Posted: 10:13 AM Israel's defense minister, in an apparent allusion to Syria, says that no country in the world would "dare" to attack the Jewish state with chemical weapons.

Posted: 10:11 AM Saudi Arabia has banned smoking in government offices and most public places, including restaurants, coffee shops, supermarkets and shopping malls.

Posted: 8:20 AM Mitt Romney told Jewish donors Monday that their culture is part of what has allowed them to be more economically successful than the Palestinians, outraging Palestinian leaders.

Posted: 6:02 AM U.S. auditors have concluded that more than $200 million was wasted on a program to train Iraqi police that Baghdad says is neither needed nor wanted.

Posted: 10:26 PM Queen Elizabeth II has declared the 2012 London Olympics open before tens of thousands of joyous fans.

Posted: 2:16 PM Syrian rebels have made a run on the country's two biggest cities, Aleppo and Damascus, since last week. Regime forces have responded with overwhelming firepower.

Posted: 2:14 PM The U.N.'s outgoing chief observer in Syria said Friday it's just a matter of time before President Bashar Assad's regime crumbles, but that the violence of the civil war could worsen if Syria uses the full force of its military.

Posted: 2:12 PM The German economy is so reliant on cash for transactions small and big, a way to ensure you don't spend more than you have, that Germany pushed hard for the €500 note to replace its popular 1,000 mark bill

Posted: 2:09 PM It seems the French themselves, who over centuries have turned rudeness into an art form, have become fed up with their own incivility, according to recent polls and publicity campaigns.

Posted: 2:03 PM Gu's legal proceedings could be under way in as little as 10 days, with an outcome likely to remove her from the public eye, at least, and that could even result in her execution.

Posted: 2:00 PM "I think my country Sudan has really hit rock bottom." Those were the last public words uttered by Usamah Mohamad, a 32-year-old Sudanese web developer-turned-citizen journalist,

Posted: 1:56 PM A British man on Friday won a High Court challenge of his conviction for tweeting that he would blow up an airport if his flight was canceled, a ruling that had made him an Internet free speech cause celebre.

Posted: 1:52 PM Elderly North Korean veterans pledged loyalty to their 20-something leader in Pyongyang during Korean War armistice commemorations Friday.

Posted: 5:34 AM Indonesian zookeepers have moved an orangutan out of visitors' sight so she'll no longer smoke lit cigarettes people regularly throw into her cage.

Posted: 5:59 PM Like other communities sucked into Syria's widening civil war, the Yarmouk neighborhood in Damascus has seen death and destruction

Posted: 5:56 PM Syria's most prominent defector offered himself up Thursday as a figure to unite the fractious opposition, saying he failed to persuade his former friend, President Bashar Assad.

Posted: 5:54 PM Prosecutors have charged the wife of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai and a family aide with the murder of a British businessman, the government said Thursday.

Posted: 5:39 PM Somali leaders are debating a new constitution that protects the right to have an abortion to save the life of the mother, and an international law group says the draft guarantees more fundamental rights than the U.S. Constitution.

Posted: 5:33 PM The world city that needs no introduction but could do with an Olympic-sized pick-me-up in the midst of economic recession launches the 2012 Summer Games with a spectacular opening ceremony Friday

Posted: 5:28 PM After negotiating the demobilization of the M-19 rebel movement he co-led, Antonio Navarro helped draft Colombia's 1991 constitution, ran for president and became a big-city mayor and a state governor.

Posted: 5:26 PM Mexico's governmental human rights commission says about 70 percent of attacks on journalists go unpunished, largely because authorities fail to adequately investigate those crimes.

Posted: 6:05 AM Some of the victims fighting for their lives after being wounded in the movie-theater shooting rampage may face another challenge when they get out of the hospital: enormous medical bills without the benefit of health insurance.

Posted: 3:44 PM Cuba is facing criticism from dissidents, the United States and Amnesty International over the detention of dozens of people at a prominent opposition leader's funeral.

Posted: 3:41 PM As five days of fighting in Aleppo intensified, and with rumors swirling of a final showdown in that city, neighboring Turkey tightened its borders but said refugees will be allowed through.

Posted: 3:39 PM Western-led sanctions and diplomatic pressure will not force Iran to halt its nuclear program, Iran's Supreme Leader said Wednesday.