KATHMANDU, Nepal, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Nepalese will now lead prayers at Kathmandu's sacred Pashupatinath Temple, which for 250 years were done by high caste Hindu Brahmins from India.
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Roadside bombings and abductions in Afghanistan jumped in 2008 but the U.S. envoy there says opium poppy cultivation declined during the year.
LAS VEGAS, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, accused of misappropriating state funds while state treasurer, pleaded innocent Tuesday in a Las Vegas courtroom.
BEIJING, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- President Hu Jintao said Wednesday China will respond positively if secessionists in Taiwan give up efforts to gain the island's independence.
MOGADISHU, Somalia, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Somalian government and Ethiopian forces shelled a Mogadishu market Tuesday, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens more, witnesses said.
CHICAGO, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- President-elect Barack Obama said Tuesday he agrees the U.S. Senate shouldn't seat the ex-Illinois attorney general Gov. Rod Blagojevich picked to replace him.
BERLIN, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Germany is likely to ban the production and sale of "Spice," a newly popular drug, the federal drugs commissioner said Tuesday.
BOULDER, Colo., Dec. 30 (UPI) -- An employee at a Colorado ski resort shot and killed a fellow worker Tuesday and was shot dead by a sheriff's deputy as he tried to escape, police say.
NORTH VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- A 21-year-old snowboarder was still missing on Canada's Mount Seymour Tuesday, four days after authorities believe he set out for the slopes.
BANJUL, Gambia, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Two British missionaries who have been living in Gambia for more than nine years were sentenced to a year in prison Tuesday for sending seditious e-mails.
FERNIE, British Columbia, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Searchers found the body of an eighth snowmobiler Tuesday in the Canadian mountains where he and seven others were buried by two avalanches.
ATHENS, Greece, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Officials at Greek universities in Athens and Thessaloniki have begun totting up the cost of damage done during three violent weeks of protest.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- U.N. officials Tuesday warned there could be a surge in preventable deaths among the wounded in Gaza because of a shortage of medical supplies.
NEW YORK, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- A former employee at a U.S. Army arsenal research center in New Jersey pleaded guilty Tuesday to spying for Israel, federal authorities said.
MONTGOMERY, Ala., Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The federal government sued an Alabama state agency Tuesday, claiming it failed to promptly rehire a National Guard member after he served in Iraq.
NEW YORK, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- A New Jersey man pleaded guilty Tuesday to helping Hezbollah, a militant Shiite movement in Lebanon designated a terrorist organization by the United States.
WARIN, Germany, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- A mayor who has objected to a right-wing party setting up a training center in his town in eastern Germany has received a death threat and is in hiding.
NORFOLK, Va., Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Former President George H.W. Bush is set to be the keynote speaker Jan. 10 when a nuclear aircraft carrier bearing his name is commissioned in Virginia.
KAMPALA, Uganda, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The Lords Resistance Army has killed more than 400 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo since Christmas, an international aid group said Tuesday.
HAVANA, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Hundreds of Cubans clamored outside the Spanish Embassy in Havana hoping to apply for a Spanish passport under a new Spanish law.
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The funeral service for a Philadelphia surgeon killed in Iraq has been moved to the city's Catholic cathedral because so many mourners are expected.
HONOLULU, Calif., Dec. 30 (UPI) -- President-elect Barack Obama has been working out in a military gym during his vacation in Hawaii, a move that pleases service members and veterans.
HELENA, Mont., Dec. 30 (UPI) -- An "energetic earthquake swarm" of minor temblors shook Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho for several days, officials said.
CHICAGO, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Roland Burris, named to fill President-elect Barack Obama's open Senate seat, was the first African-American to be elected to a statewide office in Illinois.
Hugh Rowland, "The Polar Bear", star of the History Channel reality television series "Ice Road Truckers," stands near a truck where a special effects team from ice manufacturer Arctic Glacier Inc. covered a 900-square-foot section of Times Square with 15 tons of artificial snow in New York City on May 31, 2012. UPI/John Angelillo
