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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

LONDON (AFP) - A private detective, who disappeared after being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds to search for Madeleine McCann, has been arrested in Oxford, media reports said on Wednesday.

VIENNA - Six world powers have readied a resolution critical of Iran's nuclear program, diplomats said Tuesday, as Tehran suggested it was still ready to discuss a U.N.-backed plan meant to delay the Islamic Republic's ability to make a nuclear weapon.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won support for his country's nuclear ambitions and expanded his reach in Latin America in a three-country goodwill tour that took him to close ally Venezuela for his final stop.

JERUSALEM - Palestinian officials are rejecting an expected offer from Israel's prime minister to partially freeze West Bank settlement construction, even before it is made public.

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.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran could consider sending its low-enriched uranium abroad, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, apparently softening its opposition to a U.N. plan aimed at keeping a check on its nuclear ambitions.

BEIJING (AFP) - Poor visibility delayed about 280 domestic and international flights serving Beijing on Wednesday, the capital's airport said, following several days of heavy air pollution.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - An international human rights group has urged a Saudi court to overturn a death sentence imposed on a Lebanese man convicted of practicing witchcraft.

MEXICO CITY - A U.S. consular official said Monday that an American woman has died of a gunshot wound she reportedly suffered in the Mexican border city of Matamoros.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AFP) - The world's largest annual religious pilgrimage began on Wednesday but was overshadowed by the swine flu pandemic as 2.5 million Muslims massed at the holy city of Mecca for the hajj.

BARIYAPUR, Nepal (AFP) - Up to a million Hindu devotees gathered on Tuesday at a village in Nepal to witness the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals in a mass sacrifice that has drawn widespread criticism.

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.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Two suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents have been charged with attempting to kill an off-duty police officer near the province's border with the Republic of Ireland last week, police said Tuesday.

SANAA (AFP) - Five people were killed in clashes on Wednesday between Yemeni security forces and protesters demanding southern secession, as demonstrations marking the withdrawal of Britain from the country 42 years ago gather pace.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A wedding was called off because international troops killed the groom. A suicide bomber blew himself up in front of a police patrol. An old woman was beaten by the Taliban after she tried to stop them from taking her son.

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."

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The paramilitary troops outside the Trident and Taj Mahal hotels suggest a higher level of security a year after militants laid siege to Mumbai, but it may all be a mirage as the country still remains very vulnerable.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Witnesses testifying against two Congolese warlords at the International Criminal Court have been threatened and the court does not have the resources to fully protect them, a senior investigator testified Wednesday.