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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least five people were killed and 12 wounded when two blasts rocked central Baghdad on Friday, officials said, the latest in a surge of attacks after largely peaceful elections earlier this month. Initially, interior ministry officials pinned the attacks on two car bombs, but a police source later said mortar rounds that landed on cars were to blame. The blasts occurred ne ...

(CNN) -- A dry and windy weather forecast Friday prompted fears of more wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma, where flames have blackened thousands of acres and are blamed in five deaths. The National Weather Service predicted continued hazardous conditions on Saturday, according to The Associated Press, and officials have banned holiday fireworks in both states. "Just the notion of shooting fireworks on New Year's Eve is near blasphemy," AP quoted meteorologist Alan Moller as saying in Fort Worth, ...

VIENNA (Reuters) - Posters depicting Queen Elizabeth having sex with the U.S. and French presidents were removed from Vienna's streets on Friday to defuse an uproar that embarrassed Austria as it prepares to take on the EU presidency. The images, splashed on scores of electronic rolling billboards, showed two naked female models wearing masks of President George W. Bush and the Queen, and a male model with a President Jacques Chirac mask, posed as if engaged in a sex act. A second poster, amon ...

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- Three juveniles suspected in the brutal mob beating of a motorist appeared in court Thursday and were ordered held in custody while authorities investigate the attack. None of the juveniles -- a 14-year-old and two 16-year-olds -- was charged. Police continued to seek more suspects. A prosecutor told a juvenile court judge the 14-year-old allegedly stomped and did a front flip onto 50-year-old Samuel McClain after he was yanked from his car on Monday. A 16-year-ol ...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- The U.S. Embassy in Malaysia was shut down Friday following an unspecified security threat, but there were no reports of danger to private American interests, the mission said. A consular notice sent by e-mail said the sprawling mission in Malaysia's main city, Kuala Lumpur, "was closed until further notice in response to a security threat" against the embassy. "At ...

MANHATTAN BEACH, California (AP) -- Storms in the Pacific Ocean are churning up the surf along California's coast, generating large waves that have sent surfers back to shore, closed down piers and put beachfront residents on sandbag duty. Waves of 15 feet and higher started pounding Southern California last week, some so fierce they ripped a concrete building off the pier at Los Angeles' Venice Beach and flooded lifeguard headquarters. The waves on Thursday were smaller than last week's, but  ...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- The number of detainees on hunger strike at the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay has more than doubled in the last week to 84, an official said Thursday. Forty-six detainees joined 38 already on strike on December 25, said Guantanamo spokesman Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, who added that the number of fasting detainees "routinely fluctuates." "On the ann ...

By Alastair Macdonald BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The arrival of foreign experts should defuse a crisis over the results of this month's Iraqi election by letting disappointed Sunni Arab leaders drop demands for a rerun while saving face, officials said on Friday. Sunni and secular political leaders, who have organised demonstrations denouncing as fraud a result that maintained the dominance of Shi'ite  ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Snow and freezing weather struck parts of the country on Friday, trapping up to 50 vehicles in one area of East Yorkshire. Up to 20 cm of snow was expected to fall in some higher areas in the north of the country and strong winds were causing drifting. Humberside Police said up to 50 vehicles had become trapped on the A1079 in East Yorkshire because of heavy snowfall. The Met Office has issued severe weather warnings for large parts of eastern England and Scotland. "Driver ...

By Paul Majendie LONDON (Reuters) - Dogs went woof over a Brazilian puppy love motel, an Australian trained mice to surf the waves and an Indian village married off toads in bid for rain. In the world of the weird and wacky, the animal kingdom was the big winner in 2005. It handsomely defeated incompetent thieves and misplaced corpses to take the prize for the year's most bizarre headlines. A love motel for dogs in Sao Paulo proved a big hit with amorous Brazilian pooches, offering a heart-s ...