A strong earthquake has struck Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, but authorities say there is no danger of a tsunami and there are no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The head of Mexico's state-owned oil company says the explosion that collapsed the lower floors of a building in the company's headquarters yesterday, killing at least 32 people, is being looked at as an accident. But he says all lines of investigation remain open.

A Russian judge has been fired after he caught 40 winks in court and then sentenced an outraged defendant to five years in prison.

MEXICO CITY (AP) - The director of Mexico's state-owned oil company says that the death toll in an explosion at its headquarters has risen to 32 people.

A Milan appeals court has convicted a former CIA station chief and two other Americans in absentia in the 2003 rendition kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric.

The Dutch government says European countries should be allowed to exit important European institutions after joining them, including the European Union, the eurozone and the Schengen free travel zone.

A Venezuelan watchdog group says the country's latest bloody prison clash came after a year in which 591 inmates were killed in the country's troubled prisons.

Animal protection groups in Britain say they are trying to rescue more than 100 seabirds that have washed up on the coast covered in an unidentified sticky substance.

The Turkish gunman who shot Pope John Paul II has changed his story once again, saying in a new autobiography that Iran's late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini personally told him to kill the pope.

A truck carrying fireworks ahead of Chinese New Year celebrations exploded Friday on a bridge in central China, killing at least 26 people as it sent vehicles plummeting dozens of meters (yards) to the ground, state media said.

Mexico's interior minister says 25 people have died in an office building explosion at the state oil company headquarters.

Syria and Iran have threatened to retaliate for an Israeli air raid near the capital Damascus.

Mexico's state-owned oil company says 14 have died and 80 are injured in an office building explosion at its headquarters in the capital.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Fishermen using illegal nets are suspected of killing dozens of dolphins that were found this week off Sri Lanka's northwest coast.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - A top Polish meat safety official says his country is DNA-testing meat samples at seven facilities to see if any are the source of horse meat discovered this month in Irish-produced burgers.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Need a condom delivered to your doorstep in an hour? Then Dubai is the place to be.

BERLIN (AP) - Police say a fire has destroyed a camel farm in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany, killing 86 animals and causing up to €2 million (US$ 2.7 million) in damage.

U.S. officials say Israel was targeting a weapons convoy when it launched a rare airstrike inside Syria late Tuesday.

A magnitude-6.7 earthquake has shaken northern Chile but authorities say there are no reports of injuries or damage.

TORONTO (AP) - The first in a new generation of long-awaited BlackBerrys will go on sale in the next week in Canada and the United Kingdom, but won't be released in the U.S. until March.

MILAN (AP) - Fiat SpA, the Italian automaker that controls Chrysler LLC, saw fourth quarter earnings more than double thanks to strong North American sales that more than compensated for a weak performance in Europe.

SANTA MARIA, Brazil (AP) - A lawyer representing the owner of the nightclub in southern Brazil where 235 people died in a fire last weekend says his client "regrets it very much" but insisted he was only partly to blame.

Germans are emptying fewer beer steins these days.

LONDON (AP) - A genetic variant commonly found in Chinese people may help explain why some got seriously ill with swine flu, a discovery scientists say could help pinpoint why flu viruses hit some populations particularly hard and change how they are treated.

BRUSSELS (AP) - King Albert of Belgium has told 600 dignitaries that recent scandals involving his family have given him "a lesson in humility."