AP - Gunmen have opened fire and tossed a grenade at a Mexican television station as it aired its nightly newscast, leaving behind a message warning the station about its coverage of drug gangs.
Reuters - Japan's imperial family Wednesday attended a somber ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Emperor Hirohito, who was seen in the West as a symbol of the country's World War Two aggression.
AFP - Marks & Spencer is set to axe more than 1,000 jobs, reports said, bringing further gloom to the high street as it struggles under the weight of the downturn.
AFP - Successful prosecutions of violent extremists have reduced the risk of an immediate attack in Britain, the head of MI5 said in a series of interviews Wednesday.
AP - China's most popular search engine Baidu apologized Wednesday for hosting links to pornographic content after it was criticized by the government, saying it was sorry for the negative impact on society.
AP - A cease-fire initiative Tuesday to halt the increasingly bloody Israeli offensive in Hamas-rule Gaza won support from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on rival sides to follow up on the proposal.
AP - Aruban prosecutors said Tuesday their investigation into the 2005 disappearance of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway is nearing the end and appealed for anyone with information to come forward.
Reuters - An Australian man broke into three adult shops, had sex with blow up dolls named "Jungle Jane" and then dumped his plastic conquests in a nearby alley, local media reported on Wednesday.
AP - Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader lashed out at President-elect Barack Obama in a new audio message Tuesday, accusing him of not doing anything to stop Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to an intelligence monitoring center.
Reuters - Communist North Korea announced on Wednesday it will elect new delegates to its rubber stamp parliament in March, marking another step in a leadership shakeup that has already included a cabinet reshuffle.
AP - France and Egypt announced an initiative to stop the fighting in Gaza late Tuesday, hours after Israeli mortar shells exploded near a U.N. school sheltering hundreds of people displaced by the onslaught on Hamas militants. At least 30 Palestinians died, staining streets with blood.
AP - The presidents of Egypt and France have proposed a plan to end the escalating Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday.
AP - A Palestinian working for an Iranian television station was held for questioning by Israeli police Tuesday on suspicion of violating censorship rules.
AP - Venezuela ordered the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and some embassy staff on Tuesday to protest Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
AP - Arab nations floated a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution Tuesday calling for an immediate end to combat in the Gaza Strip and deployment of an international force to monitor a cease-fire and protect Palestinian civilians.
AP - Armed men attacked a private Sri Lankan television station Tuesday, tossing hand grenades, shooting out TV screens and starting a fire that caused heavy damage, witnesses and police said.
For years children's rights groups have been fighting child trafficking in West Africa. Now, some of those groups are questioning how children have benefited from anti-trafficking interventions as they launch a project to understand children's perilous migration throughout West Africa.
AFP - US oil giant Chevron said Tuesday it had lifted its declaration of "force majeure" or the inability to meet delivery obligations, declared after attacks on its Escravos oil terminal in Nigeria.
AP - Israel's fight with Hamas in Gaza, like the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon two years ago, is not just a struggle over the Palestinian issue but a broader proxy battle between Western allies and Iran for the very future of the Middle East.
There were 9.1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Central and Eastern Africa region as of December 2008, according to a United Nations report released today, 400,000 less than at the end of June, but because of the fluidity of the situation officials advised against laying too much store on the reduction.
Reuters - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Tuesday, pledged cooperation in the fight against militants in both countries and called for wider regional understanding.
AP - Army Capt. Christopher Loftis took in the scene: Iraqi soldiers raiding the home of a suspected insurgent wanted for participating in deadly attacks against U.S. and Iraqi troops.
AP - Turkey was holding a suspicious shipment bound for Venezuela from Iran because it contained lab equipment capable of producing explosives, a customs official said Tuesday.
Reuters - A Zimbabwean court Tuesday ruled that a leading human rights advocate and eight other activists should remain in custody, in a case that has raised further doubts over a power-sharing deal.
AP - • June 1967: Israel captures the Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip during six-day Mideast war. An Israeli census put the population at 380,000, at least half of whom were refugees from Israel. Today the population stands at about 1.5 million. The U.N. lists just over 1 million as refugees and their descendants.
AP - Three masked gunmen fatally shot a Somali aid worker Tuesday, as the U.N. envoy to Somalia said the United Nations should create a Baghdad-style Green Zone in the African country so he can base all his aid workers there.
AP - Signs are mounting that the conflict in Gaza is starting to spill over into violence in Europe's towns and cities, with assaults against Jews and arson attacks on Jewish congregations in France, Sweden and Britain.
English Premiership club Portsmouth are prepared to take a GBP 1.5m loss on out-of-favour winger John Utaka - who is wanted back by his former French club Rennes.
Ahmed Dirie Ali, a spokesman of Hawiye Traditional Elders has denounced the request of Uganda and Burundi from the African Union to send war planes and military equipment into Somalia to fight the Somali insurgents on Tuesday.
AFP - Sheikh Hasina Wajed was sworn in for her second spell as Bangladesh's prime minister Tuesday, restoring democracy to the impoverished country after almost two years of rule by an army-backed regime.
AP - Fans of Germany's renowned Berlin Philharmonic can now follow the orchestra's performances from anywhere in the world through a new "digital concert hall" accessible via the Internet.
AP - France's president sought Syrian help Tuesday to bring a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice headed to the United Nations for meetings with Arab and European leaders.
The transfer saga surrounding Stephen Appiah continues to make waves throughout the football world, as reports suggest that the hanaian star is currently training with Tottenham.
AP - Sanyo Electric Corp. is considering cutting up to 1,000 domestic workers in the next few months, as it scales back unprofitable businesses ahead of an expected buyout by Panasonic Corp., a press report said Tuesday.
AP - Europe's services sector continued to contract sharply in December while the jobs outlook looked increasingly bleak, closely watched surveys showed Tuesday.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is set to introduce gender testing before the next African Women Championship in 2010. Equatorial Guinea hosted and won the last edition, but their victory was tainted by protests from Cameroon and Nigeria that two of the players used were men.CAF declined to act on the protests but Kick-Off gathered from the tournament's Technical Study Group, that the continental body had decided to act before the next tournament, which will also be the qualifiers for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.
Reuters - Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic is picking up speed, with a total of 1,732 deaths out of 34,306 cases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.
AP - India's prime minister said Tuesday that Pakistani authorities "must have had" a hand in the Mumbai siege, a remark dismissed by Pakistan as propaganda that could undermine efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice.
AP - Gunmen have killed a member of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's political party in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Kirkuk, Iraqi police officials said Tuesday.
IN other climes, what Mr. John Agyekum Kufour did by leaving power after eight years would mean nothing. In Africa where leaders are in a race to overstay their welcome, Kufour has created distinctness - even hope.