Water levels dropped precipitously Monday inside a stricken Japanese nuclear reactor, twice leaving the uranium fuel rods completely exposed and raising the threat of a meltdown, hours after a hydrogen explosion tore through the building housing a different reactor.

Guatemalans subjected to U.S. syphilis experiments in the 1940s are suing federal health officials to compensate them for health problems they have suffered.

More than 100 orphans — the youngest only 1 month old — were trapped between fighting forces over the weekend when rebel troops battling Southern Sudan's army invaded an orphanage, officials said Monday.

A ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded slammed Japan's eastern coast Friday, killing at least 60 people as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control. Tsunami warnings blanketed the entire Pacific, as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and the entire U.S. West Coast.

Ousted ex-Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide will return within days to his homeland ending seven years in exile, a South African official said Friday. The former slum priest remains hugely popular and his return could disrupt elections this month in his earthquake-ravaged country.

Ethiopia, which has become the No. 2 source country for children adopted by Americans, implemented changes Thursday that could reduce the number of foreign adoptions by up to 90 percent, the State Department said.

Internet search giant Google said it is working with the Nelson Mandela Foundation to publish thousands of never-before-seen documents belonging to the anti-apartheid icon, through a $1.25 million grant given to Mandela's foundation Tuesday.

In a show of commercial muscle that highlights China's growing investment in Africa, Chinese solar power producers dominated exhibits Thursday at an energy conference on a continent where nearly two-thirds of the population lives off the electric grid.

The Obama administration on Wednesday sharpened its condemnation of a bloody crackdown on Libyan opposition demonstrators as it broadened its outreach to government officials, dissidents, rights activists and youth in other Arab nations across a Middle East that is seething with unrest.

Caught up in stunning news like the rest of the world, President Barack Obama learned of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's resignation during an Oval Office meeting. He watched the celebration on television and prepared to make an afternoon statement.