U.S. TROOP LEVELS:

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday began a trip through the countries of former Soviet Central Asia, a region troubled by poverty, oppression and fears of renewed Islamic insurgency....

Former Prime Minister Tzannis Tzannetakis, who led a short-lived coalition government in 1989 while the country was rocked by corruption scandals and political turmoil, has died at 82.

Derogatory comments by the Czech Republic's former prime minister about Jews, gays and the Catholic Church led Thursday to his resignation as chairman of his conservative political party.

A six-year-old girl, who claimed that she was being stripped and abused on a daily basis by up to 23 tormentors aged between 6 and 10, has since been moved to another school -- but no action is be set taken against the other children involved after the school waited two years to investigate.

Britain says it is creating the world's largest marine reserve around the Chagos Islands, the U.K.-owned archipelago in the Indian Ocean.

Canada's national police force has apologized and settled a lawsuit involving the case of an unruly Polish traveler who died after being repeatedly zapped with a Taser at Vancouver's airport.

Stranded since the earthquake, 9-year-old Ana toes the dusty concrete outside her orphanage and tells a social worker she wants to go back to live with her half-sister. Within hours, the aid wor...

A top activist for land reform in Brazil's Amazon has been murdered, police said Thursday.

Peruvian officials are celebrating the reopening of the famed Inca citadel of Machu Picchu after a two-month closure caused by flooding.

Bulgarian officials say a dead bird found near the Black Sea port of Varna has tested positive for the deadly H5N1 virus.

Ministry calls reports that sympathizers of a southern secessionist movement had escaped from prison after a bomb exploded 'completely false.'

Despite months of pronouncements by officials that a big offensive is imminent, Somalia's prime minister told The Associated Press the government will only gradually try to expand its control of...

The leaders of Britain and Germany on Thursday backed plans to push for tighter sanctions against Iran, which the United States hopes can be agreed by the end of the month.

Researchers say new evidence from Russian archives suggests that a Swedish diplomat credited with rescuing thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust was alive after the Soviets reported his...

A gas explosion at a mine in central China killed 12 workers and trapped 32 underground, state media said Thursday, the second major mine disaster in the country this week.

Joseph "Zeke" Rucker was in a coma with skull fractures and bleeding on the brain since the mysterious incident occurred on March 15 in the holiday hotspot of Cancun.

The USS Nicholas reported taking fire from a suspected pirate skiff and returned fire before pursuing it and eventually disabling it.

U.S. Senator John Kerry says Syria is committed to engaging in peace making and is essential to the process.

Iraqi officials say gunmen fatally shot a health ministry official at his home in Baghdad in the latest slaying apparently targeting government employees.