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.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Poisonous gases kept rescuers from entering a New Zealand coal mine where a powerful blast trapped 29 workers, as intermittent power outages Saturday frustrated efforts to pump in fresh air.

HAVANA – Cuba's communist economic model has come in for criticism from an unlikely source: Fidel Castro. The revolutionary leader told a visiting American journalist and a U.S.-Cuba policy expert that the island's state-dominated system is in need of change, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has taken pains to steer clear of local issues since illness ...

KABUL, Afghanistan – Up to 30 insurgents have been killed in fighting ahead of this week's parliamentary elections in Afghanistan which the Taliban want to undermine, NATO and Afghan officials said Tuesday.

KAMPALA, Uganda – A Ugandan lawmaker on Friday refused to withdraw proposed legislation that would impose the death penalty for some gays and lesbians despite international condemnation and presidential opposition to a measure that could scare off foreign investors. Lawmaker David Bahati said he will not heed a call late Thursday from the government to drop the proposed bill, as he ...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Three churches in Malaysia were attacked with firebombs, causing extensive damage to one, as Muslims pledged Friday to prevent Christians from using the word "Allah," escalating religious tensions in the multiracial country. Many Malay Muslims, who make up 60 percent of the population, are incensed by a recent High Court decision to overturn a ban on Roman ...

LONDON – Experts say there is nothing unusual about the latest spate of earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and now Turkey, but their devastation illustrates how growing construction along the world's fault lines can lead to massive casualties.

Half a century of police pressure and court convictions has left the Basque separatist group ETA shrunken, battered and shaken by infighting, with the group's political representatives wrestling its militants for leadership of the movement. This internal division was highlighted most recently on Sept. 12, when ETA's fighters called for international mediation to help bring a close to their campaign of ...

(Oct. 13) -- They are a 19-year-old new father and a veteran miner more than three times his age, a groom planning his wedding and another man preparing to meet his infant daughter for the first time. As the 33 Chilean miners are hauled up to the surface one-by-one -- some laughing, some in tears and some with tears and laughter ...

NHS nurses came under fire today for their "cruel" and "demeaning" treatment of elderly patients. TV agony aunt and former nurse Claire Rayner said she was "sickened" by what has happened to some parts of her profession. The president of the Patients Association also called for "bad" nurses to be struck off the medical register. A report from the charity today ...

JOHANNESBURG – Health officials in South Africa said Wednesday they recommend screening all HIV patients for tuberculosis and want automatic TB tests for HIV patients to become normal procedure within five years.

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

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.

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 ...

JOS, Nigeria – The U.S. government and human rights activists called Tuesday for Nigeria to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the deaths of more than 200 unarmed people in renewed violence between Christians and Muslims.

DUBLIN – Ireland's health minister was pelted with red paint Monday as tempers flared over government plans to slash euro1 billion ($1.4 billion) from the costs of running an overloaded hospital network.

ROME (AFP) – The UN children's agency on Thursday proposed a new approach for ending female genital mutilation, saying campaigns should work with communities instead of fighting local traditions.