A simple checklist that parents fill out in the waiting room may help doctors someday screen for warning signs of autism as early as a baby's first birthday.

San Diego pediatricians tested the tool with more than 10,000 babies at their 1-year checkups, looking for such things as how the tots babble, gesture and interact with others.

With some genetic sleuthing, scientists have fingered a likely culprit in the spread of leprosy in the southern United States: the nine-banded armadillo.

DNA tests show a match in the leprosy strain between some patients and these prehistoric-looking critters — a connection scientists had suspected but until now couldn't pin down.

State television said renegade warlord Ibrahim "IB" Coulibaly, a two-time coup plotter who began the pro-democracy battle for Abidjan, was killed in fighting Wednesday night with one-time allies turned enemy, Associated Press reported.

He died after his top aide said Coulibaly's troops were waiting for U.N. peacekeepers to disarm them.

An explosion rocked a natural gas terminal near Egypt's border with Israel on Wednesday sending flames shooting into the air and forcing the shutdown of the country's export pipeline, said security officials.

It was the second attack in the past month on the al-Sabil terminal near the town of El-Arish just 50 kilometers from the border with Israel. On March 27 gunmen planted explosives at the terminal, that failed to detonate.

Libyan rebel fighter Jaad Jumaa Hashmi cranks up the volume on his pickup truck's stereo when he heads into battle against Moammar Gadhafi's forces.

He looks for inspiration from a growing cadre of amateur rappers whose powerful songs have helped define the revolution.

David Beckham, Elton John and Mr. Bean actor Rowan Atkinson will mingle with dozens of royal guests at Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding, according to an official guest list released Saturday that includes one uncomfortable presence — the Bahraini crown prince accused of a brutal crackdown on protesters.

St. James's Palace also released the seating plan at Westminster Abbey, which showed that relatives of William's mother Princess Diana are sitting across the aisle from the royal family, joining the Middletons in an exception to the traditional division of a church into a bride's side and groom's side.

Emirati authorities are pushing ahead with plans to impose tighter government restrictions on the most secure BlackBerry service next week, according to the CEO of one of the Gulf nation's phone companies.

But Osman Sultan, chief executive of the telecommunications firm Du, told reporters Monday he doesn't expect the shift May 1 to cause problems for customers, who will still have access to email, Web browsing and messaging services.

Europe, especially France, has been hit by a major outbreak of measles, which the U.N. health agency is blaming on the failure to vaccinate all children.

The World Health Organization said Thursday that France had 4,937 reported cases of measles between January and March — compared with 5,090 cases during all of 2010. In all, more than 6,500 cases have been reported in 33 European nations.

Hindu holy man Sathya Sai Baba, considered a living god by millions of followers worldwide, died Sunday in a hospital near his southern Indian ashram, a doctor said. He was 86.

Sai Baba had spent more than three weeks on breathing support and dialysis while struggling with multiple-organ failure at the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, near his ashram in Puttaparti village in southern Andhra Pradesh state. He died Sunday morning, hospital director Dr. A.N. Safaya said.

Japan plans to send more than 20,000 soldiers into its northern disaster zone Monday in an intensive mission to recover the bodies of those killed in last month's earthquake and tsunami.

More than 12,000 people are missing and presumed dead from the twin disasters that hit March 11. Some were likely swept out to sea, while others are buried under the mass of rubble. About 14,300 are confirmed dead.