AP - The Danish navy says it has intercepted and sunk a suspected pirate vessel drifting off Somalia.

AP - India's top law enforcement official admitted Friday there were government "lapses" in last week's terror attack on Mumbai, amid a public uproar over security and intelligence failures in the deadly siege.

AFP - Three American men have taken the unusual step of moving to China in an extreme attempt to shed huge amounts of weight at a fat reduction clinic -- and have become surprise local celebrities.

AP - Russia said Wednesday it is sending a warship through the Panama Canal for the first time since World War II, a short journey loaded with symbolic weight: the destroyer will dock at a former U.S. naval base, showcasing Russia's growing influence in the region.

AP - Thailand's ailing king, a pillar of stability during his six decades on the throne, failed to attend celebrations marking his 81st birthday Friday as many Thais feared his fading from the scene could deepen the turmoil that has plagued the country for three years.

AP - Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin "Chemical Ali" Hassan al-Majid received a second death sentence Tuesday — this time for crushing a Shiite uprising in the wake of Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War.

AP - Canada's opposition parties vowed to oust Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government next month after Harper shut down Parliament to avoid almost certain defeat in a confidence vote, but infighting among one of the parties is casting doubt on whether the coalition will hold.

AP - Israeli soldiers and police stormed a disputed building in the biblical city of Hebron on Thursday, dragging out 250 young settlers in a raid meant to send a warning to Jewish extremists fighting to keep what they see as God-promised land.

AFP - Venice was under water again on Tuesday after suffering its worst flooding in 22 years, as a new tide soaked the Renaissance city up to about thigh level.

AP - The only gunman captured during the terror attack on Mumbai says he was promised that his impoverished family would get $1,250 if he died fighting for militant Islam, security officials said Wednesday.

AP - Faith was breathing for Hope. So when the newborn conjoined Williams twins were separated, it turned out that Hope couldn't live without her sister.

AP - Shaking hands with yourself is an amusing out-of-body experience. The illusion of having your stomach slashed with a kitchen knife, not so much. Both sensations, however, felt real to most participants in a Swedish science project exploring how people can be tricked into the false perception of owning another body.

AP - Brothers Mushtaq and Ishaq Ali left the police force a month ago, terrified of dying as their colleagues had — beheaded by militants on a rutted village road before a shocked crowd.

AFP - A 10-day-old baby girl who survived a high-risk emergency operation to separate her from her conjoined twin remains "very sick", Great Ormond Street hospital said on Friday.

AP - The songs that whales and dolphins use to communicate, orient themselves and find mates are being drowned out by human-made noises in the world's oceans, U.N. officials and environmental groups said Wednesday.

Reuters - A group based in Pakistan may have been responsible for the attacks by militants in India's financial hub of Mumbai that killed 183 people, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday.

AP - A security pact that sets a timetable for troops to leave Iraq requires a shift in how the U.S. carries out combat missions during its remaining time in the country, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq said Friday.

Time.com - A British report suggests attackers used stimulants to stay awake. Terrorism experts aren't sure but warn against developing a stereotype 'jihadist'

AP - Thousands of grief-stricken Orthodox Jews prayed and wept Tuesday before the shrouded bodies of Israelis killed in Mumbai, joining the national mourning in a ceremony broadcast on TV and attended by Israeli leaders.