 07:41:20 By - Adam Ashton

Alaska teacher's body found in Japan tsunami area

The body of a teacher from Anchorage missing since a tsunami washed over the town where he taught in Japan has been found, his family said Tuesday. Monty Dickson, 26, taught English at schools around Rikuzentakata -- one of the towns hardest hit after the March 11 earthquake -- as part of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program. | 04/06/11 06:39:02 By - Casey Grove

White House: Pakistan is failing to defeat militants

In a grim assessment of the war on terror inside Pakistan, the Obama administration said Tuesday that Pakistan lacks a "clear path toward defeating" Islamic insurgents in the country's tribal region despite committing tens of thousands of troops to the effort. | 04/05/11 20:44:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay

Haiti President-elect Martelly says voters have given him a mandate

With a tiny Haitian flag on the lapel of his gray pin-striped suit, Michel Martelly climbed onto the back tire of his waiting SUV and waved to the waiting crowd. | 04/05/11 19:47:25 By - Jacqueline Charles

Libyan rebel leader slams NATO over slow response

As Col. Moammar Gadhafi's forces tightened their grip on the oil town of Brega, the commander of Libya's rebel army slammed NATO Tuesday for failing to carry out airstrikes and blocking a shipment of weapons and relief supplies that was headed to a city where fighting has raged for weeks. | 04/05/11 19:23:00 By - Shashank Bengali

Afghans complain about NATO-led raid that killed 6

A night raid by NATO-led forces killed six civilians in the relatively peaceful northern Afghan province of Sar-e-Pul, local officials said Tuesday, but a statement from the U.S.-led coalition said the dead were Taliban insurgents armed with AK-47 assault rifles. | 04/05/11 15:13:00 By - Hashim Shukoor

Japan's ocean radiation hits 7.5 million times legal limit

The operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant said Tuesday that it had found radioactive iodine at 7.5 million times the legal limit in a seawater sample taken near the facility, and government officials imposed a new health limit for radioactivity in fish. | 04/05/11 15:10:22 By - Kenji Hall and Julie Makinen

Alleged kingpin's remarks may spark new U.S.-Venezuela extradition fight

Walid Makled, the alleged Venezuelan drug kingpin at the center of a U.S. extradition battle, raised the stakes over the weekend, telling a television station that he was willing to share information about his ties to Venezuelan officials, Colombian guerrillas and Middle Eastern terrorist groups with U.S. prosecutors. | 04/05/11 07:02:03 By - Jim Wyss

Liberia to name school after textbook-donating California teen

Mira Loma High School senior Casey Robbins has spent the last four years organizing annual shipments of thousands of textbooks to students in Liberia, a West African country recovering from years of civil war. Now, more than 14,000 books later, Liberia is naming a school after her. | 04/05/11 06:47:18 By - Melody Gutierrez

Obama gives up on plan for 9/11 civilian trials

In an about-face on the day President Barack Obama announced his re-election bid, Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday ordered that confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged co-plotters stand trial before a military commission at Guantanamo rather than in a civilian court. | 04/04/11 19:12:00 By - Carol Rosenberg

Radioactive water from Japanese nuclear plant dumped into sea

The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant began releasing about 11,500 tons of radioactive water into the sea Monday evening so that it could make room in storage tanks for even more severely contaminated water. | 04/04/11 17:09:16 By - Julie Makinen and Kenji Hall

Gadhafi finds that money can't buy friends in Africa

For decades, Col. Moammar Gadhafi splashed his oil wealth around sub-Saharan Africa with pompous abandon, building cellphone networks and luxury hotels, cozying up to kings and guerrillas, hosting peace summits and loudly proclaiming his dream to lead a "United States of Africa." Now, just when Gadhafi could use a few friends, his African beneficiaries haven't exactly rushed to his side. | 04/04/11 13:04:00 By - Shashank Bengali

Obama reverses course: No civilian trial for 9/11 plotters

In an about face on the day President Barack Obama announced his re-election bid, Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday ordered military trials at Guantanamo for confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other alleged co-plotters now held there for the mass murder of thousands on Sept. 11, 2001. | 04/04/11 12:37:13 By - Carol Rosenberg

'Sweet Micky' Martelly wins Haiti presidential election

A controversial carnival singer who reinvented himself into a polished political outsider is poised to become Haiti’s next president, according to preliminary election results announced Monday. Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly garnered 67 percent of the vote to 31 percent for longtime opposition leader and former first lady Mirlande Manigat, the Provisional Electoral Council said. | 04/04/11 11:43:47 By - Jacqueline Charles

Bullfighting ban is on Ecuador president's agenda

On May 7, Ecuadorians will be asked to vote on a 10-point referendum that could give the executive branch more control over the judiciary, establish a commission to regulate media content, and rein in financial institutions and media conglomerates by prohibiting them from holding investments in other industries. But the question that seems to be stirring up the most emotion here is one that would make it illegal to kill animals for entertainment. | 04/04/11 07:01:36 By - Jim Wyss

Concrete fails to plug leak at Fukushima nuclear plant

The operator of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant said Saturday that highly radioactive water was leaking from a pit near a reactor into the ocean, which may partially explain the high levels of radioactivity that have been found in seawater off the coast. | 04/03/11 09:36:23 By - Julie Makinen

Nine killed in Afghan protest over Quran burning

A second day of deadly violence over the burning of a Quran by a Florida pastor left at least nine people dead and more than 80 injured Saturday in Afghanistan. | 04/02/11 13:57:00 By - Hashim Shukoor

Cricket match was a chance to ease India-Pakistan divide

India and Pakistan are "enemy states," but you could not tell that from the crowd of cricket fans who gathered for a semi-final match in this year's cricket World Cup. | 04/02/11 14:03:00 By - Saeed Shah

Routed from key towns, Libyan rebels seek to organize

Libyan rebels with military training began on Friday turning away inexperienced volunteers from the frontlines here in an effort to salvage their battle against Moammar Gadhafi's better trained forces. | 04/01/11 19:35:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Japan to convene rebuilding council as massive search for bodies is mounted

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Friday he would convene a national council on rebuilding within 10 days as U.S. and Japanese forces launched a massive effort to locate the bodies of more than 16,000 people still listed as missing three weeks after the giant March 11 tsunami and earthquake. | 04/01/11 16:07:18 By - Julie Makinen and Thomas H. Maugh II

U.S. Treasury exempts Libyan-owned bank from sanctions

Although Libya's government and state oil sector are the targets of global sanctions, the U.S. Treasury Department has exempted from them a financial institution that's almost 60 percent owned by the Libyan Central Bank. | 03/31/11 19:44:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Japanese nuclear plant's containment vessels remain suspect as radiation levels spike

Radiation levels spiked inside and outside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Thursday, slowing work on the facility once again and once more throwing into doubt the integrity of the containment vessels that hold the fuel rods. | 03/31/11 19:22:36 By - Julie Makinen and Thomas H. Maugh II

Major defector Musa Kusa is a Gadhafi confidant, holder of Libyan secrets

Libyan foreign minister Musa Kusa, one of dictator Moammar Gadhafi's most trusted confidants who defected Wednesday, is a man of two very different sides, according to current and former Western officials. | 03/31/11 19:16:46 By - Warren P. Strobel

U.S. wants others to arm, train Libyan rebels

Hemmed in by two other wars, an overstretched military and serious budgetary woes, the United States is reducing its role in the multinational military operation in Libya and is looking to other nations to arm and train rebels fighting to oust dictator Moammar Gadhafi, top U.S. defense officials said Thursday. | 03/31/11 19:13:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay

After starting wave of revolution, Tunisia tries to preserve its own

In the new Tunisia, there's no denying the first tentative steps toward democracy. New elections are scheduled for July, while a high council of jurists and intellectuals drafts new electoral laws and determines whether to try ex-regime figures for corruption, torture and other abuses. For the first time in two decades, Tunisia's countless cafes are abuzz with open debates about the country's political future. | 03/31/11 15:00:00 By - Shashank Bengali

Gates: U.S. participation in Libya operation being scaled back

The United States is scaling back its role in the international military operation against Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and will not be sending U.S. troops into the war-stricken North African nation “as long as I’m in this job,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates asserted Thursday. | 03/31/11 13:46:26 By - Jonathan S. Landay

More help in Japan's nuclear crisis is needed, Idaho expert says

University of Idaho nuclear engineering professor Akira Tokuhiro says the international community should intervene in Japan’s nuclear crisis because “radiation knows no boundaries.” | 03/31/11 13:11:21 By -

In Cuba, Jimmy Carter meets with jailed U.S. subcontractor Gross

Former President Jimmy Carter gave Cuban dissidents “a clear message of recognition and moral support’’ during meetings Wednesday with opposition figures that ranged from young blogger Yoani Sanchez to traditional activist Oscar Elias Biscet. | 03/31/11 06:59:17 By - Juan O. Tamayo

Nicaraguan will take care of Libya's U.N. business

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has friends in faraway places. Managua, Nicaragua, to be precise. Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, a suspended Catholic priest and former Nicaraguan foreign minister with a penchant for fiery speeches, will represent Libyan interests at the United Nations. | 03/30/11 21:54:41 By - Tim Johnson

4 reactors at Japanese nuclear complex will have to be scrapped, utility chairman says

The chairman of the utility that runs the crippled Fukushima power plant on Wednesday said the facility's four tsunami-battered reactors would have to be scrapped, and he apologized to the Japanese public for the nuclear disaster. | 03/30/11 17:53:50 By - Julie Makinen

WikiLeaks cable casts doubt on Guantanamo medical care

The Bush administration was so intent on keeping Guantanamo detainees off U.S. soil and away from U.S. courts that it secretly tried to negotiate deals with Latin American countries to provide "life-saving" medical procedures rather than fly ill terrorist suspects to the U.S. for treatment, a recently released State Department cable shows. | 03/30/11 16:53:00 By - Carol Rosenberg

Jimmy Carter to meet with Cuban dissidents

Former President Jimmy Carter will meet Wednesday with Cuba’s top dissidents — from blogger Yoani Sanchez to the Ladies in White and 12 just-freed political prisoners — in an extraordinary recognition of their peaceful activism. | 03/30/11 07:00:42 By - Juan O. Tamayo

A day of battle shows Libyan rebels' weaknesses

The battle for control of Bin Jawwad was already hours old Tuesday when a busload of women suddenly emerged on the highway leading out of town and began cheering as though they supported the rebels. Just one woman aboard offered the fighters an ominous warning. | 03/29/11 19:13:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Poll: Mexicans think cartels are winning drug war

Mexicans are in a funk over their president, and a majority of them think that he's losing control of the country, an opinion poll released Tuesday found. | 03/29/11 17:03:00 By - Tim Johnson

In El Salvador, gang ties are more than skin deep

When Santos Guzman sought help from a state program for onetime gang members, there was no mistaking his gang affiliation. Guzman wants the 20 or so tattoos on his body to vanish. He gave up the life of a gangbanger long ago but only recently learned that the evidence of his past could be erased. | 03/29/11 16:08:00 By - Tim Johnson

55 dead in Iraq as gunmen seize local government building

At least 55 people were killed Tuesday and 95 injured when gunmen posing as Iraqi security troops stormed the Salahuddin provincial council building in the city of Tikrit and took dozens of people hostage, including members of the council. | 03/29/11 13:24:00 By - Laith Hammoudi

Japanese crews scramble to contain radioactive water at nuclear plant

Japanese emergency crews are scrambling to contain rising levels of extremely radioactive water that has leaked into tunnels and basement equipment rooms at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, putting up dangerous new obstacles to workers trying to bring the reactors under control. | 03/29/11 11:38:16 By - Julie Makinen and Ralph Vartabedian

Chernobyl scientist says nuclear disaster produced 'invisible enemy'

The horrors of the world’s worst nuclear accident greeted Natalia Manzurova when she arrived in the Ukraine after the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl. Speaking at the University of South Carolina at a time of increasing debate about nuclear power, the Russian scientist likened an atomic energy disaster to that of a war, with one major distinction. | 03/29/11 07:33:31 By - Sammy Fretwell

Jimmy Carter goes to Cuba

Former President Jimmy Carter arrived in Havana on Monday to discuss Raúl Castro’s economic reforms and how to improve U.S.-Cuba relations, stymied by the imprisonment of U.S. government subcontractor Alan P. Gross. | 03/29/11 07:08:04 By - Juan O. Tamayo

Dominican Republic turns to natural gas in energy crunch

A cab driver who plans ahead, Rafael Macario had his Toyota Camry rigged to run on three different kinds of fuel. Gasoline is the most expensive, propane the most dangerous, and natural gas is his favorite. He is among a growing number of Dominicans banking on natural gas as not just a cleaner form of energy, but one that costs about a third of a gasoline fill-up. | 03/29/11 07:03:06 By - Frances Robles

'Obama doctrine'? In Libya decision, there isn't one

President Barack Obama sent a signal to the country and the world Monday night about his decision to attack Libya: There is no "Obama doctrine" here. He used his evening speech to assure skeptical Americans that he was forced to act by a madman in unique circumstances, that the U.S. role and risk would be limited, and that there is no unifying set of principles behind the Libya campaign that would guide the U.S. in other countries with similar problems. | 03/28/11 21:20:00 By - Steven Thomma

Obama: U.S. action in Libya necessary, unique and limited

President Barack Obama on Monday declared the U.S.-led military intervention in Libya a success, saying it averted a massacre by longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi and that NATO's takeover of the multilateral mission this week means the U.S. can quickly shift to a support role with less risk and cost. | 03/28/11 20:51:00 By - Margaret Talev and David Lightman

Libyan rebels push west into less friendly territory

Truckloads of rebels pushed past this village on Monday in their westernmost advance since the Libyan rebellion began more than a month ago, but whether they'll be able to advance much further remained an open question as they neared Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's hometown, Sirte. | 03/28/11 18:07:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Truck bomb kills 20, injures dozens in eastern Afghanistan

A truck filled with explosives targeted a road construction compound in Afghanistan's eastern province of Paktika, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens more Sunday, according to a statement Monday by the Afghan Interior Mministry. | 03/28/11 06:35:47 By - Hashim Shukoor

Brutal crackdowns chill the 'Arab Spring'

The Arab Spring, which began with an exuberant burst in Tunisia and Egypt and swept up protesters from North Africa to the Persian Gulf, is running into heavy crosswinds in hard-line regimes: a brutal counter-revolution. | 03/27/11 18:17:00 By - Hannah Allam and Shashank Bengali

Taliban insurgents abduct police recruits in eastern Afghanistan

Taliban militants have abducted about 50 young men who were planning to join the national police in the eastern province of Kunar, security officials said Sunday. | 03/27/11 16:25:00 By - Hashim Shukoor

In effort to stop roadside bombs, Pentagon hires 1,666 contractors

Launched in February 2006 with an urgent goal — to save U.S. soldiers from being killed by roadside bombs in Iraq — a small Pentagon agency ballooned into a bureaucratic giant fueled by that flourishing arm of the defense establishment: private contractors. | 03/27/11 00:01:00 By - Peter Cary and Nancy A. Youssef

Pentagon spends billions to fight roadside bombs, with little success

In February 2006, with roadside bombs killing more and more American soldiers in Iraq, the Pentagon created an agency to defeat the deadly threat and tasked a retired four-star general to run it. | 03/27/11 00:01:00 By - Peter Cary and Nancy A. Youssef

Libyan rebel leader spent much of past 20 years in suburban Virginia

The new leader of Libya's opposition military spent the past two decades in suburban Virginia but felt compelled — even in his late-60s — to return to the battlefield in his homeland, according to people who know him. | 03/26/11 20:25:00 By - Chris Adams

Aided by western bombing, Libyan rebels head toward Tripoli

Rebel forces Saturday took back one city from backers of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and moved toward another in their biggest advance toward Tripoli since coalition forces began air strikes against the regime. | 03/26/11 17:57:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Latest challenge for South Sudan: Armed internal rebellion

After weeks of scattered clashes that left hundreds dead, rebel militias in southern Sudan have united in a new armed movement against the young southern government, raising the prospect of civil war even before South Sudan declares independence in July. | 03/26/11 16:28:00 By - Alan Boswell

With Syria shooting at protesters, Assad now facing revolt

Syria's fledgling anti-government movement snowballed into a national protest Friday when thousands of marchers gathered in defiance of President Bashar Assad, whose security forces fired live ammunition, witnesses and human rights groups said. | 03/25/11 18:56:00 By - Hannah Allam and Shashank Bengali

Fear and secrecy follow people out of Gadhafi's Libya

With six relatives and several suitcases crammed into a sagging, dirt-sprayed Mercedes van, a well-dressed Libyan man rode through the border crossing into Tunisia around midday Thursday. His forehead was creased with worry, but when asked why he'd left his country with what looked like enough luggage for weeks, his answer was nonchalant. "Just for a visit," he said. | 03/25/11 15:12:00 By - Shashank Bengali

Japan steps up nuclear plant precautions

Japan's government Friday urged residents living within 18 miles of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant to voluntarily leave their homes and suggested that officials could expand the mandatory evacuation zone. | 03/25/11 14:30:56 By - Julie Makinen

Secrecy shrouds operations at crippled Japanese nuclear plants

How did Japanese workers at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant jury-rig fire hoses to cool damaged reactors? Is contaminated water from waste pools overflowing into the Pacific Ocean? Exactly who is the national incident commander? | 03/25/11 12:54:22 By - Ralph Vartabedian

F-35 fighters stir political battle in Canada

The first taste of war for the F-35 joint strike fighter is years ahead, if ever, but the Lockheed Martin-developed-and-built jet is engulfed in political combat. Canada's Parliament is expected to vote today on a no-confidence motion that would topple the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and force new elections, in part because opponents say the administration has not been honest about the cost of buying F-35s. | 03/25/11 07:37:43 By - Bob Cox

'Arab spring' drives wedge between U.S., Saudi Arabia

The United States and Saudi Arabia — whose conflicted relationship has survived oil shocks, the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the U.S. invasion of Iraq — are drifting apart faster than at any time in recent history, according to diplomats, analysts and former U.S. officials. | 03/24/11 19:00:00 By - Warren P. Strobel

Syria confronts protests with crackdown, promise of reform

The Syrian government said Thursday that it would consider sweeping reforms in a gambit to appease protesters, who gathered by the thousands after security forces in one southern town killed at least 15 people in a week of demonstrations. | 03/24/11 18:54:00 By - Hannah Allam

On the ground in Libya: Rebels with a cause, but little else

Rebel fighters who once vowed to seize Tripoli from Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi instead have retreated from their forward positions to defend their homes, saying their rebel council isn't leading them, they don't trust their military commanders and their army is divided. | 03/24/11 17:11:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Israel girds for Gaza assault as U.S. calls for peace talks

Palestinian militants in Gaza fired rockets deep into Israel Thursday, as the Israeli military said it was being drawn into a broader confrontation with militants in Gaza. | 03/24/11 16:24:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Guantanamo prosecutors apologize for comparing Indians to al Qaida

Pentagon prosecutors touched off a protest — and issued an apology this week — for likening the Seminole Indians in Spanish Florida to al Qaida in documents defending Guantánamo’s military commissions. | 03/24/11 07:39:38 By - Carol Rosenberg

Fidel Castro apologizes for Communist Party remark uproar

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro apologized Wednesday for the brouhaha he sparked when he noted that he had given up his responsibilities as first secretary of the ruling Communist Party after his emergency surgery in 2006. | 03/24/11 06:49:07 By - Juan O. Tamayo

Europe doesn't hit oil companies in Libya as hard as the U.S. does

The divide between Europe and the United States over how best to end the regime of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi isn't just about military matters. It also involves oil. | 03/23/11 18:47:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Jerusalem bombing heightens tensions in Israel

One woman was killed and more than 25 people were injured when a bomb exploded at a bus stop in west Jerusalem Wednesday afternoon, shaking Israelis already unsettled by stepped-up Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza. | 03/23/11 12:47:36 By - Sheera Frenkel

Fidel Castro says he resigned Communist Party leadership

Cuba’s Fidel Castro has claimed that he resigned the leadership of the Communist Party after he nearly died five years ago — raising questions about why the change in the nation’s second-most important title was never announced until now. | 03/23/11 07:04:15 By - Juan O. Tamayo

In El Salvador, Obama pledges drug-fighting assistance

Reflecting on America's role in another war-torn country, El Salvador, President Barack Obama paid homage Tuesday evening at the tomb of a Catholic archbishop gunned down by U.S.-linked death squads more than three decades ago. | 03/22/11 21:37:00 By - Tim Johnson

Obama: U.S. will support, but not lead Libyan effort

As a U.S. warplane crashed in Libya Tuesday, President Barack Obama assured Americans and the world that the U.S. would quickly cede the skies and the military campaign against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to allies. | 03/22/11 20:31:00 By - Steven Thomma, Tim Johnson and Nancy A. Youssef

Libya assault sets up battle between Obama, Congress

Sparked by the U.S. military assault on Libya, the historic struggle between the president and Congress over whether and how America should enter war is raging again. | 03/22/11 18:01:00 By - David Lightman and William Douglas

Yemeni leader's foes demand immediate resignation

In a last-ditch gambit to stay in power, Yemen's longtime president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, offered on Tuesday to step down after parliamentary elections in January as more officials and military units abandoned him to support anti-government protesters. | 03/22/11 16:59:00 By - Shashank Bengali and Warren P. Strobel

Karzai lays out plan for Afghan security handover

The Afghan government announced Tuesday that U.S.-led international forces will hand over security responsibility in three provinces to Afghan forces beginning this summer. | 03/22/11 16:37:00 By - Hashim Shukoor

Start of Afghan 'fighting season' will test U.S. strategy

After the most violent winter since U.S. soldiers arrived in Afghanistan, the spring thaw has come, ushering in a new "fighting season" in which, intelligence suggests, the Taliban leadership believes they will storm back into their former strongholds in the south and reverse the much-trumpeted gains of U.S.-led coalition forces. | 03/22/11 16:00:00 By - Saeed Shah

Surge in Sudan violence raises worry independence won't bring peace

This is not what most southern Sudanese thought freedom would look like. In the two months since voters overwhelmingly endorsed forming a new country after decades of civil war, Southern Sudan has slipped dangerously backward into violence. Once-dormant warlords have roared back to life, and new insurgencies against the southern government are gaining steam. | 03/22/11 15:44:00 By - Alan Boswell

As Mideast roils, Al Jazeera finds its 'CNN moment'

What a difference the chain of Middle East uprisings — and a change of presidents in the White House — has made for Al Jazeera. | 03/22/11 14:46:00 By - William Douglas

Libya looms over next stop on Obama's tour, Chile

Amid the ghosts of Chile's past and an escalating confrontation in Libya, President Barack Obama used the mid-point of his first extended Latin American tour to address the region, saying no other part of the world shared so many of the United States' values and interests. | 03/21/11 21:05:18 By - Jim Wyss

In Japan, the rites of Spring are laced with sorrow

This year in Japan, the rites of spring have transformed themselves into the rituals of sorrow. Monday's national holiday marked the vernal equinox, the start of a season enshrined in the nation's classical art and literature as a time of fragile, fleeting beauty. But at this spring's onset, Japanese find themselves gazing upon an unfathomable landscape of death and destruction wrought by earthquake and tsunami. | 03/21/11 20:28:31 By - Laura King

A new uncertainty in Libya operation: Who's in charge?

The fragile international coalition supporting military action in Libya showed fresh signs of strain Monday, as the U.S., Europe and Arab nations wrestled with the issue of who will take charge of military operations if the U.S. gives up control in the days ahead. | 03/21/11 19:35:00 By - Warren P. Strobel

Observers: Haiti’s elections on Sunday was much improved

Despite delayed start times, missing ballot boxes and attempted ballot stuffing, Haiti’s presidential and legislative runoff elections Sunday were much more improved than its highly chaotic and controversial Nov. 28 first round, international observers said Monday. | 03/21/11 19:41:33 By - Jacqueline Charles

Yemeni military officials quit over slaughter of protesters

Pressure on the embattled, U.S.-backed president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, rose sharply Monday with the resignation of several top military commanders, who threw their support behind the thousands of anti-government demonstrators who've called for Saleh's ouster. | 03/21/11 17:52:00 By - Shashank Bengali

Allied airstrikes boost confidence of Libyan rebels

Two days after U.S. and coalition forces imposed a no-fly zone over Libya, rebels moved Monday to retake the city of Ajdabiya, a critical crossroads in their fight to regain the territory they lost week. | 03/21/11 17:27:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Gaza protests stretch into a seventh day

Inspired by the "Arab Spring" revolutions across the Arab World, Palestinians protested for a seventh straight day Monday in both the West Bank and Gaza in an effort to force their divided leaders into reconciling with one another. | 03/21/11 16:01:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Sarah Palin skips Bethlehem in visit to Israel

Wearing a Star-of-David necklace, Fox News Channel commentator and former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, met on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjmain Netanyahu and right-wing politician and settlement supporter Danny Danon. | 03/21/11 15:30:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Obama's El Salvador host: A leftist moves to center stage

Some Salvadorans expected turmoil when Mauricio Funes took office as El Salvador's first leftist president in modern history, elected on the ticket of battle-hardened former Marxist guerrillas. | 03/21/11 14:48:00 By - Tim Johnson

Hugo Chavez's $15 billion weapons purchase concerns Latin America

With the acquisition of hundreds of tanks, helicopters and bulletproof vehicles as well as submarines and missile networks, Venezuela is arming itself at a speed unprecedented in the history of the South American country. Hugo Chávez’s has created unrest in the region with purchases to expand its military that total more than $15 billion. | 03/21/11 06:56:55 By - Antonio Maria Delgado

Despite some glitches, Haiti election is mostly smooth

It was a day of missing ballots, late starts — and relative calm — in Haiti on Sunday, where a presidential runoff took place four months after a disastrous first round that saw widespread violence and contested results. | 03/20/11 20:01:26 By - Jacqueline Charles and Frances Robles

Obama gets to know Brazil's people, including its poorest

President Barack Obama toured the favela, a squatter settlement created in the 1960s when authorities displaced thousands of residents from favelas closer to the center city, on the second day of his Latin American trip that also will take him to Chile and El Salvador. Later on Sunday, he gave a speech in which he reached out to the Brazilian people. | 03/20/11 19:46:36 By - Mimi Whitefield

Now that U.S., allies have attacked Libya, what are the goals?

With U.S., British and French forces now fully engaged in attacking Moammar Gadhafi's military in Libya from the air and sea, and the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff declaring that a no-fly zone is now in effect, the question becomes: How does this end? Some military analysts worry that the West's urgent action over the weekend isn't backed by planning for what sort of Libya will be left behind when the aerial campaign stops. | 03/20/11 19:19:28 By - Mark Seibel, Nancy A. Youssef and Roy Gutman

Libya intervention draws mixed feelings in Arab world

The U.S. and allied bombing raid that began this weekend opened a floodgate of competing emotions across the Arab world, which supports the Libyan rebels but is wary of more Western intervention in the region. Arabs are watching the strikes against Moammar Gadhafi's regime with a blend of relief for the help to outgunned rebels, trepidation about ulterior motives of Western intervention, and envy in volatile countries where calls for international backup have gone unheeded. | 03/20/11 17:53:00 By - Hannah Allam and Shashank Bengali

Egyptians vote for changes that will speed elections

A majority of Egyptian voters — 77 percent — supported constitutional changes that will speed the country along to general elections within six months, according to results released Sunday after the first polls since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak. | 03/20/11 17:01:00 By - Hannah Allam

WikiLeaks dispute claims U.S. ambassador to Mexico

U.S. ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual resigned Saturday following weeks of withering criticism by President Felipe Calderon, who said he'd lost trust in the envoy and demanded his removal. Pascual's departure marks the first high-level U.S. diplomat to be felled as a result of the release of U.S. diplomatic cables by the WikiLeaks website. | 03/19/11 21:59:00 By - Tim Johnson

Obama, Brazil's president discuss building economic ties

President Barack Obama arrived in Brazil under cloudy skies but with the hope of opening a new chapter in relations with this continent-sized country that he said has captured "the attention of the world." | 03/19/11 20:47:15 By - Mimi Whitefield

For Libyans fleeing Benghazi, U.N. action came too late

For the Libyan refugees gathered at the Egyptian border Saturday, the arrival of the French aircraft over Benghazi airspace and the firing of missiles by U.S. and its allies had come too late. They had, in a matter of hours, lost not only their home but also any hope that they could start a revolution in Libya. | 03/19/11 19:38:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Workers stabilize spent fuel stored at Japanese reactor

Japanese workers, who are risking their lives attempting to cool a half dozen crippled nuclear reactors, managed Saturday to stabilize a storage pool that holds some of the deadliest spent fuel, halting its release of radiation, the Japanese government said. | 03/19/11 18:07:00 By - Greg Gordon

U.S. military families torn over Japan evacuation

The first U.S. Air Force flight to evacuate military family members from Japan lifted off from Yokota Air Base on Saturday, carrying 233 people, nine pet dogs and a sea of mixed feelings. Many of those departing said they really didn't want to go, despite the alarm the word "radiation" triggers. | 03/19/11 13:51:00 By - Liz Ruskin

Egyptian turnout high in first post-Mubarak vote

Millions of Egyptians flooded into polling places throughout the country Saturday to vote on changes to the constitution, the first polls since the ouster last month of President Hosni Mubarak. Egyptians expressed joy at what they considered their first real vote, discounting the decades of rigged polls under Mubarak. | 03/19/11 12:31:00 By - Hannah Allam

Guantanamo lawyers aren't happy with new work rules

With a new round of Guantanamo prosecutions on the horizon, a senior Pentagon official has ordered war court defense lawyers to sign freshly minted ground rules that not only gag what they can say to their alleged terrorist clients but also to the public. | 03/18/11 20:34:32 By - Carol Rosenberg

Intervention in Libya: The 'not-Iraq' war

The Libyan war could well be called the not-Iraq war. Eight years ago Saturday, President George W. Bush launched the U.S. invasion of Iraq, without an explicit mandate from the United Nations and without much concern over which U.S. allies went along. Fast forward to 2011, and the diplomatic picture is turned upside-down. | 03/18/11 19:43:00 By - Warren P. Strobel

Obama vows U.S. role in Libya will be limited

As Western powers and Arab allies prepared to meet Saturday for an emergency summit on Libya, President Barack Obama pledged to support a United Nations-backed military campaign against Col. Moammar Gadhafi but said that he wouldn't send troops to Libyan soil or take over the operation. | 03/18/11 19:22:00 By - Shashank Bengali, Margaret Talev and David Lightman

Arab leaders turn to deadly force to crush rebellions

Violence shook the Middle East on Friday after security forces attacked protesters in Yemen and Syria, leaving at least 40 dead in Yemen and three in Syria, as the region's authoritarian regimes turned to deadly force to stop pro-democracy uprisings. | 03/18/11 18:38:00 By - Hannah Allam and Mohannad Sabry

First post-Mubarak vote shows Egypt's divisions

Millions of Egyptians are expected to vote Saturday in a nationwide referendum on constitutional amendments, a poll that's likely to lay bare the competing visions for democracy put forth since Hosni Mubarak's ouster last month. | 03/18/11 15:55:00 By - Hannah Allam

Obama: Gadhafi must restore water, phones or face assault

Prsident Barack Obama said Friday that the United States will assist if international force is needed to stop Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi from killing his people, but will not send American ground troops to Libya or take over the effort. Any ceasefire must include an end to pro-Gadhafi troops marching on rebel-held cities. | 03/18/11 15:27:05 By - Margaret Talev

Aristide arrives in Haiti

Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide waved his hand in victory Friday morning as he stepped off the private aircraft that brought him home after seven years of exile in South Africa. He later told Haitians that he had returned to “serve you in love.’’ | 03/18/11 13:59:27 By - Jacqueline Charles

Aristide leaves South Africa for Haiti

Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left South Africa for Haiti shortly after 5 p.m. EST on Thursday despite protest from the Obama administration over his return. Hours before Aristide’s flight took off, the White House issued its strongest statement against his impending return, saying it has “deep concerns’’ his return could be destabilizing. | 03/18/11 07:06:18 By - Jacqueline Charles and Lesley Clark

Health concerns in Japanese tsunami shelters

Medical support is desperately needed at the shelters in the quake zone as the threat of influenza and other infectious diseases grows. | 03/17/11 18:33:46 By -

Pakistan condemns U.S. over drone strike that killed 36

Just one day after a CIA contractor was absolved by a Pakistani court of a double murder charge, Pakistan and U.S. relations were plunged into a new crisis Thursday over a CIA-directed drone missile strike that Pakistan said killed at least 36 civilians. | 03/17/11 17:43:00 By - Saeed Shah

U.N. gives Britain, France go-ahead to strike at Gadhafi

The U.N. Security Council Thursday gave the go-ahead to Britain and France — backed by the U.S. and at least two Arab nations — to launch airstrikes to enforce a no fly zone over Libya and to protect civilians in rebel-held areas from forces loyal to dictator Moammar Gadhafi. | 03/17/11 13:29:42 By - Jonathan S. Landay, Warren P. Strobel and Nancy A. Youssef

U.S. begins evacuation of Americans in Japan

The United States on Thursday began evacuating Americans from Japan amid fears that four tsunami-damaged nuclear reactors may be closer to a core meltdown. The announcement of evacuations heightened tensions among foreigners over the problems at Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, 150 miles north of Tokyo. | 03/17/11 12:54:00 By - Liz Ruskin

Aristide to return to Haiti by Friday

Throughout Haiti's quake-ravaged capital, not far from the teeming slums and public plazas-turned-homeless encampments, newly erected green and white welcome home banners read: “Our mother is here already, our father is coming. We all agree.’’ The “father” refers to the pending arrival of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who is expected to return from South Africa Friday. | 03/17/11 07:02:57 By - Jacqueline Charles

Florida sends radiation protection suits to Japan

As Japan’s nuclear crisis escalates, emergency workers are finding protection in a unique safety suit created in South Florida. More than 200 full-body nuclear radiation protection suits have been donated to aid power plant workers and rescue teams in Japan. | 03/17/11 06:59:47 By - Bridget Carey

U.S. officials: Japanese should widen nuclear evacuation zone

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Wednesday that U.S. officials believe at least one Japanese nuclear power reactor is in "partial meltdown," and the top federal nuclear power regulator said that radiation is so high it warrants a much wider evacuation zone. | 03/16/11 20:10:00 By - Greg Gordon

With helicopters and live fire, Bahrain cracks down on protests

Bahraini police and soldiers, firing live ammunition and backed by U.S.-built Apache assault helicopters, drove protesters from a key traffic square here Wednesday, then blocked wounded people from reaching hospitals, in a brazen crackdown aimed at ending a month of pro-democracy protests. | 03/16/11 17:27:00 By - Scheherezade Faramarzi

WikiLeaks beef: Mexico's Calderon wants U.S. ambassador out

Mexican President Felipe Calderon is waging a harsh campaign against the U.S. ambassador here, repeatedly demanding over the past month that he be replaced in a tiff that has strained ties between the two countries. | 03/16/11 15:42:00 By - Tim Johnson

El Salvador's long-ago civil war still colors U.S. relations

Fighting a wave of drug-related crime that's sweeping Central America will be among President Barack Obama's top agenda items next week when he arrives in this tiny Central American nation, but neither he nor any U.S. officials will meet with El Salvador's chief public security official. | 03/16/11 15:03:00 By - Tim Johnson

Toyota to match American workers donations for Japan relief

Toyota's manufacturing plants in North America are launching a donation drive among employees to assist earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in Japan. | 03/16/11 13:47:07 By - Scott Sloan

Japan nuclear crisis prompts China to halt plans for new plants

The Chinese government announced on Wednesday that as a result of the ongoing Japanese nuclear crisis, it is both suspending plans for new nuclear power plants in China to allow safety standards to be revised and ordering checks at all existing facilities. | 03/16/11 13:45:27 By - Tom Lasseter

Lawyer: 'Blood money' bought CIA contractor's freedom

A murder case against an American CIA contractor that had threatened already troubled U.S.-Pakistani relations came to an abrupt end Wednesday after $1.4 million in "blood money" was paid to the families of the two men he was accused of killing. | 03/16/11 09:12:04 By - Saeed Shah and Jonathan S. Landay

Ecuador's disabled vice president shines spotlight on handicapped population

Ever since a thief’s bullet ripped through his spine 13 years ago, Ecuador’s vice president, Lenín Moreno, has been paralyzed from the waist down. When he was elected second-in-command of this Andean nation in 2007, he became one of the highest ranking politicians in Latin American history to have a visible disability. Moreno’s high-profile status has helped shine a spotlight on a segment of the population that had long been ostracized. | 03/16/11 07:09:35 By - Jim Wyss

Americans in Japan voice anxiety over nuclear meltdowns

With minor levels of excess radiation detected in Tokyo and at two nearby U.S. military bases, alarm is building among Americans in Japan who fear the Japanese government and the U.S. military are underplaying the threat of contamination from four out-of-control nuclear reactors. | 03/15/11 19:14:00 By - Liz Ruskin and Warren P. Strobel

Fear of radiation sickness focused for now on Japan

Concerns about radiation sickness in Japan are focused for now on the area about 20 miles around the quake-struck Fukushima nuclear plant, where the public has been evacuated but some workers are still fighting off a nuclear disaster. | 03/15/11 18:45:00 By - Renee Schoof

Japan's nuclear crisis prompts U.S. run on iodine pills despite no threat

Major suppliers of pills that provide protection from radiation say they're out of stock due to panic buying, even though experts say that the Japanese nuclear catastrophe poses no health threat to Americans. | 03/15/11 18:12:00 By - Rob Hotakainen and Renee Schoof

Japan's disruption throws a wrench into world's economic gears

The disaster unfolding in Japan provided a stark reminder Tuesday of how interconnected the global economy has become, with the price of stocks and commodities skidding everywhere as investors weighed how long one of the world's economic engines will be sputtering. | 03/15/11 17:38:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Bahrain declares state of emergency

Bahrain's king declared a three-month state of emergency Tuesday in an effort to quell a month-old uprising as rival groups of protesters and gangs set up more checkpoints around the capital. | 03/15/11 17:12:37 By - David Cloud

Charlotte music director to conduct at royal wedding in April

Charlotte Symphony music director Christopher Warren-Green will conduct for the wedding of England's Prince William and Kate Middleton in April. | 03/15/11 13:02:45 By - Steven Brown

Does Japan's nuclear complex crisis imperil California?

The struggle to avert disaster at a Japanese nuclear power plant has many Californians wondering about the risk of a radiation cloud crossing the Pacific. Experts weighed in on that possibility Monday. | 03/15/11 06:47:45 By - Matt Weiser

Southern Sudan walks out of talks on secession

The peaceful division of Sudan into two independent nations this summer appears in jeopardy after leaders of southern Sudan walked out of talks here over what they say are plans by the northern government to install "a puppet government" in the oil-rich south. | 03/14/11 19:37:24 By - Alan Boswell

Crisis at Japanese nuclear complex prompts calls for U.S. review

As Japan copes with one crisis after another at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, a review of federal records indicates that nearly a quarter of America's nuclear reactors in 13 states share the same design of the ill-fated Japanese reactors. | 03/14/11 19:11:00 By - Rob Hotakainen, Renee Schoof and Margaret Talev

With Gadhafi's forces on the move, Benghazi rebels brace for death

Even before forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi took back the oil-rich towns of Brega, Ras Lanouf and Zawiya, and before they allegedly assassinated a correspondent for al Jazeera, someone in the government turned on cell phone text messaging services just long enough to remind at least one rebel here of their reach. | 03/14/11 19:07:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

2,000 bodies found on Miyagi coast after tsunami

A total of about 2,000 bodies have been found in Miyagi Prefecture's coastal area in the wake of last week's calamitous earthquake and tsunami, according to the prefectural government. | 03/14/11 18:54:21 By -

Saudi Arabia dispatches troops to troubled Bahrain

Saudi Arabia on Monday dispatched at least 1,000 troops to neighboring Bahrain to help quell political unrest there, a move that not only escalated the political crisis in that tiny Arab kingdom but raised the prospect that the wave of internal rebellions sweeping the region could spark international conflict. | 03/14/11 17:50:00 By - Hannah Allam

Chinese premier's remarks raise questions about his stand on reform

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday endorsed political change as a worthwhile goal - as long as it doesn't happen too soon and is closely supervised by the Chinese Communist Party. | 03/14/11 17:13:00 By - Tom Lasseter

Suicide attack kills 33 at Afghan army recruiting center

A suicide attacker blew himself up Monday in an army recruiting center in the northern Afghanistan province of Kunduz, killing 33 and injuring 40 others, officials said. | 03/14/11 15:58:00 By - Hashim Shukoor

Japan's nuclear crisis widens

A fresh explosion rocked a crippled nuclear complex as rescuers from around the world converged on Japan's devastated earthquake zone, searching for survivors and ministering to the sick and hungry. With the death toll from the largest quake in Japan's recorded history expected to ultimately reach the tens of thousands, more than a half-million people have been displaced by growing radiation fears and the massive swath of destruction. | 03/14/11 14:47:34 By - Mark Magnier, Barbara Demick and Laura King

Chernobyl expert: Japan situation could be ‘radioactive volcano’

Famed South Carolina naturalist and Chernobyl expert Rudy Mancke said Sunday that Japan’s nuclear situation could become a historic catastrophe if early reports of meltdowns turn out to be true — depending on the severity of the meltdowns. | 03/14/11 13:49:00 By - John Monk

Chinese Premier Wen advocates slow political change under party leadership

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday dismissed any comparisons between his nation and Arab regimes wracked by recent political unrest, though he also acknowledged the need to address underlying social problems and cautioned against rapid political change. | 03/14/11 09:08:23 By - Tom Lasseter

Suicide attacker targets recruiting center in Kunduz province

A suicide attacker blew himself up in an army recruiting center in the northern Afghanistan province of Kunduz, killing at least 30 and injured 40 others on Monday officials said. | 03/14/11 08:53:35 By - Hashim Shukoor

In Japan, Tokyo's lights voluntarily dimmed after quake

It's hard to imagine this city without its trademark blaze of neon — the garish, flashing signs that routinely turn the Tokyo nightscape into a phantasmagoric riot of color. On Sunday night, though, little imagination was needed. Tokyo didn't go dark. But it dimmed itself, a voluntary power-conservation measure after Friday's catastrophic earthquake. | 03/13/11 22:28:06 By - Laura King and Kenji Hall

Gadhafi's forces roll east, build pressure on U.S. to step in

Forces loyal to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi advanced further eastward Sunday, moving into the coastal city of Brega and putting new pressure on the United States and its allies to either intervene militarily or risk seeing the anti-Gadhafi movement collapse. | 03/13/11 17:03:11 By - Nancy A Youssef and Warren P. Strobel

US contractor convicted in Cuba; 15-year sentence

A U.S. contractor accused by Cuba of plotting to “destroy the revolution” was convicted of crimes against the state Saturday and sentenced to 15 years in prison, prompting protests from the White House and fury in Miami. | 03/13/11 15:31:41 By - LESLEY CLARK

Clinton spokesman resigns for criticizing U.S. treatment of WikiLeaks suspect Manning

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's chief spokesman abruptly resigned Sunday, three days after he publicly criticized the treatment in confinement of WikiLeaks suspect Army Pfc. Bradley Manning as "counterproductive and stupid." | 03/13/11 15:18:00 By - Warren P. Strobel

Outlook for democracy dims across much of the Middle East

A poster depicting 15 Middle Eastern heads of state stood out among the other signs hoisted in the air Saturday by hundreds of protesters at a rally outside the Arab League meeting in Cairo. | 03/12/11 15:53:00 By - Hannah Allam and Mohannad Sabry

Libya's rebels try to organize better, but it's not easy

As the conflict for control of Libya appears to be turning into a protracted war, the motley rebel forces that once charged forward easily to take parts of the east said Saturday that they now must organize themselves better militarily. | 03/12/11 15:38:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Quake, tsunami could awaken Japan's struggling economy

The devastating damage unleashed on Japan Friday by a massive earthquake and then a tsunami will greatly stress the world's third-largest economy, but it also will require rebuilding that will deliver a perverse economic stimulus. | 03/11/11 16:55:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Aflac donates $1.2 million to Japan earthquake relief efforts

Aflac, a Columbus, Ga., company that employs about 5,000 people in Japan, has donated $1.2 million to disaster relief efforts following a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami there today. | 03/11/11 12:51:32 By - Tony Adams

Californians scramble to reach friends, family after Japan earthquake

An earthquake with preliminary magnitude 8.9 occurred at 9:46 p.m. Pacific Standard time Thursday near the east coast of of Honshu, Japan. The estimated time of wave arrival of tsunami, a series of waves with dangerous potential that could be spawned by the very large earthquake in Japan, are varied for sites along the west coast of California but the big waves have already wreaked havoc near the temblor's origination. | 03/11/11 12:15:07 By - Bill Lindelof and Tony Bizjak

Japan hit by 8.9 magnitude earthquake

A powerful tsunami spawned by the largest earthquake in Japan's recorded history slammed the eastern coast Friday | 03/11/11 08:20:38 By -

Guantanamo tribunals resume but death penalty questions remain

Now that the Obama administration has decided to go forward with both military trials and indefinite detention at Guantánamo, it has yet to resolve a key element: How does the Pentagon plan to execute war criminals condemned to death? The question is particularly ripe as the Pentagon prepares its case against a Saudi-born captive blamed for the al Qaeda bombing of the USS Cole, Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, 46. | 03/11/11 07:10:01 By - Carol Rosenberg

Colombian government looks to resettle displaced farmers

The government said Thursday it had seized 173,000 acres of agricultural land and planned to turn it over to hundreds of farmers as part of ongoing efforts to claw-back property from rebels, outlaws and corrupt officials. | 03/11/11 07:03:19 By - Jim Wyss

Japan earthquake experience retold by California woman

Japan was hit by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday afternoon, which shook buildings in Tokyo and caused a 13-foot tsunami that ravaged communities near the quake's epicenter, according to media reports. A California woman, whose daughter-in-law lives on Yokota Air Base near Tokyo, recounts her family's experience. | 03/11/11 06:48:08 By - Mark Kawahara

White House, intel chief split on Libya assessment

The nation's top intelligence official told Congress Thursday that Moammar Gadhafi will eventually prevail in his war with Libya's rebels, provoking a rare public dispute with the White House, which says its policy is intended to force the Libyan dictator from power. | 03/10/11 19:35:00 By - Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay

As gasoline soars, Libyan rebels pay 46 cents a gallon

World fuel prices are surging, in part because of the bloody battle to topple Moammar Gadhafi, but there's one place where the price of a gallon of gasoline actually has dropped: war-torn Libya. Today, gasoline costs the equivalent of 46 U.S. cents a gallon; last week, the price was just over 62 cents. | 03/10/11 18:43:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef and Kevin G. Hall

Once a Dalai Lama, always a Dalai Lama, retired or not

By "retiring" from political life, what the Dalai Lama really is doing is prodding Tibetan exiles to take more initiative and stand up for themselves. It's a surprisingly difficult struggle. The reality is that the Dalai Lama is too towering a figure to really retire from politics. He holds a lifetime job. | 03/10/11 17:22:00 By - Tim Johnson

Coalition raid kills Afghan President Karzai's cousin

A cousin of President Hamid Karzai was killed Thursday in southern Afghanistan during a raid by coalition forces, just after the president had said civilian casualties from the war were damaging relations with the United States. | 03/10/11 16:28:00 By - Saeed Shah

Airline flights to Cuba from Florida approved

The U.S. government on Thursday said it will allow regular commercial flights to Havana from Fort Lauderdale- Hollywood International Airport — all part of the an easing of travel restrictions to the island by the Obama administration. | 03/10/11 15:43:35 By - Juan Carlos Chavez

World-class theater performances coming to a theater near you

Ever wanted to visit London and see their world-class theater? Well, you might be able to without even climbing on an airplane. | 03/10/11 14:54:09 By - Tish Wells

Dalai Lama steps away from political role over Tibet exiles

The Dalai Lama on Thursday announced that he intends to transfer his political authority over the Tibetan government in exile to an elected leader, a move that he said would promote democratic development but that the Chinese government slammed as “tricks to deceive the international community.” | 03/10/11 06:59:33 By - Tom Lasseter

Obama wants allies on board before intervention in Libya

In a sharp break from his predecessor's approach, President Barack Obama has decided to wait for European and Arab support before intervening in Libya, a stance that critics say will give dictator Moammar Gadhafi more time to launch brutal assaults on his opponents. | 03/09/11 19:52:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel

U.S. warns that standoff in Sudan is 'unacceptable'

After weeks of cautiously optimistic statements about progress toward dividing Sudan into two countries, the United States on Wednesday issued a sharply worded rebuke warning that Sudan's northern government faced "greater, more painful isolation" if it didn't take steps to stop raids that have killed scores in the disputed Abyei border region. | 03/09/11 18:53:00 By - Alan Boswell

Pro-Mubarak thugs blamed for rising violence in Egypt

A series of bloody clashes in recent days have heightened fears here that thugs loyal to Hosni Mubarak's former regime are fanning tensions in a bid to undermine political reforms promised by the country's military-led government. | 03/09/11 17:16:00 By - Hannah Allam and Mohannad Sabry

U.N.: U.S.-led forces killed fewer Afghan civilians last year

The number of civilians killed by U.S.-led forces and their Afghan allies dropped 26 percent last year, the United Nations reported Wednesday. | 03/09/11 15:34:00 By - Saeed Shah

Locke's China appointment brings family's story full circle

A little more than a century ago, Gary Locke's grandfather moved from China to Washington state, where he found a job as a houseboy in exchange for English lessons. | 03/09/11 15:04:00 By - Rob Hotakainen

U.S. lawmakers keep quiet about Guantanamo tour

Florida Rep. Allen West toured the secretive Camp 7 at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba — where the alleged Sept. 11 plotters are held — but wouldn’t say Tuesday what he saw. The reputed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators are held at the secluded site and West did acknowledge, “I did see one very popular individual.” | 03/09/11 07:01:16 By - Lesley Clark

Details of U.S. subcontractor's Cuba trial emerge

At least 14 witnesses testified at the Havana trial of U.S. government subcontractor Alan Gross last week, including Cuban intelligence agents and members of the island’s Jewish community, the State Department’s top man on Cuba has reported. | 03/09/11 06:54:42 By - Juan O. Tamayo

Gadhafi's offer to talk reveals division among Libya's rebels

An offer from Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to open negotiations to end the three-week-old war has revealed a split within the rebel movement that controls this city and much of the eastern half of Libya. | 03/08/11 18:40:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Afghans rely heavily on foreign advisers as transition looms

Nearly 300 foreign advisers, most of them Americans, work at Afghanistan's Interior Ministry, and hundreds more work in other government departments, a reliance on foreign expertise that raises doubts about the viability of the West's exit strategy. | 03/08/11 16:30:00 By - Saeed Shah

Haitian officials promise changes before runoff election

Inside a former gym turned elections headquarters, 120 operators field calls from confused Haitian voters needing to know where to cast their votes on Election Day. The 24-hour call center is among several fixes Haitian elections officials have started putting into place ahead of March 20’s critical presidential and legislative runoff. | 03/08/11 06:54:59 By - Jacqueline Charles

Obama to resume military tribunals for Guantanamo terror suspects

The Obama administration on Monday announced that it will resume using military tribunals to try suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but officials said they're not giving up on trials in civilian courts and are still considering their options for trying 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other accused 9/11 plotters. | 03/08/11 06:32:32 By - Margaret Talev and Marisa Taylor

Obama to tap Gary Locke as ambassador to China

President Barack Obama plans to name Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, the descendant of Chinese immigrants, as the new ambassador to China, administration officials said Monday. Locke, a former Washington state governor, would replace Jon Huntsman, who will leave the post next month. | 03/07/11 21:13:00 By - Steven Thomma

Pro-Gadhafi forces appear to take the initiative

As the U.S. and NATO allies debated a no-fly zone and other military options in Libya, forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi appeared to seize the initiative Monday in brutal counter-assaults against opponents of the Libyan leader | 03/07/11 19:37:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef and Warren P. Strobel

Egypt faces new turmoil: Looted state security files

Less than a month after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's caretaker government faces a new crisis: what to do about thousands of documents that protesters seized from State Security offices over the weekend. | 03/07/11 18:57:00 By - Hannah Allam and Mohannad Sabry

Afghan government asks U.N. to ease limits on 5 ex-Taliban

The Afghan government has asked the United Nations to remove the names of five former senior Taliban members from its terrorist blacklist, including the man who ran the extremist regime's feared religious police, McClatchy has learned. | 03/07/11 17:01:00 By - Saeed Shah

Haiti presidential candidate Martelly defaults on three Florida properties

Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly, a long-time entertainer who is vying to become the next president of Haiti, has defaulted on more than $1 million in loans and lost three South Florida properties to foreclosure in just over a year, public records show. | 03/07/11 06:52:23 By - Frances Robles

Guantanamo visit on tap for some Congress members

Tea Party Rep. Allen West, a retired Army officer with detainee experience of his own, travels to Guantánamo on Monday with five other members of Congress on an inspection tour. | 03/07/11 06:42:26 By - Carol Rosenberg

After loss, rebels tell of their setback against Gadhafi's superior arms

Ibrahim Mohammed, 35, returned from fighting in the eastern Libyan city of Ben Jawad, convinced that he and his fellow ragtag forces had easily moved the rebels one city closer to the capital and to victory. Relieved, he jumped into his truck and drove 25 miles back from the frontline. | 03/06/11 17:50:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Relations worsen as Karzai rejects U.S. apology over deaths of 9 Afghan boys

Afghan president Hamid Karzai Sunday rebuffed an apology by the American general running the military campaign in his country for the recent deaths of nine boys in a helicopter attack, sending already tense relations with Washington to a new low. | 03/06/11 15:33:00 By - Saeed Shah

Libya rebels advance toward Sirte, keep fighting in Zawiya

A ragtag rebel force in pickups and commandeered tanks advanced Saturday from eastern Libya on Moammar Gadhafi's heavily defended hometown of Sirte as their counterparts in the western city of Zawiya repulsed fresh assaults by the dictator's forces. Several witnesses said anti-Gadhafi fighters had reached Bin Jawwad, a small town about two thirds of the way to Sirte from the key oil center of Ras Lanouf, which also had fallen to the rebels. | 03/05/11 18:08:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef and Jonathan S. Landay

New day in Egypt: Protesters sack State Security offices

Hundreds of Egyptians Saturday surged into the Cairo headquarters of the dreaded State Security agency, grabbing up documents and trudging through dungeon-like cells where secret police had held and tortured untold numbers of prisoners over the years. Dismantling State Security was a key demand of protesters who forced Hosni Mubarak to resign, but until Saturday, the security apparatus had remained untouched. | 03/05/11 16:42:00 By - Hannah Allam

Worried about unrest, China premier vows to end corruption

As his government continued to wage a crackdown on calls for protest rallies, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Saturday pledged to rein in corruption, economic inequality and a host of other problems at the root of widespread frustrations in China. An editorial in Saturday's edition of the Beijing Daily, a state newspaper, punctuated the government's concerns about people "with ulterior motives" trying to "incite unrest." | 03/05/11 15:25:00 By - Tom Lasseter

Massive blast rips arms depot key to Libya rebels

A massive explosion ripped through a major weapons depot for Libyan rebels Friday outside the rebel-held city of Benghazi, killing dozens and possibly dealing a major blow to the ongoing battle to topple Moammar Gadhafi. | 03/04/11 17:43:49 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Angry Southern Sudanese destroy U.N. vehicles over peace talks

Southern Sudanese stormed a U.N. compound in the disputed Abyei region Friday, destroying 12 U.N. vehicles and setting fire to the compound's fence in the latest violence over the upcoming division of Sudan into two nations. | 03/04/11 17:01:00 By - Alan Boswell

China wants better image, but not at the risk of security

The past couple weeks have, by any accounting, been a rough patch for Chinese public relations. A crackdown by Chinese security services after online calls for demonstrations in Beijing and cities across China generated reams of news stories about the push to both detain activists and harass foreign journalists. | 03/04/11 16:36:00 By - Tom Lasseter

Like new Middle East, Obama doctrine is a work in progress

Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman met in Egypt and Tunisia recently with the new, post-revolution prime ministers of both countries. Almost as soon as they'd returned to Washington, both leaders were out of office. | 03/04/11 15:56:00 By - Warren P. Strobel

Wave of protests now touches nearly all of Arab world

From North Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, virtually no Arab country remained untouched Friday by the two-month wave of revolts that's overthrown two heads of state and left many other leaders teetering or rolling out pre-emptive reforms. | 03/04/11 12:27:12 By - Hannah Allam

Trial of U.S. subcontractor Gross begins in Cuba

U.S. government subcontractor Alan P. Gross goes on trial in Havana on Friday in a case that could freeze or thaw Obama administration efforts to improve relations with Cuba. A conviction of the 61-year-old from Potomac, Md., is all but certain, analysts say. | 03/04/11 07:05:25 By - Juan Carlos Chavez and Juan O. Tamayo

Foreboding and euphoria mix in rebel-held Libya

One day after rebels repulsed the first major offensive by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in the liberated east, the fighters' euphoria over their victory mixed on Thursday with a sense of foreboding: Where would the regime launch its next attack? | 03/03/11 18:51:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

In person, on camera, Obama calls for Gadhafi to go

For the first time, President Barack Obama called publicly and personally Thursday for Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to go, said he'd authorized U.S. military aircraft to help evacuate refugees at the Libyan border and said the U.S. might need to intervene more there to get food to starving civilians. | 03/03/11 18:10:00 By - Margaret Talev

U.S., Mexico reach deal to end trucking dispute

Mexico and the United States agreed in principle Thursday to open U.S. highways to Mexican long-haul trucks, ending a lingering safety dispute that prompted Mexico to impose more than $2 billion in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exporters. | 03/03/11 18:04:00 By - Tim Johnson

With more protests planned, Egypt's prime minister steps down

Egypt's military rulers announced the resignation Thursday of Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq — an apparent concession to opposition activists who are calling for a broad purge of former regime figures as Egypt plods toward a more democratic system. | 03/03/11 16:44:00 By - Hannah Allam

Missing man from Florida may be captive in southwest Asia

A Florida man missing near Iran since 2007 may be alive and being held in southwest Asia, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday. | 03/03/11 16:38:45 By - Lesley Clark

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Mexico Unmasked

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Written by Tom Lasseter, McClatchy's Beijing bureau chief.

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