Copiapo, Chile (CNN) -- His return heralded by a siren's blare and the cries of a happy nation, the first of 33 Chilean miners emerged into a cool desert night early Wednesday after being trapped underground for 69 harrowing days.

(CNN) -- It is only human nature to be concerned about the psychological welfare of the 33 miners who are expected to emerge from their prolonged stay underground. Those of us who work in the specialty of mental health, especially as it applies to disasters and post-traumatic stress, have pondered the possibilities: We know what can happen to survivors of individual ...

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – It's the nightmare scenario: The earth shifts just as a miner is being pulled to safety, jamming his escape capsule somewhere between the surface and the underground cavern where 33 men have waited for two months to be rescued.

SYDNEY – A thumbnail-sized frog with a long snout, a brilliant green katydid with bright pink eyes and a mouse with a white-tipped tail are among 200 species scientists have discovered in Papua New Guinea.

HANOI, Vietnam – Asia's death toll from vicious rains spiked Thursday to nearly 140 as disaster officials reached previously isolated areas in Vietnam, while the worst flooding in parts of southern China in nearly a half-century killed one person and forced 213,000 villagers to evacuate.

DAKAR, Senegal – An international aid agency says 400 children have died from lead poisoning in northwestern Nigeria and contamination has spread to two more villages

UFO Sightings at Chinese Airport Force Closure & Crash Fears  

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – In a rundown market here along the road to Afghanistan, you can buy U.S. Army gear stamped with soldiers' names, booklets marked "for official use only," even a manual that illustrates how "jammers" can stop remote-controlled bombs.

ROME – U.N. food agencies said Wednesday that 166 million people in 22 countries suffer chronic hunger or difficulty finding enough to eat as a result of what they called protracted food crises.

KOLONTAR, Hungary – Hungary opened a criminal probe into the toxic sludge flood Wednesday and the European Union urged emergency authorities to do everything they can to keep the contaminated slurry from reaching the Danube and affecting half a dozen other nations.

KABUL, Afghanistan – It's make-or-break time in Afghanistan. The war enters its 10th year Thursday, and this is no ordinary anniversary.

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan kept a vital border crossing closed to U.S. and NATO supply trucks for a third day Saturday, a sign that Islamabad's desire to avoid a domestic backlash over a NATO incursion that killed three Pakistani troops is — for now — outweighing its desire to stay on good terms with America.

QUITO, Ecuador – Ecuador was under a state of siege Friday, the streets quiet with the military in charge of public order, after soldiers rescued President Rafael Correa from a hospital where he'd been surrounded by police who roughed him up and tear-gassed him earlier

CAIRO – Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden called for the creation of a new relief body to help Muslims in an audiotape released Friday, seeking to exploit discontent following this summer's devastating floods in Pakistan by depicting the region's governments as uncaring.

JERUSALEM – A U.S. envoy was shuttling between Jerusalem and Ramallah on Friday as part of an emergency mission to rescue Mideast peace talks facing collapse because of a spat over Israeli settlements.

AMSTERDAM – The scene has unfolded countless times in the Netherlands: Young people break into an unused building, move in a table, chair and bed, and then tell the police they are now the official residents — with no permission from the owner and no plans to pay rent.

BAGHDAD – Powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr backed Iraq's prime minister to retain power Friday in a move that could speed an end to the country's seven-month political impasse but could also hand al-Sadr's anti-American bloc considerable influence in the next government

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Assailants in Pakistan launched two separate attacks Friday on vehicles carrying fuel for NATO and American forces in Afghanistan, highlighting the vulnerability of the U.S.-led mission a day after Pakistan closed a major border crossing

ISLAMABAD – Eight Germans and two British brothers are at the heart of an al-Qaida-linked terror plot against European cities, but the plan is still in its early stages, with the suspects calling acquaintances in Europe to plan logistics, a Pakistani intelligence official said Thursday. One of the Britons died in a recent CIA missile strike, he said.