Four attackers launched an assault on the governor's compound in Afghanistan's western Farah province on Thursday and were shot dead in a firefight, an official said.

A Frenchman who lost his limbs in an electrical accident swam from Papua New Guinea to Indonesia in strong winds and currents Thursday, finishing the first stretch in a mission to swim between five continents.

For Senate Republicans, 2012 is starting a lot like 2010.

For the first time, racial and ethnic minorities make up more than half the children born in the U.S., capping decades of heady immigration growth that is now slowing.

Mary Richardson Kennedy's life had both highlights and troubled moments, just like other members of the famous political family she married into in 1994.

Police and FBI officials were poring over more than 100 tips as they hunted for a man accused of stabbing his new wife to death and leaving her body in her bathtub, still clad in the silver sequined cocktail dress she wore to celebrate their wedding.

Lost in the hoopla over the effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker after he took on union rights is an ongoing secret investigation that has already ensnared a handful of the Republican governor's former aides.

Even down late, the Oklahoma City Thunder are showing that they are never out.

National foreclosure trends took a positive turn in April, as the number of homes seized by banks declined and fewer properties entered into the foreclosure process.

Two Pakistan Air Force light aircraft collided mid-air on Thursday, killing four pilots on a routine training mission northwest of Islamabad, police said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. plans for a possible military strike on Iran are ready and the option is "fully available", the U.S. ambassador to Israel said, days before Tehran resumes talks with world powers which suspect it of seeking to develop nuclear arms. Like Israel, the United States has said it considers military force a last resort to prevent Iran using its uranium enrichment to make a bomb. Iran insists its nuclear program is for purely civilian purposes. ...

India's World Cup hero Yuvraj Singh hopes to return to cricket in "three to four months" after recovering from a cancerous tumour, media reports said on Thursday.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said on Wednesday he would not oppose a delay to the start of a trial of four prominent Kenyans, including two leading presidential hopefuls, accused of fuelling post-election violence in 2007. The group, including former Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former Higher Education Minister William Ruto, are charged with masterminding the bloodshed that killed more than 1,200 people. All have said they are innocent. ...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son has refused to appoint a Libyan lawyer to defend him against accusations of murder and torture during a crackdown on a revolt against his father's rule, the country said on Wednesday. Libya said earlier this month that it would complete within weeks its investigation into Saif al-Islam and asked the International Criminal Court to once again to hold off ordering his surrender. ...

Celebrated Indian boxer M.C. Mary Kom faced a nerve-wracking wait Thursday after a shock defeat at the women's world boxing championships left her Olympic bid in doubt.

Spanish giants Barcelona are setting up a football school in India as they expand their coaching network worldwide with the aim of training 10,000 youngsters in the next three years.

The activist who was at the center of a diplomatic tussle between Beijing and Washington said Thursday that Chinese officials have told him the passports that he and his family just applied for should be ready within two weeks. A rights group, meanwhile, described more retaliation by authorities against his family.

Dog bites man does not get a lot of attention in the news, but it costs insurance companies hundreds of millions in claims every year.

Japan's economy grew by a faster-than-expected 1.0 percent in the three months to March, official figures showed Thursday, as rising domestic demand and a boost in exports kept it on the recovery path.

US intelligence officials have unveiled a once top secret scale model of Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan, a precise replica used to plan the raid that killed the Al-Qaeda chief a year ago.

Sri Lanka's president has promised to free jailed former army chief Sarath Fonseka unconditionally and at the earliest opportunity, the ex-general's wife said on Thursday.

White births in the United States are no longer in the majority, according to US Census Bureau data made public Thursday, a newspaper reported.

In his first interview since December, Syrian President Bashar Assad has insisted his regime is fighting back against foreign mercenaries who want to overthrow him, not innocent Syrians aspiring for democracy in a yearlong uprising.

A black smoke covered Cairo's Tahrir Square. Around a dozen protesters who had been holding a weekslong sit-in demanding an end to military rule had come to the conclusion their gathering was useless. So over the weekend, they splashed gas on their tents and banners, burned them to ashes and left.

Japan's economy grew an at annual rate of 4.1 percent in the first quarter amid a gradual recovery from last year's catastrophic earthquake and tsunami.

A Malaysian court on Thursday sentenced to death three Mexican brothers and two other people for drug trafficking, rejecting the defense argument that evidence was tampered with.