UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Madonna, Chris Rock and dozens of other celebrities raised $3.7 million Wednesday night at a star-studded benefit at the United Nations to help poor and sick children around the world….

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — The leader of al-Qaida in Afghanistan praised a top commander who was killed last month by a U.S. missile strike and vowed to avenge his death, according to a video released Wednesday….

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — The confusion of combat during an intense firefight in Afghanistan five years ago has led to conflicting testimony that is complicating the case of a Canadian terror suspect, opposing attorneys agree….

TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s lower house Wednesday passed a revised anti-terrorism law that remains one of the country’s most contentious, allowing the government to detain foreign terror suspects indefinitely without disclosing evidence against them….

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A delegation sent by the U.N.’s top human rights official began a mission Wednesday to look into reports of brutality and serious abuses in the weeks of deadly violence since the country’s disputed presidential election….

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Six suspects appeared before an investigating judge in connection with deadly twin truck bombings in December at a U.N. office and a government building in Algiers, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday….

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Lawmakers voted early Thursday to approve a constitutional amendment allowing female students to enter universities wearing Islamic head scarves - a move some Turks see as a threat to the traditional separation of church and state….

LONDON (AP) — Evidence gathered through wiretapping will be allowed in British courts for the first time under proposals aimed at bringing more terrorism suspects to justice, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced Wednesday….

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi and U.N. officials toured a bomb-damaged Shiite shrine in northern Iraq on Wednesday as workers took the first steps in a long-delayed reconstruction - nearly two years after the attack on the famed golden dome became a rallying point for Shiite rage….

LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany (AP) — Neo-Nazi graffiti was found scrawled on the entrance to a Turkish cultural center at a building where nine people - including five children - were killed in a fire, police said Wednesday….