International Top Stories from Associated Press (AP)

BRUSSELS (AP) , Belgian media say that hundreds of people were evacuated after a train carrying chemicals derailed and caught fire in northern Belgium. Amateur video showed the train ablaze in the early hours of Saturday; in daylight, the train cars could be seen forming a zig-zag over the track.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) , Saudi Arabian girls will be allowed to play sports in private schools for the first time, according to a decision announced on Saturday, the latest in a series of incremental changes aimed at slowly increasing women's rights in the ultraconservative kingdom.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) , President Barack Obama says he's not sure whether he can get Congress to pass his plan to dramatically expand pre-kindergarten in the U.S. He says it's difficult to pay for it and that quality control is a challenge.

Indonesian police arrested four people Thursday, foiling a planned terrorist attack on the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta. National police spokesman Brigadier General Boy Rafli said the suspects, three men and one woman, were armed with five homemade bombs and planned to attack the building as revenge for the treatment of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, ABC News Australia reports.

KABUL, Afghanistan , Afghan troops are now mostly in the lead in Afghanistan and are ready to defend the country in their first fighting season against the Taliban, U.S. commanders said Thursday at a ceremony in Kabul. "While we will formally recognize this in a couple of months, the fact is that the Afghan National Security Forces are predominantly in the lead," U.S. Army Lt. Gen. James L.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it's obvious , Syria's government regime has used chemical weapons to attack rebels. Mr. Erdogan also said he planned to discuss the matter further with President Obama, Ynet News reported.

More than 60 were killed while digging gold in a mine in the Sudanese area of Darfur, the nation's state-run television said Thursday. The mine collapsed after workers ventured into an unsafe area, CNN said. Authorities have shut down the mine until further notice.

For the first time in history, the Vatican will host two popes. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has announced he's moving back to the city-state, United Press International reported. He has been staying at the Vatican's Castel Gandolfo summer residence outside Rome.

New satellite imagery shows that North Korea is "nearing completion" of a small, experimental light water reactor that can produce Plutonium for nuclear weapons. The reactor could be started up this year and be fully operational in 2014, according to the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

Sorcery killings have become such a problem in Papua New Guinea that political leaders are pushing for the creation of firing squads as a cost-effective way of dealing with crime. The South Pacific nation does have the death penalty, and it was last used in 1954 , and it was a hanging, The Associated Press reported.

North Korea has sentenced a Washington state citizen to 15 years of hard labor, accusing him of "hostile acts" against the government. Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American and devout Christian, frequently visited the country to feed orphans, The Associated Press reported. He was arrested by North Korean authorities in November for unspecified crimes.

The look at those who hunted Osama bin Laden begins with the sisterhood , a collection of female CIA analysts who became somewhat obsessed with al Qaeda and its leader. They now are talking on camera for the HBO documentary "Manhunt," which debuted Wednesday night, two years after the terrorist mastermind was killed and weeks after another jihadist attack on America at the Boston Marathon.

Speaking at his General Audience this week, Pope Francis marked the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, by preaching that men should be served by their work, not the other way around. "How many people worldwide...

A day after President Obama was criticized for hedging on reports of chemical weapons being used in Syria's civil war, the White House left open the possibility Wednesday that the U.S. would provide weaponry soon to opposition groups.

A new global survey of Muslims by the Pew Research Center has found that Palestinian Arab Muslims polled the highest in favor of suicide bombings as a justifiable means "to defend Islam." The poll also found that 89 percent of Palestinian Muslims favored sharia becoming "the official law of the land."