ARDEO

Rescuers raced against the clock as quake victims trapped in a toppled apartment block early Sunday even as looters stole food and robbed banks after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Chile.

A tsunami that raced across the Pacific swiped island nations and Asian coasts lightly Sunday, proving to be more spectacle than destructive force for communities that had hours to prepare after Chile’s devastating earthquake.

More than 2,000 U.S. Marines and about 1,000 Afghan troops who stormed the Taliban town of Marjah as part of a major NATO offensive against a resurgent Taliban will stay for the next several months.

Iran’s supreme leader says the U.S. and its allies are influencing the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency’s stance on Tehran’s nuclear program.

The Pakistani Taliban released a video of their militant chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, but his taped comments fail to prove he survived a U.S. missile strike earlier this year.

The tsunami from Chile’s deadly earthquake hit Japan’s main islands and the shores of Russia on Sunday, but the smaller-than-expected waves prompted the lifting of a Pacific-wide alert. Hawaii and other Pacific islands were also spared.

The tsunami from Chile’s deadly earthquake hit Japan’s main islands and the shores of Russia on Sunday, but the smaller-than-expected waves prompted the lifting of a Pacific-wide alert. Hawaii and other Pacific islands were also spared.

A violent late winter storm with fierce rain and hurricane-strength winds ripped across western Europe on Sunday, battering France and four other countries, leaving at least 51 people dead.

The European Union Naval Force says a ransom drop has been made for the release of a Greek-owned bulk carrier seized by pirates two months ago.

Japan put all of its eastern coastline on tsunami alert Sunday and ordered hundreds of thousands of residents in low-lying areas to seek higher ground as waves generated by an earthquake off Chile raced across the Pacific at hundreds of miles per hour.