Thousands of Afghan soldiers and police will join U.S. and NATO troops in an offensive in southern Afghanistan, playing their biggest role in any joint operation of the Afghan war.

Avalanches on a mountain pass north of Kabul have killed at least 28 people, with another 1,500 stranded in their vehicles on snow-blocked roads, Afghan officials said Tuesday.

The drama on the sidelines of Haiti's earthquake, in which 10 American missionaries were arrested trying to take children out of the country, was a fiasco waiting to happen. By Kari Huus.

China is showing off the results of its massive drive to rebuild its own quake zone  22 months after a 7.9-magnitude temblor struck and devastated the region and left at least 90,000 dead.

Iran's state TV said the country started enriching its uranium to a higher level of 20 percent, over the objections of the international community.

Activists vowing to stop the killing of whales exchanged water-cannon fire with a Japanese whaling fleet they are tailing in the Antarctic Ocean, as sea confrontations that have led to collisions and a sunken vessel continue.

In Haiti's devastated capital city, early spring rains threaten to cause landslides and bring about health problems in the makeshift camps where more than 500,000 people are living.