Chavez threatens use of tanks to prevent protests over elections

CARACAS - President Hugo Chávez is threatening to imprison a popular opposition leader, roll tanks into the streets, and use force to defend the results of Sunday...

Stem cells facilitate trachea transplant

LONDON - A Colombian woman has received the world's first tailor-made trachea transplant, grown by seeding a donor organ with her own stem cells to prevent her body re...

Government decision stirs riots in northwest China

Protestant-Catholic deal hailed as breakthrough in Ulster

BELFAST - Northern Ireland's long-feuding Protestant and Catholic leaders ended a five-month deadlock yesterday by agreeing to form a Justice Department that will over...

Congo rebels say they're pulling back

KAYNA, Congo - Rebels were pulling back their forces from the frontlines to allow talks with the army, their spokesman said yesterday, as retreating army soldiers batt...

Ships diverted after tanker hijacking

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A major Norwegian shipping group yesterday ordered its more than 90 tankers to sail around Africa rather than use the Suez Canal after Somali pira...

China strengthens Cuba tie with trade deals

HAVANA - China's president was signing dozens of trade and investment deals with communist ally Cuba yesterday, part of a Latin American trip on which Chinese business...

China's Tibet stance clouds exile talks

BEIJING - Chinese leaders yesterday warned Tibetan exiles considering whether to push for Tibet's independence that any bid to separate the Himalayan region from China...

Ahmadinejad aide approved for post

TEHRAN - A close aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was narrowly approved as Iran's new interior minister by parliament yesterday.

Maliki tries to rally support for US security pact

BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister delivered a nationally televised address yesterday to rally domestic support for a US-Iraqi security pact, calling it a step toward ful...

Israeli tanks rumble into Gaza, razing farmland near border

GAZA CITY - Israeli tanks pushed into the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, drawing mortar fire from Palestinian militants and intensifying violence that has chipped away...

At 88, Justice Stevens gives no hint of retiring

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - For all the speculation about how President-elect Barack Obama's nominees may change the Supreme Court, there is one irrefutable fact: He can't mak...

Democrats let Lieberman keep key chairmanship

Senator Joe Lieberman, who angered many Democrats by publicly and enthusiastically backing Republican John McCain for president, kept his committee chairmanship yester...

Coloring on other side of the brain

WASHINGTON - Learning the name of a color changes the part of the brain that handles color perception.

US says it shelled target in Pakistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - US troops in Afghanistan launched a barrage of artillery at insurgents attacking their position from inside Pakistan's volatile tribal region, in ...

Former French official faces slander trial

PARIS - A former French prime minister was ordered yesterday to stand trial over a political smear campaign against Nicolas Sarkozy before he became France's president...

A return to ashes in California

LOS ANGELES - People burned out of a mobile home park returned to the ashes yesterday on a windless day that helped crews mop up wildfires that damaged or destroyed ne...

Dept. of Veterans Affairs says it can handle strain of new GI Bill

WASHINGTON - The government sought yesterday to dismiss concerns that it might try to delay rollout of the new GI Bill, pledging to be ready to handle growing claims i...

Astronaut's tool bag is lost in space

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A spacewalking astronaut whose grease gun erupted in a backpack-sized tool bag accidentally let go of the tote outside the international space s...

Ailing automakers plead for $25b in loans

WASHINGTON - Warning of a doomsday economic scenario, the top executives of the Big Three US automakers made a historic appeal yesterday for $25 billion in loans, tell...