Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has dismissed comments from Russian officials who say Poland's decision to accept a U.S. missile defense base exposes the country to attack.Rice has told reporters that such comments "border on the bizarre." more >>
An airliner bound for the Canary Islands swerved off the runway while departing from Madrid airport Wednesday, Spain's national airport authority said. No information on casualties was immediately available. Television footage showed thick, white smoke rising from the scene. more >>
A jury has ruled that a ranch company's negligence helped lead to the 2005 landslide that killed 10 people in a community on California's central coast. The slide destroyed 13 homes and damaged 23 others in the seaside community of La Conchita 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles. more >>
A convoy of badly needed food aid for beleaguered Georgians rumbled through a Russian checkpoint Wednesday, waved through by soldiers who themselves showed no signs of fulfilling their president's promise of a pullback within two days. A top Russian general, meanwhile, said Russia plans to construct a series of checkpoints manned by hundreds of soldiers in the so-called "security zone" around Georgia's de-facto border with the breakaway territory of South Ossetia. more >>
Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain has consistently followed the government's instructions for keeping prohibited foreign money out of their presidential campaigns, and some of that banned money has slipped into Obama's campaign. During interviews with 123 donors in 11 countries, The Associated Press found contributions Obama accepted from at least three foreigners. Just five of the donors checked, three for Obama and two for McCain, said the campaigns asked to see copies of their current U.S. passports - as instructed by the Federal Election Commission to avoid legal problems. more >>
The Appalachian Trail is getting something new along its 2,175-mile route from Georgia to Maine - a highway underpass. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is building an underpass to make a crossing safer in Cumberland County, where the trail crosses Wertzville Road in Middlesex Township. The trail crosses the road in a slight depression, with rises on both sides that hide approaching traffic. more >>
Hua Guofeng, who briefly ruled China as communist founder Mao Zedong's successor but was pushed aside as a prelude to reforms that launched an economic boom, died Wednesday at the age of 87, state-run media reported. State broadcaster CCTV said that Hua died of an unspecified illness. more >>
A gorilla at a zoo in the German city of Muenster is refusing to let go of her dead baby's body several days after it died of unknown causes. Allwetter Zoo spokeswoman Ilona Zuehlke says the 3-month-old male baby died on Saturday but its 11-year-old mother continues to carry its body around. Zuehlke says such behavior is not uncommon to gorillas. more >>
One of Italy's most-wanted criminals was extradited from Canada on Wednesday and locked in an Italian high-security prison, the Justice Ministry said. Giuseppe Coluccio fled Italy in 2005 and was convicted in absentia on drugs, weapons and conspiracy charges. He was arrested in Canada Aug. 7 outside a luxury lakeside apartment building where he had been living in Toronto. more >>
Rain overnight came to the aid of firefighters at a wildfire in Washington state that prompted an evacuation order for dozens of homes. Lincoln County sheriff's deputy Scott Blomgren said the rain early Wednesday should help in the battle against the fire, which has burned more than 24 square miles in a sparsely populated region in eastern Washington. more >>
A major opposition party on Wednesday backed Benazir Bhutto's widower to become Pakistan's president, as the power struggle following the resignation of Pervez Musharraf intensified. Asif Ali Zardari leads the largest party in the ruling coalition, whose drive to impeach Musharraf persuaded the stalwart U.S. ally to quit after nine tumultuous years in power. more >>
The Philippine peace process was thrown into disarray Wednesday, with the government saying a proposed deal with Muslim rebels must be renegotiated after the guerrillas shot or hacked 37 people to death in a brutal rampage. The announcement came as the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front already appeared to be unraveling after Monday's rampage, which also led 44,000 people to flee their homes in southern Lanao del Norte province. more >>
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is planning to visit Myanmar at the end of this year to hold talks on the country's political problems, the main opposition party said Wednesday. National League for Democracy party spokesman Nyan Win said it was informed of the planned talks by visiting U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari. more >>
For school bus driver Jamille Aine, a cold is more than an inconvenience. His employer does not offer paid sick days, so if he can't shake the bug, he may not be able to pay his bills. Some 46 million U.S. workers lack paid sick days, but lawmakers in 12 states - including California, Connecticut, Minnesota and West Virginia - have proposed legislation in the past year that would require businesses to provide them. more >>
Tropical Storm Fay meandered north along the Florida Atlantic coast Wednesday but did not immediately head out over the ocean, lessening the chances it will gain strength and become a hurricane. Northern Florida and much of Georgia are expecting a long drenching, which some farmers hope will boost crops hurt by a lingering drought. more >>
Drawing strength from the chaos in neighboring Pakistan, Afghan insurgents are using their growing control of the border area to plot increasingly brazen attacks against international forces, the NATO commander in Afghanistan said. U.S. Gen. David D. McKiernan, who took over the NATO command in Afghanistan in June, said attacks have spiked this year. McKiernan said the insurgency is drawing its strength from a "deterioration of conditions across the border in Pakistan." more >>
Barack Obama and his newly named running mate will campaign together Saturday at the place where the Democratic presidential hopeful formally launched his White House bid. A senior Obama adviser told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday that the Illinois senator and his choice for vice president will appear in Springfield, Ill., at the former state Capitol where Abraham Lincoln once served. more >>
Pervez Musharraf seems to be enjoying himself. One day after Pakistan's longtime president resigned to avoid impeachment, he was playing tennis and relaxing with family and friends at his army-guarded residence, a close aide said. more >>
French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited a military chapel in Kabul on Wednesday where the bodies of 10 French soldiers killed in battle lay before they were to be flown home. Sarkozy spoke to French troops from units who lost some of the 10 soldiers killed in a fierce Taliban ambush and firefight in the mountains about 30 miles east of Kabul on Monday. He also visited some of the 21 soldiers wounded in the battle. more >>
Airport operator BAA, owner of London's Heathrow, may have to sell three of its seven British airports, a competition watchdog said Wednesday. The Competition Commission released a provisional report finding that BAA's dominant market position has resulted in a lack of airport capacity, slow development of new routes, higher charges for users and poor response to customers' requests. more >>
