GENEVA – The World Health Organization says more than 85 million children under 5 in west and central Africa will be vaccinated against polio. The agency says the massive vaccination campaign in 19 countries by U.N. agencies and the Red Cross will start March 6. It will involve more than 400,000 volunteers and health workers. It is largely funded by Rotary ...

OSLO, Norway – A chemical tanker with 21 crew members has been hijacked by Somali pirates near Madagascar, the Norwegian owner said Saturday. It was not clear whether anyone in the crew, all from Myanmar, had been injured in the attack early Friday or whether any ransom had been demanded.

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday called the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks a "big lie" used by the U.S. as an excuse for the war on terror, state media reported. Ahmadinejad's comments, made during an address to Intelligence Ministry staff, come amid escalating tensions between the West and Tehran over its disputed nuclear program. ...

KABUL – Afghan government officials are not rushing to oust the man they chose to bring fresh and credible governance to a town just seized from the Taliban, but his newly disclosed violent criminal record in Germany will be investigated further, officials said Saturday.

ISLAMABAD - A top Pakistani Taliban commander close to al-Qaida is believed to have been killed in an army airstrike, officials said Saturday, in the latest apparent blow to insurgents who have attacked Pakistan and threatened U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

NAIROBI, Kenya – Somali pirates hit a Spanish fishing boat off the coast of Kenya with a rocket-propelled grenade Thursday as private security on board returned fire at the would-be hijackers. The successful defense of the fishing vessel Albacan illustrates two trends driving up the stakes for sailors and pirates off the Horn of Africa: Better trained and protected crews are ...

JERUSALEM – The killing of a Hamas operative in a Dubai hotel may signal the end of an era: the moment when modern technology finally caught up with the cloak-and-dagger world of disguised assassins and fake passports. "The last assassination of its kind," said a headline in the Israeli daily Haaretz.

CONCEPCION, Chile (AFP) – Divers searched for bodies in debris-clogged waters off Chile's central coast Thursday as bulldozers began removing tonnes of rubble five days after a massive earthquake and tsunami. Rescue dogs were also combing the fetid coastline, where emergency personnel believe monster waves swept hundreds to their deaths. The official death toll stands at 802, but that was expected ...

ATHENS, Greece – Greece says it has raised badly needed cash with a new bond issue, passing a key test of its ability to avoid a disastrous debt default and dig out of a financial crisis that has shaken the European Union.

SINGAPORE – Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia have stepped up maritime and air patrols in the Malacca Strait after receiving a warning that a terrorist group was planning attacks on oil tankers in the waters, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The navies of the three countries are working together to increase monitoring, and "we are prepared to handle this threat," ...

KUNDA, India – A stampede among thousands of poor villagers scrambling for free food and clothes at a commemorative event killed 63 people Thursday at a Hindu temple in northern India and injured dozens of others. Nearly all the victims were women and children. The stampede was so intense it knocked down a gate at the compound surrounding the temple in ...

SAN BERNARDO, Chile – The Desarmes family left their native Haiti two weeks after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, joining the eldest son in Chile for what seemed a refuge from the fear and chaos of Port-au-Prince. Their sense of security lasted barely a month. It was shattered at 3:43 a.m. Saturday when one of the most powerful quakes on record ...

BARCELONA, Spain – Monstrous waves that smashed into a Mediterranean cruise ship flooded people's cabins, broke windows in a restaurant and sent terrified travelers screaming for doctors, passengers said Thursday.

PARIS (AFP) – French police on Tuesday arrested Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of Rwanda's assassinated ex-president, who is wanted in her homeland as one of the alleged masterminds of the 1994 genocide. The arrest came just five days after President Nicolas Sarkozy made the first trip by a French leader to Rwanda since the genocide.

SARGODHA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani police submitted on Tuesday charges of plotting terrorism against five young Americans detained last year, a lawyer said. The students, in their 20s and from the U.S. state of Virginia, were detained in December in the town of Sargodha, 190 km (120 miles) southeast of Islamabad, and accused of contacting militants over the Internet and plotting ...

PELLUHUE, Chile – The 40 retirees enjoying summer vacation at a seaside campground nestled under pine trees knew they had to move fast after Chile's powerful earthquake struck. They didn't make it. The tsunami came in three waves, surging 200 meters (yards) into this Pacific Ocean resort town and dragging away the bus they'd piled into, hoping to get to high ...

By now you know that an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck the nation of Chile this weekend, sending a tsunami warning throughout the Pacific Ocean and displacing millions of people. At 8.8, the quake is the fifth largest of the past century, and its aftershocks continue to wreak havoc on the area (I recommend checking The Times's LEDE Blog for the ...

The 8.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Chile early on Feb. 27 was 500 times stronger than the 7.0 quake that killed an estimated 200,000 Haitians last month. And yet the number of casualties in Chile appears to be exponentially smaller, with the official death toll still in the hundreds. Far fewer people were rendered homeless than in Haiti, and much of the ...

MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Dmitry Medvedev ordered Russian Olympic officials to quit or be fired on Monday and demanded drastic changes to training procedures after a poor showing at the Winter Games dented national pride. Once mighty Russia limped in 11th in the medals table with just three golds, its worst ever tally.

CONCEPCION, Chile – Rescuers found signs of life in the wreckage of a 15-story building Monday as the world offered aid to victims of an earthquake that killed more than 700 people. Troops and police arrested dozens of people for violating a curfew designed to prevent looting. The toll of dead rose to 723, with 19 others missing, the National Emergency ...