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  • Swiss Back Tighter Asylum Rules

    Voters in Switzerland have backed tougher laws on asylum-seekers. In a national referendum, some 67.8% of voters supported the new measures, which the government says are needed to combat abuse of the asylum system. The new laws cut welfare payments to those whose applications are rejected, and restrict applications from those unable to produce.. More

  • US Commander in Bosnia Confirms Pullout Plans by December

    The United States will pull its last 150 soldiers out of Bosnia by December, a US general said on Friday. The troops of Eagle Base near Tuzla are all that remains of the 38,000-strong force that deployed as part of a NATO-led peace mission in late 1995 after the Dayton Accords to end Bosnia's 1992-95 war. They stayed on after a European Union Force.. More

  • Blair Refuses to Back Gordon Brown

    British Prime Minister Tony Blair refused yesterday to give a clear indication of support for Finance Minister Gordon Brown as his successor, despite repeated questions on the subject. In an interview with BBC television, Blair - attending his last Labour Party annual conference as leader - was asked to respond to a newspaper report that he would not.. More

  • Thousands March against Blair in Manchester

    Tens of thousands of protesters marched yesterday against Prime Minister Tony Blair on the eve of a rally of his Labour Party where a struggle over the leadership looked set to steal the headlines. Activists shouting "Blair must go!" and chanting opposition to the Iraq war and to nuclear weapons streamed through the centre of the northern city of.. More

  • Beirut Deploys Army on Border

    Lebanese army troops deployed yesterday in two villages along the Lebanese-Israeli border, taking up positions that had recently been vacated by the Israeli army, security officials said. In Washington, President George W Bush yesterday named a delegation of business leaders and US officials to visit Lebanon to discuss the rebuilding after the 34-day.. More

  • Reports of Bin Laden's Death not Confirmed

    The Saudi government has denied a French newspaper report according to which France's secret services believe Osama Bin Laden is dead. The newspaper quoted the Saudi secret services as saying the al-Qaeda leader had died of typhoid in Pakistan. But, in a statement, the Saudi government said it had "no evidence" that Bin Laden was dead. The French.. More

  • Indian PM Wants more Muslims in Security Forces

    Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged regional leaders on Saturday to recruit more Muslims into the police and intelligence agencies to help counter a growing sense of insecurity in the minority community. Singh said there was an underlying sense of insecurity among Muslims due to what he called erroneous links made by the West between terrorist.. More

  • Budapest Sees Biggest Rally Yet

    Budapest has seen the biggest rally yet by Hungarians demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany for lying to the nation. A crowd of between 20,000 and 50,000 people filled the square outside the Hungarian parliament building before the rally broke up around midnight. The PM admitted in a leaked private speech that his government.. More

  • Baghdad Blast Kills Dozens

    A bomb blew up a kerosene tanker truck in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood on Saturday, killing at least 32 people, police said. Another 38 people were wounded by the 10 a.m. blast in the sprawling Shiite slum. People frantically carried survivors from the narrow muddy street to ambulances, and hauled away bodies in blankets. The bomb was hidden.. More

  • British Major Reveals Faults in Afghan Mission

    British forces in Afghanistan are exhausted and need more helicopters to fight the Taliban, according to a leaked email from a middle-ranking officer serving in the country. The email, from a major serving in the Sangin area of northern Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, described the Royal Air Force as "utterly, utterly useless" and underlined.. More

  • Maglev Train Crash Kills 23 in Germany

    At least23people have died and 10 others have been injured after a high-speed train smashed into a maintenancevehicle while on a test run in northern Germany, local authorities say. The magnetic levitation Transrapid train, one of the world's fastest trains,was travelling at about 200km per hour in Emsland, near the city of Osnabrueck, at around 10am.. More

  • Iran Could Suspend Nuclear Activities

    The Iranian president has said the country will be prepared to suspend some of its nuclear activities if negotiations take place "under fair conditions". Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a UN news conference in New York that talks with the European Union on Iran's nuclear programme were on the right track. In the most explicitindication bythe Iranian leader.. More

  • Pakistan Urged to End Baluch Offensive

    Tribal chieftains in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province have called for an end to military operations in the gas-rich region where militants are fighting for more autonomy. The demand came at a meeting of tribal jirga (council) attended by heads of more than 80 Baluch tribes in the city of Qalat. A declaration, issued at the end of the day-long.. More

  • Thailand May Seize Thaksin Assets

    Thailand may seize the assets of Thaksin Shinawatra, the new military government has said. Air Chief Marshall Chalit Pukbhasuk, the head of the air force and one of the military commanders who toppled the billionaire prime minister, said an assets freeze was under consideration. Thaksin, the telecommunications tycoon-turned-politician, is currently.. More

  • Death Sentence for Failed Iraqi Bomber in Jordan

    A Jordanian military court has sentenced an Iraqi woman to death by hanging over a triple bomb attackon a hotelin Amman that killed 60 people last November. The presiding judge, who cannot be named under Jordanian law, said: "The court has decided to sentence to death by hanging Sajida al-Rishawi for conspiracy to carry out terror acts." Al-Rishawi,.. More