The grand gathering of North Korea's party faithful that was supposed to have been held earlier this month in Pyongyang - and then, mysteriously, wasn't - finally got under way on Tuesday. Whether it was like a Broadway show that had to work out its kinks in the North Korean equivalent of New Haven before heading to the (not so) bright ...

ASHDOD, Israel (Reuters) – The Israeli navy boarded a yacht in the Mediterranean Tuesday to prevent 10 Jewish activists sailing to Gaza to protest against Israel's blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

HIV-contaminated blood sold to a Chinese hospital in the 1990s and used in transfusions has infected 74 people, a health official said. The director of a health center in central China discovered in 2003 a patient with HIV had sold his blood to the hospital, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Friday. The hospital traced all blood sellers and receivers before ...

BEIJING – An American-born panda gave birth to her eighth cub in southwest China, a rare accomplishment for the endangered species known for being poor breeders

CAUAYAN, Philippines – A super typhoon that killed 13 people and flattened forests and crops in the northern Philippines dumped heavy rains on the capital Tuesday as it headed across the sea toward southern China.

MADRID – Spain, famed for its smoke-filled bars, corner cafes and restaurants, set the stage Wednesday for a tough new anti-smoking law that will rid the country of its dubious status as one of Western Europe's easiest places to light up.

Peru's court system continued its ping-pong treatment of Lori Berenson late Friday afternoon, once again granting the New York native parole on her 20-year sentence on terrorism charges. Berenson, hands clasped in her lap and flanked by two prison guards, sat motionless during the 75-minutes it took to read Judge Jessica Leon's verdict.  

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian authorities have officially asked the United States to extradite a naturalized U.S. citizen suspected of committing genocide as a Nazi officer in Belgrade during World War Two, a prosecutor said on Tuesday.

When Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed took office in January 2009, hopes were high that here, finally, was the man who might stand a chance of pulling his country from the ruin it had fallen into after 20 years of near-perpetual war.

SAN SALVADOR (AFP) – A fire on Wednesday tore through a detention center housing young gang members in El Salvador, killing at least 16 people and injuring 22, according to police and rescue personnel

CARACAS, Venezuela – A plane carrying 51 people crashed Monday in eastern Venezuela, and officials said at least 21 people survived. The French-built ATR-42 from the state airline Conviasa crashed about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the eastern city of Puerto Ordaz at about 10 a.m. (1430 GMT), Transportation Minister Francisco Garces told state television. He said the plane went down ...

NICOSIA, Cyprus – Three months after it was stolen, the corpse of Cyprus' former president was found reburied in another grave and the country's justice minister said Tuesday that it had been held for ransom. But two spokesmen for former President Tassos Papadopoulos' family insisted his relatives had never received a demand for money.

JAKARTA, Indonesia – A top-ranked Southeast Asian militant wanted for planning the 2002 Bali bombings may have been killed in a shootout with police at an Internet cafe Tuesday moments after sitting at a terminal, authorities said. DNA tests were under way to confirm his identity.

MEXICO CITY – Mexico's capture of two rival drug gang leaders in two weeks may mark a new trend in the country's drug war, an official said Monday: drug lords surrendering without a fight when surrounded

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 ...

UFO Sightings at Chinese Airport Force Closure & Crash Fears  

Camus, speaking Friday on French radio, said the American medical team treating Hallyday said the rocker had suffered ill-effects from the operation in France, and that infection "was attacking his bone marrow." "If what I'm being told in the United States is true, this operation was a massacre," he said on RTL radio. On France-Info, Camus said: "It seems the Americans ...

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

There was a swine flu epidemic back in the 60's..............I lived in a small rural part of Georgia during this epidemic.  Schools were closed for a week.  My sister and I treated this back then like it was a 'snow day'.  Little did we know that epidemic killed thousands of people in our country.   If any of you have been to ...