Americas News

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Juan Manuel Marquez retained his WBA and WBO lightweight titles with a unanimous decision victory over American Juan Diaz on Saturday before demanding a third fight with Manny Pacquiao.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has rejected President Barack Obama's plea to release three Americans arrested more than a year ago near the Iraq border, the foreign ministry said, insisting that justice would take its course.

In North Carolina, a church group and an atheist group put up dueling signs quoting their respective versions of the Pledge of Allegiance. Each group accuses the other of rewriting U.S. history.

In the Internet age, the nation's culture wars are often waged through online blogs and e-mails. But across North Carolina, a heated church-state debate is playing out on an old-fashioned canvas: highway billboards.

While James Clapper headed the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, an Alaska Native corporation contracted for information technology functions was continually cited for security deficiencies.

In December 2001, shortly after James Clapper took the helm of the Pentagon's mapping intelligence agency, the agency privatized its information technology functions, giving 600 employees the choice of being laid off or going to work for a private contractor.

Proceedings slated for House members Maxine Waters and Charles Rangel could create a rift between the Congressional Black Caucus and other Democratic leaders.

The prospect of two long-serving African American lawmakers in the House enduring unprecedented public ethics trials seems likely to add to the growing tension between black members of Congress and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill and in the Obama administration.

A video of an activist in restive Papua province being taunted and viciously killed by police bolsters allegations that the military and police there act with brute force and impunity.

The video, shot in the jungle of Indonesia's restive Papua province, shows a wounded political activist lying face-up on the ground, surrounded by an armed national police tactical squad.

The cameramen were seized Monday after covering protests at a Durango prison that is said to be under the control of organized crime. One reporter remains unaccounted for.

Mexican federal police on Saturday rescued two of four journalists kidnapped five days earlier by a drug gang in northern Mexico, authorities said.

Demonstrators again try to assert their constitutional right to gather in protest, but thousands of troops and riot police are at a downtown Moscow square to seize them.

The last time opposition demonstrators tried to march in downtown Moscow, Triumfalnaya Square was taken up by pro-Kremlin youth organizations donating blood. On Saturday, it was an auto show, complete with noisy and noxious car races.

U.S. troops now account for about two-thirds of the NATO force in Afghanistan, and Americans make up more than two-thirds of July's Western military fatalities.

The platoon sergeant was inspecting the gaping crater left by a roadside bomb in northern Afghanistan when a second thunderous blast went off just 20 feet away.

More women are making their mark in a once male-dominated corporate workplace. Both single and married, Japanese women are earning more, analysts say, and they're not afraid to spend what they earn.

After 25 years working as an accounting assistant in a leading construction company, Asako Nakano decided two summers ago that she needed to stabilize her retirement plans. So she took the plunge and bought a condominium.

A thickening hopelessness hangs over the 1.5 million displaced people who await more durable shelters. 'I hope the international community can keep our hope alive, because it's fading,' one said.

Reporting from Corail-Cesselesse, Haiti

Obama has been able to fill only 36 of 134 seats that have opened on his watch. For some Republicans, it's simple payback.

Judge James Wynn of North Carolina, President Obama's nominee for the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, looked to be a safe bet for an easy Senate confirmation. He is a former Navy lawyer and a well-regarded state appellate judge with a moderate record and "well-qualified" rating from the American Bar Assn.

Cleanup efforts often seem futile, and some biologists suggest simply letting nature take its course.

Although thick, sprawling oil slicks have vanished from much of the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, pockets of goo still menace delicate wetlands and there is no effective way to clean them up, experts said.

Security and serenity reign as she marries Marc Mezvinsky at an elegant New York estate.

On a breezy summer night, behind the stone walls of a 106-year-old estate, hundreds of celebrities, dignitaries, family and friends gathered Saturday to witness Chelsea Clinton make Marc Mezvinsky the newest member of the Clinton political clan.

Officials fear the number could rise once emergency teams are able to survey devastated areas. More than 26,000 people are said to be trapped on rooftops; many urgently need food and drinking water.

As the death toll from this week's flash floods rose to at least 800 Saturday, authorities tried desperately to rescue thousands of stranded villagers and deliver emergency relief to stricken areas.

A water bomber helping to battle more than 300 wildfires burning across B.C. has crashed south of Lytton.

PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) - A few hundred supporters of a new Arizona law that cracks down on illegal immigrants rallied in central Phoenix Saturday, as tensions over the measure simmered.

RHINEBECK, New York (Reuters) - Bill and Hillary Clinton's daughter married her long-time boyfriend in the picturesque New York village of Rhinebeck on Saturday in what has been dubbed America's royal wedding.

A House energy panel is concerned that scientists hired to assess the oil spill may be muzzled. The company's research funding is also under scrutiny.

As BP recruits scientists to assess damage from its massive oil spill and provide expert testimony in lawsuits, a congressional committee is demanding to see all its spill-related research contracts, warning BP America Chairman Lamar McKay against "any effort to muzzle scientists."

The daughter of former US President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has married her long-term boyfriend at a lavish ceremony.