THE US military has launched an investigation into claims that American forces shot dead 15 members of two families, including a three year-old-girl, shortly after a roadside bomb killed a US marine in a western Iraqi town.

The US military has launched an investigation into claims that American forces shot dead 15 members of two families, including a three year-old-girl, shortly after a roadside bomb killed a US Marine in a western Iraqi town.

A court ordered the detention of the runner-up in Egypt’s presidential elections, Ayman Nour, and his five fellow defendants as their trial on forgery charges approached its end today.

President Hosni Mubarak was officially declared the victor of Egypt’s first contested presidential elections tonight, but the vote was marred by a lower than expected turnout of 23%.

EGYPTIAN President Hosni Mubarak’s most prominent rival yesterday asked for a rerun of presidential elections on the grounds that abuses made the Wednesday vote invalid.

EGYPTIANS go to the polls tomorrow in a ballot which could mark the beginning of political change in the North African state.

Egypt’s leading opposition candidate for president went on trial today as hundreds of his supporters swarmed the court building denouncing the charges against him as a government attempt to eliminate him as a rival.

Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nour was charged with forging signatures to secure approval for his political party today – a case that has drawn international criticism and created friction between Egypt and Washington.

Egyptian opposition leader and presidential hopeful Ayman Nour stepped out of Cairo’s central security headquarters today and was whisked to the shoulders of his supporters, free on bail in a case that angered Washington and undermined Egypt’s talk of democratic reform.

THE French Navy deployed a robot submarine as France and Egypt stepped up a major search to find the fuselage and flight data recorders of the aircraft that crashed into the Red Sea, killing 148 people.