There are 17997 articles

  • Abbas hosts Hamas delegation

    Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has met Hamas leaders in the West Bank for the first time since the rival movement routed his Fatah forces in a bloody takeover of the Gaza Strip in June. Abbas, however, ruled out any dialogue with Hamas - regarded as a terrorist group by Israel and the West - until Gaza returns to his authority. Abbas hosted.. More

  • Fresh fighting rocks Mogadishu

    An Ethiopian soldier and three civilians have been killed in fresh fighting in the Somali capital Mogadishu. The renewed fighting on Friday has worsened the growing humanitarian crisis in the country, after nearly 90,000 people fled fighting earlier this week. Somalia's interim government, supported by Ethiopian troops, are attempting to rid Mogadishu.. More

  • New Iran sanctions to be debated

    Officials from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council are due to meet in London to discuss a third set of sanctions against Iran. Iran refuses to stop enriching uranium, as demanded by council resolutions. The US, Britain and France pushed for a third resolution but were blocked by China and Russia earlier this year. Iran insists.. More

  • Japan ends Afghanistan naval mission

    Japan has ended naval operations in support of US-led forces in Afghanistan. A stalemate in parliament provoked by opposition parties against the deployment saw the mandate for the mission expire without renewal. Japan has refuelled coalition warships in the Indian Ocean since 2001, but an order by the defence minister will see the two ships.. More

  • Several die in Pakistan bomb attack

    At least eight people have been killed and dozens wounded in a suicide bomb attack on a bus carrying air force officials in Pakistan. The suicide bomber crashed his motorbike laden with explosives into the bus in the Sargodha district of central Punjab province on Thursday. Javed Cheema, an interior ministry spokesman, said: "The bus was carrying.. More

  • Fighting rages in Pakistan province

    Government forces battled fighters in a northwestern Pakistani province on Wednesday as rumors circulated of a possible state of emergency to arrest the worsening security situation in the country, prompting Benazir Bhutto to cancel an overseas trip to visit her family. On Wednesday, Pakistani security forces clashed with fighters in a.. More

  • Madrid bomb suspects found guilty

    Twenty-one defendants have been found guilty by a Spanish court of involvement in a series of train bombings in Madrid in 2004 which killed 191 people, with seven others acquitted of all charges. Jamal Zougam, a Moroccan national, was sentenced to more than 40,000 years in prison by Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez, although under Spanish law he can only.. More

  • US gives PKK intelligence to Turkey

    Washington is supplying Turkey with intelligence on the hideouts of Kurdish separatists on the Iraqi border, a Pentagon spokesman has said. Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said on Wednesday that the US is helping Ankara gain the "actionable" intelligence Washington says is needed before any military strike. He said: "We are assisting.. More

  • Chadians protest against Zoe's Ark

    Hundreds of Chadians have protested against 16 Europeans charged over a plan by a charity to fly 103 children to France from the border with Sudan's Darfur region. The protesters in the eastern town of Abeche accused France of being involved in the attempt to take the children from Chad, demanding that the Europeans be tried in a Chadian court. Nine.. More

  • US 'to tighten security firm rules'

    The Pentagon and the US state department have agreed to tighten rules governing private security contractors in Iraq, giving a greater oversight role to the US military, officials say. The proposed changes emerged from a review triggered by a September 16 incident in which guards from Blackwater, a US security firm working for the state department,.. More

  • Seven dead in Russia bus bombing

    At least seven people have been killed in an explosion on a bus in the southern Russian city of Togliatti. More than 20 others were injured by the blast. The governor of the Samara region said the attack was being treated as a "terrorist" act. Security officials say an explosive device may have been fixed to the vehicle, or carried on board. It.. More

  • Israel threatens Gaza invasion

    Israel has escalated threats to invade the Gaza Strip over Palestinian rocket fire after planned economic sanctions drew objections from legal experts and foreign powers. Since occupation forces withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Israel has mounted regular raids and air strikes on the territory, but has failed to stop rocket fire over the border. And Hamas's.. More

  • Saudi king's visit met by protests

    Demonstrators as well as Queen Elizabeth II were on hand as the kind of Saudi Arabia started a state visit to the UK. King Abdullah was welcomed by the queen amid protests on Tuesday, a day after he had accused Britain of failing to address so-called acts of terrorism. The queen, with her husband, Prince Philip, and Gordon Brown, the British prime.. More

  • Hariri: 'Evidence of fresh plot'

    Lebanon's parliamentary majority leader says he has evidence about a plot to assassinate him and the prime minister. Saad Hariri did not say how detailed it was, but he called it reliable and indicated Syria was behind the plot. There was no immediate comment by the Syrian authorities, who have repeatedly denied involvement in killing a string of.. More

  • Deadly blast near Pakistan army HQ

    A suicide attack has killed at least seven people, including the bomber, less than a kilometer from Pervez Musharraf's army headquarters in Rawalpindi, police say. Three policemen and three passers-by were among those killed, while 11 people were wounded in Tuesday's blast, Saud Aziz, the city police chief, said. The policemen were manning a checkpoint.. More