PARIS (AFP) – Police evacuated the Eiffel Tower and the park surrounding the Paris landmark Tuesday after a bomb alert, an AFP journalist said.

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 ...

PARIS – The French Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill banning the burqa-style Islamic veil on public streets and other places, a measure that effects less than 2,000 women but that has been widely seen as a symbolic defense of French values.

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 ...

SORRISO/NOVO HAMBURGO, Brazil (Reuters) – Even among emerging market powerhouses, Brazil and China stand out. With enviably strong growth rates, the largest economies in Latin America and Asia have come to represent the shift in global clout from developed to developing economies.

MINA, Saudi Arabia (AFP) – The world's largest annual pilgrimage, the hajj, began on Sunday with hundreds of thousands of Muslims pouring into the camp of Mina from Mecca to prepare for the solemn rituals

BERLIN (Reuters) – A German judge has shot to popularity after letting 42 speeding drivers off without charges in the last week because he thinks speed controls merely serve to fill the state's coffers rather than prevent accidents

STOCKHOLM – Swedish police evacuated 273 people from a Pakistan International Airlines jet diverted to Stockholm due to a bomb alert Saturday and briefly detained a passenger on suspicion of preparing aircraft sabotage, officials said.

(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 ...

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.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Hundreds of protesters who blame U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal for Haiti's widening cholera epidemic marched on a rural military base Friday to demand the soldiers leave the country.

LONDON (AFP) – Britain is "urgently considering" new security measures for air cargo from Yemen after a suspect package flown in from the country sparked an international alert, the government said Friday.

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

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.

Apr. 26- Given the serious shortage of medical and nursing care workers and nurses, lifting certain restrictions so qualified foreigners in these fields can apply their skills in this country is an obvious solution. In its fourth basic immigration control policy plan compiled late last month, the Justice Ministry stated it would reexamine the mandatory limit on the length of time ...

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.

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 ...