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By Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Keith Weir LONDON (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday his government was making progress toward reopening peace talks with the Palestinians and hoped to be able to do so shortly. Israel has resisted U.S. President Barack Obama's calls to freeze settlement building in occupied territory so that peace talks may resume, a disp ...

DETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp is recalling about 95,700 Toyota and Scion vehicles sold in the United States because ice could accumulate on their braking systems and make it harder for drivers to slow down. The recall involves 2009 and 2010 model year Toyota Corolla, Corolla Matrix and 2008 and 2009 Scion xD vehicles, all equipped with 1.8 liter engines, the company said in a statem ...

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of new U.S. homes hit their highest level in 10 months in July and orders for long-lasting manufactured goods surged, offering fresh evidence a modest economic recovery was taking shape. The Commerce Department on Wednesday said sales of new single-family homes rose 9.6 percent from June to an annual pace of 433,000 units, the highest ra ...

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A surge in demand for aircraft pushed new orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods up at their fastest pace in two years in July, the government said on Wednesday, hinting a modest economic recovery was taking shape. Durable goods orders jumped 4.9 percent, the largest advance since July 2007, after falling 1.3 percent in June, the Comm ...

By Zahra Hosseinian TEHRAN (Reuters) - Former President Mohammad Khatami said on Wednesday trial confessions by moderates accused of fomenting post-election unrest were made under "extraordinary conditions" and were invalid, an Iranian news agency reported. At Tuesday's trial, the fourth since June polls denounced by moderates as fraudulent, senior reformer and Khatami ally Saeed Haj ...

By Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - Red Cross officials from South Korea arrived in the North for three days of talks on Wednesday in a rare meeting between the rivals to discuss the plight of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. The meeting, in the North Korean resort of Mt. Kumgang on the east coast, is the first such contact in two years and the first meeting to discuss humanit ...

By David Fox and Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) - More results were expected to trickle out of Afghanistan's election counting house on Wednesday as officials raised the death toll from a truck bombing that highlighted the problems the eventual winner will face. Authorities in Kandahar, Afghanistan's second biggest city and the spiritual home of the Taliban, raised the toll from Tuesd ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sleep deprivation, "insult slaps," water dousing and "walling," or slamming a detainee's head against a wall, were techniques used by CIA interrogators to break high-value detainees, according to an agency memo. The memo, sent to the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel on December 30, 2004, was released on Monday under a Freedom of Information Act lawsui ...

By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, a towering figure in the Democratic Party who took the helm of one of America's most fabled political families after two older brothers were assassinated, died at age 77, his family said. "Edward M. Kennedy, the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply, died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis ...

By Jonathon Burch and Golnar Motevalli KABUL (Reuters) - With early results on Tuesday showing Afghanistan's presidential race neck-and-neck, a massive truck bomb that killed 40 civilians and wounded 60 in Kandahar showed the scale of problems facing the eventual winner. The blast took place shortly after dusk as Afghans across the country were breaking their daily fast in the holy M ...