KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — A U.N. peacekeeper was killed in Darfur, the first U.N. casualty since the world body began sending small reinforcements to a beleaguered African Union force deployed in the violent western Sudan region, the AU and the United Nations said Saturday.

AFP – Afghanistan’s efforts to stem opium production have left 18 police dead and another 33 wounded this year, most of them in clashes during poppy eradication, a deputy minister said.

By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press The Taliban has launched a new operation targeting government and foreign forces in Afghanistan, a spokesman said Sunday, as two policemen died in an ambush in the volatile south. Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the group’s leaders announced the beginning of operation “Kamin,” …

AFP – Taliban militants have freed three Afghans abducted with two French colleagues nearly two months ago, their aid group and a spokesman for the extremist movement said Sunday.

TEHRAN (AFP) —  Iran said on Saturday that upcoming talks with the United States on Iraq could succeed only if Washington changed its policies in Iraq.

WASHINGTON (AFP) —  US President George W. Bush  celebrated victory on Saturday after he signed into law a long-sought  bill committing $100 billion to the wars in Iraq and  Afghanistan.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A revised UN resolution to unilaterally establish an international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister would give the Lebanese parliament a grace period until June 10 to ratify it.

BEDDAWI (AFP) —  With their long beards, Pakistani-style clothes and brand new weapons, the Fateh Islam guerrillas have long spread fear among Palestinian refugees in an embattled camp in northern Lebanon.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — US and British forces on Saturday clashed with Moqtada  Sadr’s supporters in Baghdad and Basra, even as Iraq’s politicians cautiously welcomed the radical Shiite cleric’s return to the political scene.

GAZA CITY (AP) — Israeli air strikes killed five Hamas members in Gaza on Saturday, shortly after fighters floated the idea of halting rocket fire on Israeli border towns if Israel ended its 10-day-old air campaign.