World News

BAGHDAD - Hundreds of terrified Christian families have fled Mosul to escape extremist attacks that have increased despite months of U.S. and Iraqi military operations to secure the northern Iraqi city, political and religious officials said Saturday.

As of Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008, at least 4,181 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

JERUSALEM - Two Arab-owned apartments were set ablaze in the Israeli town of Acre amid clashes between Jews and Arabs, police said Saturday.

PARIS - European leaders are searching for a common response to the spreading financial crisis which has ricocheted across the Atlantic to their shores.

LONDON (AFP) - Gordon Brown warned European leaders they were facing a moment of truth Sunday as he headed off to Paris to encourage them to follow his lead in tacking the financial crisis.

VIENNA, Austria - Damnation was the dominant theme Saturday in a new Vienna State Opera's production of Charles Gounod's Faust. But redemption triumphed in the form of wonderful singing and a powerful orchestral performance.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Officials are offering a reward of 500,000 pesos (US$37,300) for the capture of gunmen who killed 11 people in a northern city bar.

LIMA, Peru - President Alan Garcia announced Saturday that he has appointed a leftist governor to become Peru's chief Cabinet minister, a day after the minister's predecessor resigned along with 16 colleagues amid a brewing oil-kickbacks scandal.

PUERTO SAN CARLOS, Mexico - Hurricane Norbert slammed into Mexico's southern Baja California peninsula on Saturday with torrential rains and screaming winds, forcing scores of people to flee flooded homes.

OL PEJETA, Kenya - The text message from the elephant flashed across Richard Lesowapir's screen: Kimani was heading for neighboring farms.

PARIS (AFP) - Former champions France and 2006 semi-finalists Portugal were struggling to keep their 2010 World Cup dreams on track on Saturday as Europe's major powers toiled on the rocky road to South Africa.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - South Africa's central bank governor Tito Mboweni warned Saturday that slowing economic growth linked to the financial crisis risked pushing tens of millions into poverty in Africa.

COLOMBO (AFP) - Sri Lankan troops killed 18 Tamil Tiger rebels during ground and air assaults on their northern mini-state, the defence ministry said Sunday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Saturday struck North Korea from a terror blacklist after saying Pyongyang agreed to steps to verify its nuclear disarmament and pledged to resume disabling its atomic plants.

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - U.S. video game magnate Richard Garriott will blast off into space aboard a Russian spaceship on Sunday watched by his father, a NASA astronaut who went into space at the height of the Cold War.

LONDON, Ontario (Reuters) - Canada's ruling Conservative Party is set to win a federal election on Tuesday but will still have only a minority of seats in Parliament, according to two polls released on Saturday.

LONDON, Ontario (Reuters) - The Group of Seven leading industrialized nations is concerned about what it sees as the excessive measures taken by some countries to rescue troubled banks, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Saturday.

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - A rights tribunal on Friday dismissed a case against Maclean's magazine, which was accused of spreading hatred against Muslims in an article by conservative writer Mark Steyn.

OSLO, Norway - Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize Friday, but this year the news was as much about who didn't get the award.

SYDNEY, Australia - Qantas Airways said Thursday it will financially compensate all passengers who were on board a plane that made a terrifying plunge this week, tossing people around the cabin and injuring dozens.

PERTH, Australia (AFP) - A computer glitch may have caused a Qantas jet to plunge mid-flight, an investigator said Wednesday as passengers told how they were slammed against the cabin roof in the terrifying drama.

BAGHDAD - Hundreds of terrified Christian families have fled Mosul to escape extremist attacks that have increased despite months of U.S. and Iraqi military operations to secure the northern Iraqi city, political and religious officials said Saturday.

BAGHDAD — Christians in Mosul are fleeing their homes after a spate of killings this week that left 12 Christians dead in one of the largest Christian communities in Iraq.

OL PEJETA, Kenya - The text message from the elephant flashed across Richard Lesowapir's screen: Kimani was heading for neighboring farms.