At least six people were killed in violent protests that broke out after the son of Togo’s late dictator was declared the winner of presidential elections, officials said today.

At least three soldiers were killed in violent protests that broke out after the son of Togo’s late dictator was declared the winner of presidential elections, officials said today.

Top US and Chinese negotiators met today for discussions on luring North Korea back to nuclear disarmament talks, after Washington dismissed the North’s latest threat to resume long-range missile testing as counter-productive.

The White House praised the Israeli parliament’s approval of removing settlements from Gaza and part of the West Bank as a step forward in peacemaking with the Palestinians.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican centrist who is popular with moderate voters, will not attend the Republican convention in New York that will nominate President Bush for a second term.

Six-nation talks on Washington’s demand for North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions ended today with no breakthrough, but envoys promised to discuss the ”first steps for de-nuclearisation” of the North before meeting again by the end of September.

Human rights groups are angry at a United Nations report that praised the US and its allies for ending years of brutality by Saddam Hussein’s regime, but did not “call coalition forces to account”.

Iraq’s constitution was in limbo today after Shi’ite leaders refused to sign it in a last-minute dispute that wrecked a planned ceremony and marred a landmark in US plans to hand over sovereignty.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell was undergoing surgery for prostate cancer in Washington today.

IRAN’S powerful former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has accused the US of being anti-Muslim by pressuring Tehran over its nuclear programme, the state news agency IRNA reported.