World

Israeli troops cut Gaza in two in 'real war' to crush Hamas

On the first full day of Israeli ground operations following an eight-day air assault, Israeli infantry units seized large sections of Gaza, encircled its largest city and severed the narrow strip in two. Gaza medical officials said Sunday that 17 Palestinians were killed in the early hours of the offensive. Israel reported 30 of its soldiers had been injured, including two severely. | 01/04/09 09:45:24 By - Dion Nissenbaum and Shashank Bengali

U.S. troops returning to Iraq find something new: optimism

The violence of his past deployments in Iraq still haunts Daniel Clemons, a 32-year-old National Guard staff sergeant who's back for his third tour. This time, however, Clemons, like a lot of returning U.S. troops, is encountering something new: political and security improvements so dramatic that he can imagine the war ending and his memories of past bloodshed dimming. | 01/04/09 06:00:00 By - Adam Ashton

Intense fighting reported as Israeli troops cross into Gaza

JERUSALEM - Israeli tanks and soldiers punched into the Hamas-led Gaza Strip on Saturday night as the nation's eight-day-old military campaign to destabilize the hard-line Islamist rulers moved into a more volatile phase. | 01/03/09 18:57:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum

Fierce firefights reported as Israeli troops move into Gaza

The Israeli military sent ground troops into the Gaza Strip Saturday night as helicopters, tanks, artillery and soldiers launched the more dangerous phase of the nation’s attempt to destabilize Hamas. Israeli military officials said the ground forces would try to seize control of open fields, orchards and border areas used to fire rockets into southern Israel. Residents in northern Gaza hiding in their homes said Israeli soldiers were quickly confronted by Palestinian militants that had been lying in wait. Palestinians in the area reported intense firefights taking place but there was no immediate word on fighters killed on either side. | 01/03/09 14:09:03 By - Dion Nissenbaum

Israel, U.S., Arab nations discuss international force for Gaza

After a week of Israeli bombardment of the Gaza strip, Israel, Arab countries and the United States are discussing how to create an international force that would safeguard an eventual cease-fire, diplomats said Friday. | 01/02/09 19:03:51 By - Warren P. Strobel

Help wanted: As air industry grows, Iraq seeks controllers

Iraq officially began to govern its skies this week, but it has enough trained air traffic controllers only to manage the highest heights above the country. With its air industry growing for the first time in dacades, Iraq hopes to hire enough air traffic controllers to take over control of its skies from the U.S. by 2011. | 01/02/09 18:20:00 By - Adam Ashton

With nowhere safe, Gazans hunker down inside their homes

It's been nearly a decade since Emad Falah left the confines of the Gaza Strip. Now his wife and four boys haven't left their Gaza City apartment since last Saturday, when Israeli missiles slammed into a building about 200 yards from their home on the first day of an ongoing attempt to crush Hamas. | 01/02/09 17:31:00 By - Ahmed Abu Hamda and Dion Nissenbaum

Israeli missile hits target, but what was it?

The Israeli military says that it's taking extraordinary steps to minimize civilian deaths in its weeklong campaign of airstrikes meant to undermine Hamas rulers in the Gaza Strip. Human rights groups say, however, that one attack that Israel claims killed eight "terror operatives" loading a truck with Grad rockets instead killed Palestinian workers who were salvaging oxygen tanks from a welding shop. | 01/02/09 17:01:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum

Egyptian authorities clamp down on Gaza protests

Demonstrators gathered across the Muslim world Friday in fresh protests against the Israeli offensive in Gaza, while Egyptian authorities again used force to silence protesters in Cairo. | 01/02/09 16:37:00 By - Shashank Bengali

Growing Taliban use of marksmen worries U.S. military

Taliban fighters increasingly are deploying precision marksmen to fire on U.S. troops at greater distances in Afghanistan, according to the top two commanders for the southern region. When snipers began appearing in Iraq's Anbar province in 2005, U.S. troops had a difficult time protecting themselves. | 01/02/09 16:11:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Suicide bomber kills 30 at Sunni tribal parley in Iraq

A man wearing a suicide vest attacked an informal reconciliation meeting hosted by a Sunni tribal leader south of Baghdad Friday, killing up to 30 people and injuring as many as 110, police said. | 01/02/09 13:02:00 By - Mohammed al Dulaimy and Adam Ashton

Rejecting truce, Olmert vows 'iron fist' against Hamas

Israeli soldiers were poised Thursday to launch a Gaza Strip ground offensive as tough talk came from their political leaders. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to use an "iron fist" to pummel Hamas militants and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni politely rebuffed French efforts to broker a truce that might make a ground offensive unnecessary. An air strike killed a top Hamas military mastermind and 13 members of his family. | 01/01/09 17:46:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum

Former landlord Russia turns off Ukraine's gas

Russia's state-run gas monopoly halted natural gas delivery to Ukraine Thursday, delivering a New Year's blow that further heightened tensions between Russia and the former Soviet republic. The dispute could affect not only Ukraine, but much of Europe. About a quarter of Europe's gas is supplied by Russia, and an estimated 80 percent of it goes through Ukraine. | 01/01/09 15:20:00 By - Tom Lasseter

2009 in Iraq: A new era dawns, but old fears still hold sway

With the arrival of 2009, Iraq has achieved, at least on paper, something it hasn't enjoyed since American troops entered the country almost six years ago — the declaration that it is a sovereign nation, free of a United Nations mandate that allowed the U.S. to run Iraqi affairs. Still, Iraqis aren't willing to say that the bad years of sectarian bloodshed are over or that what's taking place will lead to better days. | 12/31/08 19:00:00 By - Leila Fadel

What helped the rise of Hamas? U.S., Israel policies, turns out

When Hamas won elections in 2006, the Bush administration was caught off guard. It refused to recognize the results, opposed Arab efforts to craft a Palestinian unity government and pressed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to confront Hamas. But it provided Abbas with little assistance and Hamas is stronger today than three years ago. | 12/31/08 18:46:00 By - Warren P. Strobel

Cult-like Iranian militant group worries about its future in Iraq

Since the U.S. invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, a group of Iranian rebels he once sponsored has been protected by the U.S. military inside their camp north of Baghdad — to the outrage of the Iranian government. Thursday, that protection ended, and now the camp's 3,400 residents fear what might happen next. | 12/31/08 18:00:00 By - Leila Fadel

On visit, Israeli foreign minister is greeted by Hamas rockets

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's convoy had just pulled into Sderot Wednesday afternoon when the warning of incoming rocket fire from Gaza crackled from the town's loudspeakers. "Red color, red color," said the dull Hebrew voice so familiar to residents who know when they hear it that they have about 15 seconds to seek shelter. | 12/31/08 17:06:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum

Oil wealth gone, Russians brace for hard times

There are many oft-quoted indicators of Russia's suffering economy. Beyond those figures and the analysis of financial experts, however, on the streets of Moscow there is for many Russians a deep sense of fear, a feeling of being underneath a gathering, dark wave of hard economic times. | 12/31/08 16:20:00 By - Tom Lasseter

Obama raises Africa's hopes, but 2008 was a year to forget

How bad was it for Africa in 2008? The highlight of the year for most of the continent just might've been the election of a half-Kenyan to lead a nation thousands of miles away. | 12/31/08 15:41:00 By - Shashank Bengali

Americans bring a little Christmas to Guatemalan orphans

What started as a simple service trip for a handful of women who had bonded as they all went through the Guatemalan adoption process at the same time has snowballed into Helping Mayan Families, an effort that raised more than $30,000 worth of supplies to help provide free medical and veterinary clinics, Christmas baskets of food, and toys, clothes, and shoes to 1,000 poor indigenous families. | 12/31/08 15:12:00 By - Summer Harlow

Israeli troops dance as they await the order for a Gaza war

In a muddy field overlooking the smoke-blackened Gaza Strip skyline, young soldiers from an Israeli tank unit linked arms with euphoric civilians in energetic dance in anticipation of a possible ground invasion of Gaza. Huge speakers blasting religious songs fed the emotion as civilians cheered troops who'd take part in any ground invasion. | 12/30/08 18:32:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum

In Chihuahua, plaudits as police strive for transparency

There is nothing extraordinary inside the municipal jail in Chihuahua City: half a dozen men kill time their languid motions caught on TV monitors outside their cells. But the cameras aren't just to aid the guards. Across town, Chihuahua's state human rights office is viewing the same scene on a TV screen that shows images from cameras set up throughout two city jails. The three-month-old program, which allows human rights workers 24-hour access, is the newest effort toward transparency in Chihuahua's police department. | 12/30/08 13:38:00 By - Sara Miller Llana

Ringing out the old: New Year's Eve in Havana, 1958

Dec. 31, 1958, in Havana began as a low-key New Year's Eve. Back then, explosions sometimes went off in theaters, and police trying to quash an insurrection often stopped and searched folks on the street, so most people stayed in to celebrate safely at home. Few knew that dictator Fulgencio Batista had spent the day gathering up cash and friends in preparation for leaving the country. When 1959 dawned, Batista was gone and five decades of rule by Fidel Castro were just beginning. | 12/30/08 14:50:34 By - Frances Robles

Israel's 'all-out war' in Gaza targets Hamas militants at home

In messages that have left many Palestinians rattled, Israel has been placing phone calls to Gaza residents to personally warn them that their homes, or adjacent buildings, were targets. With the death toll now at 345 and the number of wounded above 1,400, Gaza doctors said they were running out of blood, bandages and other supplies. The U.N. reported that about a third of those killed as of Sunday afternoon — about 90 Palestinians — were civilians. | 12/29/08 18:08:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum and Ahmed Abu Hamda

Mexican president finds drugs now corrupting military, too

A Mexican Army officer has been arrested on suspicion that he sold information about President Felipe Calderon's movements to drug cartels. He's the closest official to the president to be arrested thus far, and his arrest is another embarrassing setback for Calderon's high-profile battle against drug trafficking. | 12/29/08 16:18:00 By - Sarah Miller Llana

Israel prepares possible Gaza invasion; air strikes continue

Israel Sunday began preparing for a possible ground offensive into the Gaza Strip as its air force continued to pummel the Hamas-controlled region in an operation that killed more than 290 Palestinians in the first two days. The Israeli attempt to destabilize the militant Islamic group is the deadliest there since Israel seized control of the Mediterranean region in 1967. | 12/28/08 11:51:04 By - Dion Nissenbaum

Analysis: 'I don't see how this ends well' in Gaza

As Israel clamps down on the Gaza Strip and prepares for the possibility of sending thousands of soldiers into the Palestinian area controlled by the militant Islamic group Hamas, its leaders are facing a diplomatic conundrum: They have clear military goals but no political vision for how to end the confrontation. | 12/28/08 16:47:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum

Tensions rise as India, Pakistan fail at diplomacy

A month after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India and Pakistan are turning to brinksmanship because they haven't found a way to talk constructively. Both governments have spoken of their desire to avert war, yet both are constrained by strong public prejudice against the other. | 12/28/08 15:31:00 By - Mark Sappenfield and Shahan Mufti

Baghdad bombing suggests that security gains are fragile

A car bomb ripped through a historic Shiite Muslim district of Baghdad Saturday, killing at least 24 people and wounding at least 46, Iraqi police said. The bombing in Kadhimiyah, a holy area for Shiite Muslims, underscores fear that the security gains of the past year are fragile, even in the country’s capital. | 12/27/08 16:17:30 By - Laith Hammoudi and Leila Fadel

Senator trades suit for uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, says his work in Iraq as Col. Lindsey Graham, an Air Force Reserve attorney, may be more important than his work on Capitol Hill. "Getting honest judges, honest prison guards and honest police ... can do more good to turn a country around than all the military power in the world," he says. | 12/27/08 16:37:08 By - James Rosen

Iraqi government to take control of Sunni militia in Diyala

Jan. 1 will see an important test of Iraqi reconciliation when the central government takes control of Sunni Muslim militias that had backed a U.S.-led security program in volatile Diyala province. The province is a fault line of sectarian tensions, with Sunni tribal leaders fleeing because they fear being targeted by Iraq's Shiite-led central government. | 12/27/08 12:53:20 By - Adam Ashton

Could saber-rattling lead to war between India and Pakistan?

Pakistan is moving some troops away from its border with Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said on Friday, sparking renewed fears that last month's terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, could trigger a fourth war between the two countries, both of which are now armed with nuclear weapons. | 12/26/08 17:17:00 By - Saeed Shah and Jonathan S. Landay

Bush calls Coast Guardsman at Guantanamo to thank him

President-elect Barack Obama has vowed to close it. The international community has condemned it. On Christmas Eve, however, when it came time for him to wish some American service members a Merry Christmas for his last time in office, President George W. Bush rang up a North Carolina man who's assigned to the military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. | 12/26/08 15:52:00 By - Carol Rosenberg and David Lightman

Christians crowd Baghdad church, but many families are divided

The pews were packed for the Christmas mass in Baghdad's Greek Orthodox church Thursday, a sign to Father Younan Yacob that the city had grown safer for its Christian minority over the past year. | 12/25/08 15:19:00 By - Adam Ashton

Christmas for troops in Afghanistan: turkey patties, grape juice and calls home

Marines are used to being away from home on Christmas. About 40 percent of those in the remote Delaram base have been to Iraq or Afghanistan before or have missed the holiday due to training. These Marines are stationed in Farah province, an area where Taliban forces not only fight but also sell opium poppy to finance their operations. | 12/25/08 14:59:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Thousands of candidates may complicate Iraq's provincial elections

Iraqi voters next month will see 14,500 candidates vie for 440 open seats on provincial councils, an outpouring of interest in a new phase of Iraqi self-government that could make for a baffling ballot. The Jan. 31 poll will be the first in a series of votes in Iraq next year that include elections in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, a national referendum on the new U.S.-Iraq security pact and nationwide parliamentary elections. | 12/24/08 15:53:00 By - Mohammed al Dulaimy

Marines may request more troops in Taliban country

The U.S. Marines are considering requesting two battalions and a combat aviation unit in Taliban-controlled southern Afghanistan, which would be the largest proposed expansion of U.S. troops in the volatile region, two senior Marine commanders told McClatchy. | 12/24/08 14:57:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Younger generation in Kashmir takes a step back from violence

The Indian establishment is probably in no mood to thank Hamid Bashir, considering he has spent the past few months pelting security forces with rocks and chanting anti-Indian slogans. But like curfews and candidates, Mr. Bashir has also played a part in the relative peace that prevailed throughout month-long state elections that ended here Wednesday. | 12/24/08 14:56:17 By - Mark Sappenfield

Somalia's embattled president expected to resign

Abdullahi Yusuf's departure, which could become official within days, would remove a major obstacle to a United Nations-backed peace process for Somalia, which has been floundering as Yusuf clashed with the prime minister and Islamist insurgents threatened to seize the capital, Mogadishu. | 12/24/08 14:38:00 By - Shashank Bengali

Exiled Muslim tycoon pays price for criticizing China

Rebiya Kadeer is little known to the outside world. Yet she's a rallying figure for one of China's largest minority groups, an accidental critic of China's policies toward its ethnic minorities whom Beijing once celebrated as one of China's richest tycoons. Advocating on behalf of Muslim minorities led to her imprisonment and eventual expulsion from China in 2005, and she went into exile in the United States. | 12/24/08 11:33:00 By - Tim Johnson

What are 'combat troops'? Iraq withdrawal depends on answer

All U.S. forces will leave Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011, but how that withdrawal will happen is still being negotiated by Iraqi and American officials, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Tuesday. | 12/23/08 18:01:00 By - Adam Ashton and Laith Hammoudi

Fraud, violence threaten planned Afghan elections

Evidence of fraud and poor security conditions are raising concerns that Afghanistan's presidential elections next fall could be compromised. The country's Independent Elections Commission (IEC) is in the midst of a massive voter registration drive that will continue until early February. | 12/23/08 15:52:00 By - Anand Gopal

Indians condemn media coverage of Mumbai attacks

Emerging from decades of government control and regulation, India's media are quickly evolving into a boisterous, zealous fourth estate, most observers agree. Coverage of the 67-hour Mumbai terrorist attacks, however, has brought unprecedented condemnation, especially of 24-hour television news channels. | 12/23/08 15:52:00 By - Daniel Pepper

Baghdad's silent theaters reflect a cultural darkness

Most of the theaters on Sadoon Street, the strip that housed Baghdad's movie scene before the war, closed because of the violence that made catching a film after dark too dangerous a risk for most people. The theaters that remain have a reputation for playing old American action movies with pornography spliced into some scenes. | 12/23/08 15:41:00 By - Jenan Hussein

Recession slows Mexican immigrants' holiday trips home

Typically, a million Mexicans head south in December loaded down with toys for Christmas. At home, they receive a hero's welcome for their hard labor and largesse. This year, however, with an economic recession, drug war and tougher border enforcement, fewer cars are rolling across the border with less bounty to unload. | 12/23/08 13:36:00 By - Sara Miller Llana

Pentagon sets court date in Cole death penalty case

The Pentagon on Monday set a Jan. 14 arraignment for a Saudi man accused of engineering the 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole, meaning the military will bring the Guantanamo captive before the war court before President Bush leaves office. Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, 43, is now one of six Guantanamo detainees facing military execution, if convicted. | 12/22/08 19:54:50 By - Carol Rosenberg

Iran's unpopular president is favored to win re-election

In many other countries it would be a slam-dunk for the opposition: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is increasingly unpopular, his economic policies are blamed for 30 percent annual inflation and his foreign policy has left the country more isolated than at any time in recent memory. However, this is Iran, where things are never simple. | 12/22/08 17:48:00 By - Warren P. Strobel

Iraqis hope to sue U.S. troops under new accord

The families of three men who were killed last week during a search of a grain warehouse want to press charges against American soldiers under the terms of a new security agreement between the U.S. and Iraq. | 12/22/08 16:06:00 By - Adam Ashton

Iraqi farmers are back in business, and Iraqis love local produce

Mansour Abdul Khadim's mix of winter crops gives every impression of abundance, despite the double threat of drought and violence that has plagued Iraqi agriculture since Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003. Rows of red potatoes and green beans grow together in one lot. Winter wheat sprouts in adjacent fields. Tomatoes for the spring already are incubating in mounds of fertilizer. | 12/20/08 14:26:00 By - Adam Ashton

More Iraqis rally to cause of reporter who threw shoes at Bush

Iraqis in different cities have demonstrated every day this week on behalf of Muntathar al Zaidi, and Friday's rally brought together a handful of politicians, Zaidi's siblings and a mix of protesters from several provinces outside of Baghdad. Even Sunni Muslim leaders are lionizing the Shiite journalist. | 12/19/08 17:58:00 By - Sahar Issa

Did Bush officials commit war crimes? Maybe, but trials aren't likely

Civil libertarians and human rights groups want the incoming Obama administration to investigate whether the Bush administration committed war crimes. They don't just want low-level CIA interrogators, either. They want President George W. Bush on down. But even those who believe top officials broke the law don't think criminal prosecutions are likely. The charges would be too difficult legally and politically to succeed. | 12/19/08 18:00:00 By - Marisa Taylor

Stone thrower-turned-violinist gives Palestinians music, and hope

If no one had handed Ramzi Aburedwan a violin when he was a stone-throwing teenager in a refugee camp, he might've ended up languishing in an Israeli prison cell. Instead, he became the founder of a classical music school that's become a cornerstone for a West Bank cultural revival. | 12/19/08 16:44:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum

Gates orders development of plans to close Guantanamo

The Defense Department is drawing up plans to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison in anticipation that one of President-elect Barack Obama's first acts will be ordering the closure of the detention center associated with the abuse of terror suspects. | 12/18/08 18:46:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay and Margaret Talev

Drug traffickers threaten school kids in Ciudad Juarez if parents don't pay up

For months, residents of Mexico's Ciudad Juarez have shuttered their windows and stayed in at night. But now many sense that even the most basic daily activities — taking their children to school, going to work, even walking down the street — are dangerous. Attacks on children are a new low. | 12/18/08 18:41:21 By - Sara Miller Llana

Iraqi government plays down arrests of 23 police officers

Twenty-three mostly low-ranking police and security officials were detained this week as part of an investigation into attempts to revive Saddam Hussein's banned Baath Party, government officials said Thursday. | 12/18/08 18:23:00 By - Hussein Kadhim

Mass graves still unguarded as U.S., U.N., Afghans duck task

A week after the revelation that bulldozers had obliterated a mass grave site that held up to 2,000 bodies in Afghanistan, the location remains unprotected, the United Nations hasn't released its own investigation and the warlord who's accused of the exhumation is comfortably lodged just down the street from a Starbucks in Turkey's capital. | 12/18/08 17:22:00 By - Tom Lasseter

What's it like to be a pirate? In dirt-poor Somalia, pretty good

Nothing comes easily in one of the poorest and most unstable countries on Earth, and when you consider the dearth of career options for Somalis on land, a pirate's life starts to look more than cushy by comparison. "Is there any Somali who can earn a million dollars for any business? We get millions of dollars easily for one attack," bragged Salah Ali Samatar, a 32-year-old pirate who spoke by phone from Eyl, a pirate den on Somalia's desolate northern coast. | 12/18/08 13:10:00 By - Shashank Bengali

Treasury says New York firm is a front for Iranian bank

The Treasury Department said Assa Corp. was really a straw company Iran's Bank Melli had established in order to hold an ownership stake in prime real estate. The acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York filed a civil complaint seeking forfeiture of Assa's 40 percent ownership in a 36-story building on Fifth Avenue near Rockefeller Center. | 12/17/08 20:02:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Did the shoe cause rebellion at Baghdad's July 14 Bridge?

In the many times that I have been at the square that leads to the July 14 Bridge and the Green Zone, I had never seen anyone object to soldiers closing off the road whle a convoy of some official passes by. But Wednesday was different. The drivers refused to stop, even when the soldiers pointed their rifles at them. Did Muntathar al Zaidi's shoe-throwing cause this? | 12/17/08 18:30:14 By - Mohammed al Dulaimy

Kabul residents have more fear of gangs than of Taliban

Ghulam Farooq Hussainkhel lives on the outskirts of the Afghan capital in the latest district to fall under Taliban influence. A teacher, Hussainkhel moved to last year from a neighboring district after surviving three Taliban assassination attempts for opening two girls' schools. Vut it isn't the Taliban that poses the biggest security threat, he said. | 12/17/08 15:02:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

VIDEO REPORT. Part 4: Should the Iraqis be afraid of Obama?

Leila Fadel, McClatchy's bureau chief in Baghdad, talks about why the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki might find it unsettling to have Barack Obama in the White House after years of unconditional support from George W. Bush. | 12/17/08 13:34:21 By -

U.S. troops confront Iraqis rallying in favor of shoe-thrower

U.S. troops in Fallujah reportedly fired over the heads of demonstrators rallying in favor of the Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at President Bush. The journalist appeared before an Iraqi investigative judge Wednesday and was told he'll face charges of attacking a head of state. | 12/17/08 11:04:00 By - Jenan Hussein and Laith Hammoudi

Shoe-throwing reporter a hero to some Iraqi colleagues

In the U.S., hurling an object at another country's visiting leader wouldn't earn a journalist much respect among his peers. In Iraq, television journalist Muntathar al Zaidi is somewhere between a hero and an outcast after he threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during a news conference Sunday. | 12/16/08 18:24:00 By - Jenan Hussein and Adam Ashton

Surveillance culture sneaks up on Europe, despite resistance

Despite the fact that fascism and repressive state security services dominated Europe — East and West — at different points in the 20th century, a new culture of surveillance is spreading, slowly, across the region again, using tools that the Nazis and the KGB never had. | 12/16/08 17:50:00 By - Julie Sell

Despite sagging economy, plastic surgery booms in Venezuela

Venezuelan businesses are battening down the hatches in anticipation of a tough 2009. Not plastic surgeons such as Dr. Peter Romer, however. | 12/16/08 16:30:00 By - Tyler Bridges

Energy efficient home, easy to maintain — and no mortgage

Like millions of other Chinese, Li Zhanjun lives in a dwelling that is fireproof, noise proof, warm in winter, cool in summer and the epitome of an eco-friendly design. Moreover, it's cheap. Li lives in a cave. | 12/16/08 16:03:00 By - Tim Johnson

In Mexico, kidnapping spirals out of control

In a troubling sign of the growing sophistication and daring of kidnapping gangs in Mexico, gunmen have abducted an American anti-kidnapping expert in the northern state of Coahuila. | 12/16/08 13:01:00 By - Sara Miller Llana

VIDEO REPORT, Part 3: Iraq's provincial vote will pit Shiite vs. Shiite

Leila Fadel, McClatchy's Baghdad bureau chief, discusses the political landscape as Iraqis prepare for provincial elections at the end of January. | 12/16/08 14:41:50 By -

Groups ask U.S., NATO to help secure Afghanistan gravesite

A human rights group Monday called on the commander of U.S. and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan to assist the United Nations in securing a mass grave site from which the remains of as many as 2,000 suspected Taliban and al Qaida fighters appear to have been removed. | 12/15/08 19:44:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay

Bush shoe incident caught Secret Service flatfooted

Although the Secret Service put everyone who attended President George W. Bush's Baghdad news conference through several layers of security Sunday, the agency appeared to be caught off guard when an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the president. Agents were forced to the side of the room, which was so crowded that Iraqi journalists added a chair to the front row, then crammed in two additional bodies. There was no room for Army Gen. Ray Odierno's security detail either. | 12/15/08 18:56:00 By - Greg Gordon and Adam Ashton

West prods Pakistan on anti-terror fight — with aid

When British Prime Minister Gordon Brown stated unequivocally Sunday that Pakistani militants were behind the Nov. 26 attacks in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, standing beside him, conspicuously did not concur. | 12/15/08 17:59:00 By - Mark Sappenfield and Shahan Mufti

Afghan hopes to split insurgency

The Afghan government and its allies are reconciling with moderates and isolating hard-liners in a bid to split the insurgency, Western and Afghan officials say. The idea of wooing moderates has gained traction as violence in Afghanistan has reached record levels this year. The United States and NATO are reassessing their strategy amid a growing chorus of Western officials who say that the international effort here is failing. | 12/15/08 17:59:00 By - Anand Gopal

Iraqis doubt U.S. can, or will, honor withdrawal dates

The deadlines sound clear enough in the security agreement: U.S. combat troops must be out of Iraqi urban areas by June, and all Americans should withdraw from the country by Dec. 31, 2011. However, those deadlines have appeared anything but firm to Iraqis over the past week | 12/15/08 17:05:00 By - Adam Ashton

New Guantanamo chief judge warns of change with Obama

Army Col. James Pohl, who presided over the courts martial of several guards in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, was named the new chief judge for military commissions at Guantanamo on Monday. He warned participants there that while Obama might change military commissions, they need to remain focused on what they are doing for now. | 12/15/08 17:14:45 By - Carol Rosenberg

Should ground troops hunt pirates in Somalia?

A Bush administration proposal to allow foreign forces to go ashore into Somalia to hunt the country's notorious pirates is getting a cool reception from U.S. military leaders, regional analysts and some Somali officials. | 12/15/08 15:24:00 By - Shashank Bengali

Is Fidel Castro still in control?

Although Raul Castro was declared the new Cuban leader in February, Fidel Castro may not have stepped down completely. Fidel was supposed to remain as a consultant on matters of national defense, foreign policy and the island's economy. But according to reports by a Cuban government official who asked to remain anonymous, Fidel has retained a great deal more control than what has been apparent. | 12/15/08 06:57:32 By - WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA

Bush flies to Afghanistan for second surprise military visit

President Bush made a surprise visit to Afghanistan's capital Monday, where he rallied troops even as he acknowledged that violence is rising. "No question violence is up" and it's going to worsen, Bush told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One before landing at Bagram Air Base, where he held a rally for U.S. soldiers and Marines stationed there. | 12/14/08 23:17:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Bush flies to Afghanistan for second surprise military visit

President Bush made a surprise visit to Afghanistan's capital Monday, where he rallied troops even as he acknowledged that violence is rising. "No question violence is up" and it's going to worsen, Bush told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One before landing at Bagram Air Base, where he held a rally for U.S. soldiers and Marines stationed there. | 12/14/08 22:59:01 By - Nancy A. Youssef

With elections in February, Israel searching for its Obama

While U.S. Sen. Barack Obama was running for president, Israeli pundits publicly fretted that he was too green, too liberal and too naive to capably navigate diplomatic quagmires in the Middle East. Now, Israeli politicians can't get enough of the president-elect and are doing everything they can to wrap themselves in the Obama mystique ahead of February elections. | 12/14/08 15:03:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum

Iraqi who threw shoes covered U.S. bombing of Shiite area

Friends said that the Iraqi television journalist who hurled two shoes at President Bush on Sunday during a joint news conference Bush was holding with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki had been deeply affected by the carnage he saw earlier this year when U.S. aircraft bombed Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. The journalist was wrestled to the ground and detained. Bush was unhurt. | 12/14/08 13:22:28 By - Adam Ashton and Mohammed al Dulaimy

Raul Castro's visit with Chavez shows Cuba's need for oil

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Raul Castro signed a series of bilateral accords Saturday as Castro made his first trip outside of Cuba since he assumed Cuba's presidency. The visit underscored Cuba's dependency on Venezuela's oil — and Castro's hunt for other sources. | 12/13/08 18:06:00 By - Tyler Bridges

Cuba at 50: Has a half-century of revolution improved lives?

As the Jan. 1 anniversary of the Cuban revolution's triumph approaches, many of the social welfare achievements that were the trophies of the communist regime have rusted, beset by years of failed economic policy, waves of mass exodus, and Cuba's inability to recover from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Still, the revolution that ousted Fulgencio Batista remains one of the Western Hemisphere's most significant events of the last century. | 12/13/08 17:15:09 By - Frances Robles

Raul Castro arrives in Venezuela for talks with Chavez

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez greeted Cuban President Raul Castro with an effusive hug and military honors Saturday morning as the Cuban leader began his first trip abroad since officially replacing his ailing brother Fidel in February. | 12/13/08 13:25:00 By - Tyler Bridges

Raul Castro arrives in Venezuela for talks with Hugo Chavez

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez greeted Cuban President Raul Castro with an effusive hug and military honors Saturday morning as the Cuban leader began his first trip abroad since officially replacing his ailing brother Fidel in February. | 12/13/08 11:56:49 By - Tyler Bridges

U.N.: Afghan graves disturbed; physicians demand probe

Physicians for Human Rights Friday demanded an investigation in both Afghanistan and the U.S. of a McClatchy news report that a U.S.-allied warlord may have removed evidence from a mass gravesite in northern Afghanistan. The gravesite, which might have held as many as 2,000 bodies, was dug up during the past year and the bodies removed. | 12/12/08 20:40:00 By - Tom Lasseter

Ecuador president refuses to pay down 'illegal' foreign debt

CARACAS, Venezuela — Latin America got a bad dose of economic news Friday when Ecuador announced that it would default on an upcoming foreign debt payment. | 12/12/08 19:49:00 By - Tyler Bridges

Shift in Cuba policy anticipated under Obama

Throughout his campaign, President-elect Barack Obama said that he'd loosen some restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba and rebuild the already slight ties to the communist nation cut by the Bush administration. With an Obama government soon to become reality, many in the U.S. capital are pushing for much more. | 12/12/08 18:15:00 By - Jack Chang

Human rights group calls for probe of mass grave's removal

Physicians for Human Rights called Friday for the Afghanistan and United States governments to investigate the removal of perhaps as many as 2,000 bodies from a mass grave in Dasht-e-Leili, Afghanistan. McClatchy reported Thursday that men allegedly reporting to Afghan warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum had dug up the site. | 12/12/08 17:10:55 By -

Human rights inquiry set for warehoused Asians in Iraq

The U.S. military and defense contractor KBR are investigating possible human-rights abuses at a compound near the Baghdad airport where, McClatchy and The Times of London revealed last week, a Kuwaiti company housed about 1,000 Asian men it recruited for jobs in Iraq that didn't materialize. | 12/12/08 15:42:00 By - Adam Ashton

Venezuela's 'rock star' maestro brings China to its feet

When he was six or seven years old, Gustavo Dudamel used to set up an imaginary symphony made up of toy figures, put Tchaikovsky on the family stereo, pump up the volume and swing an imaginary baton, conducting with childhood abandon. Now, he's traveling across Asia with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, and next year, he'll become the leader of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It's success Dudamel credits to Venezuela's network of youth orchestras. | 12/12/08 15:17:00 By - Tim Johnson

Iraq official says U.S. troops might be needed for a decade

The assertion by Ali al Dabbagh, Iraq's official government spokesman, in Washington set off a clamor in Baghdad and undermines Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's pledge that the agreement will end the presence of American forces in his country by the beginning of 2012. The pact faces a popular referendum in the summer. | 12/12/08 11:02:00 By - Adam Ashton

Bombing at posh Kirkuk restaurant kills 47, injures more

A suicide attack at a posh restaurant in the northern city of Kirkuk on Thursday killed 47 people and injured more than 100, shattering a calm that had settled over Iraq during the four-day Eid al Adha holiday. | 12/11/08 19:33:18 By - Yaseen Taha and Adam Ashton

Cuba's Raul Castro to visit Venezuela on Saturday

In announcing the visit on Wednesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez likened the visit of Cuba's current president, Raul Castro, to his brother Fidel's visit in 1959. "Raul is going to repeat history," Chavez said. But Raul isn't Fidel — and his relationship with Chavez isn't as close as his older brother's is. | 12/11/08 18:56:00 By - Sara Miller Llana and Tyler Bridges

Pakistan arrests head of group linked to Mumbai killings

The arrest of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed on Thursday and the closing of the offices of his organization, Jamaat ud Dawa, was Pakistan's reaction to a United Nations Security Council decision late Wednesday to put the group and Saeed on its terrorist watch list. The move risks a violent backlash, but may help to ease the enormous international pressure on Islamabad to clamp down. | 12/11/08 19:03:00 By - Saeed Shah

As possible Afghan war-crimes evidence removed, U.S. silent

Seven years ago, hundreds of suspected Taliban and Al Qaida prisoners who'd surrendered to Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, a key U.S. ally, were found dead in the shipping containers they'd been confined to. Now Dostum's forces have emptied the mass graves where the men were buried and spirited away their corpses, the only evidence of what happened. No one — not the U.S., the United Nations or NATO — has complained about what is a major violation of international law. | 12/11/08 17:39:00 By - Tom Lasseter

Afghan warlord Dostum is 'everyone's friend'

The name Dostum means "everyone's friend," and in a certain sense that sums up the political career of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum: from Soviet-supported militia leader during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan to close ally of the United States after 9-11. | 12/11/08 17:37:00 By - Tom Lasseter

With oil prices falling, Iran's good times are almost over

Visiting a mall full of high-end electronics shops in the Iranian capital one recent day, printing shop owner Mohammad Torabi was in the market for surveillance cameras to protect his property. He expressed satisfaction at the selection: stack after stack of Asian-made close-circuit TV cameras designed to work in daylight or darkness. | 12/11/08 16:33:00 By - Warren P. Strobel

VIDEO REPORT, Part 2: How Iraqis view the surge

McClatchy Baghdad Bureau Chief Leila Fadel talks about the surge and how Iraqis view it in the second part of here interview with Paul Jay of the Real News. | 12/11/08 14:26:40 By -

Group blamed for Mumbai attack also operating in Mideast

A U.N. document obtained by McClatchy said that Lashkar-e-Taiba has sent operatives to attack U.S. troops in Iraq, established a branch in Saudi Arabia and been raising funds in Europe. The group may also have received money from al Qaida, suggesting that it has close ties with Osama bin Laden's terrorist network along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, the document said. | 12/10/08 21:14:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay

Report faults U.S. pilots, Brazilian controllers for midair collision

Brazilian investigators released a final report Wednesday that blamed two U.S. pilots and Brazilian air traffic controllers for causing a freak midair collision that killed 154 people over the Amazon rainforest two years ago. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, which participated in the investigation, criticized the report for not focusing enough on air traffic controllers. | 12/10/08 20:23:00 By - Jack Chang

This year's death toll in Mexico's drug war is double 2007's

Thursday marks two years since President Enrique Calderon launched "Operation Michoacan," the first of a sustained series of high-profile deployments of soldiers across the country to fight drug trafficking. Last year was the deadliest year in modern Mexico, and this year has been far worse. Is that what victory looks like? | 12/10/08 17:24:00 By - Sara Miller Llana

India says Pakistan must sustain resolve

For a world eager to see India and Pakistan climb down from a standoff that has included the threat of war between nuclear-armed rivals, India has one request: Wait and see. | 12/10/08 17:18:00 By - Mark Sappenfield

Prices for sacrificial lambs skyrocket as Iraqis honor dead

The sheep markets looked different this year: They were packed with customers buying animals to sacrifice in memory of recently lost relatives, but many people went home empty-handed due to the enormous demand and steeply rising prices. | 12/10/08 17:17:00 By - Jenan Hussein and Adam Ashton

U.S. forces mistakenly kill 6 Afghan policemen

U.S. forces mistakenly killed six Afghan national policemen and wounded 13 others during an early morning raid Wednesday on a suspected Taliban leader, U.S. forces here said. | 12/10/08 16:02:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

China offers discounted appliances to prime its economy

A broad smile broke across Zeng Yalan's face as she perused the price tags on washing machines in a store in this farming town in northern China. "The price is good. It's cheap," she pronounced. | 12/10/08 14:22:00 By - Tim Johnson

VIDEO REPORT, Part 1: Iraqis suspicious of U.S. troop accord

McClatchy Baghdad Bureau Chief Leila Fadel talks about the implications of the U.S.-Iraq troop agreement signed last month. | 12/10/08 13:35:02 By -

Cuban police beat activists on eve of human rights protest

On the eve of the 60th anniversary Wednesday of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a day when Cuban dissidents traditionally gather for protest marches, Belinda Salas, a leading Cuban activist, was beaten by Cuban police, she said via telephone from Havana. | 12/10/08 11:57:00 By - Sara Miller Llana

Pakistan has made a start but must do more, U.S. says

A senior State Department official said that a series of Pakistani raids on bases of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamic militant group that's accused of mounting the Mumbai attacks, were the start of a "credible effort" by the Pakistan government to crack down on those responsible. Washington, however, thinks that Pakistan will have to do much more. | 12/09/08 20:27:00 By - Saeed Shah and Jonathan S. Landay

Pentagon ignored danger of roadside bombs, report finds

The military ignored steps before the invasion of Iraq that could have prevented the staggering number of casualties from roadside bombs, the Pentagon's acting inspector general charged Tuesday. The IG's report says that the military knew years before the war that mines and homemade bombs " would be a "threat . . . in low-intensity conflicts." | 12/09/08 19:39:32 By - David Goldstein

VIDEO REPORT: Pakistan under pressure over terrorists

India has demanded the return of fugitive terrorists inside Pakistan, and McClatchy's Saeed Shah explains how he tracked down the village where the surviving Mumbai attacker lived. | 12/09/08 08:10:57 By -

India discloses hometowns, names of alleged Mumbai killers

Indian officials released the names and hometowns of all 10 suspected Mumbai attackers Tuesday, saying it has pinpointed them even to individual postal codes within Pakistan. | 12/09/08 18:15:00 By - Mark Sappenfield

With violence down, Iraqis travel for big religious holiday

BAGHDAD — For the past few years, Nawal Abdulla Hadi of Baghdad couldn't travel to see her family for the Eid al Adha, giving up the traditional reunion during the annual Muslim holiday because the roads weren't safe. | 12/09/08 16:53:00 By - Adam Ashton

U.S. resumes deportations to Haiti

U.S. immigration authorities have resumed deportations to Haiti, ending a three-month-plus reprieve of sending Haitians back to their storm-battered country. | 12/09/08 07:07:26 By - Trenton Daniel

Future of U.S.-Iraq relations? Teamwork

The role of the U.S. military in Iraq over the next year could look a lot like the scene of a joint U.S.-Iraqi military patrol in a northwest Baghdad rail yard this weekend. Iraqi police talked with property owners, broke locks and led the way through about 40 buildings at the compound. The Americans followed with tools the Iraqis lacked, such as bomb-sniffing dogs and an explosives team. | 12/08/08 19:15:33 By - Adam Ashton

Mexicans fear Detroit's woes will soon become theirs

As Detroit pleads with lawmakers for a bailout package, Mexico is watching closely, keenly aware that failure of the Big Three to stave off bankruptcy could devastate auto workers south of the border - and reenergize the northward flow of illegal migrants. | 12/08/08 17:43:00 By - Sara Miller Llana

Blackwater indictment details chaos at busy Baghdad circle

The 35-count indictment unsealed Monday of five Blackwater Worldwide security guards on manslaughter charges for the September 16, 2007, shooting deaths of at least 14 Iraq civilians at al Nisoor Square in Baghdad, along with the guilty-plea agreement of sixth Blackwater employee, provide the first official account of what took place that day. | 12/08/08 15:24:57 By -

Mohammed, four others offer confessions to 9/11 attacks

Confessed al Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his four 9/11 accused co-plotters offered to plead guilty Monday to orchestrating the 9/11 attacks, a move that may leave President-elect Barack Obama to decide whether to execute them. | 12/08/08 10:43:20 By - Carol Rosenberg

Mystery phone call put Pakistan and India on the brink of war

A mysterious night-time telephone call last week brought nuclear-armed India and Pakistan close to the brink of war at the height of the crisis over the Mumbai terror attacks. The "threatening" call, ostensibly from Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, left Pakistani President Asif Zardari thinking India was about to attack and led him to put Pakistan's armed forces on high alert. | 12/07/08 18:11:00 By - Saeed Shah

After Israel objects, Qatar gives up plan for Gaza shipment

Hours before a Qatar aid group was scheduled to board a boat Thursday with $2 million in cancer medication for Gaza, its eladers abruptly pulled out of the trip. Israel had been pressing Qatar to cancel the trip, organized to ease the desperate circumstances of the 1.5 million Gaza Palestinians who've been isolated by an Israeli blockade. | 12/07/08 16:17:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum

Villagers confirm surviving Mumbai killer is Pakistani

The lone gunman captured alive by Indian police during last week's terrorist attack on Mumbai comes from a dirt-poor village in Pakistan's southern Punjab region where a banned Islamist group has been actively recruiting young men for "jihad," according to residents of the village and official records seen by McClatchy Newspapers. | 12/07/08 13:14:00 By - Saeed Shah

Indians fear suicide attempt by captured terror suspect

Ajmal Amir Kasab wants to die, and police are taking extraordinary measures to make sure the only alleged assailant captured alive after last week's terror shootings in Mumbai stays alive, the newspaper Mumbai Mirror reported. | 12/06/08 19:28:00 By - Padma Rao Sundarji

Iran to Obama: Show us the change

Obama's pledge to talk to Iran without preconditions has raised a mixture of hope, skepticism and even apprehension among Iranians. The government is divided over how to respond while most average Iranians openly yearn for improved relations. What they all agree on is it will be up to Obama to make the first move. | 12/05/08 17:27:00 By - Warren P. Strobel

Supreme Court takes up another challenge to Bush terror strategy

In another landmark challenge to the Bush administration's war-on-terror strategy, the Supreme Court agreed to decide if the administration overstepped its authority when it arrested Ali Saleh Kahlah al Marri inside the United States and ordered him held indefinitely as an enemy combatant without charging him with a crime. | 12/05/08 17:04:00 By - Michael Doyle

It must be '1984': 'Big Brother' snoops and Britons don't mind

In an era when security is the top concern for officials in many countries — reinforced by November's deadly attacks in Mumbai — it takes a lot to be labeled "the most surveilled democracy in the world." In the case of Britain, the label is not necessarily meant as a compliment. Some — including the European Court of Human Rights — fear that the snooping has run amok. | 12/05/08 16:06:00 By - Julie Sell

Reporter reflects: 'Their grief is my last remembrance of Iraq'

For all the stories of reduced violence and political and social successes there, Iraq remains, for the most part, a devastated country. It's OK to revel in what's been achieved, but only for a moment. Because the real story of Iraq, the one that deserves thoughtful attention, is about everything that's still left to accomplish there. | 12/05/08 15:12:00 By - Corinne Reilly

Video report: Canada shuts parliament to block PM's ouster

| 12/05/08 13:59:27 By - The Real News Network

Is Pakistan campus educating students — or cultivating terrorists?

At first sight, it could be the campus of a tony boarding school, with neatly trimmed lawns and earnest young students walking between classes. The government of India, however, says the site, just outside the eastern city of Lahore, is the headquarters of the terrorist group that's responsible for last week's Mumbai carnage. Welcome to what many say is the headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba. | 12/04/08 18:59:00 By - Saeed Shah

Public anger makes India-Pakistan compromise hard

In Pakistan and India, old suspicions have reemerged after the Mumbai attacks, and there are signs that public anger on each side of the border is shaping diplomacy. The political posturing threatens to polarize the situation further, imperiling four years of steady progress between the two nations. | 12/04/08 19:07:47 By - Mark Sappenfield and Huma Yusuf

Warehoused Asian workers in Iraq will be sent home

Asian men who've been living in warehouses near the Baghdad airport while awaiting promised jobs with a military subcontractor now are in line to be sent home, and they're still not sure how they'll be paid for their time in Iraq. | 12/04/08 17:09:00 By - Adam Ashton

Activists try to break through Israel's blockade of Gaza

International activists and sympathetic nations are challenging Israel's economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, now ruled by the militant Islamic group Hamas, by sending aid ships to replenish supplies that used to come through Israel. | 12/04/08 16:55:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum

Tonga, most other coalition countries leaving Iraq

The Tongan marines left with a song, their vowel-rich war choruses echoing in the marble halls of a palace built for Saddam Hussein but now occupied by the U.S. military. | 12/04/08 16:46:00 By - Adam Ashton

With violence soaring, Mexico looks for help from its army

Even for Mexicans accustomed to ghastly drug-related violence, last weekend in Tijuana was overwhelming: Nearly 40 people were killed, four of whom were children, and nine of them beheaded. The immediate answer by city officials was to replace Tijuana's public security chief with an Army officer. That's been the trend for the past two years. | 12/04/08 16:10:57 By - Sara Miller Llana

Obama administration may portend shift in trade policy

U.S. trade strategy probably will change dramatically when the Obama administration and new Congress take power in January, with U.S. negotiators forgoing the kinds of bilateral free-trade agreements popular with the Bush administration, according to Democratic officials and experts. | 12/04/08 15:26:00 By - Jack Chang

Unpaid Zimbabwe soldiers loot markets for food

Army soldiers rampaged through the capital, Harare, after hearing that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe would be unable to print enough currency to pay their daily wages. Hundreds of soldiers took their anger out on street vendors, looting the markets for food and other goods. Combined with the rampant spread of cholera, the regime of President Robert Mugabe appears to be imploding. | 12/04/08 14:34:00 By - Scott Baldauf

India's lack of preparedness raised Mumbai death toll

It took 10 minutes for word of the Nov. 26, Mumbai terror assaults to reach the top of the government of Maharashtra state, but nearly 10 hours for India's best commando team to reach the scene. That delay helps explain why it took three days for India's security forces to overpower 10 assailants who killed at least 188 people. | 12/03/08 20:39:00 By - Padma Rao Sundarji

Radical Jewish settlers threaten to fight Israeli army

Israeli activists such as Ben Gvir are embracing an even more confrontational strategy called the "Price Tag." Its concept is straightforward: If the Israeli government tries to forcibly remove any settlers from the West Bank, settlers should hit back. Hard. | 12/03/08 16:58:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum

U.S. urges India to hold back, Pakistan to crack down

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought Wednesday to head off Indian retaliation against Pakistan for the Mumbai terrorist attacks as the United States stepped up pressure on Islamabad to cooperate "transparently, urgently and fully" in tracking down the perpetrators. | 12/03/08 16:36:18 By - Padma Rao Sundarji and Jonathan S. Landay

Will the Mumbai attacks inspire copycats?

Sixty hours in Mumbai have begun to change the calculus of global terrorism. New reports suggest that both Indian and American intelligence agencies had foreseen the threat to Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Yet the manner of the attack — with 10 heavily armed, highly trained fighters clinically fanning out across the city — meant that no "police force anywhere would have been prepared to counter this type of operation," says Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism analyst at Georgetown University in Washington. | 12/03/08 07:43:57 By - MARK SAPPENFIELD

Military contractor in Iraq holds foreign workers in warehouses

About 1,000 Asian men hired by a Kuwaiti subcontractor to the U.S. military have been confined as virtual prisoners in windowless warehouses near the Baghdad airport, many for as long as three months. Najlaa International Catering Services, a subcontractor to KBR, the Texas-based former subsidiary of Halliburton, hired the men for contracts that fell through. | 12/02/08 21:22:34 By - Adam Ashton

American alleges torture in UAE detention

A Muslim American contends that he was tortured and beaten into confessing to a terrorism-related charge while the security services of the United Arab Emirates held him for nearly three months, allegedly at the U.S. government's request, his brother said Tuesday. | 12/02/08 19:20:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay

India demands Pakistan hand over fugitives, testing pledge

India demanded Tuesday that Islamabad hand over 20 fugitives it says have taken refuge in Pakistan, in an escalation of the confrontation between the two countries in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks. Among those wanted: Mumbai underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. | 12/02/08 19:01:00 By - Saeed Shah and Jonathan S. Landay

Chavez wants to be president for life, seeks voter approval

Chavez, who's denounced capitalism, nationalized companies and taken an unfriendly television station off the air, began this week to campaign for a constitutional amendment that will let him seek re-election in 2012 and every six years thereafter. "The opposition will not stop our revolution!" Chavez told hundreds of supporters Tuesday. | 12/02/08 18:36:00 By - Tyler Bridges

As Israel buries its Mumbai victims, accusations simmer

Scores of mourners in black hats and coats converged on the Mount of Olives graveyard as Israelis here and across the country buried six Jews killed in last week's Mumbai siege that claimed at least 173 lives. | 12/02/08 17:00:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum

Chinese anger at France unravels relations with Europe

Relations between China and Europe have frayed suddenly, and a caustic diplomatic row has given way to suggestions that China is again targeting France as a favored whipping boy. | 12/02/08 14:54:00 By - Tim Johnson

Chinese anger at France unravels relations with Europe

Relations between China and Europe have frayed suddenly, and a caustic diplomatic row has given way to suggestions that China is again targeting France as a favored whipping boy. | 12/02/08 15:33:14 By - Tim Johnson

With eye on the U.S., Russia resists Venezuela's wooing

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez could hardly contain his enthusiasm as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and four Russian warships began historic visits to the Caribbean nation last week. But Russian officials seemed bent on keeping the encounter distant enough that it wouldn't antagonize the United States, Chavez's nemesis. | 12/01/08 19:52:00 By - Tyler Bridges

Search for Mumbai gunman's roots only deepens mystery

For the past three days Pakistani intelligence agents and police have been combing the sleepy village of Faridkot in search of clues to the identity of the lone gunman captured in the Mumbai terror attacks. But residents on Monday said they're bewildered and alarmed. There's no one with the gunman's supposed surname in the village, and no missing resident who fits the pictures shown on Indian TV. | 12/01/08 17:49:00 By - Saeed Shah

Dozens killed, scores wounded in spate of Iraq attacks

As many as 38 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded Monday in multiple attacks across Iraq, including one in which a man detonated a suicide vest near a convoy of coalition vehicles in Mosul, killing up to 16. | 12/01/08 17:32:00 By - Laith Hammoudi

U.S. tamps down claims of Pakistan role in Mumbai attack

The Bush administration, anxious to defuse dangerous tensions after India charged that there was a Pakistani link to the Mumbai terrorist attack, said Monday that it had no indication of Pakistani government involvement. | 12/01/08 15:11:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay

Life gets worse for Haiti's hungry children

The slow road to death runs high above the scenic coastline, past the crumbled bridges and buried rivers. It traverses a jagged trail passing green slopes and red fertile dirt before arriving here: an isolated mountain village where little Haitian girls dream of eating rice and the doctor is a three-hour walk away. | 12/01/08 07:03:06 By - Jacqueline Charles

Will India-Pakistan tensions hurt fight against al Qaida?

Pakistan warned over the weekend that it will divert troops fighting the Taliban and al Qaida on its western border with Afghanistan to its eastern frontier with India if tensions continue to rise over the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Washington may be forced to mediate as Indian officials declared that their country was being put on a virtual war footing. | 11/30/08 18:35:52 By - Saed Shah

Iraq, with U.N. help, seeks to improve elections

There's big change coming to the ballot in Iraq's January provincial elections: This time, candidates names will appear on the ballot instead of lists of political parties. Iraq concealed the identities of candidates in the 2005 election as a safety measure. Security has improved significantly since then -- though elections can still be a dangerous for candidates and election workers. | 11/30/08 16:52:29 By - Adam Ashton

With economy souring, illegal immigrants going home

Malaquias Gaspar left his farm village in southern Mexico when the economy soured in the mid-1990s. He headed north illegally and found the proverbial better opportunity in South Florida, where he made a decent living by picking fruit and building homes. But the U.S. economic crisis has disrupted his life and the lives of countless other illegal immigrants who are now planning to leave or have already left. | 11/30/08 08:42:23 By - Alfonso Chardy

Iraq's religious leaders criticize security agreement

Influential religious leaders across Iraq are voicing reservations about a U.S.-Iraq security agreement that allows Americans to remain in the country for another three years. Their comments filtered out Saturday as Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki met with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of multinational forces in Iraq, to plan for the treaty's implementation. | 11/29/08 15:51:00 By - Adam Ashton

Mumbai attacks inflame India-Pakistan tensions

India on Friday charged that militants with links to Pakistan were involved in the terrorist attack on major tourist sites in Mumbai, in which more than 160 civilians died. Pakistan denied the allegations. The rapidly rising tensions could scuttle a tentative peace process between the two nuclear-armed countries and even lead to a military confrontation, and some experts said they thought this might've been the aim of the terror operation. | 11/28/08 18:35:00 By - Saeed Shah

With Iraqi parliament approving pact, Maliki's stature grows

In a country where agreements are hard to reach, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki built a broad political coalition to muscle through a divisive U.S.-Iraq security pact that could set his place in his nation’s history as the man who ended the American occupation. | 11/27/08 18:10:37 By - Adam Ashton

Weird ending to Russian president's first Venezuela visit

A strange thing happened last week moments after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez boarded a Russian destroyer. Bodyguards for the two men scuffled at the head of the gangplank. It lasted less than a minute, and it didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the two leaders. But the tussle suggested the difficulties in establishing deep ties between the two nations. | 11/27/08 17:57:44 By - Tyler Bridges

Iraqi parliament approves pact to end U.S. occupation

A resounding majority of Iraqi parliament members on Thursday approved a security pact that calls for an end to the U.S. occupation by 2012, giving the measure a mandate of national unity that was considered critical for its long-term success. | 11/27/08 12:37:01 By - Adam Ashton

Iraqi parliament delays troop pact vote over unrelated issues

The security pact, which sets the end of 2011 for U.S. withdrawal, likely has enough pledged votes to pass, but the government is trying to come up with policy pledges that will persuade a bloc of Sunni Muslim lawmakers to vote for the pact. Sunni backing would demonstrate national support for the agreement. | 11/26/08 17:10:00 By - Adam Ashton

China calls Tibet youth group 'worse than bin Laden'

The wildly different views of the Tibetan Youth Congress underscore the chasm over Tibet. On the streets of China's large cities, ordinary citizens consider government charges against the Tibetan Youth Congress as obvious fact, and look upon those who question them as concealing a general bias toward China. For their part, Tibetans see the charges as weird and fanciful. | 11/26/08 15:26:00 By - Tim Johnson

Iraq's parliament puts off vote on U.S. troop accord

Iraq's parliament was expected to vote today on a U.S.-Iraq security pact that calls for the withdrawal of American forces within the next three years. But parliament put the vote off until Thursday as legislative leaders worked to find a compromise that would set a national referendum on the issue for next year. | 11/26/08 12:29:55 By - Adam Ashton

U.S. staying silent on its view of Iraq pact until after vote

U.S. officials disagree with the Iraqi interpretation of key elements of the Iraq-U.S. agreement that sets a deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq. But they've kept silent about those disagreements for fear of upsetting the likely approval Wednesday of the accord in the Iraqi parliament. | 11/26/08 08:36:27 By - Adam Ashton, Jonathan S. Landay and Nancy A. Youssef

Hamdan, bin Laden's driver, makes it back to Yemen

Salim Hamdan's journey from Guantanamo, where he'd been imprisoned seven years, took 18 hours from the time his plane took off until it's arrival in Sanaa, Yemen's capital. U.S. officials had told him he'd be returning to his homeland for the final month of his sentence three days earlier. ''He was very much in a state of disbelief,'' said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, Hamdan's Pentagon-appointed defense lawyer. | 11/26/08 08:31:05 By - Carol Rosenberg

Candidate for top intelligence post withdraws name

John Brennan, a former senior U.S. intelligence official, withdrew from consideration for a top intelligence post in the new Obama administration amid protests from liberal groups linking him to the Bush administration's "enhanced interrogation" and secret transfers of terrorism suspects to nations that torture prisoners and political opponents. | 11/25/08 19:54:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay

U.S. shrugs as Russian ships, president visit Venezuela

The Russian destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and the nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great traveled two months from their home port near Murmansk, Russia, to reach the Caribbean off Venezuela for what are billed as joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela next week. The Russian president is due in Caracas today. But U.S. officials are unconcerned. | 11/25/08 19:15:00 By - Tyler Bridges

London's new look: outward, upward — and modern

London, Europe's largest city, is in the midst of a physical transformation greater than any it's seen since the post-World War II era. The museums, monuments, cathedrals, and palaces that have lured foreign tourists for centuries are still there, but new developments are changing London's character in significant and controversial ways. | 11/25/08 18:33:00 By - Julie Sell

Bin Laden's driver about to be released from Guantanamo

When Salim Hamdan would be released wasn't certain. 'The Yemeni news agency said he would be released this week, an assertion military officials confirmed. But as of late Monday he remained in custody. Hamdan's legal challenge of his imprisonment caused the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Bush administration's initial plan for war crimes tribunals. He was eventually convicted of aiding a terrorist organization. | 11/25/08 00:03:45 By - Carol Rosenberg

Result of Venezuela's elections: More political turmoil likely

Opponents of President Hugo Chavez captured enough political terrain in Sunday's state and local elections to slow but not stop his grand ambitions to yank Venezuela and Latin America to the left, analysts said on Monday. Chavez, however, remains the country's dominant political figure and is likely to seek a national plebiscite early next year that would let him run for an additional six-year presidential term. | 11/24/08 21:10:00 By - Tyler Bridges

Meet a living Buddha: Young, handsome, with an old soul

Give the magnetic personality and hunky good looks of a rock star to a Tibetan Buddhist monk, and the result might be Gyalwang Karmapa, the third-highest lama in the Tibetan religious firmament. The Karmapa, as he is known, is getting more than his share of attention these days. Some say he may become the leader of Tibetan Buddhists when the Dalai Lama dies. | 11/24/08 17:31:00 By - Tim Johnson

3 bombs kill at least 16 Iraqis in attacks in Baghdad

Three explosions killed at least 16 Iraqis on Monday, including 14 who were in a bus to a government ministry and an Iraqi soldier at a heavily guarded checkpoint leading to the U.S.-controlled International Zone. The checkpoint bombing appeared to be carried out by a mentally unstable woman wearing a suicide vest. | 11/24/08 16:01:57 By - Adam Ashton and Hussein Kadhim

Hugo Chavez allies score big wins in Venezuela elections

President Hugo Chavez's candidates won a majority of the governor's elections in Venezuela on Sunday, winning in 17 of the 22 states. But opposition won in five and metropolitan Caracas, expanding their control in some of the country's most populous areas. Chavez early this morning declared the results a mandate to continue on "the road of socialism." | 11/23/08 18:37:00 By - Tyler Bridges

Dalai Lama urges patience over sputtering China talks on Tibet

The Dalai Lama Sunday said he would not immediately break off talks with China over Tibet's future even though hundreds of his top followers want him to halt what they see as fruitless negotiations. His remarks kept alive the possibility that six-year-long talks between Beijing and his government-in-exile have not utterly broken down. | 11/23/08 14:55:00 By - Tim Johnson

Haitian children severely malnourished

With arms and legs so skinny they look like twigs, 2-year-old Davidson Pierre has to struggle just to sit. So he remains sprawled on his back and stares listlessly at the ceiling. He doesn't smile. He doesn't cry. | 11/23/08 08:13:28 By - Jacqueline Charles

Sunni sheiks air grievances, but will work with Shiite-led government

The meeting was billed as a routine press conference to show off a new government center in this town west of Baghdad — known to Iraqis for the infamous prison as well as for the deep distrust between the Shiite-led central government and the Sunni tribes that reside here. But tribal leaders had something they wanted to say, and they weren't going to follow the day's script. | 11/22/08 16:36:00 By - Adam Ashton

Chavez hopes for big victory in governors', mayors' races

Venezuelans elect mayors and governors Sunday in a key test of President Hugo Chavez's political strength. An overwhelming victory by Chavez's candidates would prompt him to continue pulling Venezuela to the left, analysts said. It would also embolden him to seek public approval early next year to overturn term limits that currently keep him from running for president again in 2012. | 11/22/08 16:18:00 By - Tyler Bridges

Hillary Clinton would bring star power to State Department

She's been a mother, a lawyer and a first lady, an aggrieved wife, a U.S. senator and a nearly victorious candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Now Hillary Clinton appears set to take on a new role: secretary of state. | 11/21/08 19:52:00 By - Warren P. Strobel

Israel's newest bid to isolate Hamas pushes Gaza to crisis

Israel has pushed the Gaza Strip to the brink of a humanitarian crisis by cutting off the supply of most aid, choking off the flow of fuel for Gaza's only power plant and restricting the transfer of most supplies. Beyond that, Israel is barring most diplomats, aid workers and international journalists from going into Gaza — an unprecedented and sweeping ban that's entering its third week. | 11/21/08 14:39:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum

Sadr followers protest Iraqi-U.S. pact in huge rally

Tens of thousands of followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr packed a central Baghdad square Friday, where they protested a U.S.-Iraq security agreement and likened Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to fallen dictator Saddam Hussein. | 11/21/08 10:24:00 By - Adam Ashton

Contractors in Iraq could face charges in earlier incidents

Private security contractors operating in Iraq could face Iraqi prosecution for acts committed when they supposedly had immunity from Iraqi law, U.S. officials said Thursday. | 11/20/08 20:06:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Venezuela's Chavez campaigns for allies in Sunday's elections

On President Hugo Chavez's home turf, some 10,000 people lustily cheered Tuesday night for Julio Cesar Reyes, whom Chavez has branded a "traitor" because he's vying with Chavez's older brother to be the next governor of the state of Barinas. | 11/20/08 17:14:00 By - Tyler Bridges

Almost Jules Verne: U.S. study envisions the future

A new study by the U.S. intelligence community sees the next 20 years as an era of declining U.S. power, an West-to-East shift in wealth, climate change and soaring population. "History tells us that rapid change brings many dangers," it said. The report also projected life-improving technological breakthroughs in energy and other areas. | 11/20/08 16:29:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay

Pirates along African coast send shipping costs soaring

When Somali pirates last weekend seized the Sirius Star, a Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying $100 million worth of oil, they jolted a global shipping industry that's long coped with threats on the high seas. Now, in the face of increasingly bold and frequent pirate attacks off the east coast of Africa, the industry is facing spiraling costs and calling for a more forceful and coordinated response from governments that have sent naval vessels to the region. | 11/20/08 16:38:00 By - Julie Sell

At Tibetan exiles forum, it's debate by day, party by night

Summoned by the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, more than 550 Tibetan exiles from around the globe have descended on this Himalayan hill station this week to debate the future of their homeland, which many see at a crucial juncture. | 11/20/08 15:46:00 By - Tim Johnson

Judge orders release of 5 Guantanamo detainees

A federal judge ordered the speedy release Thursday of five Algerian men held for nearly seven years in Guantanamo Bay prison. One of those ordered released is Lakhdar Boumediene, whose appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court became the underpinning of a 5-4 decision that gave Guantanamo prisoners the right to challenge their detention in court. | 11/20/08 13:46:00 By - Marisa Taylor

More skeptical Congress awaits U.S. trade pacts

The tectonic plates of American trade politics had already shifted slightly when President George W. Bush took a last stab at his economic legacy and appealed to Congress to approve the pending trade agreement with Colombia. | 11/20/08 10:45:15 By - Jane Bussey

Why the U.S. blinked on its troop agreement with Iraq

The Pentagon has welcomed a new accord on U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. But privately, senior officials are criticizing President Bush for giving Iraq more control over U.S. military operations than had ever been contemplated. They blame U.S. negotiators for not understanding how upcoming elections would make Iraqi officials unwilling to compromise. | 11/19/08 19:43:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

U.N.: Bombed Syrian facility had nuclear reactor features

A Syrian facility that Israel bombed last year had similarities to a nuclear reactor and chemically processed uranium particles were found at the site, but a final determination can't be made until Syria provides "the necessary transparency," a new U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency report out Wednesday says. | 11/19/08 18:38:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay

Iraqis doubt security agreement will end U.S. presence

Iraqi and American leaders say that a new security pact will have all U.S. forces and military contractors out of Iraq by 2012, but 14th Ramadan Street is skeptical. | 11/19/08 16:21:00 By - Adam Ashton

As stocks and oil prices fall, Russians worry about the ruble

The value of the ruble is crucial for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who's built much of his reputation on returning financial stability to the nation during his eight years as president. Now the price of oil has fallen to $55 a barrel from a high of $147 this summer and stocks have lost 70 percent of their value, and there are fears the ruble could slide as well. | 11/19/08 17:12:00 By - Tom Lasseter

Under Iraq troop pact, U.S. can't leave any forces behind

The status of forces of agreement between the United States and Iraq goes further than most people in the United States realize. It contains no provisions for the U.S. to leave behind a residual force recently mentioned by Barack Obama or the trainers that have long been part of the withdrawal discussions in the United States. | 11/18/08 18:30:00 By - Leila Fadel

Kenyan Islamist recruits say they did it for the money

Three Kenyan men who briefly fought for al Shabaab, the Somali insurgent group that claims ties to al Qaida, said that they were driven by the promise of money, not jihad. | 11/18/08 16:36:00 By - Shashank Bengali

Islamists poised to seize Somalia again in setback to U.S.

A radical Islamist group that U.S. officials say is tied to al Qaida has seized much of southern Somalia and is poised to take the capital, Mogadishu, as the country's internationally backed government nears collapse. It's the very scenario the Bush administration hoped to avoid two years ago when it backed Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia. | 11/18/08 16:37:00 By - Shashank Bengali

Maliki on Iraq TV calls for passage of troop pact with U.S.

Maliki's nationally televised address marked his first clear, public endorsement of the treaty after nine months of what he called "difficult and complicated" negotiations with U.S. officials. In May, Maliki declared that the negotiations were at an impasse, and he'd remained lukewarm this fall, neither endorsing nor rejecting the agreement. | 11/18/08 16:38:00 By - Adam Ashton

Haiti's lax regulation yields unsafe buildings

The rusty trucks groan as they climb the rugged mountain one after another, puffing toward a loading station to be filled with tons of sand scraped off the ridge. In this dirt-poor nation, the construction process often begins at this rock pit midway up a bleached mountain outside Port-au-Prince where sand entrepreneurs load up, then fan out across the capital in search of buyers. | 11/18/08 12:22:22 By - Jacqueline Charles

Cuba won't let our kids leave, medical workers say

Inside her bedroom on Cuba's Isle of Youth, 7-year-old Daviana Gonzalez prays to be reunited with her mother after more than five years, relatives say. In Camaguy, Marta Daniela Batista, another little girl separated from her parents, is said to suffer from mental health problems. The girls are children of Cuban medical professionals living in Miami who deserted their posts in various nations where the Cuban government sent them to help spread ideology and earn income for their cash-starved homeland. | 11/18/08 12:18:42 By - Frances Robels and Casey Woods

Did U.S. push detention of American without charges?

The case of Naji Hamdan, coupled with FBI interrogations of an American citizen secretly detained without charges in East Africa, raises the question of whether the Bush administration has asked other