NAJAF - Thousands of Iraqis headed to Najaf Sunday for a rally called for by an anti-American cleric to protest the presence of foreign soldiers in the country. "The faithful should participate in a demonstration in Najaf on April 9, demanding that the occupiers withdraw form our lands," Shiite rebel leader Moqtada Sadr said in a statement released by his office. "They should carry or wear Iraqi flags." The protest will mark the fourth anniversary ... [full story]

MUMBAI - Indian authorities have freed a British woman sentenced to 10 years in jail for allegedly smuggling 22 pounds of marijuana in her suitcase. The attorney for Daisy Angus said Saturday she was released after her court appeal was granted. "Daisy has been acquitted of all the charges," Ayaz Khan said. "She is with her family." Angus was a 22-year-old fitness instructor from Dorset, England, on a round-the-world backpacking adventure when arrested by customs ... [full story]

TOKYO - Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara Sunday won a third four-year term by a landslide. Ishihara, 74, was unofficially backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito Party, the Mainichi Daily News reported. He defeated four other candidates, including former Miyagi Gov. Shiro Asano, 59, who was supported by the Democratic Party of Japan. Ishihara, a former novelist, drew support for luring the 2016 Olympics to Tokyo and deflected recent criticism for appointing ... [full story]

JERUSALEM - About 500 Orthodox Jews gathered outside of the Haredi Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem to protest the sale of leavened bread during Passover. Police blocked the protestors, who are from the Haredi sect of Judaism, from marching toward the center of the city. In response, the demonstrators blocked a street with garbage cans and later set them on fire, The Sunday Times of London reported. Another 50 more protesters arrived to join in, but ... [full story]

ABUJA - Nigerian security forces have been placed on full alert in advance of impending state and presidential elections. President Olusegun Obasanjo said in a statement Sunday that authorities would "clamp down heavily" on anyone threatening to disrupt the elections, which will mark the nation's first transfer of power from one elected civilian leader to another, the Voice of America reported. Obasanjo said he took the preventative action to protect "collective desire for trouble-free elections." ... [full story]

KIEV - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said Sunday he will not rescind his order dissolving parliament and calling for early elections. However, members of the ruling coalition in the Supreme Rada defiantly say they will await a court ruling on the issue. The coalition brought 11 more lawmakers into the fold in recent days, bringing it closer to a 300-seat constitutional majority that would give it power to override presidential vetoes. Yushchenko, who set May ... [full story]

GUANTANAMO - More than a dozen detainees at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are waging a long-term hunger strike. The prisoners are subjecting themselves to daily force-feeding to protest their treatment, military officials and lawyers for the detainees told The New York Times. Lawyers for some hunger strikers said their clients were driven to the tactic by harsh conditions in a new maximum security complex. About 160 of an estimated 385 Guantanamo ... [full story]

HELMAND - Six Canadian soldiers died when a NATO-led force in Afghanistan was hit with a bomb. The Canadians died when their vehicle either struck or was struck by an explosive device, the BBC reported Sunday, citing a statement from NATO's International Security Assistance Force. "Our hearts ache for them and their families," said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The incident was one of the worst that the NATO-led force in Afghanistan has seen for ... [full story]

THE HAGUE - When the International Court of Justice declared Serbia not guilty of genocide against Bosnia, it did so without key documentation, The New York Times said. Hundreds of documents were sent to the war crimes tribunal in 2003 during the trial of Slobodan Milosevic at The Hague. They were stamped "Defense. State Secret. Strictly Confidential," the newspaper said. The documents included minutes of wartime meetings among political and military leaders in Yugoslavia regarding ... [full story]

GAZA - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is laying the groundwork to cut Fatah's reliance on Hezbollah, a report says. Abbas recently named a special group to gather the names of members of Fatah's military branch, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, to determine what can be done to wean them away from the Lebanon-based Hezbollah organization. Palestinian sources say Abbas views the plan as key to attempts to expand the cease-fire with Israel to the West Bank, ... [full story]

BAGHDAD - Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr Sunday called the United States the "great evil" and accused U.S. forces of dividing Iraq by increasing violence. The leader of the Mahdi Army militia urged his followers to stop fighting with Iraqi security forces in southern Iraq, where fighting broke out last week, The Washington Post reported. The verbal broadside against the United States came as the U.S. military announced 10 U.S. soldiers had been killed over ... [full story]

CHIVENOR - The British navy personnel held by Iran for 13 days said Friday they were blindfolded, bound and threatened unless they admitted being in Iranian waters. The 15 sailors and marines told a news conference at the Marines Base at Chivenor, North Devon, they had been subjected to "constant psychological pressure" and agreed to their captors' wishes in order to win their freedom, the Telegraph reported. Fighting back was not an option, they said. ... [full story]

RAWALPINDI - An Indian team in Pakistan began talks Friday in Rawalpindi to demilitarize the Siachen glacier, the world's highest battlefield in the frozen Himalayas. The two sides are led by their defense secretaries. Shekhar Dutt, leading the nine-member Indian delegation, told the Press Trust of India both sides are hopeful of resolution of the complex, years-old problem of Siachen, which lies at Himalayan heights of 20,700 feet and is under control of India. The ... [full story]