John Allen Muhammad, who terrorized the D.C. suburbs in 2002 along with accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo in a three-week span of sniper attacks that killed 10, was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday night in Virginia. From CNN:

"The mastermind behind the Washington-area sniper attacks of 2002 that terrorized the nation's capital was declared dead at 9:11 p.m. ET, said Larry Traylor, director of communications for the Virginia Department of Corrections.

'There were no complications; Mr. Mohammad was asked if he wished to make a last statement,' Traylor told reporters outside the the Greenville Correctional Center. 'He did not acknowledge this or make a last statement whatsoever.'

In fact, Mohammad, 48, said nothing from the time he entered the death chamber accompanied by guards at 8:58 p.m., Traylor said.

'After he was placed on the gurney and strapped down, he was very emotionless,' Traylor said."

Malvo was 17 years old at the time of the shootings, and thus serving a sentence of life in prison.

(Photo by Virginia Department of Corrections via Getty Images)

Thousands cheered the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Monday, watching a trail of 1,000 huge styrofoam dominoes collapse along a one-mile route where the nefarious barrier between communism and the Western world once stood. But there was a very special guest in attendance, too, reports the AP:

"Chancellor Angela Merkel and 78-year-old Gorbachev stood shoulder to shoulder as they crossed a former fortified border crossing point between East and West Berlin to cheers of 'Gorby! Gorby!'

'Looking back, we can see many causes that led to the peaceful revolution, but it still remains a miracle,' German President Horst Koehler told the leaders of all 27 European Union countries, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Merkel -- Germany's first chancellor to be raised in the former communist East -- called the events of Nov. 9, 1989 an "epic" moment in history.

'For me, it was one of the happiest moments of my life,' Merkel told a crowd of tens of thousands packed around the Brandenburg Gate."

World leaders gathering for the celebration included French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Noticeably absent was U.S. President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to attend a memorial for the Fort Hood massacre victims tomorrow but who RSVP'd "no" even before Thursday's tragedy. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attended instead, in a glaring absence of a leader from one of the key countries to have brought down the Iron Curtain. Obama instead sent a video message that was screened at the festivities.

Relive that moment two decades ago with this classic Peter Jennings clip. And enjoy more photos from the festivities here.

(Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

The Gulf Coast is bracing for Hurricane Ida in, compared to recent years, what has felt like a slow storm season for those along America's south and eastern coastlines. The season used to end on Halloween, according to the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, but has gradually been stretched to encompass June 1 to Nov. 30. More on Ida from CNN:

"Hurricane Ida moved into the southern Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, prompting a declaration of emergency in Louisiana and a hurricane watch for parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The storm regained hurricane intensity overnight, becoming a Category 2 hurricane, but forecasters said it is expected to weaken as it moves north. Ida drenched Nicaragua after making landfall last week as a Category 1 hurricane, then weakened to a tropical storm before intensifying.

In El Salvador, at least 91 people died in flooding and mudslides, according to the government, but a low-pressure system out of the Pacific -- not Hurricane Ida -- triggered the disaster, forecaster Robby Berg of the National Hurricane Center said Sunday.

The U.S. watch -- meaning hurricane conditions are possible within 36 hours -- extends from Grand Isle, Louisiana, eastward to Mexico Beach, Florida, forecasters said. It does not include the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, the hurricane center said."

Look back on when the Gulf Coast braced for Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike' last year.

Learn about the world's worst hurricanes here.

Paris. New York. Milan. Karachi?

Yes, in the face of the usual irritated fundamentalists, Pakistani designers finally got to send their creations down in the catwalk in that country's first ever fashion week. And perhaps that bravery makes the clothes even more beautiful. More:

"Some women strode the catwalk in vicious spiked bracelets and body armor. Others had their heads covered, burqa-style, but with shoulders -- and tattoos -- exposed. Male models wore long, Islamic robes as well as shorts and sequined T-shirts.

As surging militant violence grabs headlines around the world, Pakistan's top designers and models are taking part in the country's first-ever fashion week. While the mix of couture and ready-to-wear fashions would not have been out of place in Milan or New York, many designers made reference to the turmoil, reflecting the contradictions and tensions coursing through this society.

The four-day event, which was postponed twice due to security fears and amid unease at hosting such a gathering during an army offensive in the northwest, is aimed at showing the world there is more to Pakistan than violence and at helping boost an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people, organizers said.

Many of the models, designers and well-heeled fashionistas packing out each night said the gathering was a symbolic blow to the Taliban and their vision of society, where women are largely confined to the house and must wear a sack-like covering known as a burqa.

'This is our gesture of defiance to the Taliban,' said Ayesha Tammy Haq, the CEO of Fashion Pakistan Week. 'There is a terrible problem of militancy and political upheaval ... but that doesn't mean that the country shuts down. That doesn't mean that business comes to a halt.'"

View a gallery of some of the couture from Fashion Pakistan Week here.

(Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

"...Le piloted the USS Lassen on Saturday into Danang, home of China Beach, where U.S. troops frequently headed for R&R during the war, which ended on April 30, 1975, when the southern city of Saigon was taken by communist troops from North Vietnam.

That was the day Le and his family embarked on an uncertain journey in a fishing boat piloted by Le's father, who was a commander in the South Vietnamese navy. They were rescued at sea by the USS Barbour County, taken to a U.S. base in the Philippines, a refugee camp in California and finally to northern Virginia, where they rebuilt their lives.

Le returned on the Lassen, an $800 million, 509-foot destroyer equipped with Tomahawk missiles and a crew of 300. The ship and the USS Blue Ridge, the command vessel for the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet, are making the latest in a series of goodwill visits to Vietnam, which began in 2003 when the USS Vandergriff paid a port call to Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon.

'I thought that one day I would return but I really didn't expect to be returning as the commander of a Navy warship,' Le said after stepping ashore Saturday. 'It's an incredible personal honor.'

'I'm proud to be an American, but I'm also very proud of my Vietnamese heritage,' said Le, who spoke a few halting words in Vietnamese."

Read the whole thing here.

"A number of analysts here are convinced that not all the photos being released of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, are really photos of Kim Jong-il.

Instead, they say, a look-alike has been standing in for him on some of the 122 trips he's reportedly made this year to the countryside, factories, cultural events, military units, and all sorts of other venues.

Some observers say the North Korean leader is too ill to make all these appearances. One Japanese analyst claims President Clinton didn't meet with Kim Jong-il in August - he met with a Mr. Kim double.

The evidence of Kim stand-ins is far from verified, but several North Korean refugees here say that Kim has not one but several look-alikes playing his role."

The status update from 20 hours ago on former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah's Facebook page simply reads "God speed to our beloved Afghanistan." Meanwhile, the wires are buzzing about whether he is going to boycott his Nov. 7 runoff with President Hamid Karzai. A press conference is set for Sunday morning. The AP is reporting that his advisers say he will withdraw from the race.

The reason? Abdullah wanted the corruption that he says aided the ballot-stuffing in the first round to be corrected by the second round. This includes a demand to scrap certain elections officials, something Karzai won't agree to.

Abdullah would still emerge a winner if he goes ahead with the boycott, something he shunned on last Sunday's U.S. news shows but acknowledged that his supporters have been clamoring for him to go in that direction. He will not likely withdraw his allegations of corruption and fraud against the Karzai government, and will likely assume the role of opposition hero in the face of crumbling security and government in his country.

The loser in all of this? The U.S. and the Obama administration, which hoped a tidy runoff would produce a stable government in Kabul and allow it to proceed with its next steps, whatever they may be, on the Afghan war.

(Photo by Majid/Getty Images)

We shouldn't know for a week or so -- at least according to the ousted Honduran president's estimation -- since that country's congress hasn't even scheduled a vote on the deal brokered by the U.S. yet. Basically, Manuel Zelaya could emerge from his hiding place at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigulpa and resume his role in a power-sharing deal until elections on Nov. 29, when Zelaya will be ineligible to run anyway because of term limits. The deal, however, will come under a non-binding review by Honduras' Supreme Court and is subject to approval by Congress.

Working against Zelaya is the fact that it's the Congress and Supreme Court that voted to toss him out on his ear in the first place. Working for Zelaya is fatigue among many Honduran lawmakers of the world community ganging up on the interim government, as well as optimism that the rest of the world would accept the elections as legitimate if Zelaya was allowed a chance back in. The constitutional referendum over which Zelaya got ousted, though -- working toward an extension of term limits -- is dead in the water.

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

"Two weeks before American superstar Beyonce Knowles is scheduled to hold her first ever concert in Egypt, an Islamist MP publically blasted the government for accepting to host the event and accused the government of violating Sharia law.

The bootylicious pop diva is set for a government-approved gig at the Red Sea resort of Port Ghalib, irking Muslim Brotherhood member Hamdi Hassan, who slammed the government for allowing a singer 'who appears naked in her clips' to perform, which he said would spread vice.

'The government is trying to make people indulge in sin and licentiousness to cover up the other crimes it is committing against them,' Hassan said in a parliament session.

Hassan highlighted what he called government double standards for refusing to allow an Islamic band that sings religious songs for children to enter the country.

This is not the first time Western pop diva's have irked Egyptian conservatives.

Last year Egypt cleric Khaled al-Gindi decried a performance by hip-shaking sensation Shakira and likened her profession to prostitution but stressed he was sure she was a 'nice person.'"

At the bottom of the story is a note that indicates the article was translated from Arabic for the English-language website. Wouldn't we all love to know, then, how "bootylicious" translates in Arabic?

(Photo by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)

"Hundreds of food-loving Lebanese came together on Saturday to make the largest hummus serving on the world's biggest plate in a bid to claim ownership of the dish with a new Guinness world record.

...Organizers have hailed the event as 'a patriotic event of national scale.'

'El Hommos Lebnaneh, or Hummus is Lebanese, is an attempt to break the current Guinness world records of hummus and tabbouleh, reaffirming the Lebanese proprietorship of these two dishes,' said a statement issued by the industrialist association and food syndicate, which planned the event.

A battle over hummus and tabbouleh between Lebanon and Israel -- two neighbors still technically at war -- emerged last year and efforts have been underway ever since to clearly identify such dishes as exclusively Lebanese."