WASHINGTON - President Bush is spending the long Christmas weekend in seclusion with his family at Camp David - the presidential mountain retreat.
The president rose early for a Christmas ritual - a series of calls to members of the armed services. He spoke with ten servicemen and women in all, including two from each branch […]

NAIROBI - Ethiopian fighter jets bombed parts of the main airport in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Monday. The strike is the first direct attack on the seat of the country’s powerful Islamist movement, which has declared a holy war on Ethiopia for its military support of the rival secular Somali interim government.
Details of the […]

WASHINGTON (RFE/RL) – The spread of nuclear weapons continues to be a major concern for the world community, and events in 2006 did little to dampen fears. The main crises are over the purported nuclear-arms ambitions of Iran and the known nuclear-weapons program of North Korea.
And, as stalemates over both situations continue, many worry that […]

WASHINGTON - Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, who was an associate of Taliban head Mullah Omar, was killed on Tuesday following a U.S. air strike in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. He is the highest ranking Taliban official to have been killed or captured since the invasion in 2001.
Colonel Tom Collins claims that this is a […]

BAGHDAD- The security situation in Baghdad continues to deteriorate as sectarian violence grows.  Yet ordinary Iraqis, be they Sunni or Shi’ite, say they are fed up with their government for not acting against militias and terrorist groups.Every day Iraqis are found bound, blindfolded and shot in the streets of the capital, while others are victims […]

WHITE HOUSE - U.S. President George Bush has met with top advisers to plan what he says will be a new way forward in the war in Iraq.
President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates who is just back from three days in Baghdad.
National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley joined […]

UNITED NATIONS (RFE/RL) — Iran has swiftly rejected the United Nations Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the resolution an “invalid” and “extralegal act” outside the bounds of the UN’s charter, and vowed to continue with what it called its “peaceful nuclear plans.”
Iran’s UN ambassador, Javad Zarif, […]

UNITED NATIONS (RFE/RL) — The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a binding resolution that calls on Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment activities and to comply with its obligations to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In the resolution, the 15-member council directs all states to prevent the supply or sale to Iran of any materials […]

NAIROBI - The leader of the Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, says his country is now in a state of war with neighboring Ethiopia, fueling international concerns that it may be too late to avert a potentially catastrophic war in the Horn of Africa. 
When Sheikh Aweys declared on Thursday that all Somalis […]

WASHINGTON - Witnesses in Somalia say Ethiopia is moving tanks and other reinforcements into the area where Somalia’s Islamists have been battling pro-government troops.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says dozens of people have been killed and at least 200 wounded during four days of fighting in southern Somalia.
The Islamists and the Ethiopian-backed government […]

Rocky Balboa, Infused With Faith And Values And A Family-Focused Plot, Opens With Overwhelming Response From Faith Community And Church Leaders 
 
LOS ANGELES, CA (ANS) – In a movie that some are calling a powerful allegory of faith, Sylvester Stallone returns as Rocky Balboa, for the sixth and final episode of the “Rocky” series, telling the […]

BETHLEHEM - Every year at this time, Christians around the world turn their attention to Bethlehem, a small city in the West Bank where, according to Christian tradition, Jesus Christ was born.  Christians have lived in Bethlehem for centuries, but now many are leaving.  A bloody Palestinian uprising over the past few years and the […]

WORCESTER — A Massachusetts man was sentenced in federal court today on wire and mail fraud charges for a scheme in which he advertised Superbowl tickets over the Internet, collected approximately $255,000 from customers, and then never provided either the tickets or refunds.
United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Peter Zegarac, Postal Inspector in Charge […]

CAIRO - Al-Qaida’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, has vowed continued terrorist attacks and says the United States is negotiating with the wrong people in its quest to end the violence in Iraq.  In excerpts of a videotape broadcast on al-Jazeera television, Zawahri also said that elections will not free Palestinian land from Israeli occupation. 
In the latest […]

PENTAGON - President Bush says he wants to increase the size of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps because he believes the United States is at the beginning of a long struggle between competing ideologies.  And his new defense secretary said in Baghdad the increase is needed because of the many and varied missions the […]

WHITE HOUSE - U.S. President George Bush says there will be no direct talks with Iran until it stops enriching uranium.  A bipartisan panel studying U.S. policy in Iraq has urged the president to include Tehran in discussions about finding a new way forward in Iraq. 
President Bush says he has made it perfectly clear to Iran […]

WASHINGTON (RFE/RL) — For the past six years, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld argued successfully for a streamlined military that relied on advanced technology and intelligence gathering to keep the number of soldiers to a minimum.
Now Rumsfeld is gone, and President George W. Bush is considering a new strategy. At a news conference today, Bush […]

MOSCOW (RFE/RL) — Following the announcement of the death of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov, Deputy Prime Minister Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has been named acting head of state, RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service reported.
Turkmen State television already announced earlier that Berdymukhammedov had been selected to lead preparations for Niyazov’s state funeral.
“In accordance with Turkmenistan’s customs a state commission has […]

WASHINGTON - Many people of African ancestry feel a strong tie to the continent, and there are a number of efforts to help them realize that connection. One was a recent conference in Hamilton, Bermuda. The keynote speaker was Nigerian author and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. VOA English to Africa Service reporter Angel Tabe asked […]

NAIROBI - In Somalia, heavy fighting has broken out between Islamists and interim government forces in several towns near the government’s outpost of Baidoa.  The fighting comes in the wake of an Islamist threat to launch a major attack if Ethiopian troops did not leave Somalia by Tuesday.
The fighting on Wednesday flared in the towns […]

WHITE HOUSE - President Bush is predicting another tough year ahead in Iraq.  Mr. Bush says many options are under consideration to quell the violence, including a possible surge in U.S. troop levels.
President Bush says 2006 was a difficult time for U.S. troops in Iraq and the Iraqi people. He says 2007 will entail more […]

By Michael Ireland
Special Correspondent, ASSIST News ServiceMIDDLE EAST (ANS) – A worldwide call to prayer has been received from Christian leaders in the Middle East. A group of Arab Christian leaders in the Middle East, in an e-mail obtained by ANS, say they have some strategic insight as to a root stronghold of Islam. It […]

By Michael Ireland
Special Correspondent, ASSIST News ServiceKANO STATE, NIGERIA (ANS) – A church in Nigeria has been threatened with closure if it does not accept an offer of compensation in return for the seizure of its property. If they refuse, they could lose everything. According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a HEKAN (Combined Churches of […]

Islamic Regime Continues To Target Evangelistic Groups 
By Michael Ireland
Special Correspondent, ASSIST News ServiceIRAN (ANS) – Leaders of the Islamic republic’s indigenous “Jesus Only” movement were raided and arrested by Iranian secret police last Sunday (December 10), according to Compass Direct News.
Leaders of the Islamic republic’s indigenous “Jesus Only” movement were raided and arrested by Iranian […]

NEW YORK (RFE/RL) — Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi has said he remains optimistic about his country’s future, despite the spiraling wave of violence, which some already consider a civil war.
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on December 19, al-Hashimi said he expects a “brand new” strategy from Washington.
He emphasized that […]