TOP STORIES
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BEIRUT/CAIRO - Syria said on Wednesday its military command was still studying a proposal for a holiday ceasefire with rebels - contradicting international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi's announcement that Damascus had agreed to a truce.
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JERUSALEM - Palestinians fired dozens of rockets into Israel from Gaza on Wednesday and an Israeli air strike killed a militant in a surge of violence after the Emir of Qatar embraced the enclave's Hamas leadership with a visit.
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DAVENPORT, Iowa - President Barack Obama's campaign leaped on Wednesday to link rival Mitt Romney with a Republican U.S. Senate candidate's comments on rape, calling them an outrageous reminder of the restrictions Republicans would place on women's healthcare choices.
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KHARTOUM - Sudan on Wednesday accused Israel of carrying out an air strike on a large arms factory in Khartoum, its capital, that killed two people, but Israel's defence and foreign ministry declined to comment.
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ATHENS - Greece's finance minister said on Wednesday that his country had been given additional time by its international lenders to impose its austerity cuts, an assertion played down by leading EU officials.
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PARIS - Former Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel lost his appeal on Wednesday against a three-year prison sentence for his role in France's biggest rogue-trading scandal.
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CARLETONVILLE - AngloGold Ashanti sacked 12,000 wildcat strikers who defied a deadline to return to work on Wednesday, the latest South African company to resort to mass firings after weeks of crippling labour unrest.
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MOSCOW/LONDON - Ecuador is worried about the health of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and has asked Britain to guarantee him safe passage from its London embassy to hospital if he needs medical treatment, a senior Ecuadorean diplomat said in Moscow.
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WASHINGTON - Two years after the Stuxnet computer worm attacked its nuclear program, Iran is increasingly turning to cyber warfare itself in a growing, stealthy confrontation with its enemies.
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NEW YORK - The New York Times public editor has questioned whether incoming chief executive Mark Thompson, the former head of the BBC, is fit to serve as the company's top official as a scandal shakes Britain's most prestigious broadcaster.