U.S. officials said a review of an American airstrike in Afghanistan refutes claims by the United Nations and others that as many as 90 civilians were killed.

A U.N. food agency said Tuesday that it will provide food assistance worth $214 million to help ease the effects of high food and oil prices in 16 troubled spots.

Coalition warships seized 30 tons of narcotics over the past five months on Persian Gulf patrols, cutting off possible funds for insurgents in Afghanistan, the U.S. Navy said Tuesday.

Ayan Ali Hassan decided to leave Mogadishu when militiamen boarded her school bus and kidnapped two screaming boys. For Abdi Gadir Osman, the moment came when a mortar slammed into his mother's home, killing her while she slept on a hot afternoon.

Colombia's coca crop — the basis for cocaine — grew by 27 percent last year, the U.N. reported Wednesday, calling the increase "a surprise and a shock" given major U.S.-funded eradication efforts.

A Dutch court began hearings Wednesday about whether survivors of a 1995 massacre of Muslims in Bosnia  can sue the United Nations for failing to prevent the slaughter.

NATO must expand its role to prepare for new threats provoked by the impact of global warming, energy shortages and the spread of nuclear technology, the alliance's top diplomat warned Tuesday.

The roads of the ravaged Irrawaddy Delta are lined these days with people hoping to be fed. After lifetimes living off the land, poor farmers have abandoned their ruined rice paddies, setting up makeshift bamboo shelters, waiting for carloads of Burmese civilians who have taken it on themselves to feed those who lost everything to Cyclone Nargis.

The 68 blue tents are lined up in a row, with a brand-new water purifier and boxes of relief supplies, stacked neatly but as yet undelivered and not even opened.  But for the majority of Cyclone Nargis survivors, aid is something they've had no access to.

China began three days of national mourning on Monday for more than 30,000 victims of an earthquake that struck a week ago.