The climax of the Ashura holy festival became an intense focus of sectarian violence Tuesday as assailants targeted Shia worshippers.

Rivals Hamas and Fatah have declared a ceasefire, a move the Palestinian groups hope will end more than a month of deadly fighting in Gaza.

There will be no bail for a 71-year-old Mississippi man charged in the 1964 slayings of two African-American men after a CBC filmmaker and his subject brought the cold case back to life.

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was euthanized Monday morning after complications from breaking a leg at the Preakness in May.

A former White House press secretary testified Monday that I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby informed him Valerie Plame was a CIA operative days before Libby claims he learned about her identity from a reporter.

A California man convicted of molesting children for decades in multiple states was sentenced Monday to 150 years in prison for abusing two 12-year-old boys.

Israel may have violated an agreement with Washington by using U.S.-made cluster bombs during last summer's war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, said the U.S. State Department.

The final documentary by naturalist Steve Irwin is to be broadcast in his native Australia on Monday.

A vaccine appears to be safe and effective against the deadliest form of the bird flu virus, say researchers in Taiwan who tested the vaccine in animals.

Emma Faust Tillman, who became the world's oldest known living person last week, died at an East Hartford, Conn., nursing home. She was 114.

A painting stolen from the Hermitage museum six years ago was restored to the famed Russian museum on Monday, the first day of a UNESCO World Heritage conference.

The federal government is urgently seeking a cooling system for Canadian Leopard tanks stationed in Afghanistan to protect troops from the sweltering heat.

Delegates at the African Union summit on Monday agreed that Ghana would assume leadership of the organization because of widespread opposition to Sudan's candidacy.

It would cost the world $635 million US to deliver clean water, provide basic health services and help save some of the millions living in "forgotten" Third World emergencies, UNICEF officials say.

The Canadian military effort in Afghanistan will be complete when Afghan security forces are established and the Afghan government gains full control of the area, says a new document from the military's chief of defence staff.

The first suicide bomber to attack Israel in nine months killed three other people Monday after targeting a small bakery in a resort town.

A bomb rigged in a parked car detonated Monday during a Shia holy festival, killing at least four people near a bus in northern Baghdad, as the bus began boarding Shias for a pilgrimage to a shrine.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denied Sunday that his left-leaning government is intent on seizing private property such as second homes or expensive cars from the wealthy.

Sinn Fein members have voted to co-operate with the Northern Ireland police, abandoning their decades-old hostility to legal law and order in the British territory.

Iraqi forces were on alert Sunday in the city of Karbala as hundreds of thousands of Shia worshippers gathered for the annual Ashura reglious festival.