Nation and World

ISLAMABAD – Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared victory after a historic election marred by violence Saturday, a remarkable comeback for a leader once toppled in a military coup and sent into exile.

A clear majority of Americans still suspect there was a conspiracy behind President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, but the percentage who believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone is at its highest level since the mid-1960s, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

Year after year, the clock ticked by and the calendar marched forward, carrying the three women further from the real world and pulling them deeper into an isolated nightmare.

REYHANLI, Turkey – In one of the deadliest attacks in Turkey in recent years, two car bombs exploded near the border with Syria on Saturday, killing 43 and wounding 140 others. Turkish officials blamed the attack on a group linked to Syria, and a deputy prime minister called the neighboring country’s intelligence service and military “the usual suspects.”

SOUK AL-JUMMA, Tunisia – On the day he chose to die, Adel Khedri woke up at 6:30 a.m., took his black backpack and headed down to the busy boulevard where he worked as a cigarette peddler.

WASHINGTON – Beyond the Air Force’s embarrassing suspension of 17 nuclear missile launch officers lie two broader questions.

ATLANTA – Even with Republicans holding unprecedented political power across the South, Democrats remain mostly in charge of urban centers in otherwise conservative states. Yet increasingly that control is threatened, not at the ballot box, but by Republican-led legislatures reaching into local governing decisions, often over objections.

DETROIT – Roughly 2,000 Arab-Americans and others in about a dozen communities nationwide were volunteering their time Saturday as part of the National Arab American Service Day, tackling a punch list that included boarding up and tearing down abandoned homes in Detroit and cleaning up areas hard hit by Superstorm Sandy in New York.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Astronauts making a rare, hastily planned spacewalk replaced a pump outside the International Space Station on Saturday in hopes of plugging a serious ammonia leak.

TEHRAN, Iran – A pair of powerful and divisive figures registered Saturday to run in Iran’s presidential election, jolting the political landscape ahead of next month’s vote to pick a successor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

BEIJING – Authorities say 27 miners were killed in a coal mine blast in southwestern China.

CLEVELAND (AP) — As relatives of the Cleveland kidnapping and rape suspect recounted claims of his unnerving paranoia and violent outbursts, DNA testing confirmed the man accused of holding three women captive for nearly a decade is the father of a 6-year-old girl who also escaped from the house.

CAIRO (AP) — The retrial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resumed Saturday, with prosecutors requesting to present new evidence from a fact-finding commission's report that claims the ex-leader had full knowledge of the extent of the violence used against protesters.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Two astronauts took a hastily planned spacewalk Saturday to find and, possibly, fix a serious leak at the International Space Station.

PETROLIA, Calif. (AP) — Law enforcement officials hunting a man suspected of killing his wife and two young daughters in Northern California have sought help from neighboring agencies.