RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- At 35, Leila Ghanem is the first woman to become a Palestinian governor, the latest in a group of trailblazing women leaders who are slowly winning acceptance in this traditional society....

GENEVA (AP) -- Information on 24,000 HSBC customers with Swiss accounts has been stolen, the British bank said Thursday, potentially exposing large numbers of international clients to prosecution by tax authorities in their home countries....

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Gaza's Hamas rulers on Thursday released a British journalist held for a month amid allegations he had endangered the territory's security....

Oil prices hovered around $82 a barrel Thursday in Europe as traders weighed stagnant U.S. crude demand against a gradual global economic recovery....

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that Pakistan has a key role to play in peace talks with the Taliban, a possible attempt to quash speculation that his government was trying to sideline its neighbor....

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim is the first man from a developing nation to become the world's richest person - a shift that underlines the loosening of America and Europe's stranglehold on the top spots in the billionaires' club....

JOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Nearly 3,000 people have fled to a neighboring state after hundreds were slaughtered in several mostly Christian villages over the weekend, aid officials said Thursday....

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Church abuse scandals in Germany have reached the older brother of Pope Benedict XVI and are creeping ever closer to the pontiff himself....

CAIRO (AP) -- The Arab League recommended on Wednesday to withdraw its support for indirect talks between Palestinians and Israelis due to recent announcements of new settlement building in east Jerusalem....

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- The point of a caricature depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog was to show that artistic freedom allows mockery of all religions, including the most sacred symbols of Islam, the Swedish artist who created it said Wednesday....

NEW YORK (AP) -- The FBI arrested a reputed U.S. mobster Wednesday on charges he provided protection for a Sicilian counterpart mapping out criminal turf in Florida - part of an international sweep aimed at further crippling the storied Gambino organized crime family and disrupting its ties to the Italian mob....

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Up to half the food aid intended for the millions of hungry people in Somalia is being diverted to corrupt contractors, radical Islamic militants and local U.N. workers, according to a U.N. Security Council report....

HAVANA (AP) -- Looking in the mirror used to make Yiliam Gonzalez sick to her stomach....

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar's military regime took yet another step to expunge Aung San Suu Kyi from the political scene Wednesday by effectively barring her from the first elections in 20 years and pressuring her opposition party to expel her from its ranks....

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- A top-ranked Southeast Asian militant wanted for planning the deadliest terrorist attack in Indonesia's history has been killed in a shootout with police at an Internet cafe, the president confirmed Wednesday....

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- An Iranian accused of masterminding the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center that killed 85 people dismissed the allegations as "lies" on Tuesday and said he won't appear before an Argentine court....

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday implored Israelis and Palestinians to move beyond a diplomatic spat that has marred his trip to the region, urging the sides to waste no time in resolving their decades-old conflict despite daunting obstacles....