Pope Benedict XVI says he is praying for victims of the conflict between Israel and Gaza militants and gave his encouragement for efforts to obtain a cease-fire and negotiations.

He told his weekly public audience Wednesday that "hate and violence are not the solution for problems," receiving applause from pilgrims in the Paul VI auditorium.

Jurors awarded nearly $777,000 Tuesday to a former "The Price is Right" model who claimed she was discriminated against by producers because of her pregnancy.

Brandi Cochran, 41, said she was rejected by the game show's producers when she tried to return to work in early 2010 after taking maternity leave.

Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash resigned from "Sesame Street" on Tuesday amid allegations he sexually abused underage boys, bringing an end to a 28-year career in which he turned the furry red monster into one of the most beloved — and lucrative — characters on TV and in toy stores.

"Personal matters have diverted attention away from the important work 'Sesame Street' is doing and I cannot allow it to go on any longer," the 52-year-old performer said in a statement. "I am deeply sorry to be leaving and am looking forward to resolving these personal matters privately."

In a nondescript building around the corner from the world's biggest casino, students at the Macau Polytechnic Institute are in class. Huddled at a long table topped with green felt, they pay close attention as their instructor writes a series of diagrams and numbers on a whiteboard.

But this isn't a regular math lesson. The students sitting around the roulette table are getting schooled on how to quickly calculate payoffs for the casino game by glancing at how the chips are placed. Elsewhere in the room, the biggest mock casino in Asia, other students are playing practice hands of blackjack or learning how to run a craps table.

Libya's deputy interior minister said Wednesday that gunmen assassinated the security chief of the eastern city of Benghazi overnight.

Omar al-Khadrawi said National Security Chief Col. Farag al-Dersi was shot dead while returning from work.

A Hizbullah official in south Lebanon said the party was on full alert in case of any Israeli attack in light of the aggression on the Gaza Strip, but denied fighters were policing the border to prevent attacks on the Jewish state.

"This is a job for the (Lebanese) army and United Nations peacekeepers, not Hizbullah," the official told the Associated Press.

New York's highest court ruled Tuesday that a Lebanese bank's use of a New York account for multimillion-dollar wire transfers establishes the basis for a lawsuit in the U.S. by Israeli "victims" of Hizbullah's rocket attacks in the 2006 war.

The lawsuit was filed by American, Canadian and Israeli citizens who live in northern Israel. It claims that Lebanese Canadian Bank supported terrorism by handling international financial transactions of the Hizbullah affiliate Shahid Foundation. The lawsuit says the money was moved through an account at American Express Bank in New York.

A documentary about an inmate on Florida's death row says the convicted killer might have been involved in the 1994 murder of O.J. Simpson's ex-wife and her friend, a case that was called "the trial of the century" in the U.S.

The Investigation Discovery show, "My Brother the Serial Killer," will air Wednesday. The film is a look at Glen Rogers, who was convicted by a Florida jury in 1997 for killing a woman. Rogers was also convicted of murder in California and is a suspect in homicides in several other states.

Volkswagen is recalling about 2,500 Beetles in the U.S. because the front passenger seat air bag could inflate and injure a small child.

The recall includes 2012 and 2013 Beetles with leather sport seats. If the seat gets wet, the module that's supposed to detect a child seat could fail. The air bag could go off in a crash and hurt the child.

Donnie Wahlberg hopes his "Blue Bloods" co-star Jennifer Esposito is OK, but has no idea when, or if, she's returning to the show.

CBS suspended the actress from the police drama, claiming she can't fulfill the full-time demands of the show. Esposito fired back over Twitter accusing the network of "absolutely shameful behavior."