Posted: 9:40 PM Mohammed Saeed, an activist in Aleppo, says heavy clashes erupted Thursday in more than a dozen locations in the city, Syria's largest with 3 million people.

Posted: 7:26 PM he North African branch of al-Qaida said Wednesday that France has broken off negotiations over the French hostages it has held over the past two years, endangering their lives.

Posted: 9:20 PM The state-owned Middle East News Agency said the Tuesday verdict was read out in a heavily-guarded courtroom in the Red Sea city of Suez, where 20-year-old Ahmed Hussein Eid was killed in June.

Posted: 9:19 PM The president says, quote, "the United States will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."

Posted: 9:17 PM The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake was centered about 47 miles (75 kilometers) north-northeast of the city of La Paz, Baja California Sur.

Posted: 8:25 PM International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says the civil war in Syria threatens to spill across the Middle East and is "extremely bad and getting worse."

Posted: 8:24 PM They were found stabbed in their beachfront condominium on St. Maarten.

Posted: 8:22 PM The Mexican government's National Human Rights Commission says it visited 100 state and local prisons, and found that gangs controlled activities ranging from internal security to services provided to inmates.

Posted: 8:21 PM Authorities in the U.S. have for years asked for Al-Masri and the others to be handed over, but the process had been delayed because the men raised human rights objections.

Posted: 9:38 PM The father of an ex-Marine held on spying charges in Iran has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and is pleading to see his son before he dies.

Posted: 8:54 AM Chinese state media say two coal mine accidents have trapped 17 people underground.

Posted: 8:51 AM Officials say Mass at a Catholic church in northern Nigeria was shattered today by a suicide car bomber in a blast that killed one person and wounded 46.

Posted: 8:48 AM Before embarking on his first visit to the United States since becoming Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohammed Morsi says Washington in the past earned ill will in the Middle East by backing dictators but now he envisions the two countries being "real friends."

Posted: 8:45 AM Libya's president has ordered the disbandment of "illegitimate" militias, a move designed to assert state authority amid violence by armed groups including an assault on the U.S. Consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador.

Posted: 9:07 AM City authorities in Zimbabwe's second largest city are appealing to home owners to flush their toilets at a specified time as a way to unblock sewers after days of severe water rationing.

Posted: 9:05 AM An earthquake shook parts of southern Mexico on Saturday, causing buildings to sway gently in the capital but causing no immediate reports of damage.

Posted: 8:44 AM North Korea is vowing military action if South Korea fires inside its territorial waters.

Posted: 8:42 AM French police in the western city of La Rochelle have detained a man suspected of threatening to decapitate the editor of a French satirical weekly that published lewd caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Posted: 5:08 PM Protests in Pakistan against an anti-Muslim film turn violent. Demonstrators set fire to buildings, while Pakistani troops fire on the demonstrators.

Posted: 5:03 PM A Israeli soldier is killed in an exchange of gunfire with militants along the Israel-Egypt border. 3 of the militants were killed by soldiers.

Posted: 4:22 PM An explosion at a gas station in Northern Syria has killed at least 30 people. Rebels say the explosion was the result of an airstrike.

Updated: 3:32 PM Prominent Russian lawmaker warns that for Soviet republic of Georgia joining NATO may erode Russian support for NATO's presence in Afghanistan.

Posted: 5:40 PM South African platinum miners get an 11 - 22% raise. This comes weeks after violent clashes with police in which both miners and officers were killed.

Posted: 9:04 AM Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has halted the executions of prisoners on death row, at least for now.

Posted: 8:57 AM Malaysia is asking Google to block access to an anti-Muslim video clip blamed for sparking mob attacks against U.S. embassies and consulates across the Middle East.