World News

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese security officials say heavy fighting has erupted for a second time in the northern city of Tripoli.

BAGHDAD - American soldiers killed three Shiite extremists who attacked them with small arms and rocket launchers in Baghdad's sprawling Shiite slum, despite a reported cease-fire, the U.S. military said Monday.

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish jets struck suspected Kurdish rebel targets close to the border in northern Iraq, Iraqi Kurdish officials said Monday.

JERUSALEM - A Gaza energy official says Israel has resumed its supply of fuel for a Gaza power plant shut down two days ago.

CAIRO, Egypt - Arab foreign ministers urged warring Lebanese factions to immediately cease fighting and said Sunday they will send a delegation to try to broker a settlement between the Hezbollah-led opposition and U.S.-backed government.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia's pro-European alliance sought a coalition deal with smaller parties on Monday to stave off a challenge from nationalist runners-up who say they too can form a government after Sunday's parliamentary election.

MOSCOW - Three years after gunning down unarmed protesters in the city of Andijan, Uzbek authorities are still persecuting people they believe are linked to the unrest, an international rights group says in a report released Monday.

LONDON - Preparations are hotting up for the eagerly-awaited world première of "Sex and the City", with Carrie and her pals set to bring the best of New York glamour to the British capital on Monday.

WARSAW, Poland - Irena Sendler — a Polish social worker who helped save some 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto and giving them false identities — has died. She was 98.

ROME - A U.N. food agency says rice prices in the capital of Myanmar have surged 50 percent since a devastating cyclone.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lashed out at Germany's chancellor on Sunday, suggesting that her party shares the political ideals of Adolf Hitler.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Thousands of white-clad people marched silently Sunday to protest a surge of drug-related violence in a Mexican city across from Texas where the No. 2 police officer was shot dead.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - An overloaded ferry capsized off the coast of southern Haiti, killing at least 11 people, U.N. and Haitian authorities said Sunday.

PALENQUE, Mexico - There is a legend that the ancient Maya possessed 13 crystal skulls which, when united, hold the power of saving the Earth — a tale so strange and fantastic that it inspired the latest Indiana Jones movie.

BOGOTA, Colombia - Documents that Colombia says it recovered from a slain guerrilla leader give the clearest indication yet that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sought to arm and finance insurgents across the border.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - A Sudanese opposition party says its leader has been arrested apparently because of he is allegedly linked to Darfur rebels who attacked close to the capital this week.

HARARE (AFP) - Robert Mugabe's government Monday brushed off opposition calls for conditions to be attached to a run-off presidential vote in Zimbabwe, as first round victor Morgan Tsvangirai prepared to return home.

KHARTOUM (AFP) - Sudan on Monday arrested Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi and pressed its pursuit of Darfur rebels who threatened again to attack the capital as sporadic gunfire rang out across Khartoum.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Darfur rebel leader Khalil Ibrahim said on Monday he would launch more attacks on Sudan's capital Khartoum until the government fell.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe will not invite election observers from Western countries to monitor a presidential run-off unless they remove sanctions, state media said on Monday, rejecting opposition demands in a political crisis.

BEIJING - A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck mountainous western China on Monday, toppling a primary school and killing four students, Chinese state media reported.

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Activists for victims of India's 1984 Bhopal gas leak said Monday that as the owner of the former Union Carbide, Dow Chemicals should pay for a clean-up before any new business in the country.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A senior Chinese official has asked whether Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama would agree to attend the Beijing Olympics to ease recent tensions, a Tibet government-in-exile legislator said on Monday.

YANGON, Myanmar - The U.S. launched its first relief airlift to Myanmar on Monday after prolonged negotiations with the country's isolationist junta, which considers Washington its enemy and has restricted international aid to as many as 2 million cyclone victims.

HANOI, Vietnam - Police said Monday they have arrested two people in northern Vietnam for trying to transport a newborn baby to China as part of a baby-trafficking ring, the second suspected ring broken up in a week.

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - EnCana Corp, Canada's biggest energy company, said on Sunday it plans to split into two separate oil and natural gas firms in an effort to wring out more value with crude prices at record highs.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd is launching a new high-end version of the BlackBerry aimed at its core base of business users, but it hopes the sleek device will also catch on in the broad retail market.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (Reuters) - Finland rallied to a 3-2 win over the U.S. with the help of a phantom goal at the world championships on Sunday to set up a showdown with Canada.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Iconic singer and songwriter Neil Young has had an honor bestowed upon him that is not received by many musicians -- his own spider.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Lab exams confirmed on Saturday that there was no infectious disease outbreak on a cross-Canada train that was held in quarantine on Friday in northern Ontario after a passenger aboard died.

SYDNEY (AFP) - The Australian military on Monday cleared its soldiers over the deaths of two women and a baby during a battle in Afghanistan but said all civilian casualties were "highly regrettable".

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian man has described how he escaped from the jaws of a great white shark by poking it in the eye as it dragged him under water.

SYDNEY (AFP) - The Australian military Friday said it was investigating allegations that its troops mistreated suspected insurgents in Afghanistan, shortly after a special forces soldier was killed there.

SYDNEY, Australia - Australia is investigating allegations that its soldiers mistreated suspected insurgents in prison in Afghanistan, the military said Friday.

SYDNEY, Australia - With a bill like a duck, a tail like a beaver and snake-like venom hidden in heel spurs, the platypus could be the result of some strange genetic experiment.

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian man has described how he escaped from the jaws of a great white shark by poking it in the eye as it dragged him under water.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Iconic singer and songwriter Neil Young has had an honor bestowed upon him that is not received by many musicians -- his own spider.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Forty years after he helped rescue the world from growing famine and a deepening gloom over the future of food supplies, Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan is once again agitating for revolution -- this time a perpetual one.

BEIJING - A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck mountainous western China on Monday, toppling a primary school and killing four students, Chinese state media reported.

YANGON, Myanmar - The U.S. launched its first relief airlift to Myanmar on Monday after prolonged negotiations with the country's isolationist junta, which considers Washington its enemy and has restricted international aid to as many as 2 million cyclone victims.