The search for a missing Russian cargo ship was "developing quite dramatically" Friday, according to Russia's ambassador to NATO. But exactly what was developing was not made clear. Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin spoke on Radio Echo of Moscow amid reports of progress in the search for the Arctic Sea, a cargo ship whose Russian crew was last heard from after a reported hijacking two weeks ago. Asked about reports that the ship had been located in the Atlantic Ocean, the ambassador ...

Germany took a decisive step nearer the 2010 World Cup finals with a 2-0 win in Azerbaijan to open up a four-point gap at the top of European qualifying group four. Goals early in each half from Bastian Schweinsteiger and Miroslav Klose sealed victory for Joachim Loew's side, who have played a game more than closest rivals Russia. Germany's trip to face Russia in Moscow on October 10 is likely to decide who tops the group, but Wednesday's win gives ...

Crouching in a verdant pasture in the early summer sun, Eduardo Sousa plucks a few blades of grass and extends them toward a flock of geese. "Hello, my darlings," he coos. "Hello, hello, hello." It is the Spanish farmer's first visit to the Stone Barns Center, a farm and education center dedicated to sustainable agriculture in Pocantico Hills, some 30 miles north of New York City, and Sousa is impressed with what he sees. "If I ...

It's never been easy to be part of the huddled masses. The Statue of Liberty may not be choosy about which wretched refuse she allows in the door, but Americans themselves haven't always been so hospitable. Immigrants from Ireland landed in the U.S. in the 1850s only to find shop windows festooned with signs reading "No Irish Need Apply." The Chinese toiled to build our transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, only to see the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act signed ...

Rafael Nadal made his return to competitive tennis after a two-and-a-half month layoff with a doubles victory at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. Nadal teamed up with fellow Spaniard Francisco Roig to beat the Serbian pairing of Novak Djokovic and Dusan Vemic 7-5 6-4 in a first round match. World number two Nadal has not played since losing in the fourth round of the French Open to Robin Soderling, troubled by tendinitis in both knees which caused him to skip ...

Former world number one Kim Clijsters made a triumphant return to tennis on Monday beating 12th seed Marion Bartoli of France in straight sets at the WTA event in Cincinnati. Clijsters, who retired over two years ago, swept aside Bartoli 6-4 6-3 in the first round of the $2 million tournament. "I was really excited to be out there. It has been so long I've been practicing for this. To finally be here, it was exciting," Clijsters told the official ...

DNA testing to try to identify hundreds of bodies buried in a mass grave during World War I will start this week, the British and Australian ministries of defense announced Monday. The bodies come from Fromelles in northern France, where thousands of British and Australian troops were killed or wounded in a single night in 1916 -- a night the Australian military still considers among the worst in its history. An exploratory dig in May of this year confirmed that ...

Last month two famous defendants — one adored, the other despised — appeared in courts nearly 10,000 km apart. Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, is being tried by a special tribunal in The Hague for murder, rape, torture and other war crimes allegedly committed during the decade-long conflict in neighboring Sierra Leone. Taylor — known as "Pappy" to child soldiers who, say prosecutors, were abducted, drugged and dispatched to commit atrocities on his orders — used his ...

The last British soldier to serve in World War I was buried Thursday, marking "the passing of a generation," the British veterans minister said. Harry Patch died July 25 at the age of 111, a week after fellow British World War I veteran Henry Allingham died at the age of 113. A party of pallbearers escorting his coffin was made up of two Belgian, two French, and two German infantrymen, while his coffin was carried by six soldiers from a ...

Spanish police Thursday arrested a suspected member of the Basque separatist group who is wanted for six killings in the 1980s, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Juan Manuel Inciarte Gallardo, 55, was detained at Madrid's airport after he was expelled from Mexico for lack of proper documents, the ministry said. The arrest came a week after authorities blamed ETA for two major car bombings -- one that killed two Civil Guard officers on the Spanish island of Mallorca, ...