WASHINGTON - Young people took to the streets of nearly 100 cities in 15 countries on Saturday to raise awareness about the humanitarian suffering in northern Uganda, where two decades of conflict have taken a severe toll.
About 100 secondary school and university students marched down Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue towards the White House in orange t-shirts […]

By James Varghese
Special to ASSIST News Service
GOWIND, PAKISTAN (ANS) – The loudspeaker’s cut wires hang lifeless on the dung-stained church wall, even after local Christians and Muslims reconciled.
According to the news carried out by the news portal of Asian catholic Asian news www.ucanews.com, Muslims have submitted a written apology to Christians in a place […]

WHITE HOUSE - President Bush went fishing Saturday. Before he did, he took action to protect migratory birds and two species of fish.
President Bush went fishing off the coast of Maryland’s Eastern Shore under clear blue skies. The trip was to recognize America’s recreational fishers who contribute more than $40 billion annually to the U.S. […]

WASHINGTON - U.S.-Turkish relations are in an extremely delicate phase. A member of NATO, Turkey is a key U.S. ally on whom Washington depends for logistical support in the Middle East and as a bridge to the Muslim world. Earlier this week Turkey’s parliament voted to authorize cross-border military operations into Iraq against the Kurdish […]

JERUSALEM - There is a new hitch in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. A powerful group of Israeli lawmakers is trying to prevent concessions on Jerusalem.
Sixty-one of 120 Israeli parliamentarians have signed a petition opposing the division of Jerusalem. The petitioners include two Cabinet ministers from the ruling Kadima party of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Another Kadima minister, […]

WASHINGTON - A U.S. advisory panel says Saudi Arabia has made little progress on pledges to protect religious freedom and tolerance in the country or to halt the export of literature that promotes hatred and intolerance.
Members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom traveled to Saudi Arabia in May to discuss measures on greater […]

WHITE HOUSE - President Bush is imposing additional sanctions against Burma’s government and wants China and India must do more to pressure Burma’s military rulers.  
President Bush launched new sanctions against Burma’s military rulers because he says they are defying the world’s just demands to stop vicious persecution.
“They continue to dismiss calls to begin peaceful dialogue […]

PARIS - A massive transportation strike has crippled France, as public transportation and other workers took to the streets to protest pension reform plans proposed by the country’s center-right government.
The Gare du Nord train station was practically deserted, as loudspeakers informed travelers, in French and English, that the trains they hoped to take would most […]

IRBIL - Thousands of Kurds and other Iraqis took to the streets in northern Iraq. They were protesting the Turkish parliament’s decision Wednesday authorizing a Turkish military incursion across the border into Iraq. Turkey says rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, have been conducting raids into Turkey. 
Thousands of teenage schoolchildren and other protesters […]

JERUSALEM - Israeli and Russian leaders are holding talks in Moscow on the nuclear crisis with Iran. Israel fears Russia has shifted its position toward Teheran.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rushed to Moscow after Russian President Vladimir Putin took what Israel sees as a soft position on Iran’s nuclear program. During a visit to Teheran this […]

CAPITOL HILL - The House of Representatives has failed to override President Bush’s veto of legislation approved by Congress that would have expanded a government-subsidized children’s health insurance program.
Democrats needed to change the minds of enough lawmakers to override the president’s veto of legislation expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, one of the most […]

WHITE HOUSE - Russia’s President Vladimir Putin says he supports Iran’s pursuit of nuclear energy. President Bush says Iran is secretly developing a nuclear weapons program 
Following talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week, President Putin renewed his support for Tehran’s pursuit of nuclear powered energy.
President Bush says that is not what the Russian leader […]

ISTANBUL - The Turkish Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to allow the government to launch military incursions into Iraq for one year.  The motion is in response to attacks by separatists of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Ankara says is using northern Iraq as a base. 
The Turkish speaker of parliament announced that the motion to […]

PENTAGON - A senior Pentagon official says U.S. forces in Iraq are busy fighting various insurgents and terrorists, and cannot directly address Kurdish terrorists based in Northern Iraq, who launch attacks on Turkey.  At the same time, the official urged Turkey not to take military action against the Kurdish group. 
Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell says […]

MIAMI - United Nations officials have agreed to extend the peacekeeping mission in Haiti as part of a plan to add more international police.
More than three years into their mission, United Nations officials in Haiti are seeking to reform their 9,100-member peacekeeping team to better address ongoing criminal and security problems.
The Security Council agreed unanimously […]

NEW YORK - The United Nations General Assembly Tuesday elected Libya, Vietnam, Burkina Faso, Croatia and Costa Rica to nonpermanent seats on the Security Council for the next two years.
Libya’s UN Ambassador says his nation’s election to the Security Council is proof that it is serious about improved diplomatic relations.
The United States blocked Libya’s bid […]

HOUSTON - Mayors of several Texas towns on or near the US border with Mexico are filing legal actions to stop the federal government from building a planned security fence to deter illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. Both Mexico’s current president and former president are also weighing in against the fence.
Mayors and city councils all […]

WASHINGTON - During the past year, basic foods have become significantly more expensive in many parts of the world, adding to the misery of impoverished regions and straining the budgets of families across the globe. A complex set of factors is causing global demand for food to rise faster than the supply, and experts warn that, […]

WASHINGTON - A top U.S. military commander in Iraq says American armed forces in al-Anbar province have defeated insurgents from al-Qaida in Iraq. That does not mean attacks have ceased in surrounding areas.
U.S. Marine Colonel Richard Simcock, who commands the 6th Marine Regiment, says his forces have successfully routed the insurgents in Anbar province.
“There are […]

WASHINGTON - Astronaut Peggy Whitson is poised to become the first woman to command the International Space Station. Whitson and two new crew members arrived at the orbiting scientific outpost Friday to begin a mission to expand the Space Station.  
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will spend the week familiarizing herself with the International Space Station before […]

PENTAGON - A U.S. Navy ship leaves Tuesday for a seven month deployment to West Africa as part of increased U.S. military engagement with the continent following a series of regional meetings and requests. But in his first news conference since becoming the first head of the new U.S. Africa Command two weeks ago, General […]

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s National Police are supposed to play a key role in the country’s counterinsurgency, but U.S. experts say they are so corrupt and riddled with sectarianism they should be “disbanded and reorganized.”  A major effort to overhaul the National Police has been underway for some time, and a respected police agency from Italy, the […]

WASHINGTON - While the question of religion is not new to American politics, both Democratic and Republican hopefuls in the U.S. presidential race are talking more frequently about their faith, especially after a recent evangelical Christian threat to back a third party candidate if Republican frontrunner Rudolph Giuliani becomes the party’s presidential nominee.  
Evangelical Christian Republicans […]

WASHINGTON - Bush administration officials are urging Turkey not to take military action against Kurdish rebels in neighboring Iraq. Meanwhile, the White House is trying to stop a congressional vote on a controversial resolution that has angered the Turkish government.
There are concerns in Washington that Turkish cross-border attacks on Kurdish rebels could lead to a […]

PALM SPRINGS - Dates have been a staple food in the Middle East for thousands of years — and they are especially consumed by Muslims during Ramadan.  Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran are the world’s top producers of dates — but the fruit is also grown in the western U.S. state of California.  First brought […]