An American professor recalls her sojourn in Sri Lanka.

Almost six months after China cut off communications in a bid to control race riots in restive Xinjiang Province, it has given residents access to two party-controlled websites. But phone calls and text messages remain restricted.

Israel high court overturned a ban on Palestinian use of a highway that cuts through the West Bank ahead of a visit by US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell next week.

AP - The Netherlands announced Wednesday it will immediately begin using full body scanners for flights heading to the United States, issuing a report that called the failed Christmas Day airline bombing a "professional" terror attack.

AP - A man tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month carrying powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that could have caused an explosion in a case bearing chilling similarities to the terrorist plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

AP - The head of a presidential delegation investigating the deaths of 10 people in eastern Afghanistan concluded Wednesday that civilians — including schoolchildren — were killed in an attack involving foreign troops, disputing NATO reports that the dead were insurgents.