World News

BAGHDAD - Iraq and the U.S. are near an agreement on all American combat troops leaving Iraq by October 2010, with the last soldiers out three years after that, two Iraqi officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. U.S. officials, however, insisted no dates had been agreed.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Three Fulbright scholars from Gaza appealed to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday to reissue their entry visas, denying they were security threats.

DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria on Thursday released one of the country's most prominent dissidents after nearly seven years in prison — a man whose freedom was urged by international rights groups and President Bush.

LONDON (AFP) - Top English Premiership club Chelsea confirmed on Thursday night they had made a bid for Real Madrid's Brazilian striker Robinho.

ROME - Silvio Berlusconi is sparing no effort to solve the garbage crisis in Naples — even picking up a broom himself.

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy's son Jean Sarkozy has taken legal action over anti-Semitic graffiti in the Paris suburb where he is a local councilor, the website of the daily Le Parisien said on Thursday.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A military jury gave Osama bin Laden's driver a stunningly lenient sentence on Thursday, making him eligible for release in just five months despite the prosecutors' request for a sentence tough enough to frighten terrorists around the globe.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Two men convicted in the 2005 killing of American nun and rainforest defender Dorothy Stang will be allowed to spend Brazilian Fathers' day at home, court officials said Thursday.

MEXICO CITY - Tropical Storm Hernan gained strength on Thursday as it churned far off Mexico's Pacific coast.

LONDON (AFP) - England's bowlers made it a good first day in charge for new captain Kevin Pietersen when South Africa were bowled out for 194 on the first day of the fourth and final Test at the Oval Thursday.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - As the Summer Games open in Beijing, actress activist Mia Farrow is Web-casting her own "Darfur Olympics" from a refugee camp on the barren Sudan-Chad border, aiming to shame China into using its influence with Khartoum to end the Darfur conflict.

NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) - Mauritanian police on Thursday broke up a protest by hundreds of people against an army coup in the West African nation which has been internationally condemned despite a junta promise to hold new elections.

URUMQI, China - A Chinese Islamic group that has threatened to attack the Beijing Olympics released a new video warning Muslims to avoid being on planes, trains and buses with Chinese at the games, a U.S. group that monitors militant organizations said Thursday.

TOKYO - Toyota said Thursday that its fiscal first-quarter profit plummeted 28 percent, and the automaker stuck to its forecast that full-year profit will fall for the first time in seven years as it faces more problems from the weakening U.S. market.

THA SONG YANG, Thailand - First lady Laura Bush, meeting with refugees who fled a brutal campaign by Myanmar's military junta, urged China and other countries on Thursday to join the U.S. in imposing sanctions against the country.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada will overcome a critical shortage of military transport helicopters in Afghanistan by buying six used machines from the United States as well as leasing six Russian-made aircraft, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said on Thursday.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Inc. suffered a defeat on Thursday when Canada's Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge of the company's 2005 decision to close a Quebec store that had been the first in North America to obtain union certification.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and partner SNC-Lavalin Group want the Canadian government to provide billions of dollars in financing for their bid to build two nuclear reactors in the Canadian province of Ontario, a newspaper said on Thursday.

TOKYO - An American nuclear-powered submarine leaked radiation for more than two years, releasing the bulk of the material in its home port of Guam and at Pearl Harbor, Japanese and U.S. officials said Thursday.

DILI (Reuters) - The United Nations urged on Thursday East Timor not to let those responsible for bloodshed surrounding Dili's 1999 independence vote from Indonesia off the hook, pledging to provide support to prosecute perpetrators.

TOKYO (Reuters) - A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine which has steadily been leaking a small amount of radiation for over two years stopped at three Japanese ports, as well as Guam and Pearl Harbor, the United States and Japan said on Thursday.

SOFIA, Bulgaria - Archaeologists have unearthed a 1,900-year-old well-preserved chariot at an ancient Thracian tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, the head of the excavation said Thursday.

BAGHDAD - Iraq and the U.S. are near an agreement on all American combat troops leaving Iraq by October 2010, with the last soldiers out three years after that, two Iraqi officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. U.S. officials, however, insisted no dates had been agreed.

LONDON - Eric Dowling, who helped plan the mass wartime breakout from a German prison camp that inspired the movie "The Great Escape," has died at 92.