MALAKAL, Sudan — The pair of white river launches marked with United Nations insignia leapt forward as the sailors opened the throttles, cutting deep trenches into the dark waters of southern Sudan’s Blue Nile.

TEHRAN (AP) — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday shrugged off the West’s criticism of Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme and said that eventual new UN sanctions would not harm Iran.

IN A BOLD BLOW to Iraqi hopes for peace, suspected Al Qaeda bombers toppled the towering minarets of Samarra’s revered Shiite shrine on Wednesday, adding new provocation to old wounds a year after the mosque’s golden dome was destroyed.