WORLD

France's Socialists are distancing themselves from Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the ex-IMF chief, once their best-placed presidential contender but now dogged by sex assault accusations, prepares to return from the United States.

Food will be increasingly scarce in famine-struck southern Somalia until next year's harvest, the head of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday.

Vandals defaced a monument to victims of a World War Two pogrom against Jews in Poland, covering it with racist inscriptions and swastikas in green paint, police said on Thursday.

Muammar Gaddafi, driven into hiding by his foes, on Thursday urged his supporters to fight on, even as Libya's new interim rulers met world leaders to discuss reshaping a nation torn by 42 years of one-man rule and six months of war.

Not only was Jagger not Australian, he was not even of Irish descent; and he was much shorter and slighter than the big, burly, muscular Kelly.

North Korea launched a controversial new cruise ship from the northeastern city of Rason to the resort town of Mount Kumgang.

Countering accusation of being out of touch, the Obama administration announced plans on Thursday for a We the People online feature that would let anybody create a petition on the White House Web site. Any petition that got 5,000 or more signatures in 30 days would get an official review and response.

Should the United States tolerate slightly higher inflation, in order to have the economy grow at a faster rate and create more jobs?

Portugal is mired in staggering debt, high unemployment and drastic budget cuts to social services

A summary of some of the secrets that have emerged so far from Wikileaks.

Wednesday, a solar cell manufacturing company Solyndra announced it would seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Fremont, California-based solar company will lay off all of its 1,100 workers and close down the factory which was built through the fed's loan guarantee.

U.S. President Barack Obama ordered federal assistance to supplement a number of storm-battered areas and counties in New Jersey, days after Hurricane Irene hit the entire Eastern seaboard on August 27, 2011.

American troops may have executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians and then ordered an air strike to obliterate the evidence, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks.

Scott Air Force Base has tried to deflect concerns by some that a mail room scare forcing the base to temporarily shut down was tied to the 10th anniversary of the Sept.11 attacks.

The regime is dying, said rebel council spokesman Abdel-Hafiz Ghoga.

Mayor Bloomberg allowed New Yorkers to believe that Stephen Goldman resigned due to job performance issues, when in fact he had been in jail days before announcing his resignation.

Obama administration lawyers will ask a federal appeals court on Thursday to vacate a judgment declaring Don't Ask, Don't Tell unconstitutional now that the ban on openly gay men and women in the military is about to be repealed.

GOP hopeful promises nothing about his past will embarrass supporters.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's new memoir revives the fierce battles over U.S. national security policies after the September 11 attacks as it rips open old wounds among aides to President George W. Bush.

Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman called the controversy over the timing of President Obama's speech to Congress concerning jobs nonsense, saying it is what people hate about politics.

Chinese environmental groups claim that Apple manufacturers have been releasing harmful pollutants into the environment. A report by the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) and other non-governmental Chinese environment groups cited, for example, that an Apple factory in the city of Taiyuan in Shanxi Province released gases into the air that made it difficult for residents to open their windows.

IBM, the No. 2 computer services company, has snapped up technology players in Canada and the UK -- demonstrating an appetite for new technologies but also for tax advantages.

President Barack Obama declared Wednesday a number of towns, cities and counties in New Jersey as major disaster areas and ordered federal assistance to supplement storm-battered areas affected by Hurricane Irene on August 27, 2011, and days after.

Almost from the start, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has enjoyed a relatively comfortable lead over his competitors in the GOP presidential race, but it was only a matter of time until someone usurped his title as No. 1. The time has finally come -- and it has come in the form of Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Rice shoots down statements Dick Cheney made in his memoir.

A government crackdown on anti-Museveni protesters in April led to the deaths of at least nine people.

A lawsuit is providing a rare glimpse into a secretive CIA program known as rendition.

Just call it a tread water week for U.S. jobless claims, as they fell 12,000 last week to 409,000, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday, but the drop is a qualified one because some of the decline stemmed from the fact that initial claims from two weeks ago were revised up to 421,000 from the initially estimated 417,000.

The NTC received a large boost on Thursday when Russia finally granted its recognition.