RAMALLAH: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Monday he is ready to resume direct talks with Israel but only based on a freeze of Jewish settlement activity as called for by the Middle East peace Quartet."We are ready to begin direct negotiations with Israel if the Quartet asks for

ZHOUQU: The death toll from devastating mudslides in northwest China more than doubled to 702, officials said Tuesday, as hopes faded that rescuers would find many of the 1,000 people still missing. At least three villages were levelled by an avalanche of mud and rocks triggered by heavy

SEOUL: Army officers from North Korea and the US-led United Nations Command held talks Tuesday, amid high tensions on the Korean peninsula following the South`s war games and the North`s artillery fire.The North fired some 130 shells into waters near the disputed inter-Korean sea border

SEOUL - North Korea fired artillery shells Monday into waters near the disputed border in the Yellow Sea amid high tensions with South Korea, Seoul`s defence ministry said."A North Korean battery opened fire today in waters off the west coast," a spokesman told AFP, declining to give

KABUL - Insurgents attacked three NATO combat posts in southeastern Afghanistan, sparking clashes on Monday, NATO`s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.The troops came under attack in the rural province of Paktika, which shares a long, porous border with Pakistani areas

SRINAGAR: Police and paramilitary forces on Monday reimposed a curfew in Srinagar, the main town in the disputed region of Indian Kashmir, after the overnight death of a protester.Shops and businesses had opened on Sunday for the first time in two weeks after the Muslim-majority Kashmir

SEOUL: Seoul`s government urged North Korea Monday to free a South Korean fishing boat and its crew as soon as possible, after the seizure heightened months of tensions between the two sides.The South accuses the North of sinking one of its warships earlier this year and is staging a

KUPANG: At least 11 people were killed and more than 30 are missing after a passenger boat went down in waters off eastern Indonesia on Monday, the country`s search and rescue agency said."We have found 11 dead bodies and still look for about 32 people that went missing," National Search

KIGALI - Rwandans began voting Monday in a presidential election which incumbent Paul Kagame is expected to win by a landslide.Polling stations in the capital Kigali opened at 6:00 am (0400 GMT) sharp, an AFP correspondent reported.Kagame, 52, has ruled the small central African country

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to appear before an Israeli commission of inquiry on Monday to explain a commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla which killed nine Turkish activists.He will be the first of three top officials to give sworn testimony about the May 31

TOKYO - The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Monday commemorated the 65th anniversary of its destruction by a US atomic bomb, with representatives from Britain and France attending for the first time.Nagasaki was flattened in an atomic inferno three days after Hiroshima, twin nuclear attacks

JERUSALEM - An Israeli man held in Libya since March on suspicion of spying has been released and has arrived in Vienna, Israeli media reported early on Monday.The website of the daily Haaretz said Rafael Hadad, who holds Israeli and Tunisian nationality, had been taking photographs of

MEDGYESEGYHAZA: A father and son were crowned kings of the watermelon at a festival dedicated to the fruit in a small Hungarian town Sunday.Tens of thousands of people descended on the town of Medgyesegyhaza near the Romanian border for a three-day watermelon festival featuring concerts,

LONDON: A couple from Birmingham in central England have been murdered in Pakistan, police said, after getting caught up in what was thought to be a row over a wedding.The Foreign Office confirmed that a British man had been killed in Pakistan and they were in contact with his family.The

LONDON: Authorities in Bangladesh have arrested a British man sought in connection with the shooting deaths of two people in London seven years ago, British police said Sunday.Ayub Khan, 27, who had been on the most wanted listed of London`s Metropolitan Police, was detained in Dhaka on

KABUL: Three NATO troops were killed in attacks Afghanistan on Sunday, the alliance force said, taking to eight the number of international troops to die in the insurgency-hit country over the weekend.The latest deaths were in two separate bomb attacks in the south of the country, NATO`s

YANGON: Sai Aik Paung is perhaps one of only a very few independent political figures in Myanmar who is confident of success in the country`s rare and controversial elections expected later this year.As a prominent ethnic Shan leader, the 65-year-old believes his party can count on the

BAGHDAD: Weekend violence across Iraq killed 60 people, officials said on Sunday, just days ahead of the start of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan when insurgents typically step up their attacks.The unrest has fuelled concerns about security here -- more than 100 people have died

BEIJING: At least 127 people were killed and nearly 1,300 missing Sunday after mudslides swept away homes and destroyed roads in northwestern China as the nation battled its worst flooding in a decade.At least one village was buried entirely and deep rivers of sludge and rocks were

BOGOTA: The presidents of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, and Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, will meet Tuesday in Bogota on their countries` diplomatic rift, Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said Sunday.Chavez broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia on July 22, one week after