The United States is recalling to active duty several thousand Marines to bolster American military units in Iraq and Afghanistan.A military spokesman says the Marine reservists are men and women who returned to civilian life after previous active duty service. They will fill critical shortages among military police units, intelligence and communications specialists.
President Bush issued […]

HONG KONG - South Korea’s foreign minister has urged North Korea not to conduct a nuclear test, warning that to do so would “shake the foundation of the global non-proliferation system.”
Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon warned Wednesday that a North Korean nuclear test would have much more serious consequences than Pyongyang’s missile tests in July.
“If North […]

Russian Orthodox Church opens in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang 
By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST MinistriesPYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA (ANS) – The first-ever Russian Orthodox church in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, has opened for services.
The first-ever Russian Orthodox church in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, has opened for services.According to a story written […]

WASHINGTON (RFE/RL) — U.S. President George W. Bush used his August 21 press conference to demonstrate Washington’s commitment to helping Lebanon rebuild and recover from the 34-day war between Israel and Hizballah.   
 

Bush said the $230 million aid package to Lebanon represented the United States’ role in helping the Lebanese people realize their “choice to live […]

WASHINGTON - Iran is due to give its formal response today to an offer of trade and technology incentives from major world powers in exchange for halting uranium-enrichment work. 
 
Tehran has given no sign it is ready to accept the offer and suspend enrichment. It has, however, suggested its reply to the offer will be “multi-dimensional.” […]

SEOUL - North Korea has condemned the annual military exercises between the United States and South Korea in harsh terms, calling them a “wartime activity” that violates the ceasefire that ended the Korean War in 1953. Although such condemnations are routine, the circumstances surrounding them this year are unusual.A statement issued by North Korea’s state-controlled […]

JERUSALEM - Italy’s prime minister says his country is willing to assume leadership of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon and will provide about 2,000 troops to the effort.
The offer by Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi is being considered by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who says he will make a final decision on […]

WASHINGTON - President Bush says Iran should face international sanctions, if it ignores a United Nations deadline for halting nuclear enrichment activities. Mr. Bush spoke after Iran’s supreme leader pledged to continue pursuing nuclear technology.
President Bush says defiance of U.N. Security Council mandates must not be tolerated. At a White House news conference, Mr. Bush […]

PRAGUE (RFE/RL) — Former Iraq leader Saddam Hussein went on trial in Baghdad on new charges today, as prosecutors continue to try to prove his personal involvement in abuses committed by his regime.
The second trial against Hussein could be even more lengthy and complex than the first.
That first trial — which has yet to finish […]

PRAGUE (RFE/RL) — As the Afghan government prepares to host its second counternarcotics conference in Kabul on August 22, with plans to announce new details about its antidrug efforts, Western officials warn that a soon-to-be released UN report on opium farming shows record cultivation this year.
Though UN officials will not comment, Western diplomats tell RFE/RL […]

LOS ANGELES - John Mark Karr, the man who says he killed six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey ten years ago, has arrived in the US after being extradited from Bangkok in Thailand.
The forty-one year-old American schoolteacher was escorted by US security officials from Bangkok, but officers from the Los Angeles Police Department accompanied him after he went […]

TEHRAN - Is the concept of an Islamic state compatible with accepted notions of human rights? Can the modern concept of human rights make headway in the face of religious dogma and Islamic traditions? Emad Baghi, the head of the Tehran-based Organization for the Defense of Prisoners’ Rights, knows at first hand the political sensitivity […]

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi High Tribunal has opened a second trial of Saddam Hussein, this time for alleged genocide and war crimes against Kurds in northern Iraq. 

Presiding Judge Abdullah Ali Hussein al-Amiri read the indictment to Hussein at the opening session. 
“Defendant Saddam Hussein, you have been referred to this court by the investigating magistrate to be tried […]

WASHINGTON - The top U.S. trade official says the United States is not satisfied with China’s protection of intellectual property rights. She said this is one of the contentious trade questions she plans to discuss with Chinese officials when she goes to Beijing, following a trip this week to Malaysia for a meeting of the […]

JERUSALEM - Two senior United Nations diplomats are in Israel, continuing efforts to ensure the ceasefire now in effect in Lebanon does not unravel. Israel’s prime minister has asked Italy to lead the U.N. force in Lebanon.
Israeli newspapers report that U.N. envoys Terje Roed-Larson and Vijay Nambiar are holding talks with Israeli officials about a […]

CAIRO, EGYPT - A train collision outside Cairo killed at least 80 people and injured 160 others, early Monday.
Details of the accident are still unclear, but officials say that one train rammed into the other, outside Qalyoub station, 20 kilometers from Cairo, causing a fire and overturning several cars. Both trains were traveling from the […]

IRBIL, IRAQ - The second mass murder trial of Saddam Hussein is set to open this week in Baghdad. The former Iraqi dictator will go on trial along with six of the top ranking members of his former regime. They are accused of trying to commit genocide in the 1987-1988 campaign against Iraq’s Kurds.
The Kurdish Regional […]

TEHRAN - Iran today reiterated that it will not suspend uranium enrichment, ruling out the main demand in a nuclear proposal backed by six world powers.
Iran said it would formally respond by August 22 to an offer made by the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany. The six have offered incentives for Iran […]

TEHRAN - Iran today said it test-fired new surface-to-surface short-range missiles, following the start of large-scale military exercises throughout the country to introduce a new defensive doctrine.  
State-run television ran a video showing 10 missiles being launched from mobile launching pads.
 

  
Officials said the missiles were successfully tested in the Kashan Desert, about 250 kilometers southeast of […]

BANGKOK - The man being held in Bangkok on suspicion of murdering six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey more than ten years ago has started his extradition flight to the US.
Forty-one year-old John Mark Karr, an American school teacher, is flying to Los Angeles. According to Thai police, he is being accompanied by American security officials.
Lt Gen Suwat […]

ISLAMABAD - Afghan and NATO forces say they have killed scores of suspected Taleban insurgents in Southern Afghanistan.  Separate clashes also left at least four U.S. soldiers dead in a day of heavy fighting throughout the Taleban’s traditional stronghold.The heaviest fighting erupted late Saturday in the southern province of Kandahar.
The violence comes as NATO forces […]

He once helped ‘The most hated woman in America’ and now he serves the ‘King of Kings’ through radio
The incredible story of the radical turn-around for broadcaster, Charlie Butts
By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
DALLAS, TX (ANS) — Charlie Butts has a story to tell that you couldn’t make up. For he spent several years booking […]

WHITE HOUSE - President Bush says U.S. forces in Iraq are making Americans safer.  Opposition Democrats say it is time to start bringing those troops home.  
President Bush says the Middle East is at a pivotal moment as people there choose between democracy and extremism.
In his weekly radio address, Mr. Bush says America will defeat terrorism […]

KENOSHA - A 21 year old man fell into a tank of chocolate and was stuck waist deep in it for two hours on August 18 in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Darmin Garcia, an employee of a company that supplies chocolate ingredients, said he was pushing the chocolate down into the container because it was stuck but it […]

WHITE HOUSE - President Bush will not say whether U.S. intelligence officials believe North Korea is planning a nuclear test.  An American television network is quoting U.S. officials as saying Pyongyang may be planning an underground test.
President Bush says he will not answer hypothetical questions about North Korea’s nuclear ambitions because doing so may divulge […]