A government airstrike misfired on a refugee camp in Yemen killed dozens of civilians, officials from the government and humanitarian agencies said. Thursday's strike was meant to target Shiite rebels, according to the government officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Houthi Shiite rebels were fighting near the site, the officials said. The government officials put the death toll at 86, while the U.N. Children's Fund said "reliable" government and media sources put the death toll at 87. CNN ...

The route to my ancestral home is etched into my heart. Unfortunately, not knowing the address is a problem in the ever-changing urban geography of Chenghai, an industrial town 30-minutes from Shantou in China's Guangdong province. A motorcycle taxi took me bouncing, meandering through the town's crowded alleyways toward the end of a recent tour of mainland China. After the driver gave up and left me in an ancient-looking alley, near where more than 200 people supposedly carry the surname ...

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has condemned "bloody whites" for meddling in his country's affairs and attacked the West for trying to impose its rule on the southern African nation. Mugabe's comments on Friday came a day before he met a delegation of European Union representatives who are in the country to ease relations and push progress on Zimbabwe's political reforms. Mugabe, 85, welcomed the delegation Saturday "with open arms," news outlets reported. Addressing his ZANU-PF party's youth conference in the ...

Actor Edward Norton already wanted to be in better shape for his 40th birthday than he was on his 30th when the idea hit -- why not join members of an African tribe famous for its runners and run the New York marathon? Before he knew it, the star of "The Incredible Hulk" and "Fight Club" had signed on to the effort, despite never having run a marathon before. "The idea picked up traction pretty quickly," said Norton, who turned ...

Let those other filmmakers focus on world destruction or masked superheroes or beautiful people doing beautiful things. Mike Judge prefers to deal with real life. Judge, writer and director of "Office Space" and co-creator of the TV series "King of the Hill," has long liked to set his work in the world of malfunctioning copiers and beer-drinking propane salesmen. Even his wicked satire of the future, "Idiocracy," focused on the inanities of everyday life, just set 500 years from now. ...

The world has a new alliance to save vanishing frogs, toads and salamanders. A coalition of organizations established the Amphibian Survival Alliance this month to conserve species threatened by deadly fungus, habitat loss, pollution, pesticides and climate change. The scientists said amphibians are the world's most threatened group of animals. Though they thrived on Earth for more than 360 million years, one in three of the 6,000 recognized amphibian species are now at risk of extinction and as ...

The recent closure of 32 privately owned radio stations and a proposed law to punish "media crimes" are signs that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is moving to quash criticism of his government, according to a recent U.S. intelligence report. Chavez's government is "moving forcefully to silence critics," said the unclassified U.S. analysis prepared by the Open Source Center, a government intelligence center. The relationship between privately owned media in Venezuela and the leftist Chavez have never been rosy. Chavez has ...

It has been nearly eight years since U.S. forces overthrew the Taliban leaders of Afghanistan, but the war against the Taliban insurgency is bloodier than ever. The number of Afghan civilians killed in the wake of the war has increased 24 percent in the first six months of this year compared with the same time period last year, according to the United Nations. And NATO and American forces suffered record losses this summer, with 75 troops killed in the month ...

One year after Russian tanks rolled into the former Soviet republic of Georgia, the conflict that erupted over a breakaway territory continues to stoke tensions in the region, with repercussions around the world. Earlier this month, Georgia and the Russian-backed enclave of South Ossetia accuse each other of violating a cease-fire that ended the brief conflict. In another development with global consequences, an attempt to silence a pro-Georgia blogger with a cyber attack resulted in severe disruptions to social networking ...

President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser Thursday vowed the U.S. would defeat al Qaeda and declared the president has urged him to be more aggressive in destroying the terrorist organization. John Brennan, Obama's senior adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security, projected an assertive stance toward the battle against al Qaeda -- which Brennan said "remains the most serious threat" the U.S. faces -- and al Qaeda's allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He made clear that predator drone attacks would continue, while ...