VIENNA — North Korea says it wants to talk. Ditto Iran. So why is America saying no? Some experts say that direct talks with Pyongyang and Tehran might be the only option the US has left to defuse the world’s two most pressing nuclear crises. But for the Americans, the …

DUBAI (AP) — A handful of US diplomats here on Iran’s doorstep have quietly reopened an Iran-focused diplomatic mission, the first such office since the US embassy in Tehran was taken over by radical students 27 years ago. The low-key Iran Regional Presence Office, which sits inside the US consulate …

RAMALLAH — A Palestinian festival showcasing women filmmakers has battled against Israeli closures, rampant insecurity, recession and funding shortages to promote cinema in Gaza and the West Bank. “It’s hard to work in films here,” said Alia Arasoughly, who runs Shashat, a non-profit organisation focusing on women’s cinema which is …

FATA BORNO  (AP) — A 10-year-old boy huddled behind African Union soldiers as half a dozen pickup trucks full of armed Arab militiamen screeched through the dusty riverbed outside his North Darfur refugee camp Wednesday. “These Janjaweed aren’t the most dangerous ones,” Najmaddin Idriss whispered as he stood behind the …

NAIROBI (AFP) — The United Nations said Thursday it had pulled out all of its foreign staff from parts of Somalia controlled by the country’s powerful Islamist movement, citing threats to workers. The world body said the threats, coupled with insecurity in southern and central Somalia after the murder of …

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — The US military may soon be able to communicate better with Iraqis in their own language, thanks to technology developed by IBM that quickly translates spoken English into Iraqi Arabic. The technology could help the military overcome a major hurdle in Iraq, which is the inability …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — With his political fortunes plummeting after the summer’s war in Lebanon, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is scrambling to shore up his rickety coalition by courting a hardline party that favours redrawing Israel’s borders to exclude Arab citizens.

BAGHDAD (AP) — A witness in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial testified that the ousted leader’s agents ran a human trafficking ring that sold his sister and other Kurdish women in the 1980s. Defence lawyers and one of Saddam’s co-defendants on Wednesday immediately challenged the charge as hearsay based on a …

The seismological base of Southern Khorasan registered the quake at 03:27 hours local time (23:57 GMT). There are yet no reports on the likely number of casualties or damage to properties. Hectic fault lines have made Iran a host to frequent earthquakes of varying degrees in magnitude.

Addressing a large congregation of the public in the town of Robat Karim near Tehran on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad continued, “They have warned us that if we do not suspend enrichment, they will impose sanctions on Iran. But they must know that when they sanctioned us 27 years ago, they actually …