CAIRO - Egypt says it is sending a junior minister to the Arab League summit scheduled for Damascus this weekend.  Lebanon is boycotting the meeting, and Saudi Arabia will also send a low-level delegation.  The diplomatic snubs of Syria are linked to tension over the Lebanese political crisis.
Egypt says a junior cabinet minister will head […]

WHITE HOUSE - President Bush has received the latest in a series of briefings designed to give him the information he needs to make a decision on future U.S. troop levels in Iraq.  The president conferred Wednesday at the Pentagon with America’s highest military officers.
The president spent about 90 minutes at the Defense Department with the heads […]

WASHINGTON - In recent months, prices for basic foods have risen dramatically 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 outstrip supply, and experts warn that, absent swift action, the […]

WHITE HOUSE - President Bush says he is confident tax incentives and tax rebates will make the U.S. economy “stronger than ever before.”  The president and Congress agreed on a temporary stimulus plan last month after rising energy prices and falling property values slowed economic growth.
President Bush says the government has taken decisive action to […]

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations held its first international day of remembrance Tuesday for victims of slavery and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. As Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pointed out, slavery has not ended in modern times, but rather continues in the forms of forced labor, sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
The practice of slavery dates back […]

WHITE HOUSE - President Bush met at the White House with the King of Bahrain to discuss Mideast security and the war in Iraq.
President Bush thanked the King of Bahrain for sending an ambassador back to Baghdad after the kingdom’s top diplomat there was wounded in an apparent kidnapping attempt three years ago.
“It is a […]

PENTAGON - The U.S. command in Baghdad says Iranian operatives are continuing to provide money, weapons and training to Shiite insurgents in Iraq, in spite of promises by Iran’s leaders that the activity would stop.  
Colonel Steve Boylan, the spokesman for the top U.S. general in Iraq, says analysis of recent attacks, including rockets launched on […]

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has threatened a nationwide “civil revolt,” as security forces engage in heavy fighting with militia from the cleric’s Mahdi Army.
A statement read Tuesday by one of Sadr’s aides said the cleric would launch the revolt if attacks against members of his movement do not stop.
Iraqi officials say fierce […]

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s president has sworn in a political enemy as prime minister. Meanwhile, two top U.S. State Department officials have arrived in the country for talks with the embattled president and the new government leaders.
At exactly noon, stone-faced President Pervez Musharraf, administered the oath of office to a the new prime minister, Yousuf Raza […]

PENTAGON - When a roadside bomb killed four American soldiers in Baghdad Sunday night it brought the U.S. military death toll in Iraq to 4,000. It was a symbolic moment, particularly coming during a period of reduced violence, and just two weeks before a major policy assessment by senior U.S. military and civilian officials.
It was […]

MOSCOW - Russia says it is responding to a Serbian request for humanitarian assistance to Kosovo, the disputed territory that recently declared its independence from Belgrade.
Speaking at a meeting of the Russian cabinet, President Vladimir Putin ordered Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov to work out the details of humanitarian assistance for both Serbian and ethnic Albanian […]

STATE DEPARTMENT - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is urging China to reconsider its policy toward Tibet, and to meet with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
Secretary Rice is calling for a peaceful resolution to the conflict between protesters and Chinese authorities, and she says the Dalai Lama could help.
“We believe that the […]

WASHINGTON - The White House says President Bush will use his trip to Ukraine, Romania, and Croatia next week to try to show support for freedom and democracy in the region and to help the NATO alliance confront 21st century challenges. But the expansion of NATO and especially Ukrainian membership are seen as a threat […]

MOSCOW - The lower house of Russia’s parliament, the Duma, passed legislation Friday limiting the ability of foreigners to invest in industrial sectors considered as strategic.  This came shortly after the Russian government announced the arrest of two Russian-Americans on charges of industrial espionage.
The  Duma passed a bill restricting foreign investment in 42 sectors labeled […]

JERUSALEM - Christians around the world are celebrating Easter Sunday, marking the resurrection of Jesus. 
Christians celebrated Easter Sunday at sunrise in Jerusalem.
Thousands of pilgrims converged on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Old City, where priests in festive red robes celebrated Easter Mass.
A cloud of incense rose above the ancient stone tomb, located […]

JERUSALEM - United States Vice President Dick Cheney is in Israel, the latest stop on a Middle East tour.
Vice President Dick Cheney went right into a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The Vice President began with a message of reassurance.
“The United States will never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security,” […]

WHITE HOUSE - President Bush marked Easter weekend with a message of thanks for U.S. troops serving overseas. Opposition Democrats say the war in Iraq is distracting from the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan.
President Bush said, at Easter, Americans are thinking about U.S. troops on the front lines who will spend this holiday far from […]

CAIRO - In a weekend-long celebration, Egyptians acknowledge the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday late Thursday with prayer and gatherings in celebrations similar to those taking place in other parts of the Muslim world.
As the Muslim world marks the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, known as Muwld el Nabi, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden released a videotape reigniting a […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. State Department said Friday that the passport files of all three remaining presidential candidates had been improperly breached by contract workers.  The revelation prompted an apology from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the promise of a full investigation by the State Department.   
The State Department first announced that the passport file […]

PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Friday that France would cut its nuclear arsenal to about half of its Cold War number - even as he warned against possible defense threats posed by Iran, among others.
Speaking from the northern port city of Cherbourg, President Sarkozy announced plans to cut the country’s total nuclear arsenal […]

JERUSALEM - Christians in Jerusalem are observing Good Friday.
Thousands of pilgrims from around the world crowded the narrow cobblestone streets of Jerusalem’s walled Old City for the traditional Good Friday procession. Some of them carried large wooden crosses on their shoulders as they walked along the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Sorrows, the route that […]

WASHINGTON - The United States has called on China to use restraint against protesters in Tibet and to hold talks with the country’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi Wednesday evening to discuss the crisis in Tibet.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack says Rice used […]

BUDABEST - Serbia’s neighbors Hungary, Bulgaria and Croatia have recognized Kosovo’s independence. Their joint statement has led to tensions with Belgrade and concerns among ethnic minorities living in Serbia. 
In a joint statement issued simultaneously in their three capitals, the governments of Hungary, Bulgaria and Croatia made clear they saw no other option than to recognize […]

WASHINGTON - Al Qaida Terrorist Leader Osama bin Laden, in a new message, has warned the European Union that it will be severely punished for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in European newspapers.
In an audio recording posted to an al-Qaida-affiliated Web site al-Ekhlaas late Wednesday, a voice said to be that of bin Laden’s […]

WASHINGTON - President Bush says Iran has the right to have civilian nuclear power as long fuel for its reactors is provided by an outside source. Otherwise, Mr. Bush said he does not trust the Iranian government to develop nuclear power solely for peaceful purposes.
Iran says its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful purposes only. […]