Most Emailed World News

AMPATUAN, Philippines - Philippine authorities, under intense public pressure to make arrests in the country's worst election massacre, said Wednesday they are investigating a member of a powerful clan allied with the government along with four police commanders.

BRUSSELS - Helped by a therapist, Rom Houben's outstretched finger tapped with surprising speed on a computer touchscreen, spelling out how he felt "alone, lonely, frustrated" in the 23 years he was trapped inside a paralyzed body.

BARIYAPUR, Nepal - The ceremony began with prayers in a temple by tens of thousands of Hindus before dawn Tuesday. Then it shifted to a nearby corral, where in the cold morning mist, scores of butchers wielding curved swords began slaughtering buffalo calves by hacking off their heads.

BEIJING - China executed a dairy farmer and a milk salesman Tuesday for their roles in the sale of contaminated baby formula — severe punishments that Beijing hopes will assuage public anger, reassure importers and put to rest one of the country's worst food safety crises.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Visitors to South Africa's premier holiday destination who are worried about becoming victims of the country's high crime rate could find themselves instead robbed by a more furry kind of felon: baboons.

JERUSALEM - With cutting-edge anti-missile systems and two new submarines that can carry nuclear weapons, Israel is readying a new generation of armaments designed to defend itself against distant Iran as well as Tehran's proxy armies on its borders.

KABUL, Afghanistan — The television set crackles with breaking news: Terrorists have smuggled a nuclear bomb into Kabul and are preparing to take out the Afghan capital.

BERLIN - A German newspaper is reporting that Adolf Hitler's original Mercedes has been sold to an unidentified Russian billionaire for several million euros.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to move Albert Camus' ashes to the famed PanthÉon in Paris as a way of revering the writer and philosopher. His critics, however, see more tactical motivations

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - French officers on Tuesday showed off a cutting-edge warship to a potential buyer — the Russian navy, whose pursuit of an amphibious assault capacity is frightening some neighboring countries.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Ships are on alert and maritime authorities are monitoring the movements of hundreds of menacing icebergs drifting toward New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean, officials said.

MONTREAL - A Canadian woman on sick leave for depression said Monday she would fight an insurance company's decision to cut her benefits after her agent found photos on Facebook of her vacationing, at a bar and at a party.

MELBOURNE, Australia - A kangaroo startled by a man walking his dog attacked the pair, pinning the pet underwater and slashing the owner in the abdomen with its hind legs. The Australian, Chris Rickard, was in stable condition Monday after the attack, which ended when the 49-year-old elbowed the kangaroo in the throat.

GENEVA - The world's largest atom smasher used its accelerator Tuesday to speed up proton beams for the first time as scientists moved ahead in efforts to learn more about the universe.

NAIROBI, Kenya - The bullet hit mother and son as they walked through Somalia's capital. She felt a sharp pain in her palm. Then she saw her 8-year-old: The bullet tore through his cheekbones, nose and mouth. Blood gushed down to his waist.

NUKU'ALOFA (AFP) - A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 hit off the Pacific island nation of Tonga on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said.

NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga - A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the Pacific island nation of Tonga, sending panicked residents into the streets at night, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

LONDON - A senior Foreign Office official has testified that Saddam Hussein's regime was not the British government's main concern in 2001.

SHINKAY, Afghanistan - A battered taxi sped up a dusty road toward a squad of Afghan soldiers searching for bombs planted in the dirt. Army gunmen who had fanned out for protection readied for a suicide attacker. The car screeched to a halt.

NEW DELHI - An Indian government investigation released Tuesday into the 1992 demolition of a mosque by a raging mob reportedly accused top Hindu nationalist politicians of complicity in the attack that sparked nationwide ethnic riots, leaving 2,000 people dead.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistani troops killed 18 militants in a fresh offensive Tuesday against insurgents blamed for a wave of recent bombings in the main northwestern city of Peshawar.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Some 6,000 feral camels are running wild in a remote Australian outback community in search of water, smashing infrastructure and invading the airstrip, officials said on Wednesday.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Prosecutors in the genocide trial of a former Khmer Rouge prison chief demanded a 40-year jail sentence Wednesday for a man they described as responsible for snuffing out innocent lives and spreading terror across Cambodia.

Opposition activists want the U.S. to focus more on human rights, and they fear a nuclear deal with the West will boost the regime's domestic standing


ABUJA, Nigeria - Authorities say an Australian woman who fell in love online was duped out of nearly $50,000 by a Nigerian man who said he was her "Mr. Right."

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has proposed a 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement construction in what he says is an attempt to jumpstart Mideast peace talks.

BRASILIA, Brazil - Iran's leader got a welcoming bear hug from the Brazilian president, who urged Western nations to drop threats of punishment over the Iranian nuclear program and instead negotiate a fair solution.

KABUL - The Taliban's reclusive leader issued a Muslim holiday message on Wednesday calling on Afghans to break off relations with the government, which he described as a 'stooge' administration.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan charged seven men on Wednesday in last year's Mumbai terror attacks, its first indictments in a case watched closely by India and the United States to see if Islamabad makes good on promises to punish those responsible.

BEIJING - The number of dead in China's worst mining accident in two years rose to 107 Wednesday after three more bodies were pulled out of the coal mine, state media said.