U.S. inspectors tell of willful neglect of Southwest Airlines inspections
Three veteran Federal Aviation Administration inspectors told lawmakers Thursday that their agency supervisors looked the other way while Southwest Airlines neglected to inspect p***s as required.

For English churches, lead thieves are destroying a rich heritage
Strong demand for metals from newly industrializing China and India is stripping some buildings in Western countries.

NATO backs U.S. missile defense plan for Europe
NATO leaders also agreed Thursday to provide more troops for Afghanistan, but the alliance refused to let Ukraine and Georgia begin a process for membership.
- Missile shield clears one hurdle, but others await

EU set to take cautious step to bolster bank regulation
Europe's finance ministers on Friday will take their first steps since last year's credit crunch to tackle the threat of a systemic financial crisis by agreeing new guidelines on how to deal with cross-border banking failures.

Italy vows to keep Alitalia aloft after bidder pulls out
The Alitalia board was holding an emergency meeting Thursday to consider its response after the airline's unions refused to sign on to a deal with Air France.
- Last stand of the flag carriers
- Air France-KLM courts labor unions to keep Alitalia bid alive

'Historic day' in Cyprus as another border crossing opens
Ledra Street in the divided capital of Cyprus, a symbol of the country's ethnic partition, was reopened Thursday for the first time in 44 years, raising hopes for new efforts to reunify the island.

Former Kosovo leader acquitted of war crimes
The United Nations war crimes tribunal in the Hague on Thursday acquitted a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army of all charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in a surprise decision that could inflame anti-Kosovar sentiment in Serbia just weeks after Kosovo unilaterally declared independence.

Bush appears out of touch on U.S. economic woes
With the housing crunch and credit crisis worrying many Americans, "the first MBA president" has seemed detached and ineffective on the most pressing economic issues.

Chinese dissident gets 3½ years for essays
The U.S. Embassy said it was "dismayed" at the conviction of Hu Jia, a well-known human rights advocate, on charges of subversion.

Defense lawyers fight DNA sampling on the sly
The surreptitious gathering of DNA - from, say, a discarded straw - is becoming more popular among police officers, but critics say the practice violates suspects' rights.

North Korean food shortages make combustible situation worse
North Korea's rising tensions with South Korea and the United States, coupled with soaring international grain prices and flood damage from last year, will probably take a heavy toll among famine-threatened people in the isolated country, relief experts said Thursday.

China again cues up its propaganda machine
The bad guy this time has been the Dalai Lama, and the fact that outside China this villain is one of the world's most admired people has only caused the propagandists to ramp up the volume.

Murakami's giant world of whimsy arrives in New York
A major retrospective of the creator of these works, the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami is to open Saturday in Brooklyn, New York, and runs through July 13.