GENEVA (AP) — The Syrian civil war contributed to pushing the numbers of refugees and those displaced by conflict within their own nation to an 18-year high of 45.2 million worldwide by the end of 2012, the U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A network of human rights groups on Wednesday criticized plans to include Chadian troops in a new U.N. peacekeeping force for Mali while Chad's military remains on a U.N. 'list of shame' for child recruitment. But U.N. officials made clear they had no intention of excluding a country whose soldiers are considered among the best African desert fighters.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeowners trying to avoid foreclosure must wait too long for their loan modification applications to be reviewed by some of the nation's top mortgage servicers, according to a report released Wednesday. Such delays can plunge borrowers deeper in debt.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The World Bank says it will increasingly view its efforts to help developing countries fight poverty through a "climate lens."

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — Prosecutors in the Sept. 11 war crimes case at Guantanamo are asking a judge to allow secret pretrial hearings that would exclude even the defendants.

LE BOURGET, France (AP) — Unmanned aircraft have helped rescue stranded hikers, worked to contain wildfires and gathered data at nuclear accidents. One helped a Russian tanker find its way through Arctic ice to bring oil to a stranded Alaskan community.

OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The excavation of a field in suburban Detroit has failed to turn up the remains of former Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa, the FBI announced Wednesday, adding another unsuccessful chapter to a nearly 40-year-old mystery.

LOS GATOS, Calif. (AP) — Netflix is going Dutch.

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's top Muslim cleric declared Wednesday that peaceful protests against the president are permitted, in a snub to hard-line Islamist backers of Mohammed Morsi who declared that those behind opposition protests planned for June 30 are heretics.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Scattered street demonstrations popped up around Brazil Wednesday as protesters continued their collective cry against the low-quality public services they receive in exchange for high taxes and rising prices.

BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah fighters joined Syrian forces in battling rebels in a Damascus suburb that is home to a revered Shiite Muslim shrine, in a push to secure the area around the ornate, golden domed mosque.

NEW YORK (AP) — Madonna said there were days when she was exhausted during her recent "MDNA" world tour, but she decided to press on.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve says it will maintain the pace of its program to keep long-term interest rates at record lows, but offered a slightly more optimistic outlook for the U.S. economy and job market.

ROME (AP) — Italy's first black Cabinet minister is facing Internet death threats before a visit to a region known for its anti-immigrant political base.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve expects the U.S. unemployment rate to fall faster this year and next than it did in March.

MIAMI (AP) — Forecasters say a tropical depression crossing Mexico's Bay of Campeche is getting better organized and is expected to become a tropical storm before making landfall along Mexico's Gulf Coast.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — In a story June 18 about Dish Network Corp.'s announcement that it will not submit a revised bid to purchase Sprint Nextel Corp., The Associated Press reported erroneously that Softbank's competing bid for Sprint falls short of Dish's. In fact, the two offers are not directly comparable. Softbank is offering $21.6 billion for a 78 percent stake in Sprint. Dish is proposing to buy all of Sprint for $25.5 billion.

Tiger Woods' sore left elbow will keep him out of competition until the British Open.

BERLIN (AP) — Appealing for a new citizen activism in the free world, President Barack Obama renewed his call Wednesday to reduce U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles and to confront climate change, a danger he called "the global threat of our time."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of the Republican-led House education panel are sending their rewrite of No Child Left Behind to the full House for a vote.