World News

BETHLEHEM, West Bank - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown demanded Sunday that Israel cease settlement construction and promised more money to jump-start the battered Palestinian economy.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has sentenced eight women and one man convicted of adultery to death by stoning, activists said Sunday.

ANKARA, Turkey - Three Germans seized by Kurdish rebels during a climbing expedition on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey more than a week ago were released Sunday in good condition, authorities said.

LEEDS (AFP) - South Africa's Makhaya Ntini took two key wickets after AB de Villiers's hundred put the Proteas into a commanding position in the second Test at Headingley here Sunday.

MADRID (AFP) - Four weak bomb blasts claimed by Basque separatists struck seaside resorts in northern Spain Sunday, police said, in an apparent fresh offensive against tourism targets by the armed group ETA.

SOUTHPORT (AFP) - Padraig Harrington became the first European in over a century to retain the British Open title with a nerveless display down the stretch at Royal Birkdale on Sunday.

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Brazilian actress and comedian Dercy Goncalves, known for her vulgar wit and scandalous behavior, has died. She was 101.

SINAHOTA, Bolivia - Soaring food prices may achieve what the United States has spent millions of dollars trying to do: persuade Bolivian farmers to sow their fields with less potent crops than cocaine's raw ingredient.

BOGOTA, Colombia - The presidents of Brazil and Colombia vowed Saturday to boost trade and investment between their nations ahead of crucial world trade talks next week.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main opposition party said it would not sign an accord paving the way for talks to end a political crisis until mediator South Africa addressed its concerns, but regional officials on Sunday appeared optimistic a breakthrough was possible.

KHARTOUM (AFP) - Arab League chief Amr Mussa headed on Sunday to Khartoum with a plan aimed at stalling possible legal moves against Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, accused of masterminding genocide in Darfur.

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe is auditing hundreds of Western business interests as possible targets for takeover, the government said Sunday, in a reported backlash against foreign pressure on President Robert Mugabe.

TAGUM, Philippines (AFP) - Communist guerrillas Sunday shot and wounded two Philippine soldiers after an attack that saw drilling equipment owned by the Swiss-based mining giant Xstrata set on fire.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged steadfast aid to Afghanistan in talks Sunday with its Western-backed leader and vowed to pursue the war on terror "with vigor" if elected, an Afghan official said.

KATHMANDU (AFP) - With few friends coming to visit and his son and one-time heir now living in Singapore, the new life of Nepal's ousted king as a commoner is by all accounts a lonely, meditative one.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Ontario will join the Western Climate Initiative, a planned U.S.-based regional carbon credit trading pact aimed at curbing global warming.

TORONTO (Reuters) - A morning round of bidding in Canada's wireless spectrum auction on Friday produced no new offers, suggesting the months-long process that could result in a new national wireless phone provider may soon end.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and Canadian researchers have taken steps toward developing a gene test to determine whether a patient's lung cancer is especially aggressive, or whether radical treatment can be avoided.

SYDNEY, Australia - Pope Benedict XVI ended his farthest pilgrimage Sunday, one intended to inspire a new generation of faithful while trying to overcome a dark chapter for his church from a clerical sex abuse scandal.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday urged hundreds of thousands of young Catholics to beat back a "spiritual desert" spreading through the modern world as he closed Catholic World Youth Day in Australia.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Up to a million people in Australia could face a shortage of drinking water if the country's drought continues, a report on the state of the nation's largest river system revealed Sunday.

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe, grappling with a record 2.2 million percent inflation, has introduced a new 100-billion-dollar bank note in a bid to tackle rampant cash shortages, the central bank said Saturday.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown demanded Sunday that Israel cease settlement construction and promised more money to jump-start the battered Palestinian economy.

SINAHOTA, Bolivia - Soaring food prices may achieve what the United States has spent millions of dollars trying to do: persuade Bolivian farmers to sow their fields with less potent crops than cocaine's raw ingredient.