Posted: 8:23 AM BRUSSELS (AP) - King Albert of Belgium has told 600 dignitaries that recent scandals involving his family have given him "a lesson in humility."

Posted: 8:18 AM WILLEMSTAD, Curacao (AP) - The first sign of debris from a missing plane that was carrying the CEO of Italian fashion house Missoni has surfaced in the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao.

Posted: 6:36 AM Japan's prime minister says he is willing to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to help mend ties hurt by an island dispute.

Posted: 5:57 AM A U.S. military official says the Pentagon is considering setting up a drone base in northwest Africa to increase intelligence collection on Islamic militants in the region.

Updated: 10:33 AM There was no alarm, no extinguishers, no sprinklers and almost no escape from the nightclub that became a death trap for more than 200 Brazilian college students.

Posted: 10:18 PM One expert says Iran's latest rocket achievement is "nothing to get too excited about."

Posted: 9:57 PM Beijing's pollution has reached especially high levels again as smog blankets much of China's central and eastern areas.

Posted: 10:41 AM Britain's Foreign Office says it is aware of reports about a potential threat against the U.K. embassy in Tripoli, the capital of Libya.

Posted: 8:35 AM GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Two Sept. 11 defendants delayed the start of their hearing Monday at Guantanamo when they refused to respond to questions from their judge in the case.

Posted: 8:21 AM MOSCOW (AP) - Sergei Magnitsky died more than three years ago in a Russian jail but authorities are moving to put him on trial in a Russian court. The whistle-blowing lawyer died in 2009 after being arrested on charges of tax fraud - the same fraud in which he alleged that Interior Ministry officials had a hand.

Posted: 7:53 AM SANTA MARIA, Brazil (AP) - Brazilian police say they've made three arrests and are seeking a fourth person in connection with a nightclub fire that killed more than 230 people.

Posted: 6:24 AM Japan is relaxing restrictions on U.S. beef imports that had been in place due to fears of mad-cow disease.

Posted: 6:08 AM A Pakistani mining official says a methane gas explosion in a private coal mine in the southwest has killed eight miners.

Posted: 6:03 AM Officials in South Sudan say a tension-filled showdown in the middle of a market town between rebels and South Sudan's military led to the deaths of four civilians.

Posted: 5:52 AM A security official says gunmen attacked a gas pipeline in northern Algeria and killed two guards but were driven off.

Posted: 12:26 PM Egypt's president has declared a 30-day state of emergency and curfew in the three Suez Canal provinces hit hardest by a wave of political violence that has left more than 50 dead in three days.

Posted: 1:52 PM The crisis mood is gone, but that doesn't mean you can slip back into your old ways. That was the message from the head of the International Monetary Fund and other top international financial officials as they wrapped at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, today.

Posted: 1:36 PM More French and African troops and equipment are being sent to an Islamist stronghold in northern Mali in an effort to drive the al-Qaida-linked extremists from power.

Posted: 1:32 PM An aide to Iran's supreme leader is warning that any attack on Syria would be deemed an attack on Iran, a sign that Tehran will do all it can to protect embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Posted: 1:23 PM Egyptian troops have been deployed to quell rioting that's killed at least 27 people in the Mediterranean city of Port Said today.

Posted: 10:36 PM Venezuelan media are reporting that dozens have been killed in a bloody prison riot, and the government says it is investigating.

Posted: 5:22 PM Venezuela's government says a specialized ship will help scan the seafloor for a plane that disappeared carrying the CEO of Italian fashion house Missoni.

Posted: 3:47 PM WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange says he has obtained the script for "The Fifth Estate," a DreamWorks film about the Australian maverick and his world famous secret-busting site.

Posted: 3:38 PM Brazil is mixing tradition with the newest technology to connect visitors to tourist information by embedding bar codes into the black and white stone mosaic sidewalks that are a symbol of Rio de Janeiro.

Posted: 3:14 PM Thousands of children were murdered by the Nazis because they fell short of the Aryan ideal. On Friday, a hushed audience gathered in Austria's Parliament to watch the world premiere of an opera depicting how the Nazis methodically killed mentally or physically deficient children at a Vienna hospital during World War II.