A blast has ripped through a fast food restaurant next to a busy subway station in Chile’s capital.

Authorities lifted tsunami warnings for Chile’s long coastline early on Wednesday after a magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck the South American nation’s northern coast.

Two Chilean military officers have been charged with torturing a former president’s father who died in their custody.

Hundreds of thousands of women are taking part in rallies around the globe to mark International Women's Day.

AN AFTERSHOCK measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale and four other tremors rocked disaster-hit Chile yesterday, triggering a tsunami alert just minutes before billionaire Sebastian Pinera was sworn in as the new president.

MOST Chileans are unhappy with their government’s response to the catastrophic earthquake and blame President Michelle Bachelet for shortcomings, according to a poll published yesterday.

THE Desarmes family left their native Haiti two weeks after the devastating January 12 earthquake, joining the eldest son in Chile for what seemed a refuge from the fear and chaos of Port-au-Prince.

THOUSANDS more troops were deployed across quake-hit Chile yesterday as residents took up arms to stop a wave of mass looting in the nation’s second city, slapped with an 18-hour curfew.

DOZENS of looters were arrested yesterday as they scavenged among the wreckage of the massive Chilean earthquake that has killed at least 723 people.

Dozens of looters were arrested today as they scavenged among the wreckage of the massive Chilean earthquake that killed at least 700 people.

Heroism and banditry mingled on Chile’s shattered streets as rescuers braved aftershocks digging for survivors and the government sent soldiers and ordered a nighttime curfew to quell looting.

CHILE’S president sent the army to help police attack looters yesterday and appealed for international help in the wake of an earthquake that shattered cities and killed at least 708 people.

One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded tore apart houses, bridges and highways in central Chile and sent a tsunami racing halfway around the world.

A devastating magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile early today, shattering buildings and bridges, killing at least 122 people and setting off a tsunami that threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean – roughly a quarter of the globe.

Billionaire Sebastian Pinera won Chile's presidential vote in the country's first democratic election of a right-wing ruler in 52 years.

Chile has inaugurated a 'Museum of Memory' to make sure the tens of thousands of people who were imprisoned, killed or disappeared during General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship are not forgotten.

Fidel Castro met for 90 minutes with Chile’s president, who said the ailing former Cuban leader appeared “in very good shape”.

Senator Edward Kennedy, who has brain cancer, was taken by ambulance to a hospital near his Massachusetts vacation home after complaining of feeling ill but returned home a few hours later.

Chile is making its entire Pacific Ocean territorial waters a whale sanctuary.

Chile’s police chief and 10 others were killed when the ageing Panamanian government helicopter in which they were travelling crashed into a three-storey building in Panama City.

A health chief has been sacked for allowing Chile’s president to inaugurate a public hospital so poorly prepared, it had to borrow beds and have one of its employees pose as a patient.

The soldier grandson of General Augusto Pinochet has been thrown out of the Chilean army after causing an uproar with a funeral speech denouncing judges who had tried the late dictator.

The death of Gen Augusto Pinochet sparked champagne-soaked celebrations, skirmishes with police and displays of lasting devotion as Chileans took an anguished look back at the dictator's 17-year rule.

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet may have stashed millions of dollars in gold in a Hong Kong bank.

CHILE’S President Michelle Bachelet has paid an emotional visit to a torture centre where she and her mother were abused three decades ago.

Chile will use income from its booming copper exports to advance a new social agenda by investing in health, housing and education, President Michelle Bachelet said in her first state-of-nation address.

Other countries need to match Europe’s concessions for World Trade Organisation negotiations aimed at a global trade treaty to move forward, the Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said yesterday.

Socialist paediatrician Michelle Bachelet, who suffered prison, torture and exile under Chile’s military dictatorship, was sworn in as the nation’s first female president today.

President Ricardo Lagos presented U2 frontman Bono with Chile’s highest award for the arts, telling him he should learn to play the traditional Andean instrument known as the charango.

Ireland is leading the way in electing female presidents, Tánaiste Mary Harney told the Dáil today.

General Augusto Pinochet was today stripped of his immunity from prosecution on charges of responsibility for 59 cases of torture and kidnapping.

Britain had Margaret Thatcher, Germany has Angela Merkel. Could France get Segolene Royal?

Chile’s historical rivals and long-time allies joined yesterday in congratulating president-elect Michelle Bachelet, with one South American leader saying women were more than qualified to rule in the region.

Socialist Michelle Bachelet placed first in Chilean presidential elections yesterday but will face a runoff against a right-wing businessman who is one of Chile’s richest men.