The murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian officer who died of radioactive poisoning on November 23, was, as the Foreign Secretary told the House of Commons yesterday, a horrifying and lingering death.

As news that a huge bomb explosion rocked Mogadishu’s Bakara market on Monday while a large number of Somalia military and police forces were in the area, the Youth Islamic Movement reported a strike against Joint Ethiopian-Somalian Forces that destroyed a vehicle.

The Taliban have been engaged in fierce and large-scale fighting with occupation forces and their Afghan collaborators since yesterday morning in the Zhari District of Kandahar where Mujahideen have been concentrating attacks in recent days that have so far resulted in the deaths of 28 occupation and Afghan forces, while …

President Bush is making a new push for Middle East peace. VOA White House correspondent Paula Wolfson reports he is calling for an international conference this year to move the peace process forward, and is pledging to increase aid to the Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas.

President George W. Bush on Monday called for a Middle East peace conference later this year and pledged $190 million in new aid to the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

A suicide truck bomber ripped through a busy commercial district in Kirkuk on Monday afternoon, leaving a large crater surrounded by dozens of mutilated bodies, police and military officials said.

Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said on Monday he expected the privatisation of Banque du Caire to raise more than $1.6 billion in a public auction that would be open to foreign bidders with no restrictions.

An Egyptian official has cast doubt on the authenticity of a recently-released Fatah video showing Hamas members planning the assassination of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas via a tunnel bomb, Israel Radio reported on Monday morning.

Cairo ­ International figures, representatives of international rights groups, journalists and members of the legal profession, continue to huddle around Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood following a trial session of its top members that was described as “shameful” and its legality was seriously questioned.

An Egyptian military court barred former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark from observing a trial session on Sunday for 40 opposition Islamists on charges that include money-laundering and terrorism, an Islamist source said.