The Obama administration has dramatically ratcheted up the American drone warfare program in Pakistan. Since President Obama took office, U.S. drone strikes have killed about a half-dozen militant leaders along with hundreds of other people, a quarter of whom were civilians.Ban said he was assured by Kai Eide, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had instructed his Interior Ministry to strengthen security, and he said the United Nations would do likewise -- in Kabul as ...

Weapons fire and explosions ripped through central Kabul on Wednesday morning.

International officials arrived in Iran on Sunday to inspect a newly disclosed nuclear facility near the city of Qom, state media reported. Tehran is studying the draft proposal and will have an answer next week, Iranian diplomat Ali Asghar Soltanieh said on state-run Press TV. Iran informed IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei that it is "considering the proposal in depth and in a favorable light, but it needs until the middle of next week to provide a response," according to ...

Pirates seized control of a cargo vessel near the Seychelles Thursday, one of two attacks that took place within minutes of each other off the coast of east Africa, according to the European Union Naval Force. The EU maritime patrol responded to the early morning attacks, along with the Seychelles Coast Guard. The crew of the Panama-flagged MV Al Khaliq said two pirates had boarded the vessel before communication was cut off with the crew. The EU ...

Investigators have charged a man with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and other crimes, the acting U.S. attorney for Massachusetts said Wednesday. Tarek Mehanna, 27, of Sudbury, Massachusetts, traveled overseas, sought training from the Taliban, wanted to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq and hoped to kill one or two members of the executive branch of the U.S. government, said Michael K. Loucks, the acting U.S. attorney for Massachusetts. He declined to name the executive branch officials and said ...

Poland has agreed to host elements of the new U.S. missile defense plan despite initial surprise over the Obama administration's recent decision to overhaul President Bush's strategy. "We are ready to participate in the project," said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who made the announcement Wednesday with Vice President Joe Biden in Warsaw. Biden said the United States was appreciative when Poland was willing to host an element of the now-scrapped missile defense plan proposed by the Bush administration and ...

Israeli President Shimon Peres rejected a United Nations report on his country's incursion into Gaza as "one-sided" and "unfair" in an interview with CNN. The U.N. Council for Human Rights last week approved the report, which accuses both Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas of "actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity" during the three-week offensive which ended in January. Peres insisted that Israel had a right to defend itself, and said the United Nations was in danger ...

Nearly nine in 10 Americans say they think Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, according to a new national poll. Eighty-eight percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Tuesday say the Iranian government is attempting to develop nuclear weapons. But it appears that's where agreement ends as the survey indicates there's little consensus on the best approach to addressing the situation -- though the poll does suggest a military response is not as popular as ...

President Barack Obama's Nobel peace surprise was given "primarily for his work on and commitment to nuclear disarmament," according to Agot Valle, a Norwegian politician who served on the award committee. Valle told the Wall Street Journal that the stewards of the prize wanted to "support" Obama's goal, as expressed recently at the United Nations, "of a world without nuclear weapons." It's tough to think of a goal more widely espoused than the dream of an H-bomb-free planet. Ronald ...

The friend of a man accused of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction in the United States said Saturday he had put his life "on hold" because of the investigation. Naiz Khan said he has been under round-the-clock surveillance by authorities ever since Najibullah Zazi was charged with conspiracy. Authorities say Zazi planned to be in New York with the intent of using an explosive device on September 11, 2009. The alleged plot, which came to light after ...