UNITED STATES-IRAQ

WASHINGTON - Congress members returning to Capitol Hill next week will face a debate over President Barack Obama's new $5.6 billion plan to broadly expand the U.S. mission in Iraq and send up to 1,500 more American troops to the war-torn nation.

OBAMA-ATTORNEY GENERAL

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has chosen federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch to be the next attorney general, sending a Washington outsider as a high-profile confirmation test amid a power shift in the Senate. 

ROBIN WILLIAMS

SAN FRANCISCO - Robin Williams' autopsy finds no alcohol or illegal drugs were in his body when he killed himself at his California home in August, sheriff's officials say.

POLITICS

WASHINGTON - A White House lunch aiming for cooperation boils into a fresh dispute with newly empowered Republicans over immigration reform, with Republican leaders warning President Barack Obama to his face not to take unilateral action. The president stood unflinchingly by his plan to act. 

MEXICO-VIOLENCE

MEXICO CITY - Suspects in the disappearance of 43 college students have described a macabre and complicated mass murder and incineration of the victims carried out over an entire day and ending with their ashen remains being dumped into a river, Mexican authorities say. 

ARGENTINA-DEFAULT

NEW YORK - A lawyer for Argentina has told a U.S. judge that his orders have caused bondholders to demand $4.7 billion since June, creating an "impossible situation" for the South American nation. 

COLOMBIA-INDIGENOUS JUSTICE

BOGOTA, Colombia - Hundreds of Indians in Colombia armed with little more than wooden staffs have corralled several Marxist guerrillas and intend to bring them to justice for the killing of two tribe members. 

MEXICO-RAIL PROJECT

MEXICO CITY - President Enrique Pena Nieto has canceled a $3.7 billion high-speed rail concession granted this week to a Chinese-led consortium amid criticisms that it was the only bidder.