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Muslim rebels and the Philippine government overcame decades of bitter hostilities and took their first tentative step towards ending one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies today.

About 200 Muslim rebels led by their elusive chief have arrived in the Philippine capital for the signing of a preliminary peace pact aimed at ending one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies.

At the tender age of 56, Irish actor Liam Neeson unexpectedly reinvigorated his career as a tough-taking action man in the testosterone-fuelled thriller ‘Taken’.

The Taliban and the Pakistani government are engaged in a bloody conflict, leaving 2 million displaced people caught in the crossfire of a battle that could determine the future of Pakistan itself. Noel Baker witnessed the effect on the victims

The threat of violence loomed larger over Afghanistan’s presidential election today as Hamid Karzai’s main rival suggested voting could be rigged.

Syrian Prosecutor-General Ghada Murad has invited the chief UN investigator into the assassination of Rafik Hariri for talks on co-ordinating his probe with Syria’s newly appointed investigation.

Lebanese officials said Syrian troops will begin pulling back toward the Syrian border today, as the leader of the Hezbollah militant group called for a demonstration in Beirut to counter weeks of anti-Syrian protests.

Syrian troops will begin withdrawing from Lebanon following a meeting of the two countries’ leadership tomorrow, the Lebanese defence minister said today.

Syrian President Bashar Assad was expected to announce today the pull-back of his troops in Lebanon closer to the Syrian border, but US counterpart George W Bush has rejected anything but a full withdrawal as insufficient.

The mastermind of the September 11 attacks has told US interrogators that he first discussed the plot with Osama bin Laden in 1996, according to interrogation reports.

The arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed could help unravel details of past and present terror plots in Southeast Asia, police who once hunted him in Manila said today.

A DISGRUNTLED Education Ministry employee opened fire at colleagues at a ministry office in Lebanon yesterday, killing eight people and wounding five before he was apprehended

An al Qaida agent suspected of masterminding the September 11 attacks was in the Philippines in the mid-1990s, plotting terror and chasing women, Manila police said.

Clues filtering in from around the world since at least 1994 foreshadowed Osama bin Laden’s plans to attack the US, and intelligence information from Italy, Israel and elsewhere before September 11 warned that a terrorist strike might be imminent.

US officials received a warning in 1995 that Islamic militants were plotting to attack an American nuclear site and targets in Britain - but did not pass on the information to the agency overseeing nuclear facilities or to the plants themselves, it has emerged.