BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister on Monday announced a new plan aimed at ending the deepening crisis between Shiite and Sunni parties in his government and uniting them behind the drive to stop sectarian killings that have bloodied the country for months.

BAGHDAD — A 30,000 per cent increase in the murder rate would overwhelm the best equipped detectives, but Lieutenant Colonel Amir of CSI Baghdad refuses to despair.

TEHRAN (AP) — Iran’s president said his country was determined to expand its uranium enrichment programme, announcing a plan to produce more nuclear fuel and calling allegations that Tehran was seeking nuclear weapons

SANAA (AFP) — Four French nationals kidnapped by Yemeni tribesmen two weeks ago have been freed and are well, state-owned news agency Saba said Monday.

RABAT (Reuters) — Morocco’s once secretive socialists have launched a mass membership drive to boost their chances at polls next year in which their message of secular modernity faces a challenge from resurgent Islamists.

TRIPOLI (AP) — A thaw in US-Libyan relations was well under way, Libyan newspapers reported Sunday, after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met her Libyan counterpart on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held a groundbreaking, secret meeting 10 days ago with a senior Saudi Arabian official, the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported Monday.

BiH holds general elections 01/10/2006 SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) — People across BiH headed for the polls on Sunday (1 October) for the country’s fifth general election since splitting from the former Yugoslavia. Polls showed that three parties — the opposition Social Democrats, the centrist Party for Bosnia and …

EL-FASHER, Sudan — Sudan and Western nations must be flexible enough to find a formula that will allow the United Nations to help improve security in Darfur, the head of the European Union’s executive body said on Sunday.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — While archfoes Israel and Iran step up tough rhetoric against one another, short-waves and a wood-panelled radio studio in Jerusalem offer the two peoples a rare bridge for communication.