AFP - A Japanese journalist believed to have been kidnapped by the Afghan Taliban has been released after five months, a report said on Sunday.

AP - Gaza security officials say an Israeli airstrike targeting a smuggling tunnel has killed one Palestinian, wounded a second and left three more missing.

AP - Protests in Pakistan, al-Qaida warnings, skittish Muslim tourists: France's plan to do away with burqa-style veils is already reverberating far beyond its borders.

AFP - China should end preferential policies for automotive companies in order to curb over-capacity in an industry where sales jumped 55 percent in August, a government official said.

AP - A coalition service member was killed in fighting in Afghanistan's turbulent south Sunday, one day after President Hamid Karzai moved a step closer to opening talks with Taliban who might be having doubts about the ongoing insurgency.

AFP - Australia's conservative chief Tony Abbott told three minority lawmakers who will decide if he should become prime minister that he offered a "fresh start" in an eleventh-hour plea for their support.

AP - Paul Conrad used his pencil like a weapon. His long lines and jagged angles seemed to point directly at the leaders he deemed charlatans and fools in need of deflating.

AP - American Muslims are boosting security at mosques, seeking help from leaders of other faiths and airing ads underscoring their loyalty to the United States — all ahead of a 9/11 anniversary they fear could bring more trouble for their communities.

AP - In the end, Earl's worst damage in New England was to seasonal businesses hoping to end their summer on a high note.

AP - Frustrated, discouraged and just plain mad, a lot of people who have lost jobs — or know someone who has — now want to see the names of Democrats on pink slips. And that's jeopardizing the party's chances in Ohio and all across the country in November's elections.

AP - Sometimes there's no going back.

AP - Craigslist appears to have surrendered in a legal fight over erotic ads posted on its website, shutting down its adult services section Saturday and replacing it with a black bar that simply says "censored."

AP - A crane hoisted a key piece of oil spill evidence to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, giving investigators their first chance to personally scrutinize the blowout preventer, the massive piece of equipment that failed to stop the gusher four months ago.

AP - A crane hoisted a key piece of oil spill evidence to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, giving investigators their first chance to personally scrutinize the blowout preventer, the massive piece of equipment that failed to stop the gusher four months ago.

AP - Investigators expressed confidence Sunday that they will learn why an airplane carrying skydivers crashed in flames near a popular tourist spot in New Zealand's Southern Alps, killing four Europeans and five New Zealanders.

Reuters - The world economy is recovering moderately but still faces challenges such as the need for medium-term fiscal consolidation, the IMF's First Managing Director, John Lipsky, said on Sunday.

AP - For more than two hours on the night of May 16, 2007, Shane Maggi terrorized a Native American couple at their home on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana, pistol whipping them and firing bullets above the husband's head.

AP - Abdoulaye Ba, 10, looked right, then left, before timidly approaching the taxi and holding out his hand.

Reuters - President Barack Obama, previewing a big push on the U.S. economy next week, on Saturday defended policies that he said "have stopped the bleeding" and put the middle class on the road to recovery.

AP - Nervous Afghans pulled more deposits out of the nation's largest bank despite assurances from government leaders that their money was safe.

AP - Police in El Salvador have found two buried oil drums stuffed with millions of dollars in cash possibly linked to the illegal drug trade, authorities said Saturday.

AP - Sarah Palin can take down the fence. Palin's neighbor of three months on Wasilla's Lake Lucille, author Joe McGinniss, is packing his bags and notebooks and leaving Sunday for his home in Massachusetts to write the book he has been researching on the former governor and GOP vice presidential candidate.

Exclusive to Yahoo! News - With the Democrats' prospects in the upcoming midterm elections sinking with the release of each new bit of bad economic news, President Obama was quick to concede that performance is "not nearly good enough."

AFP - European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet called Saturday for Europe to hold a united position on refomin the International Monetary Fund.