WORLD

The Japanese government plans to form a new nuclear safety agency under the Environment Ministry in order to separate its regulatory functions from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), according to the Nikkei business daily.

On a taxi ride to his farmhouse the day before he killed 77 people, Anders Behring Breivik talked easily of a future he must have known would never come.

Forces loyal to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi killed seven rebels in a counter-attack in a key town on Tuesday, hospital sources said as the leader's camp vowed to push on with a war to crush a five-month uprising.

The death toll in Syria's bloody crackdown on opponents of President Bashar al-Assad in the city of Hama and elsewhere climbed on Tuesday and Russia said it would not oppose a U.N. resolution to condemn the violence.

The FBI is pursuing a new lead in the infamous D.B. Cooper case, and a new book on the 40-year-old unsolved hijacking is set to come out next week. Geoffrey Gray will release his new book "Skyjack" on Aug. 9, which is based on the 1971 mysterious hijacking of a jetliner. Gray's new book is set to come just one week after the FBI revealed it had received a new lead into the case.

Forces loyal to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi killed seven rebels in a counter-attack in a key town on Tuesday, hospital sources said as the leader's camp vowed to push on with a war to crush a five-month uprising.

North Africans are flocking to Italy and Europe in large numbers, testing the continents infrastructure.

A Panamanian court has convicted Noriega in connection with the death of a military chief. Noriega faces 20 years in prison in the case.

Every year an average of 2,280 metric tons of frog legs are imported into the U.S. (which may involve the killing of up to 1.1 billion frogs).

Anders Behring Breivik's deadly attacks on Norway not only disrupted a peaceful nation but have resulted in stores across Norway withdrawing two video games the suspected killer used when planning the July 22 massacre.

Will the Obama administration's new goal of 54.5 miles per gallon (mpg) help usher in the electric car era? Or does the internal combustion engine have one more generation left in it?

A Gallup poll revealed that American Muslims generally feel integrated into American culture and confident in its political institutions, challenging a perception that Muslims feel marginalized or detached from society.

China has unveiled rules aimed at easing territorial disputes with southeast Asian nations with an official newspaper on Tuesday placed much of the blame for recent tensions in the South China Sea on U.S. trouble-making.

Pakistan's quick response to charges by China that militants involved in attacks in Xinjiang had trained on its soil shows the importance of its ties with Beijing, but it could be a mistake for Islamabad if it relies too much on China.

China's naval forces are likely to step up their activities in waters around Japan, Tokyo's annual defence report said on Tuesday, the latest expression of regional security concerns about China's military buildup.

Japan expects China to further expand its maritime activities in the South China Sea and the Pacific, its annual defence report said on Tuesday, the latest expression of regional security concerns about China's military buildup.

The U.S.' debt woes still threaten the global economy despite a last-minute deal struck by the White House and political party leaders, China's main official newspaper said on Tuesday, nonetheless adding there was no short-term escape from the dominance of the dollar.

Striking cab drivers in Hangzhou denouncing rising fuel prices and demanding the government make good on pledges to raise fares abandoned their vehicles for a second day on Tuesday, and planned street protests despite a heavy police presence.

Twenty-five men died on a boat escaping the Libyan conflict.

Elections to recall Wisconsin state senators who supported a controversial collective bargaining law have generated $4.2 million in fundraising, underscoring the far-reaching implications of the elections.

Gabrielle Giffords returned to the House of Representatives to cast her vote on the historic debt-limit bill in Washington.

A civic agency in South Korea is sending thousand of pounds of flour to North Korea.

India has expressed its ?concern? and called for restraint from Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad.

The Senate Tuesday easily passed the debt deal bill, 76-24, and immediately sent it to President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign it very soon. When the president does, the world's largest and most-technologically advanced economy will have averted a credit market-constraining default and ended a bitter political chapter.

The U.S. Senate Tuesday voted 74-26 to approve the debt deal bill, and with President Barack Obama's expected signature, the nation will have averted a credit market-constraining default.

The analysts expect ?mild appreciation pressure on the ruble? in the next few months.

Tea Party conservatives scored their biggest political triumph with a debt-ceiling deal that cuts federal spending, but their hardline tactics could risk a voter backlash in the 2012 elections.

An radical Islamic group is responsible for a riot in China's East Turkestan region.

See photos of the daring operation