MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (AFP) — Top Democratic presidential hopefuls traded their sharpest barbs yet of the 2008 White House race, as differences over Iraq burst into the open during their second televised debate.

TEHRAN (AFP) — Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday warned that Iran was prepared “to pay a price” and “resist” to realise the aims of its contested nuclear programme amid an intensifying standoff with the West.

LONDON (AFP) — Israel has plunged the Palestinians into unprecedented levels of poverty and despair through 40 years of occupation, yet failed to ensure its own security, Amnesty International said Monday.