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 …

Noting Iranians’ special heartfelt belief in the Shiites’ Imams, he advised people to regard Iraq’s immigration and travel regulations, warning that the laws of that country stipulate 6 to 10 months of imprisonment for all the people who enter Iraq illegally.

Addressing a fervent congregation of the public in the town of Shahryar near Tehran on Wednesday, the President reiterated that bullying powers are seeking to block the progress of nations through propaganda in a bid to loot their resources, and added, “You can readily observe that although they do not …

Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said that a number of 495 candidates have enrolled to stand in the elections for Experts Assembly. Speaking to reporters in a press conference here on Wednesday, he said 131 thousand ballot boxes will be stationed across the country. The elections are to be supervised …

Following the terrorist blast in northwestern Iran which disrupted gas supplies to Turkey, the western neighbor of the oil rich Iran had to increase its gas imports from Russia. A senior law enforcement commander of the Western Azerbaijan province earlier said that the terrorist group PKK has been in charge …