Heading into a full day of meetings Wednesday with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Barack Obama said Tuesday that if he is elected he will push for a two-state peace settlement ''from the minute I'm sworn into office,'' but added that ``it's unrealistic to expect that a U.S. president alone can suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace in this region.''
RUSSIA
Amid talks about a billion-dollar arms purchase from Russia, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Tuesday that he wanted the two nations to become strategic partners to ensure ``Venezuela's sovereignty, which is currently being threatened by the United States.''
PAKISTAN
Pakistan's intelligence agencies and police have made hundreds of Pakistanis, including children as young as 9, ''disappear'' as part of the U.S.-led war on terrorism, Amnesty International charged Wednesday.
Osama bin Laden's driver went on trial Monday with a not-guilty plea -- after his military judge excluded ''coercive'' interrogations in Afghanistan -- before a six-officer military jury. It's the first U.S. war crimes tribunal since World War II.
ZIMBABWE
They'd struggled for so long to bring Zimbabwe to this point: a vibrant, generally free election in which President Robert Mugabe suffered his first defeat in 28 years in power.
Two public buses exploded during the Monday morning rush hour in the city of Kunming, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others in what authorities described as deliberate attacks as China is tightening security nationwide and warning of possible terrorist threats in advance of next month's Olympic Games.
After talks with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki reaffirmed his government wants U.S. combat troops to withdraw by the end of 2010, a few months later than Obama had proposed.
SUMMER OLYMPICS
Authorities Sunday ordered half of Beijing's 3.3 million vehicles off city streets for a two-month period in an experiment designed to remove a smoggy halo over the capital and ease traffic jams before the Summer Olympics.
The skinny young brothers fidgeted in their plastic chairs as they gazed up at the beefy killer soaking in his first days of freedom after nearly three decades in Israeli prison.
The United States and Iraq have agreed to a ''general time horizon'' for further reductions of U.S. combat troops in Iraq, the White House said Friday, the first time the Bush administration has agreed to set any kind of timeline for U.S. troop withdrawals.
ARGENTINA
In a stunning blow to President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina's Senate Thursday narrowly defeated a controversial increase in grain export taxes that sparked four months of paralyzing protests by farmers.
IRAQ
Kuwait on Thursday named its first ambassador to Iraq since Saddam Hussein's forces invaded the oil-rich country in 1990 and set off the Persian Gulf War.
THE MIDDLE EAST
As an Israeli military convoy carrying two flag-wrapped coffins wound slowly through Israel on Wednesday, convicted killer Samir Kuntar walked down a red carpet in a Lebanese village, where he waved to throngs of jubilant supporters after spending nearly three decades in Israeli prison.
NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
President Bush's decision to send a senior U.S. envoy to Europe for the first face-to-face talks with Iran on its nuclear program represents a step away from military confrontation with Tehran, and a possible move towards diplomatic resolution of the crisis.
CAMPAIGN 2008
With the war in Afghanistan worsening by almost every measure, the often-overlooked conflict jumped to the center of the U.S. presidential campaign Tuesday as John McCain and Barack Obama both promised to send more troops.
Amnesty International on Tuesday called for the immediate release of a Canadian citizen being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, after his lawyers released copies of a video with the then-teen captive crying, ``Help me.''
GUANTANAMO BAY
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Haltingly, and at times sadly, Osama bin Laden's driver Tuesday offered an unusual peek inside his American detention, describing a six-year saga of interrogation, isolation and sexual humiliation from Afghanistan to the prison camps here.
TOY LABOR
The Sesame Workshop and a U.S. toymaker launched investigations Tuesday of allegations that some Sesame Street toys are being made in a Chinese sweatshop.
IRAQ
Iraq's former military commander and vice president under Saddam Hussein -- who has eluded capture -- on Tuesday released a purported audio message for the first time since Hussein's regime fell, telling President Bush that this would be a ''decisive year'' and vowing to continue fighting American forces.
Lawyers for a Canadian prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, released excerpts of videotaped interrogations Tuesday, providing a first-ever glimpse into the secretive world of questioning enemy combatants at the isolated U.S. prison.
