There are 17999 articles

  • Taliban extends hostages deadline

    The Taliban has extended by 24 hours the deadline for its demands to be met before it will release 23 South Korean missionaries being held hostage. Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, told reporters on Sunday: "We have extended the deadline by 24 hours, which will last until tomorrow at 7pm [14:30 GMT on Monday]." The South Koreans, members of an.. More

  • Hasina's arrest sparks protest in Bangladesh

    Students and teachers at Bangladesh's biggest university went on a strike yesterday to protest against the arrest of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, in defiance of emergency laws. Most of the 30,000 students and 4,000 staff of Dhaka University joined the boycott of lectures and classes, and manychanted slogans and marched around the sprawling.. More

  • Flood woes continue in UK as fresh water runs out

    Drinking water has begun to run out in areas of the UK already cut off by some of the worst flooding for the 60 years. Many thousands of people in central England could find their supply cut off or unusable after sewage overflowed into a treatment plant in the town of Tewkesbury. The RAF says this has been its biggest peacetime rescue operation. Conservative.. More

  • Votes counted after Turkish poll

    Votes are being counted in Turkey after a general election being seen as a crucial test of its secular tradition. The early election was called to resolve a political crisis after parliament repeatedly failed to agree on a candidate for president. Secular parties and the powerful military blocked the nomination of a candidate for the post backed.. More

  • Taliban extends hostages deadline

    The Taliban has extended by 24 hours the deadline for its demands to be met before it will release 23 South Koreans being held hostage. Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, told reporters on Sunday: "We have extended the deadline by 24 hours, which will last until tomorrow at 7pm [14:30 GMT on Monday]." The South Koreans, members of an evangelical.. More

  • Bomb kills Iraq Sunni leaders

    Five Sunni tribal leaders opposed to al-Qaeda have been killed after a suicide bomber drove a minivan packed with explosives into a house north of Baghdad. The men were meeting in Jurf al-Milih, near Taji, about 20km north of the Iraqi capital, to discuss joining US and Iraqi forces in fighting al-Qaeda. A police source said another 12 people were.. More

  • Israeli troops kill two Hamas men

    Israeli soldiers have shot and killed two Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip. Palestinian medics said that the bodies of two men were brought to hospital after they were shot on Sunday near the site of a former Jewish settlement in Gaza. According to an Israeli military spokesman, soldiers opened fire at two armed men as they approached a border.. More

  • Envoys start Afghan hostage talks

    A team of hostage negotiators has arrived in Afghanistan from Seoul amid confusion over the fate of abducted South Koreans and Germans. The Taleban say they are holding 23 South Koreans and want a swap for jailed fighters, but have also said South Korean forces should leave. A Taleban spokesman said two captured Germans had been shot dead on Saturday... More

  • India elects first woman president

    Pratibha Patil was elected India's new president yesterday, the first woman to hold the office in the nation's six decades of independence. Patil, the ruling coalition's 72-year-old nominee for the mainly ceremonial post, easily beat opposition-backed challenger and 84-year-old Vice President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Patil, a native of western Maharashtra.. More

  • China floods take more lives, threaten river dykes

    Another 72 people have died in floods in western and southwestern China as authorities warned that levees holding back the swollen Huaihe River in the heavily populated east are at risk of bursting. The latest reported deaths from heavy rains that have spread misery across much of the country included dozens killed in recent days in the mountainous.. More

  • Pakistan chief judge resumes duties

    Pakistan's chief justice has resumed his official duties, a day after Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, lost a bid to dismiss him. Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry started work at his residence in the capital Islamabad to the cheers of hundreds of rallying lawyers, who called on Musharraf to resign. Chaudhry's reinstatement on Friday has clouded the.. More

  • Turkey all set for general election

    Turkey's election candidates have moved into the final day of campaigning, ahead of the country's general election. Campaigning ends officially at 6pm (15:00 GMT) on Saturday, with surveys indicating that the ruling party of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, is likely to retain its majority. An election win will give the ruling Justice.. More

  • Baghdad minibus blast kills five

    An explosion from either a bomb or a mortar has killed five people and injured at least 11 others on a minibus in Baghdad, Iraqi officials say. The device went off in Baladiyat, a mainly Shia Muslim area in the east of the Iraqi capital. Reports also emerged of an overnight US air strike killing six people near Hussainiya, north of the city. The.. More

  • Israel frees jailed Palestinians

    Israel has released more than 250 Palestinian prisoners, including six women and 11 minors. Israel had agreed to the releases as a gesture of support to the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. However, no prisoners from Hamas, which is locked in bitter rivalry with Mr Abbas's Fatah, have been freed. Many Palestinians are saying that freeing only.. More

  • Taliban abduct 18 South Koreans

    Taliban fighters have seized about 20 Koreans aboard a bus on the road from Kandahar in southern Afghanistan to capital Kabul. A Taliban spokesman said on Friday that 18 Koreans - 15 women and three men - were being held "as guests". Said Yousuf Ahmadi, speaking by phone, said: "They are safe with us, we are investigating them and our demands and.. More