Urdu is spoken here. So are Tagalog, Gujarathi and Laotian.

Hosur Road in Bangalore — India’s Silicon Valley and America’s back office — is dilapidated and dangerous. Cows sacred to Hindus nose through burning garbage. Bodies, dead, drunk or sick, sprawl in gutters as a mass of humanity teems above them.

Tom Purcell, guest commentary

One of the coolest things about the Olympics has been that the U.S. athletes do not all have the same last name and do not all look like one another. They boast an amazing array of ethnic and racial heritages.

HANOI, Vietnam - President Bush sought Chinese President Hu Jintao's help on dual fronts Sunday, aiming to rein in North Korea's nuclear ambitions and encourage the Chinese people to buy more U.S. goods.

NORTH TROY, VT. - For the last eight months, the Rev. Henry Mlinganisa has been getting a lesson in American culture. His parishioners at St. Vincent de Paul church, meanwhile, have been learning about Roman Catholic life in Tanzania, the East African nation where he comes from.

When will the “Victim Game” stop for Blacks and Hispanics in America? It’s been more than 40 years, almost two Generations and Martin Luther King’s “Dream” is still a dream. Schools are no longer segregated. Colleges and Universities are no longer segregated. Why aren’t blacks, Native Americans and Hispanics doing as well or better than other past and present ethnic and racial groups?

Growing up, they had been told not to speak their language, but as young soldiers in a country at war, men like Charles Chibitty and Teddy Draper, Sr., found their words were their mightiest weapons.

The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text.

The Valley’s explosive Asian population growth is providing some new opportunities for schoolchildren, from field trips to afterschool classes.

Homol'ovi - which means "Place of the Little Hills" in the Hopi language - is the only Arizona state park dedicated to American Indian culture.

MEXICO CITY - Grappling with a shortage of nurses, hospitals in the United States are sending recruiters to Mexico and other poor nations, raising concerns of a possible drain on already strained health care in the developing world.

TORONTO - Canadian politicians are denouncing "The Late Show with Conan O'Brien" over a sketch in which a cigar-chomping sock puppet hurled insults at French Canadians.

EDINBURGH, Scotland - The latest magical tome by J.K. Rowling has started to fly off bookstore shelves.

PORTLAND, Ore. - On a dusty soccer field in a working-class neighborhood in Barcelona, Spain, two youngsters piece together their dream team of superstars for the World Cup. ‘‘Cisse. Kaka. Zidane. Beckham . . .’’

"You know your country is doomed when the number of people that are willing to work for what they get are starting to be outnumbered by people that would rather just vote for what they get."

In analyzing Sacha Baron Cohen and the array of offbeat characters he's created, it's clear that it's become a matter of diminishing returns.

If Southern Baptists gather for a seminar on what Mormons believe, the odds are good that one of the teachers will be a former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

GYEONGJU, South Korea - President Bush took a hardline stance against North Korea on Thursday, saying the U.S. won't help the communist nation build a civilian nuclear reactor to produce electricity until it dismantles its nuclear weapons programs.

They were little more than boys, 16 to 23 years old. Packing pistols, drinking heavily and living hand to mouth, they moved often and died young, chasing odd jobs and dusty hooves for the sake of a dollar a day. They don’t sound like guys you could even trust with house-sitting, but these hard-living youngsters settled the West, captured the imagination of the generations that followed, and infused a lonely toughness into the American mystique.

Barefoot and dressed in white, Tizoc Guerrero clapped, sang and performed various flipping feats for his class of 13 to mimic. Just 18 years old, the Mesa dancer, artist and musician was teaching his weekly capoeira class Thursday at the Axé Capoeira Academy in Tempe.

LOS ANGELES - Rohit Sarang of Bombay, India, was a Chris Daughtry fan but is eager to see if Katharine McPhee or Taylor Hicks is crowned the latest "American Idol." Leong Ai Syn of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, shares the anticipation.

David F. Nolan's positions on current issues

You'd have to really love birding as much as the guys here do to enjoy the strained buddy comedy "The Big Year" to its fullest potential.