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For $10 million, Toyota Motor Corp. managed to resolve what was seen as one of the most serious legal challenges in company history. Yet the amount, less than 1% of the titan's last quarterly profit, could set the tone for the wave of litigation Toyota still faces after problems with sudden acceleration in its vehicles garnered worldwide attention. The automaker agreed to pay the money, a figure disclosed Wednesday, to settle a lawsuit filed by the relatives of four people, including California Highway Patrol officer Mark Saylor, killed in a fiery crash near San Diego in August 2009.

After a five-month deadlock that sowed uncertainty in politically fragile Lebanon, the country's prime minister on Monday further inflamed passions by announcing a new government heavily dominated by the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah and its allies. Analysts described the new Cabinet as a relic from the past, when Syria thoroughly dominated politics in Lebanon, and said it bode ill for Lebanese democracy at a time of uprisings across the Arab world. "It shows how Lebanon is basically moving in the opposite direction of the 'Arab Spring,' " said Oussama Safa, director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, a Beirut think tank.

After a five-month deadlock that sowed uncertainty in politically fragile Lebanon, the country's prime minister on Monday further inflamed passions by announcing a new government heavily dominated by the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah and its allies. Analysts described the new Cabinet as a relic from the past, when Syria thoroughly dominated politics in Lebanon, and said it bode ill for Lebanese democracy at a time of uprisings across the Arab world. "It shows how Lebanon is basically moving in the opposite direction of the 'Arab Spring,' " said Oussama Safa, director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, a Beirut think tank.

A day after hiring a lawyer to look into the online mini-drama now dubbed “Weinergate,” Rep. Anthony Weiner said that he wants to move on. “I’m going to return to working on the things I care about,” the New York Democrat told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday. “This is a distraction, and I’m not going to let it distract me.” Weiner said his Twitter account was hacked after a photo of a crotch-level photo of a man wearing a bulging pair of underwear was sent via the social network to a Seattle college student over the weekend.

Egypt will put Hosni Mubarak, its president for three decades, on trial in connection with the deaths of protesters during the uprising that forced him from office, prosecutors said Tuesday, raising the prospect that the region's push for reform would force a modern Arab strongman to face justice before his own people. Adel Said, a spokesman for Egypt's prosecutor general, said Mubarak could face the death penalty on charges that he conspired in the killings. But the announcement appeared aimed at least in part at appeasing victims' families and blunting a major demonstration planned for Friday.

Prosecutors have filed a forgery charge against a Beverly Hills pharmacist after L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca personally launched a criminal investigation on behalf of the pharmacist's landlord, a well-connected businessman who has given Baca campaign donations and gifts. Prosecutors had declined to file charges against Afshin Nassir when detectives first submitted their case, but reconsidered after an appeal from the Sheriff's Department. Nassir had been in a dispute with Ezat Delijani that Beverly Hills police had concluded was a civil matter.

Moammar Kadafi has no intention of leaving Libya, South African President Jacob Zuma's office said Tuesday after Zuma met with the Libyan leader in Tripoli. During their session together on Monday, Kadafi stressed "that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties," Zuma's office said in a statement. The South African leader also said that Kadafi's "personal safety … is of concern" as NATO-led bombings of Tripoli continue. Kadafi expressed his anger at the NATO bombings, said Zuma, who was taken on a tour of the bomb damage.

The last time a British monarch set foot in the south of Ireland, the Emerald Isle was still a jewel in his crown and its people were still his subjects. The king was George V, and his visit took place a century ago. On Tuesday, his granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, became the first of his successors to follow in his footsteps, but she came as the head of state of a foreign country, on an official visit to a proudly independent republic. Her historic four-day trip is testament to the new reality of Anglo-Irish relations, a seal on the reconciliation of two nations bound by a complicated and bloody past.

President Obama's year-end deal-cutting with Republicans, which produced an important compromise on extending George W. Bush-era tax cuts, has come to represent what White House officials see as a successful template for the president's role on other issues heading into a contentious 2011. By emerging as a mediator, Obama showed a way of doing business that many voters were expecting but didn't see during most of his first two years. As a result, White House aides now feel they have "a little wind at our back," a senior White House official said.

Furious anti-American protesters poured into the streets of a city in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, shouting out objections to an overnight U.S.-led military raid that killed four people, including two women. Subsequent clashes with security forces trying to quell the demonstration killed 12 people, provincial officials said. Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a strongly worded statement condemning the raid on the outskirts of Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province, and dismissing NATO's contention that the four people killed in it were armed insurgents.

Moammar Kadafi has no intention of leaving Libya, South African President Jacob Zuma's office said Tuesday after Zuma met with the Libyan leader in Tripoli. During their session together on Monday, Kadafi stressed "that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties," Zuma's office said in a statement. The South African leader also said that Kadafi's "personal safety … is of concern" as NATO-led bombings of Tripoli continue. Kadafi expressed his anger at the NATO bombings, said Zuma, who was taken on a tour of the bomb damage.

Egypt will put Hosni Mubarak, its president for three decades, on trial in connection with the deaths of protesters during the uprising that forced him from office, prosecutors said Tuesday, raising the prospect that the region's push for reform would force a modern Arab strongman to face justice before his own people. Adel Said, a spokesman for Egypt's prosecutor general, said Mubarak could face the death penalty on charges that he conspired in the killings. But the announcement appeared aimed at least in part at appeasing victims' families and blunting a major demonstration planned for Friday.

Furious anti-American protesters poured into the streets of a city in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, shouting out objections to an overnight U.S.-led military raid that killed four people, including two women. Subsequent clashes with security forces trying to quell the demonstration killed 12 people, provincial officials said. Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a strongly worded statement condemning the raid on the outskirts of Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province, and dismissing NATO's contention that the four people killed in it were armed insurgents.

The last time a British monarch set foot in the south of Ireland, the Emerald Isle was still a jewel in his crown and its people were still his subjects. The king was George V, and his visit took place a century ago. On Tuesday, his granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, became the first of his successors to follow in his footsteps, but she came as the head of state of a foreign country, on an official visit to a proudly independent republic. Her historic four-day trip is testament to the new reality of Anglo-Irish relations, a seal on the reconciliation of two nations bound by a complicated and bloody past.

For $10 million, Toyota Motor Corp. managed to resolve what was seen as one of the most serious legal challenges in company history. Yet the amount, less than 1% of the titan's last quarterly profit, could set the tone for the wave of litigation Toyota still faces after problems with sudden acceleration in its vehicles garnered worldwide attention. The automaker agreed to pay the money, a figure disclosed Wednesday, to settle a lawsuit filed by the relatives of four people, including California Highway Patrol officer Mark Saylor, killed in a fiery crash near San Diego in August 2009.

President Obama's year-end deal-cutting with Republicans, which produced an important compromise on extending George W. Bush-era tax cuts, has come to represent what White House officials see as a successful template for the president's role on other issues heading into a contentious 2011. By emerging as a mediator, Obama showed a way of doing business that many voters were expecting but didn't see during most of his first two years. As a result, White House aides now feel they have "a little wind at our back," a senior White House official said.

A day after hiring a lawyer to look into the online mini-drama now dubbed “Weinergate,” Rep. Anthony Weiner said that he wants to move on. “I’m going to return to working on the things I care about,” the New York Democrat told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday. “This is a distraction, and I’m not going to let it distract me.” Weiner said his Twitter account was hacked after a photo of a crotch-level photo of a man wearing a bulging pair of underwear was sent via the social network to a Seattle college student over the weekend.

The 20th game of the World Chess championship between titlist Anatoly Karpov and challenger Gary Kasparov was drawn Sunday after the 85th move, bringing the score in the series to 11-9 in Kasparov's favor. The game, in which Karpov, 34, played the white pieces, was begun Saturday night and adjourned with Kasparov's sealed 41st move. A maximum of four games remain in the title series, and Kasparov's two-point lead is considered by most chess experts to be unbeatable so late in the championship.

Prosecutors have filed a forgery charge against a Beverly Hills pharmacist after L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca personally launched a criminal investigation on behalf of the pharmacist's landlord, a well-connected businessman who has given Baca campaign donations and gifts. Prosecutors had declined to file charges against Afshin Nassir when detectives first submitted their case, but reconsidered after an appeal from the Sheriff's Department. Nassir had been in a dispute with Ezat Delijani that Beverly Hills police had concluded was a civil matter.