Republicans in the US Senate on Wednesday blocked a Democratic measure which would have required President George W. Bush to pull most combat troops out of Iraq by the end of April 2008.

A year after his Fateh movement was trounced at the polls, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday he will call new legislative elections, a move designed to freeze the Islamist Hamas from power.

A RUSSIAN hitman planned to execute an outspoken “enemy of Moscow” at the Hilton Hotel on London’s Park Lane, The Sun can reveal.