The World
A fire in a Caracas, Venezuela, nightclub killed 47 people, possibly because emergency exits were blocked.
At least 30 women and children were killed when thousands of poor people stampeded in northern Bangladesh to get clothing being distributed for charity.
Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the car-bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya and the missile attack the same day against an Israeli airliner.
Egypt's highest appeals court ordered yet another trial - the third - of Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian political scientist and human rights activist convicted of smearing Egypt's reputation.
Harvard Law School researchers found that China has the most restrictive Internet censorship in the world.
East Timor officials declared a state of emergency after five died in a riot in which the home of the prime minister was burned.
Heavy fighting between rebels and government troops was reported in towns in western Ivory Coast.
A general strike protesting the government of President Hugo Chavez disrupted Venezuela for most of the week.
Palestinian witnesses said 10 died when Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships swept into the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip in three-hour predawn incursion.
Switzerland said it would not loosen its bank secrecy laws to share more information with the European Union.
Fatima Hassan Abeida, 95, was killed when Israeli troops fired into a taxi. She is believed to be the oldest person killed in the fight between Israel and the Palestinians, now in its third year.
Visiting Colombia, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said the United States will increase its aid to the government to help the fight against rebels and drug lords.
The Nation
The airport security take from travelers during the Thanksgiving holiday included 15,982 pocket knives, six guns and a brick.
Elliott Abrams, a former Reagan administration official who pleaded guilty in 1991 to two counts of withholding information from Congress in the Iran-contra affair, was promoted to head the National Security Council office for Near East and North Africa. Abrams was pardoned in 1992 by President George Bush.
The Supreme Court said it would review affirmative action challenges posed in a lawsuit brought by three white students at the University of Michigan. ... The court also said it would review anti-sodomy slaws in 13 states.
The Pentagon is expected to activate as many as 10,000 reservists in the coming weeks.
Roone Arledge, who revolutionized television sports at ABC and then headed that networks news division, died at 71.
Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, said he wants to run for president in 2004.
Winona Ryder was placed on three years' probation and ordered to undergo drug and psychiatric counseling for her felony shoplifting conviction.
Drivers using cellular telephones are at greater risk of being in a fatal accident (13 in 1 million) than drivers who don't (4 in 1 million).
A federal judge ruled that Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen being held as an enemy combatant accused of plotting to explode a "dirty bomb," must have access to an attorney.
United Airlines moved closer to bankruptcy after the government denied its application for a $1.8 billion loan guarantee.
Henry Louis Gates said he would stay at Harvard where he chairs the black studies department instead of joining former colleagues Cornel West and K. Anthony Appiah at Princeton.
Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill and White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey resigned.
The unemployment rate rose to 6 percent in November, the highest in almost nine years.
New York authorities asked a judge to throw out the convictions of five men, tried as teen-agers in the 1989 beating and rape of a jogger in Central Park.
The Region
Dave McNally, a pitcher who was considered a cornerstone of the greatest rotation in Orioles history, died of cancer at 60.
Mayor Martin O'Malley declared a "state of emergency" in the battle against AIDS in Baltimore, where more than 12,000 people are HIV-positive.
Del. Michael E. Busch of Anne Arundel County was picked by the Democrats as the speaker of the House of Delegates.
Clifford M. Kendall, a retired Montgomery County businessman, was chosen as the new chairman of the state Board of Regents.
Former Oriole pitcher Mike Flanagan and former Montreal Expos general manager Jim Beattie were essentially named the co-general managers of the Orioles.
A judge refused a request by Jack Ivory Johnson Jr., 53, to get out of prison after serving more than 30 years of a life sentence for the 1970 ambush slaying of Baltimore police Officer Donald T. Sagar by members of the Black Panther party.
Robert L. Caret, who was favored to become the next president of Towson University, dropped out of the running, saying he wished to stay in his job as president of California's San Jose State University.
A Prince George's County woman known as "The Black Widow" was sentenced to 40 years in prison for collecting the life insurance proceeds from three slain lovers and threatening witnesses with voodoo to keep them silent.
Queen Anne's County said it would buy the landmark Christ Episcopal Church on Kent Island for $375,000 and turn it into a community center.
Baltimore County police arrested a Glen Burnie woman and a man she is accused of hiring to kill her husband.
The final Maryland School Performance Assessment Program scores showed declines statewide.
Quote
"We have to understand the need for the United States to be part of the world rather than just telling everyone else what to do."
Former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, who chairs the Pew Global Attitudes Project, which documented a rise in anti-American feelings