World News

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The U.S. Navy staged its latest show of military force off the Iranian coastline on Wednesday, sending two aircraft carriers and landing ships packed with 17,000 U.S. Marines and sailors to carry out unannounced exercises in the Persian Gulf.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas made a new push Wednesday to restore a cease-fire with Israel that had collapsed under a barrage of Hamas rocket fire.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi police found the body of a man who was wearing what appeared to be a U.S. military uniform and had a tattoo on his left hand floating in the Euphrates River south of Baghdad on Wednesday morning. One Iraqi official said the body was that of an American soldier.

BAGHDAD - Roadside bombings and gunbattles across Iraq killed nine U.S. servicemen, and U.S. authorities were examining a body found in a river that Iraqi police believe is a U.S. soldier seized in an ambush nearly two weeks ago, officials said Wednesday.

ANKARA, Turkey - Investigators have concluded that a suicide bomber carried out an attack that killed six people and injured dozens in Turkey's capital, using methods similar to those of a Kurdish rebel group, a top official said Wednesday.

LONDON (AFP) - British entrepreneur Mike Ashley on Wednesday launched a takeover bid for Newcastle United worth 133 million pounds (196.3 million euros, 264.7 million dollars) after netting nearly half of the English Premiership club.

BERLIN - A baby elephant born this weekend has made quite a splash in Berlin.

LISBON (AFP) - Portuguese police on Wednesday questioned a couple for a second time in connection with the search for a British girl who disappeared from the southern Algarve region nearly three weeks ago.

LONDON (AFP) - British actor Hugh Laurie, best known abroad for his starring role in the US television drama "House," was at Buckingham Palace Wednesday to collect an honour from Queen Elizabeth II.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's justice minister added her voice on Wednesday to outrage sweeping the country over 'scent profiling' methods police are using for a looming G8 summit that recall tricks by East Germany's nefarious Stasi.

MEXICO CITY - A tractor-trailer loaded with sand smashed into a toll booth and rebounded into other vehicles, setting off a blaze that killed 10 people in western Mexico, officials said Wednesday.

BRASILIA, Brazil - Brazil's mines and energy minister resigned Tuesday amid accusations he was bribed by a construction company that obtained contracts to provide electricity to poor rural areas in a program championed by the nation's first working class president.

LA PAZ, Bolivia - President Evo Morales called capitalism the "worst enemy of humanity" at a conference of Latin American leftist intellectuals on Tuesday.

GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemala has ratified an international adoption treaty, committing to bring adoptions under government regulation and make sure babies are not bought or stolen.

HAVANA - Cuba is modernizing its ethanol-producing facilities despite Fidel Castro's repeated assertions that making more of the biofuel could starve the world's poor.

LONDON (AFP) - Fears stoked by the post-9/11 "war on terror" are increasingly dividing the world, Amnesty International said Wednesday, while rapping rights abuses from China to Darfur and Russia to the Middle East.

CAMP DE DOSSEYE, Chad (AFP) - After bandits killed his parents, soldiers robbed Abdoulaye as he left restive northwestern Central African Republic for neighbouring Chad.

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (AFP) - South Africa coach Jake White has gone with tried and tested combinations for Saturday's first of two Tests against England here.

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe is considering culling a ballooning elephant population that it is struggling to control, an official said Wednesday.

LONDON (AFP) - Amnesty International has sharply criticised Sudan for failing to disarm Janjaweed militias and for not probing complaints of atrocities in Darfur, in its 2006 annual report published on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - Daily passenger flights between the United States and China will more than double by 2012 and air cargo companies will have virtually unlimited access to China as part of an aviation agreemement announced Wednesday.

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey said Wednesday that a suicide bomber suspected of belonging to the main Kurdish rebel group was behind a powerful blast in Ankara that killed six people, but the rebels denied any involvement.

JAKARTA (AFP) - Indonesian prosecutors stepped up corruption probes Wednesday into former dictator Suharto and his youngest son, in a sign the government is intensifying its fight against graft.

LONDON (AFP) - China and Vietnam may be dramatically opening their economies to the world, but Amnesty International said Wednesday the two communist nations were maintaining an iron fist against dissent at home.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Wednesday the United States and China agreed it was necessary for China to rebalance its economy to encourage more domestic spending and less reliance on exports.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Canada could keep its military mission in Afghanistan beyond the scheduled February 2009 withdrawal date despite increasing pressure to bring the troops back on time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper indicated on Wednesday.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - The left-leaning New Democratic Party and its popular leader Gary Doer won a third term in office in a provincial election on Tuesday, taking a record 36 of the 57 seats in the provincial legislature.

LONDON (Reuters) - Canada's Alcan Inc is in talks with global mining giant BHP Billiton as it looks to fend off a takeover attempt by U.S. rival Alcoa Inc, Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Wednesday.

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Canadian Pacific Railway asked courts for more restrictions on picketing track maintenance workers on Tuesday as a strike over wages and work rules ended its first week with no new talks scheduled.

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar hit another fresh 29-1/2-year high against the U.S. currency on Wednesday, garnering support from a rise in oil prices after U.S. warships gathered off the coast of Iran.

CANBERRA (AFP) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his Greek counterpart Kostas Karamanlis on Wednesday sealed a deal which concluded a decades-long debate over pensions for one of the world's largest expatriate Greek communities.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Two Australian teenagers suspected of planning a US-style school massacre were put into psychiatric care after their concerned headmaster alerted police, reports said Wednesday.

SYDNEY (AFP) - The bodies of two Japanese sailors whose midget submarine sank after a deadly World War II attack in Sydney Harbour will remain undisturbed on the seabed, the Australian government said.

TOKYO - Japan passed a law Wednesday to fund the reorganization of U.S. forces in Japan and help move thousands of Marines from the country's south to the U.S. territory of Guam.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Prime Minister John Howard backed away Wednesday from a prediction his government faced annihilation at the next election but said winning a fifth term would not be easy.

KATMANDU, Nepal - After becoming what is believed to be the youngest climber to scale the highest mountains on all seven continents, an 18-year-old California woman is set to tackle another challenge — starting college in the fall.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The U.S. Navy staged its latest show of military force off the Iranian coastline on Wednesday, sending two aircraft carriers and landing ships packed with 17,000 U.S. Marines and sailors to carry out unannounced exercises in the Persian Gulf.

LONDON - Strap on your PVC boots, hike up your nylon stockings. It's time to celebrate the 100th birthday of the world's first entirely synthetic material, one that revolutionized manufacturing, transportation, fashion and more.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi police found the body of a man who was wearing what appeared to be a U.S. military uniform and had a tattoo on his left hand floating in the Euphrates River south of Baghdad on Wednesday morning. One Iraqi official said the body was that of an American soldier.

KATHMANDU (AFP) - A Nepali Sherpa who holds the record for the most ascents of Mount Everest described his most recent climb as "relatively easy".