China's backing on Iran followed dire predictions

Two weeks before President Obama visited China, two senior White House officials traveled to Beijing on a "special mission" to try to persuade China to pressure Iran to give up its alleged nuclear weapons program.

Investment scandal hurts Hezbollah's image, even among backers

YAROUN, LEBANON -- Suleiman's brother was a Hezbollah fighter, killed in the 2006 war with Israel. His house was destroyed by an Israeli shell. And now, his life's fortune is gone, too, lost along with the money of thousands of other Lebanese who put their faith in a billionaire financier with close...

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Thanksgiving offers respite for troops in Afghanistan before new strategy is unveiled

GOLESTAN, AFGHANISTAN -- The Marine Corps Osprey, an unwieldy, gray contraption that flies like an airplane but lands like a helicopter, raced through the sky before it slowed to a hover and alighted several hundred yards from this tiny village.

China announces planned emissions cuts

China announced Thursday that it will cut its economy's carbon intensity by up to 45 percent by 2020, the state news agency Xinhua said, and that Premier Wen Jiabao will participate in international climate negotiations in Copenhagen next month.

Iraqis reach tentative agreement on elections law

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's political factions reached a tentative agreement Thursday on a contested law to organize parliamentary elections next year, potentially pulling the country back from crisis and avoiding another veto that could have delayed the vote for months.

Obama to attend climate talks in Copenhagen, set goals to reduce emissions

The White House announced Wednesday that President Obama will attend U.N.-sponsored climate talks in Copenhagen next month and commit the United States to specific targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Clintons aim to keep their worlds from colliding, avoid conflicts of interest

Since becoming secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton has gone to great lengths to avoid any appearance of undue influence from her husband. Bill Clinton rarely visits the State Department; he never joins his wife's far-flung official trips. With his headquarters in New York and hers in...

National Digest: Astronaut returning home to newborn

Shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station early Wednesday and headed home with one astronaut eager to hold his newborn daughter for the first time and another who's been away from her young son since the summer.

Speculators blamed for sharp rise in China's garlic prices

HONG KONG -- Garlic prices are hitting record highs in China, the world's biggest producer of the pungent bulbs, amid reports of a speculative bubble in the market even as people rush to buy it as a putative cure for swine flu.

World Digest: Pakistan charges seven in Mumbai attacks

PAKISTAN Pakistan on Wednesday charged seven men in connection with last year's Mumbai attacks, its first round of indictments in a case being monitored by India and the United States to see whether Islamabad makes good on promises to bring those responsible to justice.

U.S. hails Israeli plan on West Bank settlement building

The Obama administration hailed the Israeli government's announcement Wednesday that it intends to temporarily halt new residential construction in Palestinian areas of the West Bank, even though the plan falls far short of the administration's original demand for a full freeze and Palestinian...