Posted: 7:50 AM Confusion, frustration and delays reigned on London's congested roads Wednesday, as lanes reserved for Olympic VIPs came into force two days before the start of the games.

Posted: 5:22 AM A monthlong HIV blocker that women could use for protection without their partners knowing? Major new research is beginning in Africa to see whether a special kind of vaginal ring just might work.

Posted: 5:16 AM Nearly all of Greenland's massive ice sheet suddenly started melting a bit this month, a freak event that surprised scientists.

Posted: 10:56 AM A Syrian government official says President Bashar Assad has named five officials to top security posts in a reshuffle of the regime's inner circle.

Posted: 10:53 AM British authorities on Tuesday charged an ex-aide to the British prime minister, a former protege of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and six others in the ever-widening phone hacking scandal.

Posted: 10:51 AM Bulgaria's prime minister says a sophisticated group of conspirators were involved in the suicide bombing that killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus drive

Posted: 10:49 AM It's a question facing a small but growing number of Muslims celebrating the holy month of Ramadan on the northern tip of Europe, where the the sun barely dips below the horizon at this time of year.

Posted: 10:47 AM Mayors from across Italy, holding up flags and wearing their tricolor sashes, demonstrated in front of the Italian Senate on Tuesday against spending cuts planned by the government.

Posted: 10:45 AM The same French Assembly on Tuesday is expected to take up a new law on sexual harassment, more than two months after a court struck down the previous statute, saying it was too vague and failed to protect women

Posted: 10:42 AM China's newest city is a tiny and remote island in the South China Sea, barely large enough to host a single airstrip. There is a post office, bank, supermarket and a hospital, but little else.

Posted: 10:37 AM Repeated efforts since 2009 by successive governments to fix the country's problems have only managed to undermine confidence in the fourth-largest economy among the 17 nations that use the euro.

Posted: 10:35 AM Cracked earth. Failing harvests. Drying streams and sinking hopes. Indians have grown increasingly desperate waiting for the long-delayed deluge of this year's monsoon.

Posted: 12:15 PM The Syrian regime threatened Monday to use its chemical and biological weapons in case of a foreign attack, in its first ever acknowledgement that it possesses weapons of mass destruction.

Posted: 11:30 AM The coordinated attacks in 15 cities sent a chilling warning that al-Qaida is slowly resurging in the security vacuum created by a weak government in Baghdad and the departure of the U.S. military.

Posted: 11:26 AM Europe is on the brink again. The crisis over too much debt in the 17 countries that use the euro flared dangerously on Monday.

Posted: 11:24 AM A vacationing French family of five fell or jumped off a seaside cliff during a desperate attempt to escape a raging wildfire.

Posted: 11:20 AM British police are investigating new tabloids in the country's growing phone hacking scandal, a senior Scotland Yard official said

Posted: 11:18 AM Director Danny Boyle wants the details to stay secret and games chief Sebastian Coe has pleaded for insiders to stop leaking details of the extravaganza.

Posted: 11:16 AM The suicide bombing that killed six people, five of them Israelis, in a Bulgarian seaside resort will not stop Israelis from traveling wherever they wish, a government minister from the Jewish state said.

Posted: 11:13 AM Egypt is allowing freer entry for Palestinians into the country in an unprecedented move that eases long-imposed travel restrictions, particularly on Gazans, Egyptian and Palestinian officials said Monday.

Posted: 11:11 AM Israeli leaders have discussed with visiting American envoys how to manage a Syrian government collapse, an Israeli official said Monday.

Posted: 11:09 AM Jordan's king has announced that security along the country's northern frontier has been tightened, but Syrian refugees fleeing violence will still be allowed to enter, officials said Monday.

Updated: 8:19 AM Actor Patrick Stewart, best known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," is set to take a turn on the torch relay Monday.

Posted: 6:47 AM The official mascots of London's Olympic and Paralympic Games have been called strange and frightening, but organizers are hoping to tack on a more positive title: merchandising magic.

Updated: 5:43 AM An onslaught of bombings and shootings killed 82 people across Iraq on Monday, officials said, in the nation's deadliest day so far this year.