BAGHDAD – Three car bombs tore through Baghdad and the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Sunday, killing at least 36 people and breaking what had been a period of relative calm since the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

LONDON (Reuters) – African nations whose populations have been devastated by AIDS have made big strides in fighting HIV, with new infections down 25 percent since 2001 in some of the worst hit places, a U.N. report said on Friday

TEHRAN, Iran – Security forces have raided the office of Iran's top opposition leader and seized computers after days of intimidating visitors with a heavy force presence around the building.

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said it proposed Thursday a joint probe with the United States of the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship that an earlier international investigation blamed on Pyongyang.

KABUL, Afghanistan – Up to 30 insurgents have been killed in fighting ahead of this week's parliamentary elections in Afghanistan which the Taliban want to undermine, NATO and Afghan officials said Tuesday.

LONDON (AFP) – A pilot for budget carrier Ryanair came up with a new money-saving idea Tuesday after the firm suggested axing co-pilots on flights -- replace the airline's boss with a flight attendant.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – The Thai government apologized Tuesday to a region where thousands died in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami after a botched warning drill this week caused hundreds to flee their homes, convinced another wave was coming.

MONACO (AFP) – A scheme floated here at an annual meeting of giants in the insurance industry could come up with a 20-billion-dollar insurance payout if an oil rig blows up, kills people and spreads pollution.

PARIS – The French Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill banning the burqa-style Islamic veil on public streets and other places, a measure that effects less than 2,000 women but that has been widely seen as a symbolic defense of French values.

PARIS (AFP) – Police evacuated the Eiffel Tower and the park surrounding the Paris landmark Tuesday after a bomb alert, an AFP journalist said.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – A man suspected of setting off a small explosion in a Copenhagen hotel won't reveal his true name to investigators and even removed the serial number of his prosthetic leg to keep from being identified, Danish police said Monday

BEIJING – China's plans to vaccinate 100 million children and come a step closer to eradicating measles has set off a popular outcry that highlights widening public distrust of the authoritarian government after repeated health scandals

HARARE, Zimbabwe – A Zimbabwean court on Monday freed on bail four Americans arrested and accused of treating AIDS patients without proper medical licenses

MEXICO CITY – Mexico's capture of two rival drug gang leaders in two weeks may mark a new trend in the country's drug war, an official said Monday: drug lords surrendering without a fight when surrounded

CARACAS, Venezuela – A plane carrying 51 people crashed Monday in eastern Venezuela, and officials said at least 21 people survived. The French-built ATR-42 from the state airline Conviasa crashed about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the eastern city of Puerto Ordaz at about 10 a.m. (1430 GMT), Transportation Minister Francisco Garces told state television. He said the plane went down ...

JOHANNESBURG – A California church wants to get back to helping AIDS orphans in Africa, once it resolves questions over licensing that led to the arrests of six of its workers in impoverished Zimbabwe, a minister said Sunday.

THESSALONIKI, Greece – Thousands of Greeks took to the streets Saturday in union-led protests against the debt-plagued country's harsh austerity program, before a keynote speech on the economy by the prime minister

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghans set fire to tires in the streets and shouted "Death to America" for a second day Saturday despite a decision by an American pastor to call off plans to burn copies of the Islamic holy book

PARIS (AFP) – Homosexual men in Europe are increasingly failing to adhere to safe sex, according to two new studies. In France, transmission of the AIDS virus "seems to be out of control" among men who have sex with men, said a paper published on Thursday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran said Thursday it will free Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans jailed for more than 13 months, as an act of clemency to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.