Five small bombs exploded outside two theaters in a major eastern Pakistan city late Friday, but there were no casualties, police and other officials said.
Days before the first black president takes office, the Supreme Court agreed Friday to consider overturning a key feature of the main federal law that ensures access to the polls by minorities.
Somali pirates released an oil-laden Saudi supertanker after receiving a $3 million ransom, a negotiator for the bandits said Friday. A photo appeared to show the money delivered by parachute to the ship's deck.
Helicopters plucked tourists from destroyed, mountaintop resorts as the death toll from Costa Rica's magnitude-6.1 earthquake rose to at least 9 victims, the Red Cross said Friday.
The mother and brother of a 14-year-old girl who was raped are facing prosecution for allegedly performing an abortion on her in a cattle shed in central Afghanistan, officials said.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights called Friday for an independent war crimes investigation in Gaza after reports that Israeli forces shelled a house full of Palestinian civilians, killing 30 people.
U.S. officials say people from countries that do not need visas to enter the United States must begin registering under a new travel authorization program before making their journey.
Foreign governments and human rights groups called Friday for a full investigation into the killing of a newspaper editor who was harshly critical of the government, saying the attack posed a severe threat to independent media in Sri Lanka.
Israel and Hamas leaders rebuffed U.N. calls for an immediate halt to the fighting in Gaza on Friday, all but ensuring that the war will go into its third week despite the rising death toll among civilians.
Sudan's embattled president marked the fourth anniversary of a fragile peace between the country's north and south, promising on Friday to restore confidence in national unity even as he faces accusations by an international court for war crimes in Darfur.
Israeli jets and helicopters bombarded Gaza Friday and Hamas responded with a barrage of rockets on at least two cities as both sides defied a U.N. call for an immediate cease-fire.
China plans a major revamp of its public hospitals - criticized for their lack of access, huge fees and poor doctor services - as part of its long-awaited reform of the national health care system.
A leading Shiite human rights activist in Bahrain said he was summoned Friday by Bahrain's state prosecutors on suspicion of inciting against the kingdom's Sunni rulers.
Syria has responded to Israel's Gaza offensive with harsh words for the Israelis and expressions of firm support for Hamas. But it's unlikely to do much more.
With fighting all around them, Israeli troops knocked on the door of the Samouni clan in Gaza City last weekend and told them to leave, directing them to the building owned by a relative. Twenty-four hours later, three shells slammed into the structure where dozens of people were huddling, according to survivor accounts Friday.
Israel, Hamas defy UN call for cease-fire
