Reuters - Taliban suicide bombers struck across Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar on Saturday, killing 30 people and wounding scores in a series of strikes the militants called a message to NATO.

AFP - Algeria is to host foreign ministers from the Sahara and Sahel on Tuesday for talks on fighting "a resurgence" in acts of terror, the Algerian Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

AP - The iconic statue of Christ with outstretched arms that overlooks Rio de Janeiro is getting a $4 million renovation.

AP - A coalition led by Iraq's prime minister held a comfortable lead Saturday in the crucial contest for the nation's capital, bolstering his chances in an election deciding who will lead the country as U.S. forces go home.

AP - The Vatican on Saturday denounced what it called aggressive attempts to drag Pope Benedict XVI into the spreading scandals of pedophile priests in his German homeland. It also insisted that church confidentiality doesn't prevent bishops from reporting abuse to police.

AP - It often starts as a voice in the wilderness, but can swell into an entire nation's demand for truth. From Ireland to Germany, Europe's many victims of child abuse in the Roman Catholic church are finally breaking social taboos and confronting the clergy to face its demons.

AP - A contentious battle between Asia and the West over the fate of the Atlantic bluefin tuna prized by sushi lovers overshadowed a United Nations conference that opened Saturday in the Gulf state of Qatar.

AP - An American al-Qaida suspect detained in Yemen fooled his hospital guards into unshackling him by asking to join them for prayers, security officials said Saturday. He then killed a guard who laid down his weapons as he went ahead at prayer time.

AP - A suicide squad detonated bombs at a newly fortified prison, police headquarters and two other locations late Saturday, killing at least 30 people in the largest city of the southern Taliban heartland.

AP - Trash and sewage are piling up at the squalid tent camps that hundreds of thousands have called home since Haiti's devastating earthquake — and with torrential rains expected any day, authorities are not even close to providing the shelters they promised.