A suicide bomber on Wednesday struck at the heart of Syria's security apparatus, killing the country's defense minister and President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law, state television said.

The attack, which for the first time in a 16-month anti-regime uprising targeted members of Assad's inner core, came hours ahead of a U.N. Security Council debate on Syrian sanctions, when a showdown between Western powers and Russia and China is expected.

Could Charlie Sheen be a judge on "American Idol"? The actor says he's game.

In an interview Tuesday on Ryan Seacrest's radio show, Sheen said "Idol" producer Nigel Lythgoe publicly threw his name out there as a possible judge and the idea piqued people's interest — including his own.

Frank Schleck of Luxembourg pulled out of the Tour de France and spent several hours in a police station in southwest France on Tuesday after failing a doping test.

The UCI said Schleck tested positive for a banned diuretic called Xipamide on July 14, another reminder of the doping cloud that has damaged the image of cycling - and its biggest event.

Sixty-four of Mexico's 364 Indian dialects are at "high risk" of dying out, with less than 100 speakers of each remaining, the head of the country's National Institute of Indian Languages said Tuesday.

Institute head Javier Lopez Sanchez said that in many cases, speakers of dying dialects are dispersed and no longer live in a single community.

Jeremy Lin is leaving New York and taking Linsanity to Houston.

The New York Knicks announced Tuesday that they will not match the Houston Rockets' three-year, $25 million offer for Lin, a restricted free-agent.

An iceberg twice the size of Manhattan tore off one of Greenland's largest glaciers, illustrating another dramatic change to the warming island.

For several years, scientists had been watching a long crack near the tip of the northerly Petermann Glacier. On Monday, NASA satellites showed it had broken completely, freeing an iceberg measuring 46 square miles.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been granted the title of marshal, state media reported Wednesday, cementing his status as the authoritarian nation's top military official as he makes key changes to the million-man force.

The decision to award Kim, who already serves as supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, was made Tuesday by the nation's top military, government and political officials, state media said in a special bulletin.

Forget videos of cute kittens or good deals on iPads. For the past few months, Google has been quietly turning its search capabilities to something far more challenging: criminals.

Drug cartels, money launderers and human traffickers run their sophisticated operations online — and Google Ideas, Google Inc.'s think tank, is working with the Council on Foreign Relations and other organizations to look for ways to use technology to disrupt international crime.

Amid a deadly war in an impoverished nation, the promise of a new professional football league is offering a glimmer of hope in Afghanistan.

Thousands of young Afghans have signed up to participate in a reality television program called "Maidan e Sabz," or "Green Field," to earn a chance to play on one of eight professional football teams being created in their homeland.

A U.S. man who learned how to use a parachute as a Navy pilot during World War II has finally made his first jump — at age 90.

Lester Slate jumped Sunday and was guided to the ground by a tandem jumper. He was accompanied by another skydiver trailing a U.S. flag.