WASHINGTON, July 29, 2010 (AFP) - US and "senior" Israeli officials were to meet Thursday to discuss the crisis over Iran`s suspect nuclear program and economic sanctions meant to curb it, a senior US diplomat told lawmakers.Robert Einhorn, the US State Department`s special adviser for

COLOMBO - Unidentified attackers set fire to a private television station in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo Friday after smashing editing equipment, police said.About a dozen men stormed the Siyatha television studious in Colombo and exploded a petrol bomb after systematically destroying

NUEVO LAREDO - The bodies of 15 people, many bearing marks of torture and bullet wounds, were found Thursday along a road in northern Mexico near the US border, an official said.The bodies were found on a highway leading from Ciudad Victoria to Matamoros, not far from the US border city

KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday urged his Western allies to destroy Islamist militant sanctuaries in neighbouring Pakistan after thousands of secret US files were leaked."The time has come for our international allies to know that the war against terrorism is not in

SEOUL - North Korea signed a new accord on economic and technical cooperation with China on Thursday, state media said as the impoverished communist country struggles to recharge its faltering economy.The accord was signed in Pyongyang between the North`s foreign trade minister Ri

ANKARA - Iran pledged to halt enriching uranium if world powers agree to a nuclear fuel swap deal it signed with Turkey and Brazil, a newspaper on Thursday quoted Turkey`s foreign minister as saying.The assurance came after Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki held talks with his

COLOMBO:  Sri Lanka`s former army chief and defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka was brought before the Colombo High Court on Thursday to answer charges of provoking violence.Fonseka, who already faces two courts martial and two more criminal cases, was taken before a

SEOUL - North Korea`s ailing leader Kim Jong-Il is transferring his secret personal wealth to his youngest son and likely successor, a Seoul-based radio station said Wednesday.The transfer of money has been managed by Ri Chol, who stepped down in April as the communist country`s

WASHINGTON  - An Al-Qaeda group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for this week`s deadly car bomb attack on Al-Arabiya television`s offices in Baghdad that killed four people, US monitors said."The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the Al-Qaeda-front in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the

SYDNEY - Australia Thursday tightened its sanctions on Iran in a fresh bid to convince Tehran to allay international concerns over its nuclear drive.Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the new measures target more than 100 Iranian groups and companies, and restrict Australian business

MOSCOW - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday signed into a law a bill expanding the powers of the successor to the Soviet-era KGB security service, the Kremlin said in a statement. The bill, criticised by rights groups, would allow the Federal Security Service (FSB) to issue

WASHINGTON: The United States said Wednesday it hoped for high-level talks soon with Iran and five other world powers that like Washington are seeking to curb Tehran`s nuclear ambitions.State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said "we hope to have the same kind of meeting in the coming

VILLERS-AU-TERTRE: French police detained a couple after the bodies of eight new-born babies were found in a house and in the garden of another home in a northern village, officials said Wednesday.Police with sniffer dogs were continuing their search in Villers-au-Tertre after arresting

PESHAWAR: Flash floods and building collapses brought on by heavy rains killed 34 people in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said.Heavy monsoon rain has fallen since Monday, inundating several villages in parts of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said.In

UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday sent his condolences to Pakistan`s prime minister over the deadly crash of a Pakistani airliner with 152 people on board."The Secretary General is deeply saddened by the tragic air crash today near Islamabad in which many people lost their

NEW DELHI: British Prime Minister David Cameron will push Indian leaders Thursday to strengthen trade ties on the second leg of a visit marked by his warning to Pakistan about promoting the "export of terror."Cameron was to hold talks in New Delhi with top officials including Prime

PHOENIX: A federal judge Wednesday blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona`s new immigration law which would have given police the power to check the immigration status of anyone stopped on suspicion of any crime.The ruling came hours before the law had been due to go into effect,

New Delhi:  All radars stopped functioning at Delhi`s international airport, as the systems there crashed at 5:54 pm this evening. Systems have now been restored, but Air Traffic Control had to resort to manually guiding aircraft for about twenty minutes.Air Traffic Control had reverted

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan declared a day of national mourning and called off a cabinet meeting after a passenger jet with 150 on board crashed into hills outside the capital Islamabad on Wednesday.Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the cabinet "expressed grief and sorrow over the tragic

  ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani airliner carrying 152 people crashed in a ball of flames Wednesday into densely wooded hills outside Islamabad amid heavy rain and poor visibility, killing everyone on board. Rescue officials said pieces of charred flesh and body parts were littered around the