BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) — The appointment of a new United Nations envoy for Afghanistan is the latest effort of the world body to speed up reconstruction in the war-torn country and it is expected to reinforce the international presence in face of a growing Taliban insurgency.

Farzana Wahidy flips through the photographs she took of women in Afghanistan, shopping in the market, carrying babies on their shoulder, all while cloaked under a burqa. But few of her photos depict the violence and carnage of suicide bombers that the Western world associates with the war-torn nation. The …

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain warned Israel on Friday over the expansion of Jewish settlements, saying any building on occupied Palestinian lands, including in East Jerusalem, was illegal under international law.

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) – Powerful Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has not been seen in public for months, issued an unusual statement on Friday explaining his absence to his followers and admitting splits in his movement.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Iraqi President Jalal Talabani began his first visit as head of state to neighboring Turkey on Friday, just one week after Ankara ended a major army ground offensive against Kurdish PKK rebels based in northern Iraq.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia’s government is in deep crisis, nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Friday, accusing his pro-Western coalition partners of giving up on defending Serbia’s claim to Kosovo.

SARAJEVO (Reuters) – The United Nation’s new war crimes prosecutor called on Friday for the arrest of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the two top war crimes suspects from the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

MINSK (Reuters) – Belarus, accused in the West of infringing fundamental rights, recalled its ambassador to the United States on Friday and urged the U.S. envoy to leave the ex-Soviet state.

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Kosovo’s independence is irreversible and Serbia is damaging its own interests by not accepting it, former U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari said.

PRISTINA (Reuters) – The United States on Friday condemned Serb “provocations” in Kosovo and rejected Russian suggestions its Western-backed declaration of independence left the new country destined for partition.