Pakistan denied Wednesday that it is harboring a Sunni rebel leader accused of orchestrating a suicide attack in neighboring Iran. Tehran has vowed "a crushing response" to the Sunni rebel group Jundallah for Sunday's suicide bombing in Sistan-Baluchestan province that killed 42 people. Iran has accused the United States and Pakistan of having links to Jundallah. Iran has demanded Pakistan hand over Jundallah leader Abdul Malik Rigi, whom Tehran blames for plotting the attack. But Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik ...

Pakistan's army said Sunday it killed 60 "terrorists" as it battles to wrest control of part of the country from the Taliban. Five soldiers were killed in the last 24 hours of the assault, the military said. Pakistani troops launched the massive ground offensive backed by air power this weekend in South Waziristan, a refuge and a power base for insurgents operating in Pakistan and along the Pakistani-Afghan border. The highly anticipated offensive comes after a wave of suicide attacks ...

Twelve people, including two police officers, were killed Saturday in a gun battle between two rival drug gangs in a slum in northern Rio de Janeiro, a state spokesman said.

Heavy rains triggered by El Nino weather patterns could potentially prove devastating for east African nations that have been water-starved for months, the United Nations has warned. Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda are facing mudslides, crop destruction, waterborne diseases and disrupted road networks, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday. Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia could also be affected. The effects of flooding are expected to be exacerbated because so much greenery has disappeared in the drought. ...

The State Department has decided to authorize visas for a North Korean nuclear delegation so they can attend conferences in the United States later this month, a department spokesman said Friday.

Pakistani fighter jets bombed a village in South Waziristan on Wednesday, killing at least eight people, said military officials and a local Taliban leader. Among those killed in Gorgoray was the father of militant commander Nur Wali, said Ahmed Ullah, a Taliban leader in Razmak, North Waziristan. Ullah said all the victims were civilians. Pakistani air strikes have targeted South Waziristan for the last month. Wednesday was the second straight day of strikes against Taliban militant hideouts in ...

Pakistani military jets bombed Taliban militant hideouts Tuesday in the country's lawless tribal region, a senior military official told CNN. The jet fighters struck Taliban hideouts in the villages of Makeen and Ladha in South Waziristan, the official said. Pakistani soldiers stationed at nearby military posts also fired on the hideouts, the official said. Pakistani military jets also launched airstrikes on militant hideouts in Bajaur Agency, the northern-most district in Pakistan's tribal region located along the Afghan border. The official ...

Camouflaged gunmen in a white minivan opened fire with assault weapons Saturday at a Pakistani army headquarters checkpoint in Rawalpindi, a top military spokesman said. What followed was a raging gunbattle that left all four gunmen and all four guards dead, said army Gen. Athar Abbas, speaking on CNN affiliate Geo TV. The standoff was over and the militants failed to enter the army compound, he said. It was the third major attack in Pakistan this week. A suicide car ...

"This better be good." It was 5:45 a.m. and like many West Wing staffers on Friday, Deputy White House Spokesman Bill Burton had been awoken by a phone call, in this case from an ABC News correspondent, Yunji De Nies, who told Burton that President Obama had just won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. "That is good," quipped Burton. A few minutes later, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called the President to wake him up with the news, which ...

Atlanta rapper DeAndre Cortez Way, better known by his stage name Soulja Boy Tell 'Em or just Soulja Boy, was charged with obstruction after running from police despite an order to stop, a police spokesman said Friday. The 19-year-old singer was among a large group that had gathered at a home in Stockbridge, 20 miles south of Atlanta, said Henry County, Georgia, police Capt. Jason Bolton. Way was arrested Wednesday night along with another man, Bolton said. Police said Way ...