AP World

MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin says he is ready for dialogue with Russia's newly energized opposition forces, but doubts whether opposition leaders want to talk.

BRASILIA, Brazil — Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague praised Brazil's growing economic and political power as he opened two days of talks with the country's leaders, and also assured that British policy on the Falkland Islands will not change despite pressure from Argentina.

CAIRO — The Muslim Brotherhood is trying to maneuver its way between its fierce anti-Israel ideology and the realities of governing as it ascends to leadership in Egypt for the first time in its history and faces the key question of how to deal with the country's peace treaty with the Jewish state.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The U.S. government's decision to pull out all its Peace Corps volunteers from Honduras for safety reasons is yet another blow to a nation still battered by a coup and recently labeled the world's most deadly country.

MOSCOW — State television has lashed out at the new U.S. ambassador to Russia, questioning his credentials and suggesting his agenda is to support opposition leaders and promote revolution.

LONDON — They're good enough for the former Kate Middleton, but apparently not good enough for her husband's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

BUCHAREST, Romania — About 2,000 people demonstrated against Romania's harsh austerity measures in cities across the country on Wednesday and demanded the government's resignation.

SANAA, Yemen — Yemen's foreign minister says a presidential election will be held as scheduled.

ALGIERS, Algeria — Algeria's interior minister says a regional official's kidnapping was unconnected to al-Qaida's North African wing.

ISLAMABAD — A scandal over a secret memo to Washington that could bring down the Pakistani president took a strange turn Wednesday when a music video surfaced featuring the chief accuser acting as a commentator for a naked female wrestling bout.

ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria's police are under scrutiny after the suspected mastermind of the Christmas Day bombing that killed dozens escaped from custody during a police-escorted transfer — an embarrassment for a nation struggling to contain increasingly bloody sectarian attacks by a radical Islamist sect.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Gunmen in Ethiopia's arid north attacked a group of European tourists traveling in one of the world's lowest and hottest regions, killing five, wounding two and kidnapping two, an Ethiopian official said Wednesday.

STRASBOURG, France — Hungary plans to change parts of its legislation that has prompted EU threats of court action and sparked Western fears about democratic rights, a top European official said Wednesday, but the promise did nothing to appease critics.

TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian lawmaker claimed Wednesday that President Barack Obama called for direct talks with Iran in a secret letter to the Islamic Republic's supreme leader that also warned Tehran against closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — From raising the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk to securing drilling platforms wrenched loose by Hurricane Katrina, Dutch companies have a long history of mopping up after maritime disasters.