SEOUL, South Korea (AP) _ South Korean activists sent propaganda leaflets over the border Thursday into North Korea, ignoring their own government's pleas to stop the practice and threats from the North to sever relations if it continues. North Korea announced last week it would ban border crossings starting Dec. 1, citing the South...

SINGAPORE (AP) _ Oil prices fell below $53 to almost a two-year low Thursday in Asia as investors, egged on by plummeting stock markets, priced in lower crude demand from a global economic downturn that's shaping up as the worst in decades. Light, sweet crude for December delivery was down 92 cents to $52.70 a barrel in electronic...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) _ Australian police said Thursday they will stop restricting the movements and communications of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee after he broke his long media silence to ask them to let him "get on with" his life. If the restrictions are lifted, Hicks will be a completely free man for the first time since...

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) _ Four Nordic countries will lend Iceland $2.5 billion (€1.98 billion) to help the country recover from its economic meltdown, their finance ministries said Thursday. The decision by Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark came after the International Monetary Fund announced it had approved a $2.1 billion...

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) _ The name may seem like a joke, but the Australian Sex Party is serious — serious about sex, according to their slogan. The country's newest political party is also serious about a number of other issues: quashing a government proposal for a national Internet filter that would block 10,000 Web sites;...