World - McClatchy Newspapers

LONDON— Heading home from an overseas trip aimed at strengthening his foreign policy credentials, Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday he's not counting on an immediate political boost and thinks it's just as likely he'll experience a short-term dip in polls simply because he's been out of the country for nine days.

BEIJING— The haze that stubbornly cloaks China's capital in the run-up to the Summer Olympics looks worse than it really is, two senior officials asserted Saturday.

WASHINGTON— Barack Obama and John McCain say more U.S. troops should be sent to Afghanistan, and President Bush agrees. Deploying additional forces could backfire, however, if the United States and its allies don't devise a coherent strategy to defeat the Taliban insurgency, strengthen the Afghan government, bolster the country's economy and deprive Islamic militants of their safe haven in neighboring Pakistan.

BAGHDAD— Haider Nasir knew the news was coming but it still landed like a punch to the gut.

WASHINGTON— Barack Obama has presented himself to American voters as the candidate of change, but on a weeklong foreign trip that ends Saturday he sounded more like a traditionalist when it comes to foreign policy.

MOSCOW— The Russian newspaper Izvestia reported Thursday that crews from Russian strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons have surveyed sites in Cuba for possible refueling stopovers.

LONDON_ Not so long ago, David Lammy seemed destined to become Britain's first black prime minister.

BAGHDAD_ Five Iraqi athletes invited to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games have been barred from competing in August, the International Olympic Committee said Thursday.

KIRKUK, Iraq— Sgt. Seth "Doc" Musikant could be a recruiting poster for the Army's new approach to PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder.

BERLIN— In a highly unusual move for an American presidential candidate, Barack Obama staged a foreign policy speech Thursday before a huge overseas audience, implicitly criticizing President Bush and calling for renewed transatlantic cooperation to rein in Iran, fight religious extremism and terrorism, and address global warming and poverty.

AMARA, Iraq— It wasn't yet dawn, and the Iraqi army unit was already behind schedule. It was about to launch a major operation against another cluster of towns overrun by Shiite Muslim militiamen, and this time American forces would remain at the rear of the convoy, behind their Iraqi counterparts.

BAGHDAD— Iraqi army troops headed Wednesday into Diyala, one of Iraq's last remaining restive provinces, in preparation for the next major government offensive, as Iraqi president Jalal Talabani vetoed a long-awaited elections bill, casting into doubt provincial elections widely viewed as critical for national reconciliation.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa— It seems that President Bush isn't the only world leader suffering from late-term blues. South African President Thabo Mbeki's final year in office has been marred by a series of embarrassments that have stained the legacy of the man who followed Nelson Mandela as leader of Africa's indispensable nation.

SDEROT, Israel— Tough talk on Iran dominated Barack Obama's meetings Wednesday in Israel and the West Bank, as Israeli officials amplified their enemy's threat and the Democratic presidential hopeful declared that a "nuclear Iran would be a game-changing situation."

TALAGANTE, Chile— The people of the Andean mountain range have long seen the condor as more than just a big bird. With a wingspan stretching up to 10 feet and a cruising altitude higher than 16,000 feet above sea level, this majestic creature was considered a supernatural being, a source of national pride and even an immortal divinity.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan— Pakistan's intelligence agencies and police have disappeared hundreds of Pakistanis, including children as young as 9, as part of the U.S.-led war on terrorism, Amnesty International charged Wednesday.

MOSCOW— Amid talks about a billion-dollar arms purchase from Russia, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that he wanted the two nations to become strategic partners to ensure "Venezuela's sovereignty, which is currently being threatened by the United States."

BAGHDAD— The Iraqi parliament approved a bill Tuesday that calls for crucial provincial elections on Oct. 1, but the secret ballot alienated Iraqi Kurds and very likely will lead to the postponement of the process until next year, several members of parliament told McClatchy.

WASHINGTON— Barack Obama's plan to build up U.S. forces in Afghanistan while keeping perhaps 50,000 troops in Iraq has triggered a deep rift among antiwar activists, a reminder of the difficult tasking facing the presumptive Democratic nominee as he tries to broaden his appeal.

NITEROI, Brazil— The discovery of hundreds of young penguins washing up along the Brazilian shoreline over the past month has sparked a scientific mystery over what may have led the birds thousands of miles astray.

BEIJING— As they prepare to host the Summer Olympics, Chinese are extraordinarily satisfied with their nation's economic growth and the way things are going for their country, chalking up much higher levels of contentment than earlier in the decade, a survey released Tuesday showed.

AMMAN, Jordan— Heading into a full day of meetings Wednesday with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Barack Obama said Tuesday that if he's elected he'll push for a two-state peace settlement "from the minute I'm sworn in to office," but added that "it's unrealistic to expect that a U.S. president alone can suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace in this region."

JERUSALEM— A lone Palestinian driving a heavy construction backhoe went on a short rampage Tuesday afternoon, smashing into a bus and several cars before being shot dead within view of the Jerusalem hotel where Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is expected to stay this evening.

AMMAN, JORDAN— As Barack Obama heads into the world's most complicated region in a bid to establish his foreign-policy credentials as a presidential hopeful, Israelis and Palestinians are voicing a mixture of hope, skepticism and curiosity.

SUNNYSIDE, South Africa— They'd struggled for so long to bring Zimbabwe to this point: a vibrant, generally free election in which President Robert Mugabe suffered his first defeat in 28 years in power.

BAGHDAD— Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki took advantage of Barack Obama's internationally watched visit Monday to set a two-and-a-half-year timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

BEIJING— Authorities Sunday ordered half of Beijing's 3.3 million vehicles off city streets for a two-month period in an experiment designed to remove a smoggy halo over the capital and ease traffic jams before the Summer Olympics.

AABEY, Lebanon— The skinny young brothers fidgeted in their plastic chairs as they gazed up at the beefy killer soaking in his first days of freedom after nearly three decades in Israeli prison.