Rebuilding an economy one shoe at a time
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Toofan shoe factory, a collection of grubby workshops facing a trash-blown courtyard, is on the leading edge of this country's industrial technology.

Afghanistan's new leader tells U.S.: Keep fighting
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The new prime minister said Wednesday that ordinary Afghans are happy to have peacekeepers here despite a long tradition of resisting foreign fighters. He also said U.S. troops were still needed to pursue remaining terrorists in Afghanistan.

India deploys missiles to border with Pakistan
NEW DELHI -- India deployed ballistic missile batteries and increased fighter jet patrols along its border with Pakistan on Wednesday as tensions deepened between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.

Refugees storm tunnel in failed bid to get to Britain
SANGATTE, France -- Hundreds of refugees living in a cramped Red Cross center trampled barriers and raced past security officers at the Channel Tunnel in a desperate attempt to get to Britain by foot. The uprising ended early Wednesday with arrests and tear gas.

Israel allows rebuilding of Palestinian airstrip
JERUSALEM -- Israeli troops fired from tanks and helicopter gunships at Palestinian gunmen holed up in a West Bank house Wednesday, killing one man and wounding two in an incursion into a Palestinian-controlled town. In a separate raid, Israeli troops arrested 17 suspected militants in a West Bank village.

In bin Laden's words
Excerpts from the Osama bin Laden videotape released Wednesday by Al-Jazeera, a Qatar television station:

Suspect described as crook, convert
LONDON -- The man who allegedly tried to blow up a jetliner with a shoe bomb was a small-time London thief who converted to Islam in prison and was persuaded by extremists to take up violent jihad, or holy war, the head of his mosque said Wednesday.

Video shows a gaunt bin Laden
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- As U.S. special operations forces and intelligence officers pressed the search for Osama bin Laden and his senior aides, an Arab television station on Wednesday broadcast an excerpt from a newly released videotape of the Saudi-born fugitive.

Wedding ring returned to widow
PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif. -- After her husband died on the last of the doomed Sept. 11 flights, Dorothy Garcia told FBI agents the only thing she wanted was his wedding ring recovered from the wreckage.

MRI test for diseased arteries could replace angiograms
While the MRI test is cheaper and less invasive, it has not been as accurate as angiograms in finding blockage in heart arteries.