BARCELONA - A new Spanish documentary claims Argentina hired a leftist guerrilla to blow up a British warship in 1982 during the war over the Falkland Islands. Filmmaker Jesus Mora features former Spanish Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo and the chief of the Argentine navy at the time, Admiral Jorge Anaya, detailing how the ship was to be targeted at Gibraltar, the launch site for the British navy's operations during the war. The film says ... [full story]

LONDON - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday 15 British sailors and marines captured in the Persian Gulf last month will be freed. Ahmadinejad made the announcement at a Tehran news conference, saying he had pardoned the 14 men and a woman for "trespassing" into Iranian waters on March 23. "After our meeting they will go to the airport and be with their families," he said in the conference aired and translated on CNN. Iran ... [full story]

HONIARA - Three earthquakes in the space of three days have struck the Solomon Islands, leaving several dead and thousands homeless. The first two earthquakes, which struck Monday, caused a 30-foot tsunami that completely flooded the towns of Gizo and Noro, Novosti reported Wednesday. The death toll currently stands at 32, with scores of others reported missing. A spokesman for the Solomon Islands government said up to 5,400 people have been left homeless and in ... [full story]

NABLUS - Israeli officials say a Fatah leader critically injured by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank was involved in terrorist attacks. Ahmed Sanakra was shot in the stomach and hand in Nablus during a skirmish between Palestinian gunmen and members of Israel's Golani Brigade, YNet News reported. The Israeli soldiers reported finding his M-16 rifle. Sanakra was wanted in Israel for allegedly planning attacks there and planting explosives in the West Bank. The Israeli ... [full story]

MOSCOW - A mystery witness told Russian state television that exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky may have been behind the killing of a former KGB agent. The man, identified only as Pyotr, claimed that Berezovsky, who now lives in London, tried to recruit him in 2003 to stage an assassination attempt. Pyotr said that Alexander Litvinenko may have been poisoned in Britain with a radioactive substance because he knew too much about a similar attempt. Berezovsky, ... [full story]

BAGHDAD - Iraqi kidnappers holding a German mother and son hostage posted an Internet video saying they'd kill them if Germany doesn't pull out of Afghanistan."I urge the German people to help me in my difficult situation," hostage Hannelore Krause, 61, said, Deutsche Welle reported. "Germany was safe before it got involved in this satanic coalition with America against what they call terrorism."Krause and her son, Sinan, who is in his 20s, were kidnapped Feb. ... [full story]

BAGHDAD - An Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Iraq has been freed in Baghdad.The BBC reported that no one has admitted abducting Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad who was seized from his car in February by men wearing Iraqi Army uniforms. The Iraqi government had been working for Sharafi's release. Iraqi officials told the BBC that Iraq is seeking the release of five Iranians being held the U.S. forces and ... [full story]

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland - The annual Canadian seal hunt was off to a weak start with just two boats of 40 eligible working the waters of the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.Fisheries Department spokesman Phil Jenkins said the first of three stages of the hunt opened Monday, but warm weather has created poor ice conditions that has decimated the number of baby seals, who need solid ice as they can't swim for the first few ... [full story]

LIMA - The president of Peru has ordered airstrikes to be carried out on landing strips and drug laboratories hidden in the Amazon jungle.President Alan Garcia said leaders of the drug trafficking trade must be stopped or else the country could face a drug-fueled insurgency similar to that in neighboring Columbia, the BBC reported Tuesday.Garcia said at the end of a two-week suspension in efforts to eradicate illegal coca plants negotiated by the country's agriculture ... [full story]

NORTH BAY, Ontario - Dead fish washed up on the shores of a northern Ontario river Tuesday where a train derailment resulted in a spill of 40,000 gallons of sulfuric acid.Provincial environment crews were on the scene of Friday's derailment of an Ontario Northland train about 130 miles of North Bay, dumping dry lime into the Blanche River to try to neutralize the acid, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., reported.Farmers in the area were told not ... [full story]

MOGADISHU - War-weary residents of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, have been warned the government is planning a new offensive against Islamist rebels in the city.A U.N. aid agency says nearly 50,000 residents have abandoned the battered city of 2 million in the past 10 days to escape the fighting. On Monday, Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle told civilians to get out while there was still time, a Washington Post correspondent reported.Ramshackle buses being pressed ... [full story]

BAGHDAD - At least three people were killed and seven others injured Tuesday by roadside bombs and a mortar attack in Baghdad, police said.In southwest Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded at 8 a.m., killing two civilians and wounding two others, CNN reported. An hour later, a roadside bomb exploded in southeast Baghdad's Zafaraniya neighborhood, killing one civilian and wounding three, police said.Also in the Zafarniya neighborhood, a mortar hit a house, injuring two civilians, CNN ... [full story]

BRUSSELS - The European Commission is concerned about Romania's political instability that is slowing down judiciary and anti-corruption reforms, Brussels media said.Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu has fired government ministers who support Romanian President Traian Basescu, thus ending a center-right coalition after months of political disputes between the two men that has nearly paralyzed the country, the EU Observer said Tuesday.On Monday, Tariceanu announced the list of his reshuffled Cabinet, made up of his ... [full story]