The world's five recognized nuclear-weapons powers on Wednesday reaffirmed the goal of a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, a long-dormant Arab idea that's come back to life at this month's nonproliferation treaty conference.

• May 6, 2010

Kyrgyzstan's interim government has begun a criminal investigation of local companies -- allegedly controlled by the son of ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev -- that were sources of fuel supplied to a key U.S. air base in the Central Asian country.

• May 6, 2010

Consumer prices in Latvia will be on average 3.7% lower in 2010 than previous year, the largest drop among 183 countries worldwide, according to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) new "World Economic Outlook" report. Deflation in Lithuania will make 1.2%, and inflation in Estonia will be 0.8%

• May 6, 2010

Turkeys Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu spoke late Tuesday with his Brazilian counterpart on the phone regarding the Iranian nuclear issue.

• May 6, 2010

A Russian MP asks President Medvedev to look into claims by a regional president that he met aliens on board a spaceship.

• May 6, 2010

Chinese President Hu Jintao will discuss the Iranian nuclear standoff with Russian leaders during a weekend visit to Moscow, a Chinese official said Wednesday, noting the two sides had "similar views".

• May 6, 2010

Last fall, I boarded a ramshackle bus winding through the villages and vineyards on the Georgian side of the demarcation line with the breakaway region of South Ossetia. I was there to see what I could learn about the dangers of nuclear smuggling.

• May 6, 2010

The explosion of an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico has raised enough concern among congressional Democrats to jeopardize the prospects for passage of an energy and climate change overhaul.

• May 5, 2010