The Iranian government’s last-minute decision to ration monthly fuel allotments, as well as increase the price of gas, triggered protests and riots — a rarity in the Islamic republic — according to Iranian media reports.

Financier Ashraf Marwan, 62, the son-in-law of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, had been named by Israeli officials as a source for the country’s intelligence service Mossad. Scotland Yard is treating his death in Carlton House Terrace as “unexplained”.

The Egyptian government announced plans on Thursday to ban all female circumcision, the widely-practised removal of the clitoris which just days ago cost the life of a 12-year-old girl.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A fifth of the members of the US Senate on Friday warned the situation in Afghanistan was quickly getting worse and called on Washington’s NATO allies to share more of the security burden.

As of Friday, June 29, 2007, at least 342 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.

KABUL (Reuters) – U.S. soldiers killed four civilian members of the same family during a raid on Friday in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar, an Afghan rights body said.

KABUL, Afghanistan – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a surprise visit Friday to Afghanistan, where he met with President Hamid Karzai and the commander of NATO troops.

Presa londoneză continuă criticile la adresa Raportului Comisiei Europene privind Bulgaria şi România. Ideea generală este că Raportul a fost prea blând cu ambele ţări.

Unrest spread in Tehran on Thursday, the second day of gasoline rationing in oil-rich Iran, with drivers lining up for miles, gas stations being set on fire and state-run banks and business centers coming under attack.

Associated Press, Brussels, Belgium — European Union governments decided Thursday to keep an Iranian opposition group blacklisted as a terrorist organization after reviewing its demand to be removed following a recent court ruling, diplomats said.