TEL AVIV (AFP) — Veteran statesman Shimon Peres was elected president of Israel on Wednesday, finally winning his first vote for top office and crowning a record-breaking career spanning more than half a century.

MALAKAL, Sudan — The pair of white river launches marked with United Nations insignia leapt forward as the sailors opened the throttles, cutting deep trenches into the dark waters of southern Sudan’s Blue Nile.

TEHRAN (AP) — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday shrugged off the West’s criticism of Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme and said that eventual new UN sanctions would not harm Iran.