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Markus Wolf, former head of East Germany's feared spy service, has died at 83. He was the mastermind of some of the Cold War's most successful intelligence operations. Wolf is said to have perfected the use of sex as an intelligence weapon.

The Vatican has opened the archives of Pope Pius XI, who served from 1922 to 1939. Historians are eager to explore the documents, hoping to shed light on how the Vatican dealt with the rise of fascism and Nazism in Europe.

As an African Union peacekeeping force in the Darfur region faces a Sept. 30 pullout date, the international diplomatic community has decisions to make about Sudan. Susan Rice, an Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under President Clinton, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, sizes up the situation.

Much of the Muslim world is in an uproar over remarks by Pope Benedict, that they say are offensive to Islam. Speaking in Germany Tuesday, the pope quoted from an ancient text that said the early spread of Islam had been accomplished by violence.

Pope Benedict 16th is in Germany on his second trip to the country and his first to his home state of Bavaria since he became pope. In a sermon at an open-air Mass in Munich, Benedict says that modern people have a "hardness of hearing" when it comes to God.

Earlier this summer, the Supreme Court invalidated the system set up by President Bush to try accused war criminals at Guantanamo. The ruling, in the case of Osama bin Laden's driver, followed a series of key maneuvers.

Jean-Pierre Melville's economical and boldly independent approach to filmmaking laid the groundwork for what was to become the French New Wave of the 1960s. Yet his films -- in terms of both style and content -- were not typical of that film movement. American audiences have recently had the opportunity to rediscover his work thanks to Rialto Pictures' dedicated efforts to reissue and restore his films.

The European Union's top justice official says the EU will organize an anti-racism campaign during the World Cup which starts in Germany on Friday. EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said the measure was meant to address growing concern across Europe that racism is spreading at soccer stadiums.

German-born Pope Benedict XVI makes a solemn visit to the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp, ending a four-day tour of Poland. Benedict called the Nazi death camp "a place of horror."

Pope Benedict XVI led an outdoor mass in Krakow, Poland, Sunday morning, addressing a crowd estimated at 900,000. Later he moves to the site of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, where he is expected to stress his commitment to improving relations with Jews and fighting anti-Semitism.