Apple's iPhone is set to make its debut in China by the end of this year after the US company reached agreement with China Unicom, the country's second-largest mobile operator. China Unicom on Friday said it would start selling the 3G iPhone in the fourth quarter after signing a non-exclusive three-year contract with Apple. The company said it would not use Apple's traditional revenue-sharing model and would instead pay the group on a wholesale basis. China Unicom said it hoped ...

For the first time in more than 60 years, America is without a Kennedy on the national stage and it's more than just a sentimental loss to President Barack Obama. The last of the Kennedy brothers, Senator Edward Kennedy, died this week of brain cancer at age 77. "We shouldn't underplay the adverse effect this has on the president's healthcare fight," said Democratic strategist James Carville. Kennedy was the youngest of four brothers, the only one who died peacefully. John ...

On the surface, it seems like a fine idea; reproductive rights groups certainly think so. In July, the Ugandan government announced that, using cash from the U.N. Population Fund, it would distribute 100,000 female condoms in a bid to stop a resurgence of HIV/AIDS. Advocates cheered the initiative, saying it would give women more control over their own bodies. But in the weeks since, major funders of anti-HIV/AIDS programs have shown far less enthusiasm, with many deciding not to ...

Voters in Japan will turn out for parliamentary elections Sunday in what poll after poll shows will be a historic shift in political power to oust the ruling party. The Liberal Democratic Party has been in nearly continuous control of Japan's parliament for more than five decades. But the country's worst economic crisis since World War II has led a normally sedate electorate to the polls, disgruntled with how slowly the country is emerging from the downturn. Polls ...

"The greatest expectations were placed upon Ted Kennedy's shoulders because of who he was," observed President Barack Obama in his eulogy, "but he surpassed them all because of who he became." Thus did a sitting President honor the man who never became one, acknowledging that power is wielded in many ways. It was fitting that, in a church famous for its healing miracles, the funeral service was a celebration of private love, for the scarred and broken ...

The United States and Cuba should show some flexibility and take steps to improve relations, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Friday during a weeklong trade mission to the island nation. "There is a good atmosphere [between the two countries]," he said at a news conference in Havana on Friday. "It is the best atmosphere I've seen in many years." Richardson called for "concrete steps from both sides," but noted a "lack of flexibility in their positions" and reciprocity from ...

The 54-year reign of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party is expected to come to an end on Sunday in the country's first general election in four years. The main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan , has little experience leading on a national level, but there are strong indications that voters will overwhelmingly support the party and its ambitious platform of reforming Japan's broken system. After half a century Japan, it seems, is finally clamoring for change. The ...

Swine flu arrived in Macon County, Alabama, last week, showing up in classrooms at all levels and leaving a spate of empty desks in its wake. But authorities are battling the virus on its own turf, using vacant seats as both a map and compass to stem the tide. When the virus entered the United States last April, the Centers for Disease Control issued test kits to physicians around the country to record confirmed cases. But by late July, ...

Thursday is "Chinese night" at the Hotel Silk Road in Afghanistan's Bamiyan province. (CNN) -- Thursday is "Chinese night" at the Hotel Silk Road in Afghanistan's Bamiyan province. Hungry guests sip cans of Coke and nonalcoholic beer and pick at a buffet that includes General Tsao's chicken, egg drop soup and slices of sweet green melon grown in nearby fields. When a vegetarian diner arrives, the hotel's Japanese owner, Hiromi Yasui, runs back to the kitchen to whip up a ...

In his sorrow last summer, he seemed larger than anyone had remembered. Forgotten were the early misadventures of the youngest son of a rich and famous family. Like Shakespeare's Prince Hal, he was not what he had seemed to be, and friends and critics alike saw not an immature Senator from Massachusetts but the legend's last guardian. That summer he avoided a chance for the presidential nomination. It would have been premature. But who could doubt that, if spared ...