World News

Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu pauses during a meeting with U.S, Senator Joe Liberman, not seen, in Jerusalem Sunday, Feb. 22, 2009. Israel's outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on hard-line Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu to form a new government quickly as coalition bargaining shifted into high gear Sun

photo: AP / Dan Balilty

Netanyahu set for talks with Obama
read more Al Jazeera

Barack Obama, the US president, is set to hold private talks with Israel's prime minister amid tensions between the two countries over how to restart peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Binyamin Netanyahu's meeting with Obama at the White House on Monday is expected to focus on the issue of Israeli settlements in the...

Sunni leader Saad Hariri and leader of the parliamentary majority speaks during a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, May 13, 2008. Speaking for the first time since he was besieged in his residence in Beirut's Muslim sector protected by Lebanese troops, Hariri said he supports canceling the Cabinet decisions that sparked clashes in the country "to save Lebanon

photo: AP / Ahmad Omar

Lebanon PM forms unity cabinet
read more Al Jazeera

Lebanon's prime minister-designate has formed a national unity government, five months after his March 14 coalition won parliamentary elections in June. Saad al-Hariri submitted a list of ministers to Michel Sleiman, the president, in Beirut on Monday after tough negotiations with opposition leaders over the make-up of the...

Supporters of three hikers held in Iran, protest in front of Sproul Hall at University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009.

photo: AP / Paul Sakuma

American hikers charged with espionage by Iran
read more The Times

Three American hikers detained in Iran are to be charged with espionage, three months after they were arrested for crossing over the border from Iraq. The spying allegation, revealed by Tehran's chief prosecutor today, is the first sign of Iran's intention to put the three on trial, despite repeated demands from Washington for their release. Sarah...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center, and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev cross the Bornholmer Bruecke, Bornholm bridge in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Nov. 9, 2009, during the commemorations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov.9, 1989.

photo: AP / Herbert Knosowski

Crowds gather to remember fall of Berlin Wall
read more The Times

Large crowds gathered along the route of the former Berlin Wall for celebrations to mark 20 years since its fall. World leaders joined tens of thousands of people to recall the defining moment when communist rule ended in Europe and East Germany finally opened the despised concrete border on November 9, 1989. Today's events began as Angela Merkel,...

Iraqi women display their ink-stained fingers after voting in the country's provincial elections in Najaf, Iraq, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009. Polls opened Saturday under extremely tight security, which includes driving bans in major cities and searches of all voters. The election is considered an important test of Iraq's stability after nearly six years of conf

photo: AP / Alaa al-Marjani

Iraq moves towards January election date
read more Yahoo Daily News

BAGHDAD (AFP) – Iraq on Monday moved towards finalising a date for its general election in January, a vote crucial to consolidating the war-torn nation's fledgling democracy and ensuring a complete US military exit. MPs on Sunday finally passed the electoral law that will govern the contest, the country's second national polls since...

Relatives of slain Afghan civilians wail next to their dead bodies in Ghazni, Afghanistan, Friday, Oct. 16, 2009.

photo: AP / Rehmatullah Naikzad

Civilians bear brunt of Afghan fight
read more BBC News

Ahmed Shaw - his wizened face creased by worry - should have been enjoying his retirement but a bomb blast changed all that. His son, Abdul Wakeel, was killed in September and now Ahmed is rebuilding the family shop, which was also destroyed in the explosion. The shop hires out chairs, forks and knives to wedding parties. Ahmed says he has got no...

Roy Bennet, right, arrives at the High Court in Harare for the start of his trial, Monday, Nov. 9, 2009

photo: AP / Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi

Tsvangirai aide set for trial
read more Al Jazeera

An ally of Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwean prime minister, is to stand trial on terrorism charges that have stoked tensions in the country's unity government. Roy Bennett is due in court on Monday, but his lawyers hope to postpone the trial and keep him on remand. Bennet was arrested in February on charges of possessing weapons with an...

Pakistani security officials and media gather at the site of a suicide bombing in Adazai town near Peshawar, Pakistan on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009.

photo: AP / Mohammad Sajjad

Suicide bomber hits Pakistan city
read more Al Jazeera

At least three people have been killed and five others injured after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the Pakistani city of Peshawar, police have said. "The bomber was in a rickshaw and detonated his explosives when the rickshaw was stopped for a check," Zafar Khan, a police official said on Monday....

Dominoes stand in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009.

photo: AP / Herbert Knosowski

Germany to mark fall of Berlin Wall
read more Irish Times

World leaders gather in the German capital today to mark the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Pivotal figures from the era that ushered in the collapse of communism in eastern Europe, such as former-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Lech Walesa, who led anti-communist protests in Poland at the head of the Solidarity trade...

File - Venezuelas' President Hugo Chavez, center, reviews troops upon his arrival at Jorge Wilstermann's international airport in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Friday, Oct. 16, 2009.

photo: AP / Juan Karita

Hugo Chavez tells Venezuela troops to 'prepare for war' with Colombia
read more The Times

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez yesterday ordered the country's military to prepare for a possible armed conflict with Colombia, saying soldiers should be ready if the United States attempts to provoke a war between the South American neighbours. Mr Chavez said Venezuela could end up going to war with Colombia as tensions between them rise, and...