UNITED NATIONS – Washington isn’t taking “the common bargain” of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (search) as seriously as it once did, and that’s dimming global support for the U.S. campaign to shut down the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs, the former chief U.N. weapons inspector said. Undersecretary of State …

JERUSALEM – Israel (search) is launching a $280 million program aimed at convincing thousands of young Jews to immigrate to Israel in the next five years, officials said Thursday. The program — targeting people between 18 and 30 — is meant to increase the number of young adults who will …

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea (search) test fired a short-range missile that plunged into the Sea of Japan (search) Sunday, the White House chief of staff said, adding he wasn’t “surprised by this,” noting Pyonyang had conducted similar tests in the past. The U.S. military told the Japanese government …

JERUSALEM – Cabinet minister Natan Sharansky (search), a frequent critic of Israel’s (search) peace moves with the Palestinians, submitted his resignation Monday in protest over the planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (search). Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident whose imprisonment there made him a hero to world Jewry, wrote in …

BEIRUT, Lebanon – A Lebanese magistrate on Wednesday cleared Michel Aoun (search), the country’s most prominent anti-Syrian politician, of crimes committed before his 1991 exile to France three days ahead of his planned return to a Lebanon free of Syrian forces. Opposition demonstrators, meanwhile, demanded freedom for another, jailed former …

OAKLAND, Calif. – Mayor Jerry Brown (search) has angered some of his neighbors by selling his multimillion-dollar home to a group that wants to make it into a homeless shelter. The two-time governor and three-time presidential candidate’s 7,000-square-foot warehouse home is in Jack London Square, where lofts sell for $700,000. …

LONDON – London theater reviewers blew hot and cold over David Schwimmer’s (search) West End debut in Neil LaBute’s “Some Girls (search).” Several praised Schwimmer’s turn as a soon-to-be-married womanizer visiting four former girlfriends. But others doubted he was the right actor to tackle a writer famed — in plays …

WASHINGTON – The government is investigating complaints of engines stalling in Dodge trucks and sport utility vehicles, officials said Friday. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (search) said it has received two dozen complaints about engines stalling in the 2004-2005 model years of the Dodge Ram 1500 (search) trucks and …

NEW YORK – FOX (search) is adding five new dramas and two comedies to a nearly reality-free schedule next fall, while UPN (search) said Thursday it wants to start a new Thursday comedy tradition with Chris Rock. They were the last of the broadcast networks to announce their fall schedules …

WASHINGTON – Two of the nation’s largest defense contractors, The Boeing Co. (BA) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), said late Monday they have agreed to create a joint venture to produce rockets for the U.S. military. The surprise announcement would end a bitter rivalry and set the stage for the …