Saudi

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's overwhelming victory in weekend parliamentary elections returns to power a seasoned politician who historically has had rocky ties with Pakistan's powerful military and is viewed by many as soft on militants and extremist groups. The expected showdown between Sharif, 63, and former cricket-star-turned-politician Imran Khan never really materialized. Sharif's party swept the elections, putting him in a position to lead the next government and become prime minister for an unprecedented third time.

Step back, Saudi Arabia and Russia. The U.S. will become the world's top producer of oil by 2020, a net exporter of oil around 2030 and nearly self-sufficient in energy by 2035, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. It's a bold set of predictions for a nation that currently imports some 20% of its energy needs. Recently, however, an "energy renaissance" has begun in the U.S., marked by a boost in oil, shale gas and bioenergy production made possible by new technologies such as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and horizontal drilling, said the report by the Paris agency, which acts as an energy watchdog for industrialized nations.

Leave it to Italy --- a country where food and tradition go hand in hand — to be home to the first university dedicated to the art of making gelato. In fact, the Carpigiani Gelato University, located outside Bologna, is doing its all to ensure that the future of ice cream's closest relative, gelato, will continue to be that of a fresh product made from all-natural ingredients for local consumption. Carpigiani, which has sold gelato-making equipment since 1945, started teaching the classes in 2003.

As far back as Fannie Johnson can remember--and that's all the way back to World War I--her family has dutifully heeded the nation's call to arms. "I was little, but I remember my relatives being in that war," said Johnson, sitting erect in her favorite chair by the front window. Fighting in France during the war was Ernest Johnson, a fellow destined to be her first husband.

Thirty-five years ago, early in the morning of June 5, 1968, the United States received a stark warning about the costs of its foreign policy when New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Los Angeles, just hours after he won the Democratic presidential primary in California. That night, a young man named Sirhan Bishara Sirhan raised a cheap .22-caliber pistol in the Ambassador Hotel and aimed at Kennedy from a distance of just a few yards. When former L.A.