NAIROBI, Kenya – Terrorists who carried out the Nairobi mall attack claimed Wednesday that 137 hostages were buried in the rubble of collapsed sections of the Westgate shopping mall, seeking to take advantage of the vacuum of information about the fate of hostages and other key questions.

Al Shabab also claimed via a Twitter account that Kenyan authorities lobbed "chemical agents" into the mall as its attack reached its climax, killing dozens of hostages.

Government spokesman, Manoah Esipisu, rejected the claims.

"Al-Shabab is known for wild allegations, and there is absolutely no truth to what they're saying," he told the Associated Press.

Al Shabab posted a series of tweets Wednesday which also accused Kenyans of toppling the building. The government blames the collapse of three floors on a fire it says terrorists lit.

"Kenyatta and his govt are to be held culpable for Westgate and for the lives of the 137 hostages who were being held by the Mujahideen," Al Shahab tweeted...

UNITED NATIONS -- Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, told world leaders Tuesday that his government is prepared to “engage immediately in result-oriented” talks with the United States, but also complained about American economic sanctions and military intervention in the Middle East.

In a widely anticipated speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Rouhani said that Iran and the U.S. “can arrive at a framework to manage our differences,” adding that his government has no desire to increase tensions between the two longtime adversaries.

He said he had listened carefully to President Obama’s speech in the morning, in which the U.S. leader called for an intense diplomatic effort to overcome differences about Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

The 64-year-old cleric emphasized his desire for tolerance and moderation. But despite the predictions of Western diplomats, his speech included no major gestures to win over Iran's critics, such as an...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A powerful earthquake rocked a remote part of western Pakistan on Tuesday, killing more than 30 people, injuring dozens and destroying rudimentary houses in the sparsely populated area, according to officials and local media.

Given the remote terrain, officials were bracing for a higher death toll. The U.S. Geological Survey issued a “red” alert, which means that fatalities could exceed 1,000 and damage cost more than $1 billion.

The USGS said the magnitude 7.8 quake struck 145 miles southeast of Dalbandin, in Pakistan's earthquake-prone Baluchistan province bordering Iran.

The temblor hit about 4:30 p.m. and was followed by at least three aftershocks, said Zahid Rafi, director of Pakistan’s National Seismic Monitoring Center.

Local television networks reported that helicopters were dispatched to the disaster area with emergency supplies. The army said it had deployed 200 troops and rescue and medical teams to provide assistance in the...

The Islamic militant siege of a shopping mall in the Kenyan capital that has left scores dead demonstrates the grip of terrorism on Africa and the need for international action to defeat it, French President Francois Hollande told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

"Africa has fallen prey to terrorism and the barbaric attack in Nairobi confirms this," Hollande said, referring to the standoff between Kenyan troops and extremists of the Somali Shabab militia that began Saturday.

But as the French-led intervention to drive Muslim extremists out of Mali earlier this year showed, "victories are possible against terrorism," Hollande said.

France, fearing the militants plan to use impoverished African states as springboards for European terrorist attacks, launched airstrikes and sent in troops and armored vehicles in January to drive out the Al Qaeda-aligned gunmen.

Although numbering only a few hundred, the militants seized the northern half of Mali and imposed a harsh form of...

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he welcomed President Obama's comments about Iran to the United Nations but remains wary of the Islamic Republic's intentions.

Delivering a video statement that was issued between Obama's speech and that of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Netanyahu said he appreciates Obama's saying that Iran will have to back its conciliatory words with "action that is  transparent and verifiable."

Netanyahu has so far dismissed the new tone from Tehran that the West finds potentially encouraging, suggesting it is a cunning facade. "Iran thinks soothing words and token actions will enable it to continue on its path to the bomb,"  he said.

Netanyahu warned that, like North Korea, Iran would make "cosmetic changes" to rid itself of sanctions but not give up pursuing nuclear weapons capability. 

 Netanyahu intends to use North Korea as a cautionary example in his own speech at the United Nations next week, news reports say.

Israel...

UNITED NATIONS -- President Obama’s offer of a personal “encounter” with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly was rebuffed, the White House said Tuesday.

Iranian officials told the administration that it was “too complicated” for them to pull off right now.

The decision to not have a casual conversation -- or even a handshake -- at Tuesday's gathering of world leaders throws a bit of cold water on the seemingly warming relations between the two countries after decades of diplomatic stand-off.

But analysts said it was not necessarily a significant setback, as the Iranian delegation wasn’t all that interested in a photo opportunity to begin with.

Obama administration officials also note that Secretary of State John F. Kerry is still scheduled to meet this week with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, as the two sides explore the possibility of a diplomatic solution to Iran’s disputed...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday spelled out the grim toll of an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall -- 67 dead, including six soldiers -- and declared an end to the hostage siege that terrified and shocked the nation.

Kenyatta said several bodies, including those of the hostage-takers, remained buried in the rubble -- implying that civilians, possibly hostages, were also among those buried.

The president didn't explain what caused the explosions Monday, how many hostages the gunmen had been holding, how many perished and whether any hostages were freed. Five gunmen were killed, he said, and 11 were arrested.

On Monday, authorities told Kenyan media that the explosions were set by...

UNITED NATIONS -- Signaling that he may be serious about cooperating with the United States and averting military strikes against his government, Syrian President Bashar Assad has disclosed the locations of “dozens” of chemical weapons production and storage sites to international inspectors, Western officials said Tuesday.

Officials familiar with Assad’s disclosure -- the first step in complying with an ambitious U.S.-Russian plan to seize or destroy his chemical weapons by mid-2014 -- described it as “a serious document” that comprises scores of pages and is “surprising” in its thoroughness.

In the document, submitted last week to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the number of listed facilities tracks roughly with the U.S. intelligence assessment that Syria has at least 45 sites associated with its weapons program, the officials said. Nearly half of those are believed to contain toxic materials that could still be...

UNITED NATIONS -- President Obama made a direct personal appeal to Iran’s new president Tuesday, issuing an overture for a diplomatic resolution of Iran's disputed nuclear program as a “major step down a long road” toward better relations.

“The roadblocks may prove to be too great, but I firmly believe the diplomatic path must be tested,” Obama said in a lengthy address to the United Nations General Assembly.

“Iran's genuine commitment to go down a different path will be good for the region and the world and will help the Iranian people meet their extraordinary potential," Obama said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to speak Monday afternoon but was not present in the hall during Obama’s address. However, Iran’s new foreign minister and top nuclear negotiator, Mohammad Javad Zarif, listened attentively at his seat, and TV cameras showed him nodding his head as Obama spoke.

Obama has considered having some kind of informal...

MOSCOW -- Russia opened a criminal case Tuesday against Greenpeace activists, accusing them of piracy, a charge that could carry a prison term of five to 15 years, authorities said.

Russian border troops seized a Greenpeace ice-breaker, the Arctic Sunrise, and its multinational crew of 30 activists and sailors, in a dramatic commando operation in the Barents Sea on Thursday, the day after the group attempted to raise a protest banner on a Russian oil drilling platform.

The ship was towed by the Russian coast guard to an anchor in Kola Bay, about six miles from the port of Murmansk.

“After conducting a preliminary investigation, the Russian Investigative Committee's northwestern branch initiated a criminal case on the signs of … piracy committed by an organized group,” Vladimir Markin, the investigative committee spokesman, said in a statement published on the agency's official website Tuesday.

No formal charges have been filed.

Markin seemed to suggest that the...

President Obama pledged his administration's commitment to seeking peace in the Middle East during his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, declaring that Palestinians "have a right to live in dignity in their own state."

"Friends of Israel, including the U.S., must say clearly that its future depends on the creation of a Palestinian state," Obama told world leaders gathered for their annual meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York.

A breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which resumed this summer, would have a profound and positive influence on the entire Middle East region, Obama asserted.

But he warned that progress in the long, fruitless peace talks was being undermined by Israel's continued occupation of the West Bank.

"I have made clear that the United States will never compromise our commitment to Israel’s security, nor our support for its existence as a Jewish state," Obama stated. But he pointed to "a growing recognition within Israel...