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.

BEIJING – China's central bank governor acknowledged Saturday that Beijing is using its controversial exchange-rate controls to cope with the global economic crisis and said it will be cautious about retreating from the policy.

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.

KAMPALA (AFP) – Uganda's parliament has unanimously voted to outlaw female genital mutilation, imposing a 10-year penalty on anyone who conducts the procedure and life in prison for those who physically force a woman to submit to the act, one of the bill's main sponsors told AFP Friday. "This practice has left so many women in misery. So we are saying ...

BEIJING — Authorities killed rats and fleas on Tuesday as they disinfected a town sealed off after three people died of pneumonic plague in a remote farming town in northwestern China, according to the provincial health department. Police set up checkpoints around Ziketan in Qinghai province after the outbreak was first detected last Thursday. The lung infection is highly contagious can ...

BERLIN (Reuters) – A German judge has shot to popularity after letting 42 speeding drivers off without charges in the last week because he thinks speed controls merely serve to fill the state's coffers rather than prevent accidents

LONDON - In the last two decades, the world has spent more than $196 billion with the belief that the money was going to save people from death and disease in poor countries. But just what the world's gotten for its money isn't clear, according to two studies published Friday in the medical journal Lancet.

PELLUHUE, Chile – The 40 retirees enjoying summer vacation at a seaside campground nestled under pine trees knew they had to move fast after Chile's powerful earthquake struck. They didn't make it. The tsunami came in three waves, surging 200 meters (yards) into this Pacific Ocean resort town and dragging away the bus they'd piled into, hoping to get to high ...

SYDNEY – A clash Wednesday off Antarctica between a Japanese whaler and a boat from a protest group partly bankrolled by former game show host Bob Barker left the anti-whaling vessel badly damaged and each side accusing the other of life-threatening behavior. The bow of the Ady Gil — a sleek, wave-piercing power boat that resembles a stealth bomber — was ...

STOCKHOLM – Swedish police evacuated 273 people from a Pakistan International Airlines jet diverted to Stockholm due to a bomb alert Saturday and briefly detained a passenger on suspicion of preparing aircraft sabotage, officials said.

JERUSALEM – Israeli settlers have hauled bulldozers, cement mixers and other construction equipment into a Jewish settlement deep inside the West Bank, Israeli and Palestinian officials said Saturday, a day before the end of a government-mandated halt to settlement building.

Copiapo, Chile (CNN) -- His return heralded by a siren's blare and the cries of a happy nation, the first of 33 Chilean miners emerged into a cool desert night early Wednesday after being trapped underground for 69 harrowing days.

Much has been written about their lives, their predicament and their health. One by one, the 33 Chilean miners trapped in a gold and copper mine since the start of August are expected to be lifted out of the earth starting Tuesday night.

Reuters - Brazenly provocative, the bare-breasted young women of Femen are becoming an eye-catching -- if unsolicited -- fixture on Ukraine's political scene

LONDON (AFP) – Britain is "urgently considering" new security measures for air cargo from Yemen after a suspect package flown in from the country sparked an international alert, the government said Friday.

BEIJING – China's Red Cross asked citizens around the country Friday to urgently donate blood because of an acute shortage that has prompted delays in some surgeries.

AMSTERDAM – The scene has unfolded countless times in the Netherlands: Young people break into an unused building, move in a table, chair and bed, and then tell the police they are now the official residents — with no permission from the owner and no plans to pay rent.

JERUSALEM – A U.S. envoy was shuttling between Jerusalem and Ramallah on Friday as part of an emergency mission to rescue Mideast peace talks facing collapse because of a spat over Israeli settlements.