There are 17999 articles

  • Hamas, Abbas on Collision Course

    Palestinian government says it will go ahead with plans to form a new security force, despite a veto by Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas, in a presidential decree, had earlier accused Said Siyam, the interior minister who nominally heads some of the Palestinian security forces, of acting illegally by conceiving the new force and appointing Jamal Abu Samhadana.. More

  • Missile Exports to Iran Alarm US

    Washington has asked Moscow to reconsider selling Iran anti-aircraft missiles as the crisis over its nuclear programme continues. Russia plans to sell Tehran 29 TOR M1 mobile surface-to-air missile defence systems in a deal said to be worth about 700 million (£392m). "This is not time for business as usual with the Iranian government," a top US.. More

  • Lebanon Seeks Formal Ties with Syria

    Fuad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister, has urged Syria to establish formal diplomatic ties with his country and to demarcate their borders. In an address on Friday to the UN Security Council following a visit to Washington, Siniora said a positive response on these issues would signal that Syria "is beginning to accept the idea that good (bilateral).. More

  • Nepal King to Restore Democracy

    Nepal's King Gyanendra has said he will end his direct rule of the country and hand back power to political parties. "Executive power of the kingdom of Nepal, which was in our safekeeping, shall from this day be returned to the people," he said in a speech broadcast on Nepal television on Friday. He called for "a meaningful exercise in democracy".. More

  • Iraqi Shia Alliance to Vote on Jaafari

    Iraq's Shia Alliance has said it will hold an internal vote to name a prime minister, raising the possibility that Ibrahim al-Jaafari will be removed to end a months-long impasse over a unity government. The alliance announced the move on Thursday after al-Jaafari, who had ignored calls from Sunni Arabs, Kurds and some Shia to step aside, invited it.. More

  • Lebanon Asks Washington to Press Israel

    Lebanon's prime minister urged the United States on Thursday to persuade Israel to pull out of the disputed Shebaa Farms, but the Bush administration said this was an issue for Lebanon to resolve with Syria. Fouad Siniora said Israel must leave the Shebaa Farms border area so his government could have authority over all its land and he asked the US.. More

  • Tamil Tigers Put off Sri Lanka Talks

    Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels say they are postponing indefinitely proposed talks with the government aimed at saving the country's troubled ceasefire. The announcement on a rebel-affiliatedwebsite said on Thursday thegroup had told Norwegian peace envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer they wouldnot beable to attend the talks scheduled for April 24 in Switzerland. "Unti.. More

  • Eight Pakistani Soldiers Killed in Fresh Fighting

    Eight soldiers and sevenmilitants have diedin violencein Pakistani tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. Militants ambushed aconvoy of Pakistani troops on Thursday, killing seven and wounding22 in the deadliest attack for months inPakistan's northern Waziristan region, officials said. Helicopter gunships and soldiers hunted the rebels after the attack,.. More

  • US Prepared to Go it alone over Iran

    US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has invoked self-defence as a potential justification for military intervention in Iran. Rice said the US had the authority to act alone or with a coalition if the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme could not be resolved within the context of the United Nations Security Council. The UN Security Council has given.. More

  • Pentagon Releases Names of Guantanamo Detainees

    The U.S. Defense Department has -- for the first time -- identified hundreds of detainees held at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.3 The list was posted on a Pentagon website in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the Associated Press. The detainees were among the first swept up in the U.S. global.. More

  • Nepal Issues Shoot-on-Sight Order

    Nepal's security forces have been given orders to shoot-on-sight to enforce a daytime curfew on the streets of Kathmandu as anti-monarchy protesters plan a major demonstration. On Thursday morning the Nepalese capital was under strict curfew after four protesters were shot dead and many more were wounded in the worst single day of violence so far in.. More

  • Rocket Explodes in Kabul TV Station

    A powerful rocket exploded in a television station compound in the Afghan capital, Kabul, late Wednesday, police said. The blast that took place near an area where the US embassy and Nato peacekeeping force headquarters are based, injured a security guard inside the TV station. But police could not say if there were any casualties. The massive blast.. More

  • Hamas Denies Storing Arms in Jordan

    Hamas has denied accusations by Jordan that the group had stored weapons on its territory, saying it regrets Amman's cancellation of a visit by the Palestinian foreign minister. The group's spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, on Wednesday said: "These accusations are false and completely contradict the well-known Hamas attitude that it does not intervene ..... More

  • Security Council Members Consider Sanctions Against Iran

    The Associated Press is quoting U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns as saying that envoys from the five permanent UN Security Council members, plus Germany, have discussed the possibility of imposing sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Burns said, however, that the six nations had failed to reach agreement on how to proceed.. More

  • Differences Stall Iraq Government

    Iraqi resistance fighters have staged bomb attacks and battled US forces in one of the deadliest waves of violence since the 2003 invasion, as new divisions arose over forming a unity government. Bickering politicians said on Tuesday that talks on forming a government that had dragged on for four months could take another month. At least six people.. More