Syrian rebels on Friday captured a strategic town near the border with Jordan after a day of fierce clashes that killed at least 38 people, activists said

Nelson Mandela is making "steady progress" while being treated for a recurring lung infection and he had a full breakfast on Friday, South African authorities said.

In fact, they're most likely meant to coerce South Korea into softening its policies, win direct talks and aid from Washington, and strengthen the young leader's credentials and image at home.

Any inspiration will be badly needed on the small east Mediterranean island nation of under a million people, as even the most optimistic forecasters predict years of recession and sky-high unemployment.

Meanwhile, a Taliban suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked the convoy of a paramilitary police commander in northwestern Pakistan, killing 11 people, including a four month-old infant, police said.

Hundreds of Christians streamed through the cobblestone alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City on Friday, hoisting wooden crosses and chanting prayers to mark the crucifixion of Jesus.

The crucified devotees spent several minutes nailed to crosses in Pampanga province while thousands of tourists watched and took photos of the spectacle, which the church discourages.

Hotel Finn in the heart of Helsinki might just be the ticket — they're seeking a "professional sleeper" for 35 days to test their rooms and write all about it.

A police spokeswoman in Nigeria says a British man kidnapped from the country's largest city has been released.

Banks in Cyprus have reopened to customers for the first time in nearly two weeks.

South Africa says Nelson Mandela has been admitted to a hospital with a lung infection.

Earthquakes shook a broad swath of southern Mexico on Tuesday, causing buildings to sway in the capital and sending thousands fleeing into the streets as an earthquake alarm sounded.

Banks across Cyprus remain locked Tuesday after financial authorities extended the country's bank closure, fearing worried depositors will rush to drain their accounts. The shut-down is hammering businesses.

North Korea's military warned Tuesday that its artillery and rocket forces are at their highest-level combat posture in the latest in a string of bellicose threats aimed at South Korea and the United States.

Syrian opposition representatives took the country's seat at an Arab League summit that opened in Qatar on Tuesday, a significant diplomatic boost for the forces fighting President Bashar Assad's regime.

South Korea fired up its first reactor in 1978 and since then the resource poor nation's reliance on atomic energy has steadily grown.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that government forces pushed rebels from Baba Amr after two weeks of clashes, shelling and airstrikes that destroyed many homes.

Eight suicide bombers attacked a police headquarters in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Tuesday, killing five officers and wounding four others, a security official said.

Hooshang Amirahmadi, a bespectacled professor of public policy at Rutgers University, declared his candidacy for the Iranian presidency last year.

Residents of the Ukrainian capital suspect the city is trying to pull a fast one on them about its efforts to clean up from a paralyzing blizzard.

The Belgian post office released 538,000 stamps on Monday that have pictures of chocolate on the front but the essence of cacao oil in the glue at the back for taste and in the ink for smell.

Italy's highest criminal court has overturned the acquittal of Amanda Knox in the slaying of her British roommate and ordered a new trial.

The U.S. Geological Survey is reporting that a magnitude 6.2 earthquake has struck near Guatemala City.

Observant Jews in Israel craving a smoke during the week-long Passover holiday.

A French man accused of impersonating a pilot after sitting in an airliner cockpit at Philadelphia International Airport now faces federal charges.