With the wobbly security situation in Iraq and the headache of Iran’s nuclear programme, the last thing the US president needs is another crisis with North Korea.  Pyongyang has test-fired at least six missiles in the Sea of Japan, one of them a long-range weapon said to be capable of …

Non-governmental organization Amnesty International in official letter to Russian President published on its website urges Vladimir Putin to review the implementation of Russia’s legislation governing civil society organizations, a commitment he made Tuesday at meetings with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) held in the context of the forthcoming summit of the Group …

Kosovo’s negotiating team has agreed to participate in another session of direct talks with Belgrade on cultural heritage in Kosovo, to be held on 11 July in Vienna. Yet the Kosovo side says it will not accept new demands regarding protection zones around Serb Orthodox cultural and religious sites. “We …

At dawn on July 4 Russian military and Moscow-backed Chechen police blockaded the village of Kotar-Yurt in the Achkhoy-Martanovsky district, with the support of a large quantity of armour. After closing off all routes in and out of the village, soldiers and police began a large-scale passport check.

TEHRAN (AP) — Iran rejected calls Tuesday for a quick answer to the package of Western incentives aimed at persuading it to suspend its controversial nuclear programme, insisting that it will come up with a formal response by mid-August. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran had to take time to …

Palestinian rocket hits vacant Israeli school as troops kill activist GAZA CITY — It has been hot and humid in Gaza in the past days. In itself, the weather is uncomfortable, but with electricity often out at night and no recourse to fans or air conditioning, people have hardly been …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — The UN Middle East envoy warned Tuesday that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip had become “dangerous” since Israel launched a massive operation to win the release of an abducted soldier.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Gunmen pulled the deputy electricity minister from his car in a busy Baghdad street on Tuesday, briefly kidnapping him and 19 bodyguards in an attack that underlined the vulnerability of Iraq’s new government.

BAGHDAD — No sooner had US authorities filed rape and murder charges against ex-soldier Steven D. Green than an account of the incident appeared on an Islamist website in the name of an insurgent group, the Mujahedeen Army. It promised “harsh punishment” for the alleged crime.

BERLIN — The West has no choice but to wait as Tehran plays for time and considers an offer of incentives from six major powers aimed at resolving its nuclear standoff, Western diplomats and analysts said.