Two car bombs exploded in southern Syria and a rocket slammed into a building in the north in a spike in civil war violence Friday that Syrian state media blamed on rebel fighters trying to topple President Bashar Assad.

A long-delayed restoration of the Colosseum's only intact internal passageway has yielded ancient traces of red, black, green and blue frescoes -- as well as graffiti and drawings of phallic symbols -- indicating that the arena where gladiators fought was far more colorful than previously thought.

Heavy flooding in the Indonesian capital this week has killed 12 people, driven thousands from their homes and paralyzed the sprawling city -- and officials are warning that more water is on its way.

Algerian special forces launched a rescue operation Thursday at a natural gas plant in the Sahara Desert and freed foreign hostages held by al Qaeda-linked militants, but estimates for the number of dead varied wildly from four to dozens.

Russia's ombudsman for children's rights sought on Thursday to reassure American would-be adoptive parents that they will be allowed to take their children back to the United States.

A series of car and roadside bombs targeting buses and bus stations rocked predominately Shiite areas of Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 19 people and wounding more than 100, police said.

A helicopter crashed into a construction crane atop a new luxury residential building in thick London fog Wednesday, killing the pilot and another person and sparking a line of flames as it plunged to the ground.

In what could be the first spillover from France's intervention in Mali, Islamist militants attacked and occupied a natural gas complex partly operated by energy company BP in southern Algeria on Wednesday.

U.S. troops lent "limited technical support" in France's bloody and unsuccessful bid in Somalia to rescue an intelligence agent who'd been held hostage for years, President Barack Obama said Sunday.

Investigators are working to determine what caused a helicopter crash in central Peru that killed seven people, including five Americans.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who is serving a life sentence for his role in the killings of peaceful protesters during the revolution that eventually deposed him, will get a new trial.

France's foreign minister said Sunday that the United States is providing communications and transport help for an international military intervention aimed at wresting Mali's north out of the hands of Islamist extremists.

Ship owner Costa Crociere SpA, the Italian unit of Miami-based Carnival Corp., sent several passengers a letter telling them they were not invited to the official anniversary ceremonies on the island of Giglio where the Costa Concordia still rests.

A three-day mourning period began Friday in a southwestern Pakistani province where a series of bomb blasts killed nearly 100 people the previous day in the bustling city of Quetta.

Kenyan legislators voted to give themselves send-off bonuses of $110,000 each, despite the president's veto of their earlier attempt at another hefty payoff.

As much as half of the food produced in the world ends up going to waste, a London-based study found.

Astronomers have spotted the largest structure ever seen in space.

A federal appeals court panel is considering whether photos of Osama bin Laden's body should be released.

The apparent assassination of three Kurdish women political activists in central Paris on Thursday, all shot in the head, has provoked shock among the Kurdish community.

A young Sri Lankan woman has been executed with a sword in a small, dusty town in Saudi Arabia, thousands of miles from the lush jungles and idyllic beaches of the country where she grew up.

An incredible and a rare site in the Holy Land: The biggest snowstorm in a decade covered Jerusalem with a blanket of white Thursday, paralyzing the city, but thrilling residents.

The Union flag was raised over Belfast City Hall on Wednesday morning for the first time since a vote last month to stop flying it year round prompted violent protests in Northern Ireland.

An extreme sport went extremely wrong recently when two men riding in a large inflatable ball rolled out of control and fell off a snowy mountain in Russia killing one and seriously injuring the other.

A divorce has been granted in the case of a Saudi teenager who was wed to a 70-year-old man, Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Commission told CNN on Wednesday.

Hugo Chavez will not be in Venezuela for inauguration day. Government, opposition differ on what happens next. Chavez's term automatically renews, the government says. But opponents say the constitution makes it clear that's not the case.