Most Recommended World News

NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga - A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the Pacific island nation of Tonga, sending panicked residents into the streets at night, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

JERUSALEM - With cutting-edge anti-missile systems and two new submarines that can carry nuclear weapons, Israel is readying a new generation of armaments designed to defend itself against distant Iran as well as Tehran's proxy armies on its borders.

AMPATUAN, Philippines - Philippine authorities, under intense public pressure to make arrests in the country's worst election massacre, said Wednesday they are investigating a member of a powerful clan allied with the government along with four police commanders.

KABUL, Afghanistan — The television set crackles with breaking news: Terrorists have smuggled a nuclear bomb into Kabul and are preparing to take out the Afghan capital.

SHINKAY, Afghanistan - A battered taxi sped up a dusty road toward a squad of Afghan soldiers searching for bombs planted in the dirt. Army gunmen who had fanned out for protection readied for a suicide attacker. The car screeched to a halt.

NUKU'ALOFA (AFP) - A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 hit off the Pacific island nation of Tonga on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.8 struck northeast of the South Pacific island nation of Tonga on Tuesday, the United States Geological Survey said, but a destructive tsunami was not expected.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won support for his country's nuclear ambitions and expanded his reach in Latin America in a three-country goodwill tour that took him to close ally Venezuela for his final stop.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran could consider sending its low-enriched uranium abroad, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, apparently softening its opposition to a U.N. plan aimed at keeping a check on its nuclear ambitions.

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey and Israel Tuesday pledged commitment to improve ties as an Israeli minister held talks in Ankara, the first since the Jewish state's war in Gaza poisoned ties between the two regional allies.

China may figure more prominently in Washington's strategic calculations, but Indians believe their country will be closer to Washington in the long term

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - US President Barack Obama is "doing nothing right now" to restart the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said in an interview published Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Barack Obama on Tuesday threw the biggest party of his presidency for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, hailing the world's largest democracy as "indispensable" and pledging to work out a range of thorny issues.

TEHRAN, Iran - An Iranian news agency reports that the judiciary has after just a day lifted its ban on a popular newspaper which ran a photo of a Baha'i temple.

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — There was no rock star, just an actor who likes to play the bass guitar.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Most of the Taliban fighters and all of their leaders apparently have escaped Pakistan's widely publicized six-week-old offensive in South Waziristan, forcing the army to begin pounding other parts of the country's lawless tribal area.

LONDON - British defense secretary Bob Ainsworth says the United States' delay in deciding how many reinforcements to send to Afghanistan has harmed his country's ability to rally public support for the war.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Visitors to South Africa's premier holiday destination who are worried about becoming victims of the country's high crime rate could find themselves instead robbed by a more furry kind of felon: baboons.

ROME - A convicted Mafia boss who got out of jail by faking paralysis and anorexia has been arrested at a restaurant after more than two months on the run, police in Sicily said Tuesday.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Police say a jaguar prowling the lush jungles of Guyana killed a gold and diamond miner as he fetched water from a creek.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan charged seven men on Wednesday in last year's Mumbai terror attacks, its first indictments in a case watched closely by India and the United States to see if Islamabad makes good on promises to punish those responsible.

WASHINGTON — In a preview of his speech next week announcing his plan to send more than 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, President Barack Obama Tuesday vowed that he'll "finish the job" of stabilizing the country and destroying the al Qaida terror network.

LONDON (AFP) - Top civil servants were grilled Wednesday over fears Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction -- used to support the 2003 invasion but never borne out -- at a British inquiry into the conflict.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Prosecutors in the genocide trial of a former Khmer Rouge prison chief demanded a 40-year jail sentence Wednesday for a man they described as responsible for snuffing out innocent lives and spreading terror across Cambodia.

MEXICO CITY - A NASA astronaut says he wants to help Mexican officials start the country's first space agency.

NEW DELHI - An Indian government investigation released Tuesday into the 1992 demolition of a mosque by a raging mob reportedly accused top Hindu nationalist politicians of complicity in the attack that sparked nationwide ethnic riots, leaving 2,000 people dead.

LONDON (AFP) - A private detective, who disappeared after being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds to search for Madeleine McCann, has been arrested in Oxford, media reports said on Wednesday.

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded a 40-year jail term for Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch, as he expressed "excruciating remorse" for the deaths of 15,000 Cambodians at his brutal torture centre.

MELBOURNE, Australia - Formerly conjoined twin sisters Trishna and Krishna are enjoying a favorite DVD and trying new foods as they continue their recovery from marathon separation surgery, doctors said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to move Albert Camus' ashes to the famed PanthÉon in Paris as a way of revering the writer and philosopher. His critics, however, see more tactical motivations