AP - Brazil's president came under withering criticism Wednesday at home and in Cuba for his deference to the island's communist government over political prisoners and hunger strikes for human rights.

AP - Myanmar's military regime took yet another step to expunge Aung San Suu Kyi from the political scene Wednesday by effectively barring her from the first elections in 20 years and pressuring her opposition party to expel her from its ranks.

AP - An open diplomatic row during the visit of Vice President Joe Biden has shined a spotlight on the U.S. failure to rein in Israeli settlement ambitions and deepened Palestinian suspicions that the United States is too weak to broker a deal.

AP - President Michelle Bachelet leaves office Thursday with a chunk of her country in ruins — and her popularity in the clouds.

AP - Church abuse scandals in Germany have reached the older brother of Pope Benedict XVI and are creeping ever closer to the pontiff himself.

AFP - Two women who were raped and abused by their father for over 25 years, becoming pregnant 18 times, have won an apology from local authorities for failing to prevent the serial incest.

AP - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Saudi leaders Wednesday that the U.S. effort for diplomatic engagement with Iran had come to naught and he asked for the influential kingdom's help to win wide backing for biting economic penalties against Tehran.