There are 17999 articles

  • Three Afghanistan hostages freed

    Three Afghanistan aid workers abducted in April with two French colleagues have been set free, the Taleban says. Spokesman Qari Yousuf said the men had been released to tribal elders in the south-western Nimroz province. "We released the three aid workers without asking any money or making any deal with the government," he said. The two French.. More

  • $100 billion war chest is approved

    US President George W Bush yesterday scored a key victory against Democrats in Congress over funding US troops in Iraq, but with no end in sight, the four-year-old war continues to encumber his administration. But soon after Bush signed into law a long-sought bill committing $100 billion to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but stripped of a Democrat-advocate.. More

  • Pressure is off in Ukraine after election accord

    The two principal figures in Ukraine's deepening political crisis have agreed on a date for parliamentary elections, in a compromise which ends weeks of tense confrontation. President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich talked long into the night. The President declared: "I want to say on this great day, we have great news. We can.. More

  • Israel renews strikes across Gaza

    Israel has carried out fresh strikes against Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip, killing four Palestinians. Israeli planes staged strikes in quick succession from Gaza City in the north to the southern town of Khan Younis. About 40 people have now died in 10 days of Israeli bombings in Gaza, which Israel says is aimed at stopping rocket attacks on.. More

  • Powers make IAEA Iran complaint

    Diplomats from the US, UK, France and Japan have complained to the head of the UN nuclear watchdog about comments he made on Iran's nuclear program. The meeting with Mohammed ElBaradei came days after he said Iran might be allowed to continue some enrichment of uranium, the US state department said. He said it might be too late to stop Iran entirely.. More

  • New US military aid for Lebanon

    US military planes have delivered more equipment to the Lebanese army, as its stand-off with Islamic militants at a Palestinian refugee camp continued. Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora again called on Sunni militants inside the camp to surrender or face army action. He was speaking after the leader of Shia militant group Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah,.. More

  • Iraqi cleric back in public eye

    Moqtada Sadr, the radical Iraqi Shia cleric, has appeared in public in Iraq for the first time in months. He led Friday prayers in Kufa to deliver a defiant sermon condemning the US and the occupation of the country. A senior aide to Mr Sadr told the BBC that he had left Iraq over fears for his safety and made a regional tour, including a trip to.. More

  • Congress backs Iraq funding bill

    Both houses of the US Congress have passed a bill allocating $100bn (£50bn) of new funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan until the end of September. The House of Representatives voted in favor of the bill, and the Senate approved it shortly afterwards. Earlier President George W Bush praised the bill, a compromise measure between Republicans.. More

  • Egyptian envoy freed from Somalia

    Egypt's ambassador to Somalia Saeed Mosry has been freed by the authorities in Somali's Puntland region after being held captive for five days. Ahmed al-Azahary, from Egypt's embassy in Nairobi said the envoy was released after the intervention of Puntland leader Ade Mosse. Mr Mosry was negotiating the release of three Egyptian vessels and their.. More

  • Abbas urges end to rocket attacks

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called on militants in Gaza to cease their "absurd" rocket attacks on Israel as they were impeding peace efforts. He also condemned Israeli retaliatory air strikes, which on Thursday evening hit a building near the home of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, of Hamas. Earlier, more than 30 senior Hamas officials.. More

  • Israeli forces arrest Palestinian minister of education

    Israeli forces launched an extensive arrest campaign in several West Bank cities on Thursday morning, culminating in the arrest of the Palestinian minister of education, Nasser Addin Ash-Sha'er, in addition to a number of Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) members and mayors. Our Nablus correspondent reported that the minister of education was apprehended.. More

  • Ankara suicide bomber identified

    Turkey has said that a male suicide bomber carried out the attack that killed six people and injured more than 100 others in Turkey's capital on Tuesday. Kemal Onal, the Ankara governor, identified the suicide attacker as 28-year-old Guven Akkus, who had two separate criminal records and spent two years in prison. The governor said the attack was.. More

  • Bird flu death sparks fear

    Health experts are investigating Vietnam's first suspected human bird flu case in 18 months, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said yesterday, as Indonesia confirmed its 77th death and Pakistan reported a fresh outbreak among poultry. The WHO is looking into the suspected bird flu case in Vietnam following a series of new outbreaks on poultry.. More

  • Methane blast rocks Russian mine

    A methane explosion tore through a coal mine in Siberia Thursday, killing at least 10 people, emergency officials said. More than 150 miners were safely brought to the surface soon after the explosion in the mine in Novokuznetsk, about 1,850 miles east of Moscow, said Yulia Stadnikova, a spokeswoman for the Emergency Situations Ministry. She said four.. More

  • UN reports ongoing Iran defiance

    Iran is continuing to defy UN demands to stop enriching uranium and is expanding the work, the UN nuclear watchdog has said in a report. The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency also said Tehran was blocking IAEA efforts to probe suspicious nuclear activities. Analysts say the report could open the door to new sanctions against Tehran... More