NEW DELHI, India -- The streets of the western city of Pune were half-empty, schools in Mumbai were ordered closed, and people suffering aches flooded hospitals across the country as India confronted dueling outbreaks of swine flu and swine flu panic.Twenty one people have died from the flu here, the government said Friday, and 1,390 have...

And did those feet in ancient time walk upon upstate New York’s mountains green? And did the fascist pigs seed the rain clouds over the festival site, causing them to unbosom upon the heads of the beautiful people? And was Jerusalem builded there, if only for 72 hours? Pretty much, apparently. No one was killed, at least not on purpose; and...

Cape Verde coastguards reported that the Russian owned and crewed merchant vessel, which is thought to have been hijacked, has been seen cruising over 460 miles from archipelago, which lies 280 miles off the coast of Senegal."The Arctic Sea is some 400 nautical miles off one of the islands of Cape Verde, therefore outside its territorial...

A suicide bomber in the Afghan capital, Kabul, blew up a car in a heavily fortified section of the city. At least seven people were killed and 91 others wounded, including children in an attack that comes five days before Afghanistan's presidential election.Afghan and NATO authorities say the car exploded on the road in front of the headquarters...

A suicide car bomb has exploded outside the Nato headquarters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing up to seven people, the defence ministry says.The presidential palace and several embassies are also located in the area.The attack comes ahead of presidential and provincial elections due on Thursday which the Taliban have vowed to disrupt.The BBC's Martin Patience says a group affiliated to the Taliban is likely to be responsible...

BIG SKY, Montana (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Saturday U.S. healthcare worked better for insurance companies than for patients, as he pressed his case for a major overhaul that critics say is too expensive.Obama, who is in the middle of a multi-state tour to promote his healthcare policies, also accused "special interests" of...

Taiwan's president says the death toll from flooding and mudslides triggered by Typhoon Morakot will likely exceed 500 people, in the worst storm to hit the island in 50 years.Ma Ying-jeou told aides at a national security meeting Friday that nearly 400 people were probably buried alive when a mudslide covered the village of Shiao Lin in...

Hamas forces storm the mosque in the southern town of Rafah after its imam, guarded by gunmen, declares that his militant group will impose an Islamic state. Sixteen people are reportedly killed.Reporting from Gaza City and Jerusalem - Hamas government forces stormed a mosque in the Gaza Strip on Friday and apparently subdued a heavily...

The death toll from typhoon Morakot is expected to be more than 500, Taiwan's president said today, as hope faded for hundreds of people still trapped by mudslides.Ma Ying-jeou gave his estimate at a national security meeting, a presidential aide said, after Taiwan was struck by the worst floods in 50 years. The official number of deaths...

An air traffic controller who was on duty during last week’s tragic mid-air collision over New York’s Hudson River, has been suspended for allegedly talking on the phone at the time of the fatal crash, which killed nine people.The American Federal Aviation Administration has also suspended a supervisor who was not in the control centre in...

WRITTEN and directed by South Africa's Neill Blomkamp, District 9 is a film about apartheid with a science-fiction twist. A spaceship appears in the sky above Johannesburg, carrying a crew of aliens seeking asylum.Twenty years later, the aliens are the country's latest despised outsiders, living in a ghetto on the city's outskirts and rummaging...

For decades — at least since Orson Welles scared the daylights out of radio listeners with “War of the Worlds” back in 1938 — the public has embraced the terrifying prospect of alien invasion. But what if, notwithstanding the occasional humanist fable like “E.T.,” all those movies and television programs have been inculcating a potentially...

PITTSBURGH — At times fiery with his familiar finger-pointing repeatedly jabbing the air, former President Bill Clinton implored an audience of bloggers and activists tonight not to lose out on a moment that he said he had worked all his life for.It was as though this was his time, too, not just that of President Obama. The former president...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is taking his healthcare reform message out west this weekend with two more public meetings seeking to overcome vociferous opposition to the $1 trillion overhaul scheme.During a multi-state trip to national parks with his wife and daughters, Obama will speak and take questions in Montana and Colorado...

SÃO PAULO -- Having powered its way to the top in U.S. retailing, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has struggled to extend its dominance across the globe.But the world's largest retailer is learning in Brazil and elsewhere that the most successful ideas don't necessarily flow from its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. That has it tailoring inventories...

Authorities have removed from duty an air traffic controller who they say was talking on the phone during last week's deadly midair collision over New York's Hudson River, along with a supervisor who was out of the building at the time.The Federal Aviation Administration said late Thursday that while there was no reason to believe thus far...

CISHAN, Taiwan (Reuters) - Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, under pressure over his government's response to the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot, on Friday estimated that more than 500 people had died in flooding and mudslides.Survivors and opposition parties say efforts to rescue people stranded in towns and villages have been sluggish. Some...

The UN Security Council has agreed on a watered-down statement expressing "serious concern" at the extended detention of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma after a tougher draft met opposition from China, Libya, Russia and Vietnam. After two days of closed-door bargaining, the 15-member body could only agree on a statement expressing "serious concern...

U.S. Marine Capt. Zach Martin, second from left, discusses areas on a map of the town of Dahaneh with Afghan National Army Capt. Bahader Kahn while planning a joint operation to search the village house to house to clear it of Taliban during Operation Eastern Resolve, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009, in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Julie...

WASHINGTON -- A 95-year-old Crow Indian who went into battle wearing war paint under his World War II uniform has been awarded the nation's highest civilian honor.Wearing a traditional headdress, Joe Medicine Crow on Wednesday received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House. The award was clasped around his neck by President...

WHAT: A four-bedroom house with three full bathrooms.HOW MUCH: $425,000.PER SQUARE FOOT: $143.68.SETTING: Golden Valley is a suburb just west of Minneapolis, five miles from downtown. This house is in a residential neighborhood tucked between three parks — Rice Lake, Mary Hills and the public Wirth Golf Club — that are threaded by Bassett...

SAN FRANCISCO - THE prominent lawyers leading the fight to legalize gay marriage in California on Friday formally told San Francisco officials and three other groups supportive of same-sex weddings 'thanks, but no thanks' for trying to join their federal lawsuit.FILED ON BEHALF OF TWO COUPLESBOIES and Olson, who represented Al Gore and George...

Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa held four town meetings in his home state Wednesday, welcoming what he called much larger crowds than such gatherings usually attract."We're here at a time when I sense that people are scared for our country, and that's why we're having big turnouts," he said of the audiences that were mostly conservative but...