Most Emailed World News

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Guinness World Records has returned the title of world's tallest man to China's Bao Xishun after Ukrainian Leonid Stadnyk refused to be measured under new guidelines.

WARSAW, Poland - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Polish counterpart signed a deal Wednesday to build a U.S. missile defense base in Poland, an agreement that prompted an infuriated Russia to warn of a possible attack against the former Soviet satellite.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Armed pirates have seized a Malaysian tanker carrying palm oil and more than 20 crew members in the Gulf of Eden off the coast of Somalia, the fourth such hijacking in a month, a global maritime watchdog said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Grapefruit, orange and apple juices can harm the body's ability to absorb certain medications and make the drugs less effective, said a Canadian study released Tuesday in the United States.

CALCUTTA, India - International and domestic flights were disrupted across India on Wednesday as thousands of airport employees went on strike to protest plans to privatize airports, officials said.

IGOETI, Georgia - A convoy of badly needed food aid for beleaguered Georgians rumbled through a Russian checkpoint Wednesday, waved through by soldiers who themselves showed no signs of fulfilling their president's promise of a pullback within two days.

BEIJING (Reuters) - An earthquake hit southwest China on Wednesday, knocking down houses and forcing around 1,200 people to evacuate from near the site of a devastating quake which killed at least 70,000 people in May, state media said.

BEIJING - Chinese authorities have ordered two elderly women to spend one year in a labor camp after they applied to hold a protest during the Beijing Olympics against being forced from their homes, a relative said Wednesday.

BEIJING - Martial arts student Cheng Jianghua only saw the army barracks he stayed in and the stadium where he performed at the spectacular Olympics opening ceremony. But his sacrifices were minor — other performers were injured, fainted from heatstroke or forced to wear adult diapers so the show could go on.

BANGKOK, Thailand - British glam rocker Gary Glitter was refused entry into Thailand, officials said Wednesday, a day after the convicted child molester was freed by Vietnam following nearly three years in prison.

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Some 50,000 people have been forced to flee after monsoon rains washed away a dam in southern Nepal and were taking refuge in makeshift shelters, schools and temples, an official said Wednesday.

JERUSALEM - Israel has closed its cargo crossings with the Gaza Strip following a Palestinian rocket attack on southern Israel that violated a truce.

MOSCOW - A top Russian general says 64 of the country's soldiers were killed and 323 wounded in this month's fighting with Georgia.

BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand declared former glam rocker Gary Glitter "persona non grata" Wednesday and moved to deport him to Britain, one day after he finished prison time in Vietnam for child sex offences.

MOSCOW - While Western officials are mulling how to punish Russia for invading neighboring Georgia, most Russians view Georgia as the aggressor — aided and abetted by a hostile West.

MOSCOW, (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday backed Russia's pursuit of its "legal interests" in its conflict with Georgia and accused the West of using "total disinformation" to isolate Moscow.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 19 (New America Media) - For the first time, a big, American utility company is investing in large-scale solar energy. Pacific Gas & Electric has decided that solar is part of the answer for California's energy needs.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A U.S. federal grand jury handed down a new indictment against Puerto Rico Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila Tuesday, charging him with four counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with alleged campaign finance violations.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Just a day after Pervez Musharraf's resignation, Pakistan's governing coalition fell into wrangling Tuesday over restoring the judges he fired, exposing troublesome divisions that could disrupt picking his successor as president.

SUROBI, Afghanistan - Insurgents mounted two of the biggest attacks in years on Western forces in Afghanistan, killing 10 French soldiers in a mountain ambush and then sending a squad of suicide bombers in a failed assault early Tuesday on a U.S. base near the Pakistan border.

BOUIRA, Algeria (Reuters) - Two car bombs in Algeria killed at least 11 people on Wednesday, the day after an attack that left 43 dead at a military academy, Algerian press agency APS said quoting the Interior Ministry.

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - Floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains left some 50,000 people homeless in India's remote northeast, officials said on Wednesday, warning of more rains in one of the country's most flood-prone regions.