DUBAI (AFP) — Iraq’s most wanted man Abu Musab Al Zarqawi has thumbed his nose at the Americans, in a message attributed to him on the Internet, and played up the threat of his alliance with Osama Ben Laden. Zarqawi said he was “lightly” wounded but still battling alongside his …

TRIPOLI (AFP) — Libya’s high court on Tuesday delayed a ruling on an appeal by six foreign medics sentenced to death for infecting hundreds of children with the AIDS virus in a case that has raised international concern. Judge Ali Al Allush said the case involving five Bulgarian nurses and …

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran announced Tuesday it had successfully tested a new solid fuel missile motor for its arsenal of medium-range ballistic missiles, a technological breakthrough that sparked fresh alarm in Israel. “It was a test of a motor and not a test of a missile,” a defence ministry official …

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq’s Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari vowed Tuesday to beef up security in the war-weary country, as US President George W. Bush said Washington and its Iraqi allies were making progress against the insurgency. Meanwhile, four US troops, four Italians and one Iraqi soldier were killed in air …

PARIS (Reuters) — French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin became the first victim of a crisis over the European Union’s constitution on Tuesday as EU leaders braced for Dutch voters to follow France by rejecting the new charter. President Jacques Chirac accepted Raffarin’s resignation and appointed loyal ally Dominique de Villepin …

GAZA (Reuters) — Hamas said on Tuesday it would boycott a rerun of some Palestinian town elections in Gaza, stoking tension with President Mahmoud Abbas Fateh movement that could complicate his agenda for peace-making with Israel. A potential solution surfaced later, when a Fateh leader said it had agreed to …

Bulgarian, Romanian and Turkish officials have voiced regret over France’s rejection of the EU constitution on Sunday (29 May). While insisting they do not expect the result to affect their countries’ EU bids, they called for stronger efforts towards meeting all membership requirements. Tariceanu A “no” vote would mean EU …

There is not a more important thing on earth than human rights, of which the right to life is the first one. The importance of this was persuasively demonstrated during the meeting of N.A.T.O. foreign ministers in Vilnius by near 1000 Lithuanian soldiers, policemen and civil-dressed guards with dogs, horseback, …

Lately Putin has begun to speak much about “elections” in the pro-Russian “Chechen parliament”. He also mentioned it in his annual application to the Federal assembly. But this is mere words and demagogy, as it is impossible to solve the problems of the country, which is at war with Russia …

The bloody alliance formed of the union of gangsters and KGB agents be definition cannot govern Russia in conformity with the time and its needs. The whole antinational policy of Putin and his KGB team is based on the old and tenfold failed scheme of government. Unrestrained extent of the …