The Boy Scouts of America's policy excluding gay members and leaders could be up for a vote as soon as Wednesday, when the organization's national executive board meets behind closed doors under intense pressure from several sides.

The National Weather Service says there is no threat of a tsunami in Hawaii, Alaska or the U.S. West Coast after a powerful earthquake struck in the South Pacific.

A Picasso painting of his muse has fetched 28.6 million pounds ($44.9 million) at a London auction.

The French "Spider-Man" continues to dazzle Havana with his unassisted, death-defying climbs.

The Irish meat company at the center of Europe's "horseburger" scandal has blamed the contamination of its hamburger patties on the purchase last year of 170 tons of meat imported from Poland.

British lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill to legalize same-sex marriages.

The U.S. says China agrees that North Korea should face "further consequences" under a recently approved U.N. Security Council resolution if it conducts a nuclear test.

DUBLIN (AP) - An expert panel has found that Ireland should be legally responsible for workhouses run by Catholic nuns that once kept thousands of women and teenage girls against their will in unpaid, forced labor.

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) - A gang of armed, masked men are being sought by Mexican police after they burst into a rented home in the Mexican resort of Acapulco and raped six Spanish tourists.

British intelligence agencies are planning to install an unspecified number of spy devices along Britain's telecommunications network so they can monitor Britons' interactions with overseas services such as Facebook and Twitter, according to lawmakers.

Danish media are reporting that an unknown gunman has tried to shoot a Danish writer and historian who is a prominent critic of Islam.

BERLIN (AP) - A 56-year-old anesthesiologist has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a German porn star who had a heart attack during a breast-enlargement operation.

HAVANA (AP) - Cuba's Fidel Castro says Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is getting "much better" after undergoing a fourth cancer operation in December.

PARIS (AP) - If it isn't already daunting enough to pack for a trip to fashionable Paris, female visitors, beware: It's illegal to wear pants.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan's interior minister says the government is ready to hold peace talks with Taliban militants who have been waging a bloody insurgency that has killed thousands of people in his country.

Iraqi officials have raised the death toll in a suicide attack against anti-al-Qaida fighters north of Baghdad to 18.

Ethnic Kachin rebels have reached an agreement with Myanmar's government to ease tensions that have led to bitter combat between them for the past month.

Qatar Telecom says it has increased its share in the Iraqi phone service provider Asiacell from 53.9 percent to 64.06 percent after a successful public offering for a quarter of the Iraqi company's shares.

The Kremlin says next year's summit of the leading industrial nations will take place in Sochi, the city on the Black Sea where Russia is preparing to host the 2014 Winter Games.

Russia says two Russians and an Italian kidnapped by Syrian rebels have been freed in exchange for captured militants.

A Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban has made her first video statement since she was nearly killed, saying she is recovering.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas says Israel has arrested 20 of its members, including three lawmakers, in a West Bank raid.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he's ready to be the first Iranian astronaut sent into space as part of Iran's goal of manned space flight.

The Guardian newspaper says that London's Metropolitan Police Service stole the identities of dozens of dead children to use as aliases for undercover officers, learning the infants' personal histories and even issuing fake passports in their names.

Has Britain's lost king been found?