MORELIA, Mexico Police in western Mexico found four mutilated bodies in plastic bags on the side of a highway Thursday.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica Talks to resolve the leadership crisis in Honduras began Thursday, with both sides holding closed-door meetings with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to discuss a coup that has re-awoken fears of political instability in the region.

As of Thursday, July 9, 2009, at least 647 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Thursday at 10 a.m. EDT.

URUMQI, China Construction worker Zhang Binkun was seething over the death of his mother, whom he believes was killed by a mob of Uighurs with sticks and stones.

TEHRAN, Iran Thousands of protesters streamed down avenues of the capital Thursday, chanting "death to the dictator" and defying security forces who fired tear gas and charged with batons, witnesses said.

BAGHDAD Bombs killed nearly 60 people in Iraq on Thursday in the worst violence since U.S. combat troops withdrew from urban areas last week, and American forces released five Iranian officials suspected of aiding Shiite insurgents.

RIO DE JANEIRO Two brothers in Rio are living over the edge - literally: sleeping, working and eating on the side of a building 33 feet (10 meters) up in the air. Twenty-seven-year-old Tiago Primo and his 20-year-old brother Gabriel spend 12 hours a day in the bed, hammock, chair and dining table they've attached to a bright red-and-yellow wall as part of an art exhibit in Rio's old center.

TEHRAN, Iran Chanting a bitter new rallying cry, thousands of Iranians marched through Tehran Thursday in the latest protest over last month's disputed presidential election, but riot police fired tear gas and blocked them from reaching their intended goal of Tehran University.

CARACAS, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez's government is imposing new regulations on cable television while revoking the licenses of more than 200 radio stations, the top telecommunications official said Thursday.

MEXICO CITY Mexico's Attorney General's Office announced Thursday that it is launching a federal investigation into the killing of a Mormon anti-crime activist, calling it a high-impact crime that appears related to the arrest of a gang of gunmen.

As of Thursday, July 9, 2009, at least 647 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Thursday at 10 a.m. EDT.

As of Thursday, July 9, 2009, at least 4,323 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

BAGHDAD Mass bombings continued for a second day Thursday throughout Iraq, killing dozens of people and wounding more than 130 in at least three cities a week after the U.S. military withdrew combat forces from Iraq's major cities.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica Talks to resolve the leadership crisis in Honduras got on track Thursday, with both sides holding closed-door meetings with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to discuss a coup that has re-awoken fears of political instability in the region.

GUATEMALA CITY An appeals court found insufficient evidence to warrant the trial of a Guatemalan whose Twitter message led to his arrest on charges of inciting financial panic.

BAGHDAD Mass bombings continued for a second day Thursday throughout Iraq, killing dozens of people and wounding more than 130 in at least three cities a week after the U.S. military withdrew combat forces from Iraq's major cities.

L'AQUILA, Italy The chasm between rich and poor on how to address climate change burst into the open at the G-8 summit Thursday, showing how difficult it will be to persuade the world to make lifestyle and economic sacrifices needed to save the planet from global warming.

LA PAZ, Bolivia The United States deported a key figure in Bolivia's last military dictatorship back home Thursday to serve a 30-year prison sentence for crimes including genocide and political assassinations.

BEIJING A moderate earthquake rocked southwest China Thursday evening, injuring at least 336 people and collapsing 10,000 homes, state media said. The magnitude-6.0 temblor, centered in Yunnan province's Yao'an county, damaged another 30,000 homes, the Xinhua News Agency said.

BAGHDAD Iraq's U.S.-led invaders inflicted serious damage on Babylon, driving heavy machinery over sacred paths, bulldozing hilltops and digging trenches through one of the world's greatest archaeological sites, experts for UNESCO said Thursday.

L'AQUILA, Italy Michelle Obama and other first spouses toured the center of L'Aquila on Thursday to see the destruction wrought by an earthquake in the Italian city hosting world leaders for the Group of Eight summit this week.

CAIRO Egyptian authorities arrested 25 people on suspicion of plotting attacks on oil pipelines and ships in the Suez Canal, the Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

LONDON The tricks of the trade of Britain's rambunctious tabloid press came under scrutiny Thursday, after a newspaper reported that a tabloid owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch had illegally hacked into the mobile phones of hundreds of celebrities and politicians.

L'AQUILA, Italy Despite a request for a wives' boycott of this week's G-8 summit to protest the personal behavior of the Italian prime minister, first lady Michelle Obama and other spouses came as planned - and found themselves touring with a former topless model-turned-government minister filling in as the official hostess for the prime minister's soon-to-be ex-wife.

L'AQUILA, Italy Leaders of the exclusive club of eight industrialized leaders plus five of the fastest developing nations are calling for open markets and a battle against protectionism as the answer to the world's economic meltdown.

MULDERSDRIFT, South Africa Dumisani Rebombo wasn't circumcised, did chores considered girls' work and was sick of being taunted for not being a man. So at age 15, he took the only course considered "manly" in his rural South African village: He raped a girl.

L'AQUILA, Italy President Barack Obama said Thursday the global recession makes it harder to strike an international agreement to battle dangerous temperature increases, but he urged the poor emerging economies that rejected specific clean-energy goals to "fight the temptation toward cynicism" and embrace them soon.

URUMQI, China Construction worker Zhang Binkun said Thursday he was enraged because a mob of Muslim minorities beat to death his mother in the worst rioting to hit western China in decades.

KABUL Afghanistan's government has revised a law that stirred an international outcry because it essentially legalized marital rape, officials said Thursday. The new version no longer requires a woman submit to sex with her husband, only that she do certain housework.

MOSCOW Revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin may be losing another round in the fight over Russia's history.

ARUSHA, Tanzania Three more bodies were found off Tanzania Thursday, bringing the total to 16, as the French navy arrived to assist in the search for wreckage and remains from a plane that crashed into the Indian Ocean.

SEOUL, South Korea The third wave of cyber attacks to hit South Korea caused little disruption Thursday, with six of seven Web sites affected quickly back up and running.

PARIS A Paris hospital says a 12-year-old girl who was the only known survivor of the Yemenia Airways flight that crashed in the Indian Ocean has undergone facial surgery.

EISENACH, Germany Richard Wagner is the classical composer most associated with the Nazis, but Johann Sebastian Bach was the one the party dubbed "the most German of Germans" and whose music was played at rallies to stir up nationalist zeal.

JAKARTA, Indonesia The next challenge for Indonesia's president, after winning re-election in a likely landslide, will be assembling a government that is bold enough to take on persistent corruption, poverty and human rights violations seen to be holding back the young democracy.

BEIJING A model Uighur by most Chinese standards, Ilham Tohti is fluent in Mandarin, has a master's in economics and supports Beijing's plans to develop his native Xinjiang, the restive far western region that has been convulsed by ethnic riots in recent days.

YANGON, Myanmar Along the shores of artificial Inya Lake, the empty compound of Aung San Suu Kyi lies within plain sight as couples stroll the path. Her home also is a curious attraction to onlookers from a hotel a minute's walk away.

L'AQUILA, Italy President Barack Obama is expected to announce a $15 billion agricultural investment initiative to help small farmers feed themselves, delegates at a Group of Eight summit said Thursday.

DUBLIN Thousands of Irish Catholics have flocked this week to a County Limerick church to pray at the stump of a recently cut willow that many observers say, has the silhouette of the Virgin Mary.

BAGHDAD U.S. military authorities on Thursday released four Iranian diplomats it had held prisoner for the past two years as anti-government insurgents staged mass bombings for a second consecutive day, killing dozens and wounding about 100.

L'AQUILA, Italy British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Thursday he will soon propose sweeping changes to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that would require states suspected of seeking to build nuclear weapons to prove that they are not.

KABUL A truck filled with explosives that police believe may have been destined for Kabul blew up on a highway Thursday, killing 25 people - more than half of them children walking to school. Two American soldiers died in combat as the U.S. military reported the number of roadside bombs in Afghanistan last month was nearly three times the figure for Iraq.

STOCKHOLM Sweden will extradite a man accused of taking part in mass slaughter in Rwanda to his homeland, marking the first time an EU nation has sent back a suspect to face charges in the 1994 genocide, officials said Thursday.

JOHANNESBURG Hundreds of striking workers demonstrated at World Cup stadiums across South Africa on Thursday, with some stoning cars and passers-by as they demanded higher wages for those building the stadiums and rail stations for Africa's first World Cup.

BAGHDAD Bombings killed more than 40 people in Iraq on Thursday in the worst violence since U.S. combat troops withdrew from urban areas last week, and American forces released five Iranian officials suspected of aiding Shiite insurgents.

SYDNEY Residents of a rural Australian town hoping to protect the earth and their wallets have voted to ban the sale of bottled water, the first community in the country - and possibly the world - to take such a drastic step in the growing backlash against the industry.

LONDON European stock markets trimmed gains Thursday after Wall Street failed to react positively to a smaller than expected loss by aluminum company Alcoa Inc. Investors clearly want more evidence before subscribing to the view that businesses may have seen off the worst of the recession.

ARUSHA, Tanzania Three more bodies were found off Tanzania, bringing the total to 16, as the French navy arrived Thursday to assist in the search for wreckage and remains from a plane that crashed into the Indian Ocean.

PARIS More than 600 pieces of Air France Flight 447 are being sent from Brazil to France by ship to be studied further for clues into the June 1 crash, Airbus said Thursday.

KHARTOUM, Sudan Sudan is negotiating with the kidnappers of two Darfur aid workers for their safe release, preferably without paying the demanded ransom, Sudanese officials said Thursday.