World News

LONDON (AFP) - A private detective, who allegedly disappeared after being paid to search for Madeleine McCann, and is wanted in the United States, was arrested in England, reports said Wednesday.

LONDON (AFP) - The first full-scale inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq war opened with testimony suggesting Washington was gearing up for possible conflict two years before Tony Blair led London to war.

LONDON (AFP) - The BBC has held talks with financial advisers about floating part of its commercial arm on the stock market, amid pressure over its market share and public subsidy, a report said Wednesday.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won support for his country's nuclear ambitions and expanded his reach in Latin America in a three-country goodwill tour that took him to close ally Venezuela for his final stop.

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent - Voters in the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines decide Wednesday whether to break their ties with Britain's monarchy, even as Queen Elizabeth II is making a rare visit to the region.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Honduran police detained two Nicaraguans and two Hondurans along with several rifles, and interim President Roberto Micheletti claimed the weapons were part of a plot to attack him during Sunday's presidential election.

KINSHASA/PARIS (Reuters) - The Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday accused Canada of holding up progress toward rescheduling its foreign debt but Ottawa said it was now prepared to provide the needed financing assurances.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Visitors to South Africa's premier holiday destination who are worried about becoming victims of the country's high crime rate could find themselves instead robbed by a more furry kind of felon: baboons.

LOS ANGELES - Shareholders at American Funds have rejected a measure that seeks to screen out investments possibly linked to genocide in international hot spots like Sudan's Darfur region.

BEIJING - The number of dead in China's worst mining accident in two years rose to 107 Wednesday after three more bodies were pulled out of the coal mine, state media said.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A wedding was called off because international troops killed the groom. A suicide bomber blew himself up in front of a police patrol. An old woman was beaten by the Taliban after she tried to stop them from taking her son.

AMPATUAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Philippine security forces found six more bodies on Wednesday at the site of an election-related massacre in the south of the country, taking the toll to 52 dead, officials said.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A union representing train engineers at Canadian National Railway Co is unhappy with the railway's decision to impose labor contract terms on its members and may consider the move tantamount to a lockout, the union's president said on Tuesday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization is looking into reports in Britain and the United States that the H1N1 flu may have developed resistance to Tamiflu in people with severely suppressed immune systems, a spokesman said Tuesday.

KINSHASA/PARIS (Reuters) - The Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday accused Canada of holding up progress toward rescheduling its foreign debt but Ottawa said it was now prepared to provide the needed financing assurances.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Ships are on alert and maritime authorities are monitoring the movements of hundreds of menacing icebergs drifting toward New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean, officials said.

MELBOURNE, Australia - Formerly conjoined twin sisters Trishna and Krishna are enjoying a favorite DVD and trying new foods as they continue their recovery from marathon separation surgery, doctors said.

CANBERRA, Australia - Australia's opposition leader Tuesday pledged his party's support for contentious legislation proposed by the government aimed at curbing the country's greenhouse gas emissions.

AMPATUAN, Philippines - Authorities have recovered six more bodies, bringing the death toll to 52 in one of the Philippines' worst election massacres.

BRUSSELS - Helped by a therapist, Rom Houben's outstretched finger tapped with surprising speed on a computer touchscreen, spelling out how he felt "alone, lonely, frustrated" in the 23 years he was trapped inside a paralyzed body.

BARIYAPUR, Nepal - The ceremony began with prayers in a temple by tens of thousands of Hindus before dawn Tuesday. Then it shifted to a nearby corral, where in the cold morning mist, scores of butchers wielding curved swords began slaughtering buffalo calves by hacking off their heads.