The U.N. General Assembly has unanimously approved a resolution calling for a global ban on female genital mutilation, a centuries-old practice stemming from the belief that...

The celebration of the cosmic dawn began with a fumbling of the sacred fire meant to honor Friday's end of the Mayan long count calendar.   Gabriel Lemus, the white-haired guardian of...

Customs authorities in Portugal say officials searching a cargo container in the port of Lisbon discovered 1,235 kilograms (2,700 pounds) of cocaine with an estimated street value of €56.5...

It's a real life Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.   Animal rescue officials in South Africa say they found a toad from China hidden inside a porcelain candlestick.   The Star...

Amid a worldwide frenzy of advertisers and new-agers preparing for a Maya apocalypse, one group is approaching Dec. 21 with calm and equanimity — the people whose ancestors supposedly made the...

A Thai court on Thursday ordered the extradition of a fugitive Italian banker found guilty of laundering money for some of Italy's top mobsters through New York pizzerias in the 1970s and...

A 20-year-old Boston University sophomore and a self-described "cellist-nerd" brought the Miss Universe crown back to the United States for the first time in more than a decade when she won...

Worshippers usually leave notes to the Almighty at one of Judaism's holiest sites. But half a billion dollars?   Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, who oversees Jerusalem's Western Wall, said...

Ruling-party candidate Park Geun-hye (Bahk guhn-hae) was elected South Korean president Wednesday, becoming the country's first female leader despite the incumbent's unpopularity and her own...

The leaders of an independent panel that blamed "systematic failures" in State Department management and leadership for gross security lapses in the deadly Sept. 11 attack on a U.S....