Tropical storm Earl has hit the eastern Canadian coast, following a rapid acceleration.

Secrecy abounds ahead of the first party congress in decades. Experts expect it to set the stage for officially naming the ailing Kim Jong Il's successor, said to be his youngest son.

For a confab with such far-reaching implications, not much is known about North Korea's largest political gathering in three decades, rumored to be staged in the capital of Pyongyang this week.

The kidnappings of five petroleum company workers along with 30 others have terrorized the oil community, paralyzing segments of the business. Months later, families have still heard nothing.

The meandering network of pipes, wells and tankers belonging to the gigantic state oil company Pemex have long been an easy target of crooks and drug traffickers who siphon off natural gas, gasoline and even crude, robbing the Mexican treasury of hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

The Kajaki Dam in southern Afghanistan was built in the 1950s with U.S. aid but fell into disrepair in the late 1970s. Efforts to repair it have faltered as the Taliban controls an access road.

There may be no better symbol of American involvement in southern Afghanistan — initial success, current frustration and an uncertain future — than the giant Kajaki Dam.

The unique event has gone on for 75 years. Organizers weren't going to be stopped by an oil spill, even one that hurt the seafood industry. 'We're going to overcome this,' says the festival king.

After the BP oil spill, the organizers of one of America's more unusual civic celebrations began fielding the phone calls, the ones that invariably asked: Are you really going to have it this year?

For 17 years, a former furniture maker has been selling his handmade wooden tiny trucks and tractors on a roadside in Punjab, the real versions rumbling by a few feet away.

He's watched the cheap Chinese toys come in, a flimsy, mass-produced onslaught. That's of little concern. He's doing something more meaningful, something that will last.

Boosting business research and development is part of the president's broader plan for the economy. Other proposals call for increased infrastructure spending and continuing tax cuts for the middle class.

President Obama will ask Congress to pass a $100-billion plan to expand and permanently extend the tax credits for businesses that invest in research and development, part of a larger plan for spurring the economy that he is to unveil in greater detail Wednesday.

At least 18 people, none of them Americans, are killed and 39 wounded in the attack by insurgents. The incident comes five days after President Obama declared an end to U.S. combat operations in Iraq.

American soldiers helped Iraqi troops battle insurgents in downtown Baghdad on Sunday, repelling a major attack in the heart of the capital five days after President Obama declared an end to U.S. combat operations.

The ETA separatist group, severely weakened by arrests, internal strife and dwindling support, says it will try the 'democratic process.' The truce is met with skepticism by the Spanish government.

Weakened and on the run, the Basque separatist group ETA said Sunday that it was declaring a cease-fire in its armed campaign against the Spanish government and that it was willing to try to achieve its aims through democratic means.

Fishermen will get one last chance to catch B.C. Fraser River sockeye before the Fisheries Department begins shutting down the fishery on Tuesday.

A bone found by a missing persons search team on the western outskirts of Regina is not from a human, police say.

Two people were killed and one injured Sunday in a head-on collision on Highway 20 near Drummondville, Que., about 80 kilometres northeast of Montreal.

The Canadian International Air Show took flight over Toronto Sunday after Saturday's scheduled opening was cancelled due to high winds.

Most care more about the bigger struggle to rejuvenate and rebuild their wounded neighborhood.

Politicians have deemed the area around New York's "ground zero" hallowed ground. Protesters have paraded signs proclaiming, "No sacrilege at holy ground," and others have called it the site of a "sacred burial."

The remains found near Orangeville, Ont., on Sunday are human but police will not make a direct link with a woman who has been missing from the town since last Sunday.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary has confirmed that human remains found in a wooded area are those of a woman who went missing in July.

David Johnston, Canada's governor general-designate, paid a visit to Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Sunday for his first official audience with Queen Elizabeth.

An Alberta woman has been awarded $650,000 as part of a 19-year human rights battle - the longest running complaint in the province's history.

Hurricane Earl has left thousands in Atlantic Canada without electricity.

New Brunswick's Liberal Party is promising a February statutory holiday if elected Sept. 27.