Two Western journalists kidnapped in Gaza earlier this month were shown in footage released yesterday by a previously unknown group calling themselves the Holy Jihad Brigades.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The United States said on Wednesday that Iran’s request for talks fell short of the UN Security Council’s demand for it to halt its nuclear programme.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s President Bashar Assad was quoted in a TV interview Wednesday as saying that he would consider the deployment of international troops along the Lebanon-Syria border a hostile move towards his country.

BYBLOS — The Lebanese port of Byblos has survived the Romans, the Crusades and the armies of Alexander the Great but now it faces a 21st century menace, brought to its shores on a tide of war — oil pollution.

MOGADISHU (AP) — The seaport in the Somali capital reopened Wednesday for the first time in 11 years, the latest sign that the city’s rulers are trying to restore confidence after more than a decade of anarchy.

As reported earlier, a diversion group of  Chechen Mujahideen carried out a successful attack in the area of village Prigorodnoye at 11 am on August 16, blowing up in a directional explosion of a landmine a kafirs\’ military truck. The Mujahideen know for certain that 4 Russians were wounded. No …

Israel’s attorney general has presented Ehud Olmert with a list of options for investigating the conduct of the recent war in Lebanon, as the prime minister faced mounting calls for a sweeping probe into the conduct of the conflict.

 Russian kafirs (infidels) were killed and at least 2 others injured by mobile groups of Chechen Mujahideen in attacks on security posts of kafirs and munafiqs (apostates) on the night from August 21 to August 22 in the Chechen capital of Jokhar; a spokesman of the Chechen Military Command reported. …

UN warns of Lebanese ‘security vacuum’ as Israel kills 3 Islamic Jihad fighters, charges Dweik with ‘belonging to terrorist organisation’ Agencies Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday said Israel has no plans to lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon until an international peacekeeping force takes up positions along …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Violence in Baghdad has declined in the past two weeks and all but ended in some formerly deadly neighbourhoods, the US military said in a cautiously upbeat report on Tuesday on a major security clampdown in the city.