Body of South Korean hostage returns home

INCHEON, South Korea -- The body of a South Korean worker kidnapped and beheaded in Iraq was returned to South Korea on Saturday and met at the airport by bereaved relatives and a police honor guard. Kim, a 33-year-old worker at a company supplying the U.S. military, was decapitated Tuesday after the South Korean government refused to bow to militants' demand that it call off a troop deployment there. The beheading triggered criticism of the government's handling of the kidnapping case and renewing debate over the planned deployment of 3,000 South Korean troops beginning in August.

Researchers begin humpback whale study

SEATTLE -- Researchers are heading out to the North Pacific this weekend on a four-month mission to learn more about humpback whales, which have had their population decimated by more than a century of commercial whaling. The voyage marks the kickoff of a three-year, $3 million multinational effort to assess the region's humpback population. Scientists and volunteers along the Pacific Rim are participating in the count, including Japan, Russia, Mexico, Canada, the Philippines, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala and the United States. Humpbacks feed in northern waters over the summer and then head south in winter to breed off Hawaii, Japan, Mexico and Central America.

Bombing kills two Afghan women, injures 13

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A bomb tore through a bus carrying female election workers Saturday on their way to register women for the country's first post-Taliban vote, killing two of them and injuring 13 others. It was the bloodiest attack yet in a string of violence targeting election workers, aimed at sabotaging the September vote. A spokesman for the Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing. U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombing and blamed "enemies of peace and prosperity" in Afghanistan. He urged voters not to be intimidated.

Jackson trial evidence won't be unsealed

SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- Celebrity trials require a different standard than others if the defendant is to be treated fairly, the judge in Michael Jackson's child molestation case suggested in explaining why he has shrouded the case in secrecy. "The difficulty of seeing that an individual in this country gets a fair trial is exasperating when the individual is known around the world," Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville said Friday as he rejected a request to unseal much of the evidence collected against Jackson. The 45-year-old pop superstar has pleaded not guilty to committing a lewd act upon a child, administering alcohol, and conspiracy to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion.

-- From wire reports