WORLD

Healthcare plans are required to cover birth control without charging any co-pays or deductibles starting Aug. 1, President Obama announced on Friday.

Just add China to the list of those not supporting Iran's efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Speaking at the end of a six-day visit to the Middle East, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivered a firm warning to Tehran against developing nuclear weapons.

The hashtag SOPA is dead began trending on Twitter Friday as news spread that Lamar Smith has withdrawn SOPA, the highly controversial anti-piracy legislation, from the House. Smith agreed to pull the bill until there is wider agreement on a solution.

Mitt Romney really doesn't want anybody testing the U.S. military -- he has taken to using versions of the same line seemingly every time he speaks.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Friday reaffirmed his support of overturning a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.

The court ruled that a Texas federal court must use maps drawn by the state's Republican-controlled legislature as a starting point when crafting a new plan.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday warned against military intervention in Iran, fearing that it would not stop the Islamic Republic's nuclear weapons program, but instead bring more chaos to the region.

Such a spillage would pollute one of the most beautiful and unspoiled maritime areas in the Mediterranean.

Multiple explosions have ripped through Nigeria's northern city of Kano, one blast believed to have been targeting police headquarters Friday, causing unknown casualties, although details were not readily available.

Opponents of two controversial Internet control laws, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) scored a partial gain Friday when a vote on PIPA was suddenly scrubbed.

Pro-life activist Elizabeth Leichert released a flier this week slamming Santorum for allegedly being a wolf in sheep's clothing in his opposition to abortion. But in was Leichert's attack on the GOP candidate's wife Karen, whom she accused of having a six year affair with an older abortionist, that forced the former Pennsylvania senator to strike back.

In case you missed the Republican presidential debate in Charleston, S.C., Thursday night, here are the highlights, from Newt Gingrich's opening tirade against moderator John King of CNN to Ron Paul's defense of leaving abortion laws to the states.

Heavy fighting broke out in Somalia's capital of Mogadishu Friday as African Union peacekeepers backed al-Shabab Islamist militants to the outskirts, seizing rebel bases beyond the city's limits for the first time.

Opponents of two controversial Internet control laws, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) scored a partial gain Friday when a vote on PIPA was suddenly scrubbed.

Amateur video taken while the Costa Concordia cruise ship was sinking shows a chaotic scene where crew members told passengers in life vests to return to their cabins.

Four French soldiers were killed and several wounded in Afghanistan on Friday by a member of the Afghan National Army, prompting President Nicolas Sarkozy to suspend France's training operations in the country.

Hamas has also called for the European Parliament to intervene on Dweik's behalf.

A NATO helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan late Thursday took the lives of six members of the international military force. The crash is the deadliest helicopter-related incident in the country since August 2011 when 38 soldiers were killed.

A federally mandated review of pending deportation cases in Denver found that nearly a sixth of those cases could be closed, presaging a national change in how immigration courts function.

In a big turnaround from Ron Paul's first debate in South Carolina, where the Texas congressman was booed by the audience for advocating the golden rule of statesmanship, last night's audience took to Paul's defense when moderator John King tried to switch the topic from abortion without letting Paul answer the question.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is in real trouble, as issues related to his wealth and tax returns have started rocking his otherwise smooth sailing campaign in the Republican race. Romney was forced to say that he would release his tax returns for the year in April, in the CNN-Charleston, South Carolina, debate.

Bangladesh Special Forces on Friday arrested five members of a banned Islamic group accused of supporting a coup attempt last month, a spokesman said.

Within a few hours of the closure of the video locker service Megaupload, scammers have started flooding social networking sites and online forums with fake links claiming that the site is back online.

The new Libyan government now has until the end of April to propose a new plan to destroy all remaining dangerous chemical materials.

As for Newt Gingrich's political career, that, too, has been riddled with scandal and wrongdoing.

In the five years since Mexican president Felipe Calderon began to use the military to combat the country's powerful drug cartels, some 50,000 people have been killed. With people being murdered in the country nearly every day, how is the violence affecting Mexico's tourism industry?

Megaupload, one of the world's largest file-sharing sites, was shut down Thursday by the U.S. government. Its founder, Kim Schmitz, and several company executives were arrested in New Zealand at the request of U.S. officials for mass copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit money laundering, reports Wired.com.

The shutting down and indictment of owners and operators of the video locker service Megaupload, hot on the heels of unprecedented online blackouts against the proposed anti-piracy bills concluded hours before, has come as a shocker to the Internet community.

Gingrich exploded at CNN's John King for opening the debate with questions about his ex-wife, Santorum stepped up to the plate, Romney floundered and Paul desperately tried to get attention. How did the four candidates measure up?