Pope Benedict met artists from around the world in the Sistine Chapel and urged them to inject spirituality into their work, saying contemporary beauty was often "illusory and deceitful."

The U.S. has spent $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq, but Iraqis' inability to maintain what's left behind could waste hundreds of millions of dollars and jeopardize basic services.

Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan exchanged e-mails with a radical Yemeni American cleric and began to discuss surreptitious financial transfers, according to two sources.

Hackers break into the electronic files of one of the world's foremost climate research centers and post an array of e-mails which causes a stir among skeptics who say discussions show a conspiracy.

Italian prosecutors request life in prison for American Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend, who are accused in the fatal stabbing of her British roommate.

Italian police on Saturday arrested two Pakistani men accused of providing logistical support for last year's terror attacks in Mumbai, officials said.

After offering a home in his church to disaffected Anglicans, Pope Benedict XVI assures the archbishop of Canterbury that he is still committed to seeking closer ties between Catholics and Anglicans.

Sri Lanka will release next month the remaining 136,000 Tamil refugees still in the squalid and overrun government camps where they've been detained since the country's civil war ended six months ago, a top official said Saturday.

A bear has attacked a man who entered its enclosure at a new park in Switzerland, and a policeman opened fire on the animal to defend the intruder.

A gas explosion tore through a state-run coal mine in China, killing 42 people and leaving 66 others trapped underground as rescuers worked hastily to save them.

Hamas announced Saturday evening that it has reached an agreement with other militant groups in Gaza to stop firing rockets at southern Israeli towns to prevent retaliatory attacks.

Nov. 21: Captured nearly one month ago, Paul and Rachel Chandler are seen pleading for their lives in a videotape obtained by a British television station. NBCs Stephanie Gosk reports(Today Show)

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