JERUSALEM, Aug 1 (Reuters ) - Israeli aircraft bombed a smuggling tunnel and a militant training camp in the Gaza Strip on Sunday after a rocket was fired into Israel from the territory, the Israeli army and militants said.
RHINEBECK, New York (Reuters) - Bill and Hillary Clinton's daughter married her long-time boyfriend in the picturesque New York village of Rhinebeck on Saturday in what has been dubbed America's royal wedding.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China took a further step on Sunday toward ending its dependence on U.S. satellites to provide navigation and positioning services.
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's central highlands and a protected marine area in Hawaii, the only habitats of several endangered plant and animal species, have been added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites, the U.N. body said on Saturday.
GAZA (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike has killed a Hamas military commander and rocket-maker in the Gaza Strip, the Islamist group that rules the Palestinian territory said on Saturday.
ISLAMABAD/LONDON (Reuters) - Pakistan's spy chief has canceled a trip to Britain, a spokesman said on Saturday, but Islamabad played down a row over remarks by British Prime Minister David Cameron suggesting Pakistan was not doing enough to fight terrorism.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A federal grand jury looking into an explosion that killed 29 workers at a Massey Energy Co coal mine in West Virginia heard testimony this week about possible illegal tampering with a mine safety monitor, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama called ethics charges against Representative Charles Rangel "very troubling" on Friday and said he hoped the lawmaker could end his career "with dignity."
DETROIT (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional committee will probe the spill of more than 800,000 gallons (3 million liters) of oil from an Enbridge Inc pipeline in southern Michigan this week, a Michigan congressman said on Saturday.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials are worried about what other secret documents the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks may possess and have tried to contact the group without success to avoid their release, the State Department said on Friday.
BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters) - BP said on Friday it could seal its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well by next week as the House of Representatives voted to toughen regulation of offshore energy drilling.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawyers for convicted U.S. Ponzi schemer Tom Petters on Friday asked an appeals court to send the case back for a new trial, saying they were not able to fully present arguments against some of his accusers.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Friday approved the toughest reforms ever to offshore energy drilling practices, as Democrats narrowly pushed through an election-year response to BP's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday called on Iran to immediately release three Americans who were detained a year ago after straying across the border while hiking in the mountains of northern Iraq.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Friday voted to end the federal moratorium on deepwater drilling for oil companies that meet new federal safety requirements.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. economic growth slowed in the second quarter as companies invested heavily in equipment from abroad and the pace of consumer spending eased, raising concerns about the recovery in the rest of 2010.
PESHAWAR (Reuters) - Heavy monsoon rains have triggered the worst floods in decades in Pakistan's northwest, killing more than 400 people and forcing thousands from their homes as authorities struggle to reach stranded villagers.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A fierce brush fire nearly doubled in size overnight as it threatened power lines that supply electricity to the greater Los Angeles area, but evacuation orders for 2,000 homes were lifted, officials said on Friday.
PHOENIX (Reuters) - A judge on Wednesday blocked key parts of Arizona's tough new immigration law hours before it was to take effect, handing a victory to the Obama administration as it tries to take control of the issue.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New orders for long-lasting manufactured goods fell unexpectedly for a second straight month in June, posting the largest drop since August in a sign economic recovery cooled in the second quarter.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency over the state's finances on Wednesday, raising pressure on lawmakers to negotiate a state budget that is more than a month overdue and will need to close a $19 billion shortfall.
HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - At least 25 Afghan passengers were killed and 20 wounded when their bus was hit by a roadside bomb in western Afghanistan on Wednesday, the government said.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans and some moderate Democrats in the Senate on Wednesday began picking apart a new energy bill that they complained goes too far in holding oil companies responsible for accidents like the massive Gulf of Mexico spill.
BIRDFOOT DELTA, Louisiana (Reuters) - Marsh grasses are the tough guys of the plant world. Left alone, they dominate coastal marshes from Texas to Newfoundland. Burn their stems and leaves, and they come back bushier than ever.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday urged Iraq's politicians, still unable to agree on a new government, to "get on with the business of governing" as U.S. troops prepare to end their combat mission.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several U.S. government agencies are preparing a criminal probe of at least three companies involved in the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, though it could take more than a year before any charges are filed, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani passenger plane crashed in heavy rain near Islamabad Wednesday, killing all 152 people on board, officials said, in the worst aviation accident in Pakistan.
HOUSTON/MIAMI (Reuters) - BP Plc may permanently shut the well that caused the worst off-shore oil spill in U.S. history as early as Monday, the company said as speculation grew over assets it might sell to cover mounting costs.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Prosecutors portrayed former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday as corrupt and bent on enriching himself but his lawyers said he was a talkative dreamer with no intention of doing anything illegal.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Safety investigators on Tuesday blamed a 2009 Washington, D.C. subway crash that killed nine people on faulty track electronics but also said the region's transit agency lacked a safety culture.
WASHINGTON/KABUL (Reuters) - The Congress on Tuesday gave President Barack Obama long-delayed funding for his troop increase in Afghanistan despite opposition from many fellow Democrats, while Obama played down the gravity of leaked war documents.
SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a new trial of a polygamist leader of a breakaway Mormon sect, who was convicted of forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry her first cousin.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Anticipating California voters will back a November ballot measure to legalize casual marijuana use, officials in Oakland have approved two tax rates on pot sales in their city, already a hub of the state's medicinal marijuana scene.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans by a large majority believe President Barack Obama has not focused enough on job creation, as economic fears threaten Democrats ahead of November 2 congressional elections, a Reuters-Ipsos poll found on Tuesday.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Job worries drove July U.S. consumer confidence to its lowest since February, with one in six people expecting lower income in the next six months, underscoring the precarious state of economic recovery.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Defense was unable to account properly for $8.7 billion of Iraqi oil and gas money meant for humanitarian needs and reconstruction after the 2003 invasion, according to an audit released on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Large parts of the United States faced extreme weather on Sunday, with temperatures in the capital and Southeast coastal areas forecast to be near or above 100 degrees F (38 degrees C) and strong thunderstorms likely in the mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley regions.
LONDON (Reuters) - BP Plc's board will discuss the future of Chief Executive Tony Hayward when it meets on Monday to discuss the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the firm's second-quarter results, sources familiar with the matter said.
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police defended how they handled security at a massive techno music festival that ended with 19 people dead and more than 300 injured in a stampede on Saturday but gave few clues as to how the tragedy occurred.
KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban said on Sunday they were holding prisoner one of two U.S. soldiers who strayed into territory controlled by the insurgents, and that the other had been killed.
BOOTHVILLE, Louisiana (Reuters) - Swindlers, scammers and even a few strippers are flocking to the Gulf Coast in search of a piece of the $20 billion BP Plc has set aside to compensate residents for spill-related losses.
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A bomb exploded in Bangkok on Sunday, wounding at least 10 people, as a ruling party candidate narrowly beat a jailed anti-government leader in a by-election seen as a referendum on recent political unrest.
COMBAT OUTPOST NOLEN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Explosives dog handler Jacob Evans had no hint of the mine that ripped into his legs. Neither did his detection dog, nor the U.S. patrol that had already walked over the buried charge.
LONDON/HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP Plc has decided Chief Executive Tony Hayward should step down over his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and his departure could be announced in the coming days, sources close to the company said on Sunday.
SEOUL (Reuters) - The U.S. and South Korean militaries kicked off large exercises on Sunday to underscore deterrence against North Korea after accusing the reclusive communist state of sinking a warship.
HAVANA (Reuters) - President Raul Castro will mark the 57th anniversary of the start of the Cuban revolution on Monday on a bit of a roll internationally, but still struggling to modernize one of the world's last communist economies.
DUISBURG, Germany (Reuters) - A stampede killed 18 people after mass panic broke out in a tunnel at a "Love Parade" techno music festival in Germany on Saturday.
PARIS (Reuters) - EU tests of banks' ability to withstand financial shocks, criticized as too easy after only 7 out of 91 failed, face their own stress test in the markets on Monday with early signs pointing to a more positive response.
MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Police have unearthed at least 51 bodies in a mass grave outside Mexico's business capital Monterrey since Thursday, a grisly sign of the escalating drug violence in the northern city, authorities said on Saturday.
KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban said on Saturday they had captured two U.S. servicemen in Afghanistan, and NATO confirmed they were missing and scrambled helicopters and planes to search for them.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Saturday it planned to build an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, state television reported, at a time when the West is demanding that Tehran suspend sensitive nuclear work.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - An emergency alarm that could have warned workers aboard the doomed Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico drilling rig was intentionally disabled, a rig engineer told U.S. investigators on Friday.
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday it would begin a "sacred war" against the United States and South Korea at "any time necessary" based on its nuclear deterrent, in response to "reckless" military exercises by the allies.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama criticized Republicans on Saturday for supporting economic policies that "created this mess in the first place" as he tried to raise election-year doubts about his opponents.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - The approach of a major storm on Saturday forced BP Plc to halt efforts to permanently plug its gushing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico and the system could regain strength after it weakened on Friday.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senator has asked that a Scottish representative appear at next week's congressional hearing on the release of the Libyan man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
LONDON/MADRID (Reuters) - Just seven European banks failed a health check and were ordered to raise their capital by 3.5 billion euros ($4.5 billion), much less than expected, confirming fears the continent's long-awaited stress test was too soft.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan who was fired over disparaging comments about President Barack Obama and his civilian advisers received a hero's send-off from Pentagon and Afghan leaders at a retirement ceremony Friday.
MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Bonnie could come back to life over the Gulf of Mexico after it weakened on its trek across south Florida on Friday and was downgraded to a tropical depression.
HANOI (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Asia on Friday to enforce tough sanctions against North Korea, which hit back by threatening a "physical response" to Washington's plans for joint military drills with South Korea.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden said on Friday "the hard lifting" is done for the year and now it is time for Democrats to campaign on their achievements ahead of November 2 congressional elections.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday ordered former media tycoon Conrad Black to stay in the continental United States while he awaits an appeals court ruling on whether his 2007 fraud conviction should be thrown out.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Customers will not be able to get their hands on Apple Inc's white iPhone 4 until later this year, the company said on Friday, conceding that making the model has proven surprisingly difficult.
(Reuters) - Northwest Airlines flouted federal safety orders in the past but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not hold it accountable, a U.S. government report said.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats said on Thursday they will wait until September at the earliest to take up broad climate-change legislation, a potentially fatal blow to the White House push to curb greenhouse gases.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama pressed Iraqi leaders on Thursday to end a post-election deadlock and form a new government without further delay as the top U.S. commander in Iraq told him a troop drawdown was running ahead of schedule.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court said Mattel Inc was wrongly granted ownership of the popular Bratz dolls, a decision that could force the Barbie doll maker to retry the case for control of the $1 billion franchise.
MIAMI (Reuters) - An e-mail scam featuring someone purporting to be BP Plc's Chief Executive Tony Hayward is targeting victims of the company's massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Florida's attorney general said on Thursday.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama called a former government official caught up in racism allegations on Thursday and expressed his regret about the events that led to her resignation this week.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of previously owned U.S. homes hit a three-month low in June while new claims for jobless benefits surged last week, the latest indications that the economy is on the ropes.
HANOI (Reuters) - North Korea on Thursday denounced planned U.S.-South Korean military drills as a grave danger to the region and criticized new U.S. sanctions as "hostile," urging Washington to focus instead on restarting nuclear weapons talks.
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Kosovo's unilateral secession from Serbia in 2008 did not violate international law, the World Court said Thursday in a decision with implications for separatist movements everywhere.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday said he would decide in the next seven days whether conditions are now ripe to proceed to face-to-face peace talks with Israel.
JAKARTA (Reuters) - The United States announced on Thursday it was dropping a more than a decade-old ban on ties with Indonesia's special forces, imposed over human rights abuses in the 1990s, a move that may eventually allow military training.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP Plc oil spill workers in the Gulf of Mexico prepared for a possible evacuation on Thursday as a tropical storm threatened more delays in attempts to end the environmental disaster.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Wednesday released former media baron Conrad Black from prison on $2 million bond, while she decides whether to throw out his 2007 conviction for defrauding shareholders.
PHOENIX (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration heads to court on Thursday in a showdown over whether Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigrants encroaches on federal authority over immigration policy and enforcement.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration may report somewhat better fiscal news when it delivers its mid-session budget review later this week, but the United States still faces a massive deficit and rising debt.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate voted on Wednesday to reinstate unemployment benefits for about 2.5 million Americans whose checks were cut off in recent months due to a partisan standoff over deficit spending.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich opted not to mount a defense in his corruption case, saying on Wednesday the government had proved only that he talked too much.
VIENNA (Reuters) - The United Nations and the world's largest backer of programs against HIV/AIDS said on Sunday they feared wealthy donor nations may cut funding to fight the disease because of global recession.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - American International Group Inc is expected to name former Prudential Plc Chief Executive Mark Tucker as head of AIA, as it prepares the Asian life insurance unit for an initial public offering, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday.
TORONTO (Reuters) - Apple Inc appears to be deliberately distorting the issues surrounding the iPhone 4's antenna design by asserting that Research In Motion's BlackBerry has similar reception problems, RIM said.
BOSTON (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the richest men in America, says his views are too polarizing for him to become president of the United States.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak hosted Palestinian and Israeli leaders and the U.S. peace envoy on Sunday with a return to direct talks on the agenda but a breakthrough still seemingly distant.
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed new economic partnerships on Sunday to buttress a shaky alliance with Pakistan that U.S. officials say is vital to victory in the escalating war in neighboring Afghanistan.
VIENNA (Reuters) - Scientists searching for the Holy Grail of a vaccine against the incurable AIDS virus say recent encouraging steps should now galvanize efforts to use limited funds in smarter ways to drive the field forward.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska on Sunday, but no widespread threat of a tsunami was seen, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber attacked government-backed Sunni militia on Sunday as they lined up to be paid on Baghdad's southwestern outskirts, killing at least 39 and wounding 41, Iraqi security sources said.
HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban guerrillas staged a series of raids in western Afghanistan Sunday, blowing up the gate of a jail and freeing 23 insurgent prisoners, officials said.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's top diplomat and defense chief head to Seoul this week to discuss ways to respond to North Korea and deter it from any future attack after the sinking of a South Korean warship.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is on course for a narrow win in an August 21 election, an opinion poll showed on Sunday, although issues such as border protection and population will be key in the campaign.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP Plc said on Sunday its new cap has stopped the oil that has gushed into the Gulf of Mexico for three months and hopes to keep it that way until a relief well can permanently seal the leak next month.
CUPERTINO, California (Reuters) - A defiant Steve Jobs on Friday rejected any suggestion the iPhone 4's design was flawed, but offered consumers free phone cases to address reception complaints that have hurt Apple Inc's image and shares.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden's 2008 presidential campaign has been ordered to pay a $219,000 penalty for improperly accepting a discounted private plane flight and taking individual campaign contributions above the legal limit, according to the Federal Election Commission.
TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was buried at a Florida cemetery on Saturday after a private service for family and friends, a local television station reported.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel must agree to the idea of a third party guarding the borders of a future Palestinian state before direct peace talks can start.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AIDS experts and advocates gathering in Vienna this weekend for a conference on the pandemic will hear about progress in protecting people from the deadly virus using drugs, and ways to affect behavior.