When Iranian Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her work as a lawyer and human-rights activist, the regime in Tehran faced a dilemma. The award infuriated the country's hard-liners, but the regime privately acknowledged that it had also earned Ebadi the admiration of most Iranians. Reluctant to arrest or openly target such a popular figure, the government tolerated Ebadi's activities and limited itself to low-level harassment of her legal office. That tacit policy has now ...

Japan's unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent in September, the government reported on Friday, according to Kyodo news Service.

One child is dead and two others are missing in Malaysia, after a suspension bridge they were crossing collapsed, the Bernama national news agency said Tuesday.

A meteorite-like object has created a crater after landing near a farm in northern Latvia, the nation's official news agency reported.

Residents of the New Jersey town where a priest was found dead in the kitchen of his church's rectory Friday morning should exercise caution, Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi said. Due to the nature of the wounds, the death of the Rev. Ed Hinds, 61, of St. Patrick's Church "in all likelihood was in fact a homicide," Bianchi told reporters at a news conference Friday afternoon. He said investigators believe Hinds was killed sometime between 11 p.m. Thursday and 8 ...

Three U.N. ambassadors on the front lines of the fight against radical Islamist terrorism presented a united front Thursday against extremism in an unprecedented joint public appearance on a major television news program.

If consumers like the new Windows 7 operating system, they'll have the much-maligned Windows Vista to thank. In part, that's because Windows 7 actually builds on the under-the-hood changes that came with Vista. But, it also turns out that the vast headaches created by Vista were just what the PC industry needed to improve their cooperation. With consumers lukewarm to Vista and many businesses shunning it entirely, both Microsoft and the computer makers realized that the standard way of business ...

Wrestling legend and reality TV star Hulk Hogan reveals in a new book that he would have committed suicide were it not for a surprise phone call, according to a story in the New York Daily News. Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, credits boxer and "Gladiators" co-star Laila Ali with making the call that prevented him from taking his own life. In his new book "My Life Outside the Ring," the former wrestler describes how he hit rock ...

An Iranian-American man has been sentenced to 15 years in an Iranian prison for his role in protests after the disputed presidential election in June, a U.S. State Department spokesman said Tuesday. The United States is "deeply concerned" that Kian Tajbakhsh has been sentenced to prison, spokesman Ian Kelly said. "Mr. Tajbakhsh poses no threat to the Iranian government or its national security," Kelly said. "Given the groundless nature of charges against him we call on Iran to grant his ...

For weeks now, the stock market has been toying with Dow 10,000. Considering that the large-company index went as low as 6,547 in March, that feels like cause for celebration. But is it really? A growing chorus of market-watchers says no. The concern is that the stock market is overwrought and that down is the only sensible direction to head. Sure, individual companies have been quick to bounce lower based on bad news. Both insurance outfits and financial firms lost ground on Tuesday thanks to ...