The world's population is forecast to hit 7 billion next year, the vast majority of its growth coming in developing and, in many cases, the poorest nations, a report released Wednesday said. A staggering 97 percent of global growth over the next 40 years will happen in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the Population Reference Bureau's 2009 World Population Data Sheet. "The great bulk of today's 1.2 billion youth -- nearly 90 percent -- are in ...

A series of explosions hit a Shiite neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad Tuesday, killing eight people and wounding dozens of others, just a day after blasts across the country killed more than 50, Iraq's Interior Ministry said. A ministry official said three explosions -- two from car bombs and one from an improvised explosive device -- hit a mosque, a coffee shop and gas station in Baghdad's Ameen neighborhood. No other details were immediately available. The blasts followed an ...

A suspected drug cartel lieutenant was in charge of a plot to kill Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Mexican government officials said. Dimas Diaz Ramos, known as "El Dimas," also is accused of being a top drug exporter to the United States, hiding the contraband in the tires of trucks taking produce across the border. Diaz was one of five suspects arrested Sunday and publicly paraded before reporters Monday. The men belong to the Cartel del Pacifico, also known ...

The United States has received official confirmation that three Americans have been detained in Iran, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday. Shane Bauer, 27; Sarah Shourd, 31; and Josh Fattal, 27, were picked up by Iranian authorities when they strayed across the border while hiking in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. "The Swiss ambassador did today receive formal notification by the Iranian government that it has three Americans in detention," the State Department's Philip Crowley said. "Iran has obligations under ...

A German court has convicted a former army officer of 10 counts of murder in what could be one of the last trials of Nazi-era crimes. Munich's state court found 90-year-old Josef Scheungraber guilty of giving the order to kill 10 Italian civilians in the central Italian town of Falzano di Cortona in 1944. The court also convicted Scheungraber of attempted murder, and acquitted him of four murder counts. He was sentenced to life in prison. The ...

A Jewish Holocaust survivor who later lived on the streets of New York City has left half of her $300,000 estate to Hebrew University, the school said Monday. The new plan is the first time the U.S. military has been directly involved in anti-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan, and commanders say it is an essential part of the overall plan to stabilize the country, which is under heavy Taliban influence. Until now the U.S. military has left the eradication programs to ...

The U.S. military hopes to kill or capture some 50 Afghan drug traffickers with financial ties to the Taliban in an effort to shut down one of the insurgency's biggest sources of revenue, a U.S. Senate report says. The new plan is the first time the U.S. military has been directly involved in anti-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan, and commanders say it is an essential part of the overall plan to stabilize the country, which is under heavy Taliban influence. Until ...

Indonesian authorities are reportedly conducting DNA tests to determine if a man killed in an 18-hour raid last week is the country's most wanted terror suspect, Noordin Top. Police have been hunting for Noordin for the past six years, accusing him involvement in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing and attacks on the Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003 and Australian embassy in 2004. He is also the main suspect in last month's twin hotel bombings in Jakarta which killed seven ...

President Obama will meet with the leaders of Mexico and Canada on Monday, with the three expected to discuss a broad range of issues. Obama arrived in Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city, Sunday evening for the day and a half of talks with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. They are not expected to make any major announcements. In the days leading up the North American Leaders' Summit, officials said the trio would discuss the economy, drug ...

A series of bombings mostly targeting day laborers killed 46 people and wounded 215 in Iraq on Monday, the Ministry of Interior said. Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi, along with former reformist President Mohammad Khatami, should be tried for attempting to lead a Western-backed "velvet revolution" that aimed to topple the regime, the official said. "If Moussavi, Khatami ... and Karrubi are the main suspects believed to have been behind the velvet coup in Iran, which ...