Britain will withdraw nearly half its troops from Iraq by the end of the year if local forces can secure the southern part of the country, Prime Minister Tony Blair planned to announce Wednesday.

Iran wants talks on its nuclear programme but rejects preconditions demanding it freeze the work, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, just ahead of a United Nations deadline for Tehran to back down.

The Lebanese army said on Tuesday its sappers had defused a bomb hidden in a wheel near Beirut’s airport road. An army statement said the bomb, which was discovered after a scrap metal dealer brought the wheel to a shop near