SANTIAGO (AP) ― A strong 5.9-magnitude earthquake shook central Chile on Wednesday, causing office buildings in the capital to sway for almost a minute but authorities said no damage was reported and ruled out the possibility of tsunami along its coast. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake’s epicenter was 59 kilometers southwest of the port city of San Antonio, Chile. It struck at 6:36 p.m. local time. The USGS had reported the quake as magnitude 6.1 but revised the strength down to 5.9. Bu

LA PAZ (AP) ― A dispute over ethnicity marked census-taking day in Bolivia as the landlocked Andean nation’s population submitted Wednesday to its first national head count in 11 years. The controversy revolved around a decision by the government of President Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, not to include “mestizo” as a category. It might not have been an issue ― “mestizo” never appeared as an option on previous censuses ― had not Bolivians been given the option Wednesday of d

Muslim leaders gathered for a rare summit in Islamabad on Thursday as militant attacks killed 36 people across the country on one of the deadliest days of violence claimed by the Taliban in months.The string of attacks on Shiite Muslims and Pakistani security forces underscored the immense security challenge in a country where Taliban and al-Qaida-linked extremists bitterly oppose the US-allied government.Twenty-three people were killed and 62 wounded overnight in Rawalpindi, the twin city of Is

A cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers took effect Wednesday night, bringing an end to eight days of the fiercest fighting in years and possibly signaling a new era of relations between the bitter enemies.The Egyptian-sponsored deal delivered key achievements for all involved. It promised to halt years of Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel and ease border closings that have stifled Gaza's economy, and it affirmed the emergence of Egypt's new Islamist g

A bomb exploded aboard an Israeli bus near the nation's military headquarters in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, wounding 27 people, delivering a major blow to diplomatic efforts to forge a truce to end a week of fighting between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers. Thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in Gaza fearing Israeli airstrikes.Hours after the bus blast, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is shuttling across the region in truce talks, arrived in Cairo and met with Egyp

Officials say Turkey has requested deployment of NATO's Patriot air defense missiles over concerns about Syria's civil war.Turkish officials have become increasingly concerned about the civil war spilling over the border. A statement from the Turkish government said the request has been made in the ``face of risks from the ongoing crisis in Syria.'' NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday on Twitter that ``allies will discuss this without delay.''German Foreign Minister Guido

GOMA, Congo (AP) ― A rebel group believed to be backed by Rwanda seized the strategic, provincial capital of Goma in eastern Congo on Tuesday, home to more than 1 million people as well as an international airport in a development that threatens to spark a new, regional war, officials and witnesses said. Explosions and machine-gun fire rocked the lakeside city as the M23 rebels pushed forward on two fronts: toward the city center and along the road that leads to Bukavu, another provincial capita

BASE OF THE 46TH REGIMENT, Syria (AP) ― After a nearly two-month siege, Syrian rebels overwhelmed a large military base in the north of the country and made off with tanks, armored vehicles and truckloads of munitions that rebel leaders say will give them a boost in the fight against President Bashar Assad’s army. The rebel capture of the base of the Syrian army’s 46th Regiment is a sharp blow to the government’s efforts to roll back rebels gains and shows a rising level of organization among op

MUMBAI, India (AP) ― India executed the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 terror attack on Mumbai early Wednesday, the country’s home ministry said. Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani citizen, was one of 10 gunmen who rampaged through the streets of India’s financial capital for three days in November 2008, killing 166 people. Kasab was hung in secrecy at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday at a jail in Pune, a city near Mumbai, after Indian President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his plea for mercy. Union Home Mi

The cost of a police search for a Clark, N.J., teen who faked her own kidnapping will not be billed to her family, the town’s mayor said.Kara Alongi, 16, disappeared Sept. 30 after asking friends on her Twitter account to phone 911 because someone was in her house, leading to thousands of return messages and a temporary position as one of the most talked-about topics on the Internet. After taking a taxi to a train station and then leaving town, she was found two days later, unharmed and not kidn