The White House said on Tuesday that the U.S. is not considering arming opposition groups in Syria, deflecting calls from some lawmakers to explore such a possibility as one way to quell the violence in Syria.

Turkey and Iran, regional heavyweights and heirs to imperial pasts, expanded trade in the past decade and papered over their traditional rivalry with diplomacy and rhetoric. Now these neighbors have staked out opposing positions in Syria, where outside players seek to sway an outcome to the bloodshed that could, in turn, alter power balances in the Middle East.

In the run-up to this city's huge Carnival, the cash register at the souvenir shop where Vania Alves works is normally buzzing as hoards of revelers scoop up rubber thong sandals, teeny bikinis and sarongs printed with the Brazilian flag.

When local police arrived in riot gear to evict the Vuon clan, family members were ready with homemade land mines and improvised shotguns. In a guerrilla-style ambush reminiscent of a Vietnam War battle, they wounded six officers.

A candidate who claims victory in the presidential election in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia has been hospitalized after a police raid on her headquarters.

The argument began over the seemingly minor offense of eating on the subway, which is banned in Hong Kong. A local commuter was outraged that a girl in a tour group from mainland China was spilling noodles onto the floor.

A top U.N. official was meeting Friday with the current and former presidents of the Maldives, trying to end the political stalemate that has gripped this Indian Ocean nation.

Chinese security forces shot dead two Tibetan brothers who had been on the run since taking part in anti-government protests two weeks ago in southwest China, a U.S.-funded broadcaster reported Friday.

Opposition presidential contender Pablo Perez finished off his campaign Thursday urging public employees to join his supporters and vote in a primary election choosing a single challenger to face President Hugo Chavez.

Eight South Korean lawmakers made a high-profile visit Friday to a modern factory park that sits just across the world's most heavily armed border and represents the last major cooperative initiative between the two rival Koreas.

Unmollified by legislative approval of a big pay raise, Rio state police officers went on strike Friday, raising fears for the security of the glittering Carnival extravaganza that sets this seaside city throbbing.

Syrian forces renewed their assault on the flashpoint city of Homs on Tuesday as Russia's foreign minister held talks in Damascus with President Bashar Assad about the country's escalating violence.

An Italian appeals court has overturned the terrorism conviction of a Tunisian man who had spent nearly eight years in the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo, Cuba.

President Barack Obama's call on Saturday for the U.N. Security Council to stand up against the Syrian regime's "relentless brutality" was rebuffed by Russia and China when both vetoed a resolution calling for President Bashar Assad to leave power.

A senior Pentagon official told defense lawyers to write him by Monday on why the Sept. 11 mass murder file should not go forward as a death-penalty case.

The Taliban have dismissed reports they are preparing to talk peace with the Afghan government, and a leaked NATO report has shown captured insurgents full of confidence they will seize power after international troops leave.

The motion to depose Ali Abdullah Saleh was under seal at the Pentagon Tuesday; the Yemeni president is in the United States recovering from burns suffered in an ‘Arab Spring’ explosion at his presidential compound in Sana’a.

A legal charity supporting detainees in Guantánamo has condemned the conviction and sentencing of an Algerian after he was forcibly repatriated after eight years in the U.S. Guantánamo detention center.

Newt Gingrich’s older daughter, Kathy G. Lubbers, has become an indispensable political advisor.

The U.N. human rights chief says the U.S. government must close the Guantánamo Bay prison as President Barack Obama promised a year ago.

Two legal rights groups on Thursday asked the United Nations to investigate allegations that Spanish and U.S. officials collaborated to quash criminal probes into whether the Bush administration authorized illegal killings and torture of terrorism suspects.

The disclosure that a copy of an al-Qaida magazine made it inside Guantánamo raises questions about prison camp’s security.

Panic erupted aboard a British Airways flight when a prerecorded announcement warned of an emergency landing in water.

In Haiti and South Florida, victims of Haiti’s 7.0-earthquake were remembered Thursday with reflections and prays.