World News

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Philip Arnold, squadron leader of the California Army National Guard?s 40th Infantry Division?s Agribusiness Development Team (ADT) Security Forces Platoon, guides vehicles in the Marawara district days after a U.S. offensive against Taliban and al Qaeda forces in Kunar province, Afghanistan, July 1, 2010.

photo: USAF / Senior Airman Nathan Lipscomb

Taliban Exploit Openings in Neglected Province
read more The New York Times

PUL-I-KUMRI, Afghanistan — Almost unnoticed, this strategic northern province is slipping away from government control. Multimedia Slide Show Taliban Make Inroads in Strategic Province Eros Hoagland for The New York Times Afghan police officers in Pul-i-Kumri, Baghlan Province, where the Taliban have resurfaced. More Photos » Baghlan...

Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, receives King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, left, on his arrival at al-Shaab presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, July 29, 2010.

photo: AP / Bassem Tellawi

Syrian and Saudi leaders visit Beirut to defuse tension
read more BBC News

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia are set to pay a joint visit to Lebanon. It is the first visit to the country by Mr Assad since 2005, when Syria was forced to...

Photographers take pictures of a page of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, website that depicts Mexican drug cartel leader Ignacio Coronel Villareal, aka Nacho Coronel, during a press conference in Mexico City, Thursday, July 29, 2010.

photo: AP / Eduardo Verdugo

Top Mexico drug lord 'killed'
read more Al Jazeera

A top Mexican drug trafficker has been killed in a raid by state security forces, defence department officials have said. Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel was reportedly killed on Thursday while resisting arrest in the wealthy town of Zapopan in central Mexico. Speaking to reporters in Mexico City, army spokesman General Edgar Ruiz Villegas said an army...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, accompanied by Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen hold a press briefing, Thursday, July 29, 2010 at the Pentagon.

photo: AP / Kevin Wolf

Pentagon asks FBI to probe leak
read more Al Jazeera

The US defence department has asked the FBI to help investigate the leak of more than 90,000 classified military documents, Robert Gates, the defence secretary, said. Speaking at a news conference at the Pentagon on Thursday, Gates called the leaks "potentially severe and dangerous". "We don't know whether this investigation should...

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, left, shares a word with Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti during a press conference following a cabinet meeting, at the Chigi Premier's Palace, in Rome, Friday, Feb. 6, 2009.

photo: AP / Andrew Medichini

Italy passes austerity measures
read more Al Jazeera

The Italian parliament has approved an austerity package worth more than $32bn, aimed at cutting the country's budget deficit and reassuring financial markets. The lower house of parliament approved the measures on Thursday after they had already passed through the senate two weeks ago and a confidence motion on Wednesday. Sponsored by the...

A Pakistani volunteer carries villagers in his boat who were stranded from their houses after heavy rain fall caused flooding in Nowshera, near Peshawar, Pakistan on Thursday, July 29, 2010.

photo: AP / B.K.Bangash

Scores die as Pakistan monsoons trigger floods
read more BBC News

At least 100 people have been killed in floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains in north-west Pakistan. Rivers have burst their banks and entire villages of mudbrick...

An Iraqi man holds blood-stained clothes at the scene of a bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, July 28, 2010. A bomb planted near a state-run bank killed and injured several people in the eastern Shiite slum of Sadr City police said.

photo: AP / Hadi Mizban

Baghdad attacks leave 16 dead
read more The Australian

SIXTEEN people, including nine security force members, were killed and 14 wounded yesterday in a string of attacks in the Iraqi capital's Sunni district of...

Waved Albatross (Phoebastria irrorata). Several waved albatrosses Punta Suarez, Espanola, Galapagos Islands. Fernandina (Narborough) Island: The name was given in honor of King Ferdinand II of Aragon, who sponsored the voyage of Columbus

photo: European Community / Snowmanradio

Galapagos Islands off danger list at gallop
read more Hong Kong Standard

Unesco's World Heritage Committee said it has removed Ecuador's Galapagos Islands from its list of endangered sites, due to protective efforts in the Pacific archipelago. //--> Friday, July 30, 2010 Unesco's World Heritage Committee said it has removed Ecuador's Galapagos Islands from its list of endangered sites, due to protective efforts in...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, left, talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani during an Arab foreign ministers meeting at the Arab league headquarters in Cairo, Egypt Thursday, July 29, 2010.

photo: AP / Nasser Nasser

Arabs back direct peace talks when Abbas sees fit
read more The Star

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Arab League said on Thursday it would back face-to-face peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel when the Palestinians believe the time is right. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, facing U.S. pressure to agree to such talks, has said he first wants progress in U.S.-mediated, indirect negotiations that began two...

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, right, and British Prime Minister David Cameron look at one another before a meeting in New Delhi, India, Thursday, July 29, 2010.

photo: AP / Saurabh Das

Cameron Defends His Criticism of Pakistan
read more The New York Times

On Thursday in India, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain defended remarks he had made a day earlier about the need for Pakistan to not give haven to terrorist groups. On Wednesday, Mr. Cameron said, after a speech in the Indian city of Bangalore, “We want to see a strong and a stable and a democratic Pakistan, but we cannot tolerate in...