Egyptian editor Islam Afifi, who is facing charges of spreading false news and was remanded in custody Thursday, will be freed following a presidential decree scrapping preventive detention in the case of publishing crimes.

"Al-Dustour chief editor Islam Afifi will be released according to the (presidential) decree," which scraps preventive detention in the case of publishing crimes, said Yasser Ali, spokesman of President Mohammed Morsi.

Iraq expects to receive the first group of F-16 warplanes next year, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's spokesman said on Thursday, after U.S. officials said the aircraft would not arrive until 2014.

"Iraq is waiting to receive the first group of the F-16 warplanes in March 2013," Ali Mussawi told Agence France Presse.

Police say a western Pennsylvania woman blamed her nonexistent twin sister for stealing items from ahotel room.

The Beaver County Times (http://bit.ly/Sm5XDv ) reports Wednesday that police charged 31-year-old Jennifer Brown, of Rochester, with false reports and theft.

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Wednesday made its first test drive, leaving wheel tracks near its landing spot -- now dubbed "Bradbury Landing" in honor of late science fiction author Ray Bradbury.

"Curiosity today had its first successful drive on Mars. We have a fully functioning mobility system on our rover," said Matt Haverly, the lead rover planner at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

The United States is experiencing the worst outbreak of West Nile virus since the mosquito-borne disease was first detected in 1999, health officials said Wednesday.

At least 41 people have died so far this summer and health officials have identified a total of 1,118 cases across the country.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama warned Wednesday they would be forced to consider a new course of action if Syria threatens to use chemical weapons on rebel fighters.

The two leaders agreed during a telephone call that "the use -- or threat -- of chemical weapons was completely unacceptable and would force them to revisit their approach so far," Cameron's Downing Street office said.

The next court appearance of five men charged over the 9/11 attacks has been delayed until Thursday due to an Internet outage, the presiding judge said Tuesday.

The preliminary hearings at a U.S. military court in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba had already been pushed back so that the accused could observe the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and were due to run from Wednesday through August 28.

The mammoth Apple-Samsung patent trial went to the jury Tuesday, setting the stage for a verdict that could have huge implications for the hot market in smartphones and tablet computers.

Apple, which accuses the South Korean electronics giant of copying the iPhone and iPad too closely, is seeking damages of up to $2.75 billion and an injunction that could knock some Samsung products off the U.S. market.

An armed man was arrested in the western United States on Tuesday for allegedly sending an email that threatened President Barack Obama, a justice official told Agence France Presse.

"He had sent an emailed threat against the president," said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington state, confirming that the man was detained at a suburban apartment in Seattle.

President Barack Obama's campaign has $60 million less than that of Republican rival Mitt Romney, official figures showed Tuesday, following heavy spending on advertising and a fundraising lag.

In a monthly report for July filed with the Federal Election Commission, Obama claimed reserves of $124 million divided between the president's campaign and his Democratic Party.