Posted: 3:24 AM The United Nations has voted overwhelmingly to recognize a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians still face enormous limitations: They don't control their borders, airspace or trade, they have separate and competing governments in Gaza and the West Bank, and they have no unified army or police.
Updated: 3:17 AM Islamist approved a draft constitution for Egypt early Friday without the participation of liberal and Christian members, seeking to pre-empt a court ruling that could dissolve their panel with a rushed, marathon vote that further inflames the conflict between the opposition and President Mohammed Morsi.
Updated: 2:24 PM Palestinians have erupted in wild cheers, hugging each other and honking car horns after the United Nations voted to grant them, at least formally, what they have long yearned for - a state of their own.
Updated: 9:38 AM Germany's most populous state is toughening a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, closing loopholes in its five-year-old restrictions.
Posted: 4:18 PM Three U.S. companies whose merchandise was found in the charred ruins of a factory in Bangladesh all say their clothing suppliers were not authorized to use the factory.
Posted: 9:31 AM A German lawmaker says Parliament is close to passing a law explicitly banning bestiality after animal rights groups and tabloid newspapers pushed for existing legislation to be clarified.
Posted: 8:27 AM An Egyptian court has convicted in absentia seven Egyptian Coptic Christians and a Florida-based American pastor and sentenced them to death on charges linked to an anti-Islam film that had sparked riots in parts of the Muslim world.
Updated: 1:57 AM The U.S. Geological Survey says an earthquake measuring 5.5 magnitude has hit the eastern part of Indonesia. There are no immediate reports of damage.
Posted: 9:21 PM A new independent review of the Kabul Bank scandal says hundreds of millions of dollars from the bank were spirited out of Afghanistan - some smuggled in airline food trays.
Posted: 9:19 PM Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF chief who has successfully fought a handful of accusations linked to his "libertine" lifestyle, will be learning whether charges for aggravated pimping will be dropped.
Posted: 4:13 PM Mexican soldiers say beauty queen Maria Susana Flores Gamez had a gun in her hands when she was killed in a hail of gunfire over the weekend.
Posted: 4:07 PM British police say they found the body of an elderly woman in a flooded home, as hundreds of Britons struggle to contain damage done by the recent wet weather.
Posted: 9:35 AM WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has urged the European Union to reverse its decision not to launch an anti-trust probe of U.S. credit card companies after they blocked donations to the secret-spilling website.
Posted: 10:43 PM South Korea has decided to revoke an honorary title given to an American socialite tied to the scandal involving former CIA director David Petraeus.
Posted: 10:36 PM Campaigners against female circumcision have scored a major victory with the approval by a key U.N. committee of a resolution calling for a global ban on female genital mutilation.
Posted: 10:28 PM Portuguese lawmakers are poised to authorize an unprecedented set of tax increases despite concerns that the latest austerity package will deepen the bailed-out country's recession.
Posted: 5:10 PM A spokesman of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood says it has canceled a planned mass rally in support of President Mohammed Morsi's assumption of sweeping powers.
Updated: 5:11 PM Thousands of demonstrators are gathering in downtown Rio de Janeiro for a march against legislation that officials here insist would strip the oil-producing state of much of its income from Brazil's energy sector.
Updated: 5:11 PM Fourteen people were killed and eight injured Monday when a fire broke out at a workshop for disabled people in Germany's Black Forest region, authorities said. Scores had to be rescued from the building as it quickly filled with smoke.