FOUR men arrested after planting what they thought were explosives near two synagogues and plotting to shoot down a military plane were bent on carrying out a holy war against America, police said yesterday.

Kenya’s president and his chief rival made key concessions to end the dispute over the country’s elections, calling off protests and agreeing to talks under pressure from the US as the death toll from a week of violence reached nearly 500.

Syria’s president promised to do what he could to ease tensions in neighbouring Iraq during a landmark visit by the country’s president Jalal Talabani, just days after US president George Bush accused Syria of backing Iraq’s uprising.

Troops stayed in their barracks as a threatened coup deadline in Fiji passed on Friday, with the country’s defiant military commander enjoying a day at a sporting event while the prime minister left the capital and went into hiding.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US’ poor relationship with Syria is overstated, and indicated an openness to working with Damascus to resolve the crisis in the Middle East.

North Korea has apparently finished loading fuel into a long-range ballistic missile, Bush administration officials said today as signs continued that the reclusive communist state will soon test a weapon that could reach the US.

The US will be grilled by the United Nations today over its compliance with the global ban on torture, for the first time since it launched its war on terror.

Thousands of people joined celebrities and lawmakers at a US rally yesterday urging the Bush administration and Congress to help end genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Anti-war protests marking the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq were continuing today, a day after tens of thousands of people took to streets around the world to demand coalition troops pull out of the country.

North Korea today renewed its commitment to stalled nuclear disarmament talks, while at the same time vowing to strengthen its stockpile of atomic weapons to counter what it called extreme US hostility.

Detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including one brought up in Britain, have told a human rights group they were tortured at a US-run secret prison in Afghanistan.

US Army Private Lynndie England apologised for appearing in some of the most infamous pictures of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, saying she did so at the behest of a boyfriend who took advantage of her love and trust.

US soldier Lynndie England, whose poses in photos of detainee abuse at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison made her the face of the scandal, was convicted last night by a military jury on six out of seven counts.

US soldier Lynndie England, whose poses in photos of detainee abuse at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison made her the face of the scandal, was convicted tonight by a military jury on six out of seven counts.

The chief US envoy to talks on ending North Korea’s atomic weapons programme met today with his North Korean counterpart seeking to break a stalemate, and said afterward that the negotiations are still “in business".

President George Bush’s nomination of John Bolton to be UN ambassador has been shaken again by a Republican senator’s surprise opposition to the embattled nominee, and Democrats hope to seize the opportunity and defeat him in the Senate.

US President George Bush arrived in the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia today on a visit that Georgians hope will notch up the pressure on Russia to respect this young democracy on its doorstep.

The US has agreed to sell sophisticated F-16 fighter planes to both India and its next-door rival Pakistan. India immediately expressed its anger to President George Bush.

Chess legend Bobby Fischer landed in Denmark for a brief stopover today on the journey to his new home, Iceland, after being released from nine months in a Japanese detention centre.

Ten years ago, Earth Summit delegates celebrated in the streets of Rio de Janeiro.