Airport official: plane crashes outside Dubai
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- An aircraft believed to be a cargo plane crashed Friday outside Dubai, an airport official said. There was no immediate word on casualties....

Pakistan Taliban say their bomber kills 43 Shiites
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -- A suicide bombing claimed by the Pakistani Taliban killed at least 43 Shiite Muslims at a procession in southwest Pakistan on Friday. The assault sharply drove up the toll of sectarian assaults in a country battered by massive flooding....

7 defendants convicted in Portugal sex abuse trial
LISBON, Portugal (AP) -- Seven people were convicted of child sex abuse in Portugal on Friday in a major trial that lasted nearly six years, a prosecutor said....

Iranian opposition leader's home attacked
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Pro-government militiamen attacked the home of an Iranian opposition leader with homemade bombs and beat one of his bodyguards unconscious, an opposition website reported, in an apparent attempt to keep him from attending a key rally on Friday....

Will heir be unveiled at North Korean convention?
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea is preparing its largest political meeting in 30 years, and leader Kim Jong Il is expected to appoint a son to a key Workers Party position in what would be the strongest sign yet of a succession movement in the secretive communist country....

Experts see trouble ahead for developed world
CERNOBBIO, Italy (AP) -- Is the global economy out of the woods? Two years after near-meltdown, with the U.S. looking sluggish, equity markets groggy and Europeans fighting a debt crisis, experts gathered in Italy offered a generally gloomy outlook - especially for the United States and much of the industrialized world....

Small signal, big meaning? Castro in military duds
HAVANA (AP) -- Fidel Castro dusted off his full military uniform for the first time since stepping down as president four years ago, a symbolic act in a communist country where little signals often carry enormous significance....

Shiite bloc names new candidate for Iraqi PM
BAGHDAD (AP) -- A powerful Shiite bloc backed by Iran ha put forward its own candidate for prime minister, further complicating Iraq's fractured political system....

EU trade chief apologizes for Jewish comments
BRUSSELS (AP) -- The EU's trade chief apologized Friday for blaming Jews and the "Jewish lobby" in Washington for blocking Mideast peace as the embarrassed EU head office quickly distanced itself from his comments....

Gates sees progress in tour of Afghan war zone
COMBAT OUTPOST SENJERAY, Afghanistan (AP) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he saw and heard evidence that the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy is taking hold in critical Kandahar province....