By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas said on Wednesday its relations with financial backer Iran have suffered as a result of the Islamist group's support of rebels battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a long-time Iranian ally. Hamas was also once an Assad ally but last year endorsed the revolt against him in a shift that deprived the Syrian leader of an important Sunni Muslim supporter in the Arab world. ...

BERLIN (AP) — President Barack Obama is calling for a one-third reduction of the world's nuclear stockpiles.

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed concern about U.S. missile defenses and high-precision weapons on Wednesday, before a speech in which Barack Obama was expected to call for nuclear arms cuts. "High-precision conventional weapons systems are being actively developed ... States possessing such weapons strongly increase their offensive potential," Putin said without naming any nation or mentioning the proposals which the U.S. president was expected to make in Berlin. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — House lawmakers are beginning work on a rewrite of the No Child Left Behind education law that would give states more authority and Washington less.

BERLIN (AP) — President Barack Obama is challenging Americans and Europeans not to become complacent even though the Cold War is over.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A top Kurdish militant commander warned on Wednesday a fragile peace process had been jeopardized by increased military activity and a lack of concrete steps by the government, including the continued detention of Kurdish politicians. Members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) began a withdrawal from Turkish territory to bases in northern Iraq last month, part of a deal brokered between the state and the group's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan earlier this year aimed at ending a conflict that has claimed 40,000 lives since 1984. ...

By Andrea Shalal-Esa PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. arms makers see rising foreign demand for fighter jets, missile defense systems and other weapons as countries modernize their forces and U.S. officials, facing tighter budgets, encourage allies to invest more in intelligence gathering and aerial refueling equipment. U.S. Air Force arms sales doubled from 2005 to 2011 and will likely remain strong in coming years, a senior Air Force official said at the Paris air show on Monday. ...

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters clashed Wednesday with rebel forces south of a Damascus suburb that is home to a major Shiite Muslim shrine, in an attempt to secure the area surrounding the revered site, activists said.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Al-Qaida-linked militants detonated several bombs and breached the main U.N. compound in Somalia's capital Wednesday, sparking gun battles that killed at least 12 people. A U.N. official said at least three foreigners were believed to be among the dead.

By William Maclean and Yara Bayoumy DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar's hosting of a Taliban office for peace talks with the United States is the latest in a series of foreign policy gambits stretching over a decade - some peace-broking efforts, but others, notably in Libya and Syria, involving armed support. U.S. officials are expected to meet delegates from the Afghan Islamist insurgency in the Qatari capital Doha on Thursday to try to advance peace efforts in Afghanistan, where the United States has battled the insurgents for 12 years. ...

By Jeff Mason and Noah Barkin BERLIN (Reuters) - President Barack Obama defended U.S. intelligence methods on a visit to Berlin on Wednesday, telling Chancellor Angela Merkel and wary Germans that Washington was not monitoring the emails of ordinary citizens or damaging civil liberties. Obama is popular in Germany but revelations before the trip that the United States has a covert Internet surveillance program, codenamed Prism, have caused outrage in a country where memories of the eavesdropping East German Stasi secret police are still fresh. ...

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are edging lower in early trading on Wall Street as investors hold back ahead of a policy announcement from the Federal Reserve.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus' deputy government spokesman says the Cabinet has ratified a preliminary agreement with U.S. firm Noble Energy and its Israeli partners Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration on their participation in the development of a planned natural gas processing facility.

LONDON (AP) — Britain's Girl Guides have dropped a reference to God in their pledge.

Editor's note: Marc Young is a Berlin-based freelance journalist covering President Obama's visit for Yahoo! News. Ever since John F. Kennedy made his legendary “Ich bin ein Berliner” address almost 50 years ago to the day, Berlin has been a place where U.S. presidents come when they have something important to say. In 1963, JFK [...]

Have you ever wondered what happens to the soda can that you toss into a recycling bin?

The village streets are empty and quiet in the afternoon sun. Bales of polyethylene film and bundles of plastic jerrycans piled in courtyards are evidence of how residents normally earn their living – recycling. But times are hard.

By Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina BEIJING (Reuters) - A top North Korean diplomat repeated an offer for international talks over his country's disputed nuclear program during a meeting in China on Wednesday, saying the denuclearization of the peninsula was the "dying wish" of North Korea's founder. The Beijing trip by First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan comes just days after North Korea offered talks with the United States to ease tension that spiked this year when the North threatened the United States and South Korea with nuclear war. ...

VIENNA (AP) — A flash flood unleashed by a major thunderstorm has inundated the Austrian village of Hallstatt, which has been awarded special status by the U.N. because of its unique beauty.

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — India's prime minister said Wednesday that the death toll from flooding this week in the northern state of Uttrakhand had surpassed 100 and could rise substantially.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened little changed on Wednesday, holding much of the gains made over the last two days, ahead of a highly anticipated Federal Reserve statement and news conference. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 11.34 points, or 0.07 percent, to 15,306.89. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 0.68 points, or 0.04 percent, to 1,651.13. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.32 points, or 0.04 percent, to 3,483.51. (Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Barack Obama returned to Berlin today, almost five years to the day from when he delivered his famous "Victory Column" speech that cemented his reputation as an international rockstar. Unfortunately, his reception this time is likely to be a lot different, despite what he said was being "a little more informal among friends."

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's president said Wednesday he will not pursue peace talks with the Taliban unless the United States steps out of the negotiations, while also insisting the militant group stop its violent attacks on the ground after it claimed responsibility for a rocket attack that killed four Americans.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say a suicide attack has killed a local political leader and four of his relatives in northern Iraq.

PARIS (Reuters) - European aerospace group EADS said on Wednesday the window for a merger with BAE Systems was "closed". "Considerations about a deal with BAE are water under the bridge; we have said this time and again, the window is closed," EADS chief spokesman Rainer Ohler said. The two companies abandoned plans to forge the world's largest defense company in October amid German opposition. The Financial Times reported in the headline of an article on Wednesday that EADS had left the door open to a new merger attempt with Europe's largest defense group. ...

By Anders Melin BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders will hold a summit later this month to tackle the growing scourge of youth unemployment. But there's a problem: the 6 billion euros they want to use to get to grips with the issue aren't yet available. Leaders agreed in February that they would set aside the money from the EU's next long-term budget, which runs from 2014-2020, with the funds going towards a "youth guarantee" of training or a job within months of education ending. ...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African state weapons firm Denel said two of its staff were killed in an attack on Wednesday on the United Nations compound in the Somali capital Mogadishu. A spokeswoman for South Africa's largest manufacturer of defense equipment said the identity of the workers was not yet known. "We have sent someone to Somalia to inform us from the ground," Vuyelwa Qinga said. (Reporting by Tosin Sulaiman; Editing by Ed Cropley)

NEW YORK (AP) — Fire authorities say eight people have been hurt, several of them seriously, after a car jumped a curb and slammed into a Manhattan store.

BERLIN (AP) — President Barack Obama is suggesting Europe may need to adjust its economic policies to tackle high youth unemployment.

With a week remaining until the June 25 special election for John Kerry’s former US Senate seat in Massachusetts, the two candidates met Tuesday night in a debate that set the tone for the final days of the campaign: energetic, divisive, and at times downright petty.

BERLIN (AP) — President Barack Obama is suggesting Europe may need to adjust its economic policies to tackle high youth unemployment.

BERLIN (AP) — President Barack Obama is suggesting Europe may need to adjust its economic policies to tackle high youth unemployment.

DENVER (AP) — Bob and Barbara Schmidt dashed to their home on a dirt road in a heavily wooded area northeast of Colorado Springs as smoke from what would become the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history filled the air.

OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — FBI agents in suburban Detroit began a third day of digging Wednesday in the search for the remains of former Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared 38 years ago.

(Reuters) - FedEx Corp said on Wednesday it was cutting its capacity between the United States and Asia, sending its shares lower on concerns about future growth, even as the world's biggest air-freight company posted a stronger-than-expected profit. The company, considered an economic bellwether because of the massive volume of goods it moves around the world, is still trying to adjust to increasing demand for cheaper ground transport rather than pricier but faster air shipping. ...

By Alwyn Scott and Maria Sheahan PARIS (Reuters) - Orders at the Paris Airshow surpassed $100 billion on Wednesday, as planemakers Boeing and Airbus cashed in on demand for fuel-efficient jets and growth in both budget carriers and emerging markets. Ryanair, Europe's biggest low-cost airline, finalized an order for 175 Boeing 737-800 aircraft worth around $15.6 billion at list prices on day three of the aerospace industry's showcase event, the largest single order ever placed by a European airline with the U.S. group. ...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — An adviser to the Palestinian president says Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement wants him to stick to long-standing demands for resuming talks with Israel.

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's most powerful Muslim group on Wednesday blamed the secular and liberal opposition for a wave of violence over the appointment of new Islamist governors.

BEIJING (AP) — China's new leader Xi Jinping is commanding wayward Communist Party cadres to purify themselves of corruption, and he's summed it up in a pithy slogan as Mao Zedong might have done: Look in the mirror, take a bath.

(Reuters) - Electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc said it is recalling 1,228 of its 2013 Model S cars manufactured between May 10 and June 8 due to a defect in the mounting bracket of the rear seat. "This reduces our confidence that the left hand seat back will be properly retained in the event of a crash," Tesla founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk said in a statement on Wednesday posted on the company's website. The recall blemishes a clean public record for the Model S, which received a near-perfect score from the influential Consumer Reports magazine. ...