The Cuban rocker whose biting profanity-laced lyrics against the Castro government has previously gotten him in trouble is now in detention and expected to face trial Friday, according to human rights groups in Havana.

Gorki Aguila, 39, heads Porno Para Ricardo -- Porn for Ricardo -- a 10-year-old punk rock group that regularly denounces the government in its songs. Aguila was picked up Monday during a rehearsal for an album tentatively called ''Geriatric Central Committee,'' an apparent jab at the aging members of Cuba's communist party leadership.

He is charged with ''pre-crime social dangerousness,'' a law the Cuban government uses on people it considers a threat to the revolution. » read more

BATUMI, Georgia — Avoiding a potential confrontation with Moscow, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter ferrying humanitarian aid to Georgia steered away from the Russian-patrolled port of Poti on Wednesday and docked in this quieter southern harbor instead.

The U.S. decision came as Russia sent a naval task force armed with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles into the waters off of Abkhazia on Wednesday on a "peace and stability" mission, the Russian Itar-Tass news agency reported.

The U.S. had intended to send the Coast Guard cutter Dallas to Poti, along with a U.S. destroyer, USS McFaul as its escort. Poti is Georgia's main commercial port on the Black Sea, and it is still under Georgian control, but Russian forces continue to man two checkpoints around the town, which lies 15 miles south of the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia. » read more

WASHINGTON — North Korea announced Tuesday that it has suspended the dismantling of facilities that produced the fuel for its nuclear weapons, jeopardizing one of President Bush's few diplomatic successes just five months before he leaves office.

The reclusive Stalinist regime accused the Bush administration of reneging on a deal to remove North Korea from a U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism and warned that it soon could move to "restore" the facilities at Yongbyon "to their original state."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded that before being taken off the list, North Korea must work out procedures to verify the accuracy of a nearly 19,000-page declaration of its nuclear weapons work that it released in June after a long delay. » read more

POTI, Georgia — Defying Russia, an American warship that brought humanitarian aid to Georgia was expected to arrive Wednesday in this nervous Black Sea port that's being watched over by Russian soldiers, Georgian officials said.

The move would put U.S. military assets within close range of Russian forces for the first time since the Georgian conflict began, potentially setting up a confrontation with Moscow, the dominant naval power in the Black Sea.

Officials in Poti, Georgia's main commercial port, are preparing for the arrival of up to two U.S. military vessels Wednesday morning, said Alan Middleton, CEO of the privately run Poti Sea Port. » read more

Islamabad, Pakistan — Gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying the top U.S. diplomat in the volatile northwestern city of Peshawar Tuesday. But consul-general Lynne Tracy was unhurt as were the other two U.S. consular employees.

The assault comes as Pakistani security forces are battling Taliban militants in two areas that border Peshawar — the Bajaur tribal area and the valley of Swat. The extremists have vowed revenge, carrying out two suicide bomb attacks last week, although there was no claim of responsibility for the attempt on Tracy.

Tracy was attacked in her armor-plated vehicle just after she was driven out of her home in the university town residential district of Peshawar, the capital of the insurgency-plagued North West Frontier Province. » read more