Anyone who remembers the (still-ongoing) fiasco that is charging adapters on smartphones can see the potential for similar issues as electric cars or plug-in hybrids become more popular. Thus, it's good to see at least an initial move in the direction of standardization: Japanese automakers Toyota and Nissan announced on Monday they have helped to set up a fast-charge station standardization group.
Tropical Cyclone Tomas battered Fiji's northern islands on Monday evening with gusts of up to 275 km/h and heavy rain, but weather officials had not received immediate reports of damage.
A power failure plunged nearly the entire Chilean population into darkness Sunday night, rattling a country already anxious after last month's 8.8-magnitude quake.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon promised Haitians on Sunday that the world has not forgotten the quake-torn nation as it suffers from a shortage of shelter and growing violence in teeming camps for the homeless.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki edged ahead Sunday in a tight race in the country's parliamentary elections after partial results from all of Iraq's 18 provinces showed his bloc leading in seven -- two more than his chief rival.
The Afghan government was holding secret talks with the Taliban's No. 2 when he was captured in Pakistan, and the arrest infuriated President Hamid Karzai, according to a Karzai advisers.
The Obama administration is demanding that Israel call off a contentious building project in east Jerusalem and make a public gesture toward the Palestinians.
The U.S. military hands over control of a prison holding some 2,900 detainees to Iraqi authorities as the Americans move ahead with preparations for a full withdrawal by the end of 2011.
Google said on Monday it was in talks with the Chinese government about censorship of its Chinese-language search portal, despite mounting signs the company could soon shut the site.
U.S. and Mexican officials have launched an investigation into the killing of an American couple and a Mexican man with ties to the U.S. Consulate by suspected drug gang hitmen.
After deciding last week to help family members of U.S. consulate employees in northern Mexico leave the area, the State Department waited until Sunday to announce the move.
