World News Headlines - Canadian Press

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's official news agency reports that 20 people have been hanged in Iran on charges of drug trafficking.

TEHRAN, Iran - A top aide to Iran's all-powerful leader has accused the country's main opposition leader of being an American agent who should be tried for treason, increasing the pressure on reformists disputing the outcome of last month's presidential election.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - One of the troops injured in the blast that killed a Canadian comrade watched from a wheelchair Saturday as hundreds of his fellow soldiers gathered to say goodbye to Cpl. Nick Bulger.

MORONI, Comoros - Doe Cyrille and his crew searched for hours in crashing winds and waves up to 16 feet (5 metres) high for any sign of Yemenia Flight 626. Then they spotted a girl impossibly clinging to a piece of debris.

WASHINGTON - Colin Powell worries that President Barack Obama is trying to tackle too many big issues at one time and he offers this advice: take a hard look at costs and consider the additional red tape that will be created.

NEW YORK - The first visitors to Statue of Liberty's crown in nearly eight years have made the arduous climb - and one couple marked the occasion by getting engaged.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Honduras rebuffed demands by the international community to reinstate President Manuel Zelaya and pulled out of the Organization of American States, thrusting the poor Central American nation deeper into political crisis and isolation.

SAN'A, Yemen - A Yemeni aviation committee says pieces of wreckage from the passenger jet that crashed off the Comoros islands have been recovered.

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea fired seven ballistic missiles off its eastern coast Saturday, South Korea said, a violation of U.N. resolutions and an apparent message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day.

YANGON, Myanmar - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he is "deeply disappointed" after the Myanmar junta rejected his second and final request to meet jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

MORELIA, Mexico - Mexican police found a mummified corpse and four other dead bodies on a farm in the drug-plagued western state of Michoacan on Friday.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Air France says a flight has been forced to return to a Dominican airport because of technical problems with its air conditioning.

WASHINGTON - Sarah Palin's stunning announcement Friday that she's stepping down as Alaska governor is sure to renew heated debate in the United States about the media's treatment of her political aspirations, her capabilities and the state of modern-day feminism.

CAIRO - Gunmen abducted two female aid workers in Darfur on Friday, said the international peacekeeping mission in the western region of Sudan.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil's air force released a recording Friday it said proves it handed over control of Air France Flight 447 to Senegalese authorities before it crashed - but African officials denied that.

BAGHDAD - Vice-President Joe Biden pressed Iraqi leaders Friday to do more to foster national reconciliation and offered U.S. assistance in achieving that, as concerns grow that a lack of political progress is fueling violence in Iraq.

LONDON - Six people, including a 3-week-old baby, were killed and 30 people had to be rescued when fire ripped through a high-rise apartment building in London on Friday, emergency services said.

WASHINGTON - Sordid stories that seem plucked from the afternoon soap operas have been dominating the U.S. political landscape in recent days as Capitol Hill legislators took a breather during their Fourth of July recess.

GALVESTON, Texas - Officials in Texas are investigating the torching of 30 palm trees in the last two months.

WASILLA, Alaska - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Republican vice-presidential candidate, made a surprise announcement Friday that she is resigning from office at the end of the month without explaining why she plans to step down, raising speculation that she would focus on a run for the White House in the 2012 race.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security forces have significantly widened a crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank in the past month, doubling the number of detainees and increasingly targeting wives of activists, school teachers and others on the fringes of the Islamic militant group, Hamas officials say.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A self-described spiritual healer accidentally dropped a candle into a tub where a client was bathing in alcohol Friday, leaving her with burns over half her body, police said.

MOSCOW - Russia said Friday it will allow the United States to ship weapons across its territory to Afghanistan, a long-sought move that bolsters U.S. military operations but potentially gives the Kremlin leverage over critical American supplies.

JERUSALEM - Most members of a group of foreign peace activists seized at sea by the Israeli navy remained in custody Friday, three days after their failed attempt to run Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, relatives and supporters said.

LONDON - A British High Court judge on Friday criticized the government for moving a terror suspect from his home based on secret evidence under a house-arrest style program, ordering that the man be allowed to return to his residence in London.

GENEVA - The World Health Organization says the number of officially confirmed swine flu cases worldwide has reached 89,921.

MOSCOW - Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev will likely sign a stack of agreements during their Moscow summit, but their chief goal may be for the United States and Russia to stop acting like adversaries - even if they can't be friends.

ATHENS, Greece - A time bomb exploded outside a McDonalds restaurant in central Athens early Friday, causing extensive damage in what Greek authorities suspect was an attack by resurgent far-left terrorists.