KANDAHAR  — As the last of 30,000 U.S. reinforcements arrive in Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates got a firsthand look Friday at operations in the dangerous south where Afghan and international troops are ramping up security. Gates traveled to Kandahar province, a region where...

TANAH KARO  — An Indonesian volcano that was quiet for four centuries shot a new, powerful burst of hot ash more than 10,000 feet (three kilometers) in the air Friday, sending frightened residents fleeing to safety for the second time this week. The tremor from the eruption — the strongest so...

MONTERREY  — Soldiers killed at least 25 suspected cartel members Thursday in a raid and gunbattle in a Mexican state near the U.S. border that has become one of the most dangerous battlegrounds in the country's drug war. A military aircraft flying over Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas state spotted...

WASHINGTON  — In an early sign of promise, Israeli and Palestinian leaders pledged in a cordial first round of talks to keep meeting at regular intervals, aiming to nail down a framework for overcoming deep disputes and achieving lasting peace within a year. As their facilitator-in-chief,...

BOGOTA  — Suspected leftist rebels killed 14 police officers and wounded seven in an ambush of a five-truck convoy in southern Colombia, a police commander said Thursday. Elsewhere in the country, two separate mine blasts on Wednesday and Thursday killed four soldiers and wounded six more,...

NEW YORK (AP) — The developers planning to build a $100 million Islamic center near the World Trade Center site still have financial hurdles to clear: They haven't finished buying all the property they want for the project and are nearly a quarter-million dollars behind on real estate taxes and...

ATHENS  — An international animal rights activist group has claimed responsibility for releasing more than 50,000 minks from two fur farms in northern Greece. In an online statement, the Animal Liberation Front says it carried out the attacks last week near the towns of Kastoria and Siatista,...

WASHINGTON  — Israeli and Palestinian leaders sat down for their first direct peace talks in two years on Thursday, pledging to overcome deep skepticism spawned by disappointment with U.S.-brokered attempts in the past to resolve the long-running conflict. Formally opening the negotiations...

SAO PAULO  — Police say a 17-year-old teen was detained after he shot arrows with cell phones attached over the walls of a prison in southern Brazil to inmates waiting on the other side. Authorities say the boy was caught after one of the arrows he launched struck a police officer on the back....

SARAJEVO  — Turkish president Abdullah Gul has pledged his country's continued commitment to the Western Balkans, rejecting Bosnian Serbs' claims of Ankara's pro-Muslim bias. Gul said Thursday in Sarajevo that Turkey will continue intensified diplomacy aimed at helping the countries of the...