NOVA IGUACU, Brazil – Violence is a part of life in this slum on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Shootings are common and death squads of former and off-duty police officers, funded by local businessmen, are known to knock off undesirables. But even by the brutal standards of Nova …

NABLUS, West Bank – Palestinian gas stations began shutting down and motorists lined up at pumps after an Israeli fuel company cut off deliveries Wednesday, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that has followed Hamas’ rise to power. An end to fuel supplies could cripple …

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – An attorney for Jack Kevorkian said the assisted-suicide advocate will probably not survive another year if kept in prison, as he again asked the state to grant his client a pardon or commute his sentence. Lawyer Mayer Morganroth said he applied to the state Parole Board and …

NEW ORLEANS – Mississippi native Faith Hill and husband Tim McGraw say they plan to donate proceeds from their summer concert to benefit Gulf Coast hurricane relief. Hill and McGraw will perform July 5 at the New Orleans Arena as part of their “South2Soul II” tour. Hill is a native …

SANTIAGO, Chile – President-elect Michelle Bachelet, who was imprisoned and tortured under the right-wing dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, was praised Monday as a symbol of reconciliation who can help Chile come to terms with its traumatic political past. Bachelet, the first woman to be elected president in the conservative …

A new study finds that circumcised men appear less likely to sustain cuts, abrasions and other minor injuries to the penis during sex — which may help explain why circumcision lowers the risk of HIV transmission from heterosexual sex. For the new study, researchers used data from an HIV clinical …

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The Pentagon handed over on Monday the first list of everyone who has been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — more than four years after the U.S. began using it as a detention center in its war on terror. None of the most notorious terrorist …

NEW YORK – “The Drowsy Chaperone,” a daffy musical about one fan’s favorite 1920s show, took 13 Tony nominations Tuesday, including for best musical. Close behind with 11 was “The Color Purple,” the Oprah Winfrey-produced musical based on Alice Walker’s novel about a determined woman’s triumph over adversity. The revival …

SAROKI, Pakistan – More than 50,000 people attended the funeral Saturday of a Pakistani student who died while under arrest in Germany for allegedly planning to attack a newspaper that published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. About three dozen people were injured in a stampede when crowds tried to enter …

Fighters loyal to a U.S-backed alliance of warlords appeared to be preparing for a counterattack on a fundamentalist Islamic militia that had pushed them out of Somalia’s capital, witnesses said Wednesday. The warlords’ fighters took up defensive positions in the strategic town of Jowhar, 60 miles northwest of Mogadishu. Jowhar …