World

Tropical Storm Carlos has formed far off Mexico's Pacific coast and is expected to reach hurricane strength in the next few days as it moves further out to sea.

The publisher of a British tabloid owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch denied on Friday a report that it had accessed the voice mail of celebrities and politicians and tried to suppress evidence of the hacking.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced a U.S.-backed effort to ease Honduras' coup crisis on Friday even as mediators tried - so far unsuccessfully - to find a compromise by rival contenders for the presidency.

The petite Muslim woman with the sky blue head scarf began by complaining that the public washrooms were closed at a crowded mosque on Friday - the most important day of the week for Islamic worship. When a group gathered around her on the sidewalk, Madina Ahtam then railed against communist rule in China's far western region of Xinjiang, rocked by ethnic rioting that has killed at least 184 people this week.

For all the smiles and upbeat talk, the just-ended Group of Eight summit showed how unwieldy the forum has become, run by Cold War-vintage powers while relegating the world's fastest growing economies - China, India and Brazil - to observers.

Pope Benedict XVI stressed the church's opposition to abortion and stem cell research in his first meeting with President Barack Obama on Friday, pressing the Vatican's case with the U.S. leader who is already under fire on those issues from some conservative Catholics and bishops back home.

Nelson Mandela has distanced himself from a London exhibition of disputed lithographs bearing his signature, his lawyer said Friday.

Police said Friday they have launched a criminal investigation to determine if British intelligence officers were aware of the treatment of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who claims he was tortured while being detained in Guantanamo, Pakistan and Morocco.

Crammed into rickety vans with electric fans and sacks of flour roped to the roof, the first of Pakistan's 2 million refugees have begun returning to their homes after the army said it expelled Taliban militants from some northern strongholds.

Pope Benedict XVI stressed the church's opposition to abortion and stem cell research in his first meeting with President Barack Obama on Friday, pressing the Vatican's case with the U.S. leader who is already under fire on those issues from some conservative Catholics and bishops back home.