World News:

The era of financial institutions that are too big to fail has to end to prevent another financial crisis, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said today.

Ahead of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians on Thursday, President Barack Obama said Wednesday night that he was "hopeful -- cautiously hopeful" that the talks could achieve a two-state solution to the long running Mideast conflict.

The International Monetary Fund delivered a mixed message Wednesday, warning that many wealthy countries are amassing risky debt burdens but playing down the likelihood of a Greek default.

As President Obama convenes the first direct Middle East peace talks in 20 months, the question many observers here and in the region are asking is what, if anything, makes this round any more hopeful than the last.

International food prices have risen to their highest level in two years, fueled in part by a drought in Russia that lifted the cost of wheat, a U.N. agency said Wednesday.

Even as President Barack Obama was announcing the end of combat in Iraq, American soldiers were sealing off a northern village early Wednesday as their Iraqi partners raided houses and arrested dozens of suspected insurgents.

Floods have displaced nearly 60,000 people in the last month in south Sudan with many at risk of malaria and other diseases, the semi-autonomous region's government said Tuesday.