A Saudi court on Wednesday sentenced a man who caused uproar by bragging about his sex life on television to five years in prison and 1,000 lashes, according to Ministry of Information officials. Mazen Abdul Jawad, a 32-year-old airline employee and divorced father of four, spoke openly about his sexual escapades, his love of sex and losing his virginity at age 14. He made the comments on Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, which aired the interview a few months ago. Saudi authorities ...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has again indicated willingness to participate in bilateral talks with the United States and return to six-party talks over its nuclear program, China's Xinhua news agency reported. The attitude shift by North Korea -- which pulled out of talks in April to protest the United Nations' condemnation over its nuclear test and missile launches -- came amid Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's weekend visit to Pyongyang, Xinhua reported Monday. The reclusive communist country also expressed such ...

The U.S. government is delaying "tens of millions" of dollars in crucial humanitarian aid over concerns that the money is being diverted to a notorious militant group, a senior U.N. official said. The U.S. government, concerned about the challenges in delivering assistance in a country wracked by civil war, says allegations that Al-Shabaab is stopping aid from reaching the people are under review. Although one U.S. government source said aid continues to flow to Somalia and hasn't been suspended, another ...

GM's Hummer division has commanded attention ever since the vehicles first appeared on American highways at the height of the sport utility boom. The Hummer brand, however, could be on the road to extinction if GM cannot soon finish a deal with China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, the only bidder for the controversial brand. GM announced plans to spin it off while reorganizing under bankruptcy protection this past summer. GM spokesman Chris Preuss acknowledges GM won't complete ...

The U.S. State Department is calling on Honduras' de facto president to immediately rescind an emergency decree that limits constitutional rights such as freedoms of expression, travel and public congregation. "The freedoms inherent in the suspended rights are inalienable and cannot be limited or restricted without seriously damaging the democratic aspirations of the Honduran people," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly in a statement late Monday night. Earlier Monday, Roberto Micheletti announced he would repeal the law, but it would ...

Filmmaker Roman Polanski has been arrested on an arrest warrant stemming from a decades-old sex charge, Swiss police said Sunday. The Academy Award-winning director pleaded guilty in 1977 to a single count of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, acknowledging he had sex with a 13-year-old girl, but fled the United States before he could be sentenced. U.S. authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in 1978. He was taken into custody trying to enter Switzerland on Saturday, Zurich ...

A U.S. drone crashed in northern Iraq Saturday morning, damaging the Mosul branch of the powerful Iraqi Islamic Party -- the nation's largest Sunni political party, a U.S. military spokesman confirmed. "He summited the mountain at 27,000 feet," spokesman George Arzt said. "He went down to a base camp at 23,000 [feet]. He slept and never awakened." Earlier, another Maloney spokesman had said her husband died in a "mountaineering accident." The congresswoman was in New York at the time of ...

Tehran's new uranium enrichment plant will be operational soon, and "will blind the eyes of the enemies," Iran's semi-official news agency Fars reported Saturday, quoting a senior Iranian official. Also Saturday, the head of Iran's atomic energy program said U.N. nuclear experts would be allowed to inspect the plant, according to a report from Iran-funded Press TV. Ali Akbar Salehi, the atomic energy chief, said a date would be arranged for such an inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency, ...

A videotape on a Russian Web site allegedly showing a State Department employee having sex with a prostitute is a "smear campaign" meant to discredit the man, a State Department spokesman said Thursday.

Myanmar's imprisoned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Thursday she accepted a new shift in U.S. policy toward her country, her spokesman said.