Amnesty International said it had directly appealed to the Taliban to free 21 South Korean hostages, warning the militant movement that holding and killing captives was a war crime.

The United States is not ruling out military force to free South Korean hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan, a senior State Department official said.

Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan are today resuming talks to end a conflict that has in the past five decades often defined – and destabilised – South Asia.

Suspected Tamil rebels posing as fishermen blew up two of their boats in a suicide ambush on a naval base, killing at least one navy sailor in the first such attack on Sri Lanka's touristy southern coast, the military said.

Tamil Tiger rebels rammed a truck loaded with explosives into a naval road convoy in central Sri Lanka today, killing at least 92 sailors who were going on leave, in what the military described as a cold-blooded massacre.

Nepal’s new prime minister announced a cabinet today that includes a communist party leader as his deputy, and he faces the daunting tasks of negotiating peace with Maoist rebels and cementing the return of democracy.

Communist rebels withdrew a blockade of Nepal’s highways today but gave the country’s political parties a two-day deadline to begin the process of rewriting the constitution, their leader said.

Italian investigators have blamed US military authorities for failing to signal there was a checkpoint ahead on the Baghdad road where American soldiers killed an Italian agent, saying in a report that stress, inexperience and fatigue played a role in the shooting.

After days of violent protests, China hinted strongly that it will block Japan’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council with Premier Wen Jiabao saying that Tokyo had to face up to its wartime atrocities before aspiring to a bigger global role.

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's party was declared the winner of Zimbabwe's general election last night as the opposition threatened to take its ballot-rigging protests into the streets.

President Robert Mugabe’s party was tonight announced the winner of enough seats to secure a parliamentary majority.

SINN FÉIN denied last night that the Bush Administration had banned it from fundraising in America after US Justice Department figures revealed it had raised more than $7 million (€5.26m) since 1995.

Indonesia today defended its record on fighting terrorism after the United States and Australia criticised the 30-month sentence given to the alleged spiritual leader of an al-Qaida-linked terror group as too lenient.

Negotiators from the United States, Japan and South Korea will meet in Seoul over the weekend to discuss resuming nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea after the communist country’s leader hinted at a possible compromise, officials said today.

New US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice will travel to eight European countries and the Middle East next week, in her first foreign trip as America’s top diplomat.

An armed group linked to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah party today announced it would be willing to accept a ceasefire if Israel also agrees to stop its attacks.

Thousands of armed Palestinian police took up positions in the northern Gaza Strip to prevent attacks on Israel, and Islamic militants said they were suspending rocket fire – major steps toward a possible truce after more than four years of bloody Mideast conflict.

The Bush administration broadened its response to the earthquake and tsunami disaster in South Asia and Africa with plans for Secretary of State Colin Powell to visit the region and assess what more the United States needs to do.

The United States is focusing on providing clean water and basic sanitation in South Asian areas hit by an earthquake and tsunamis, to try to prevent illness and more deaths among survivors.

GREECE is to block neighbour Macedonia from joining Nato or the EU unless a dispute over the Balkan nation’s name is resolved.

Greece is to block neighbour Macedonia from joining Nato or the EU unless a dispute over the Balkan nation’s name is resolved.

Hamid Karzai’s chief rivals in Afghanistan’s presidential election conceded defeat today after the US-backed interim leader was declared its first popularly-elected leader.

Demonstrating he retains firm control over Cuba after fracturing his knee and arm in a fall, President Fidel Castro told of conducting government business by mobile phone during an ambulance ride and later refusing general anaesthesia.

This week’s suicide attack in southern Israel has sparked a war of words between Israel and Syria and increased pressure to finish the West Bank barrier that many Israelis believe saves lives, regardless of international condemnation.

The United States has issued the first in a series of co-ordinated statements vowing not to make concessions to hostage-takers in Iraq.

The US has reaffirmed its commitment to a “one China” policy and its opposition to any moves by Beijing or Taiwan that would change the status quo.

Supporters of a Filipino hostage in Iraq cheered Manila’s lifesaving decision to withdraw troops from the war-torn nation, but the move was slammed by Washington and its allies, who said the US-led coalition would suffer.

The US, facing accusations of being tightfisted and of bullying developing countries in the fight against Aids, is defending its policies by citing a $15bn (€12.1bn) presidential initiative over five years to help millions of HIV sufferers worldwide.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has designated the Continuity IRA as a foreign terrorist organisation.

DEPARTING CIA director George Tenet was blasted in the Senate Intelligence report, which accused him of skewing advice to top policy-makers with the CIA’s view and elbowing out dissenting views from other intelligence agencies overseen by the State or Defence Departments.

A US Marine whose apparent kidnapping in Iraq was followed by conflicting claims – first that he was beheaded, then that he was alive – contacted US authorities and is now safe in his native Lebanon.

A US Marine reported missing in Iraq more than two weeks ago is alive and at the US Embassy in Beirut, where American officials are meeting with him.

A US marine who was reported missing in Iraq more than two weeks ago is alive and at the US Embassy in Beirut, where American officials are meeting with him, authorities said today.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell and North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun discussed the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula in the highest-level meeting between the two countries in two years, a US State Department spokesman said today.

FOREIGNERS with US work visas must reapply for them overseas when they leave the country, the State Department has said.

Foreigners with US work visas must reapply for them overseas when they leave the country, the State Department has said.

Facing global opposition fuelled by the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, Washington has dropped a contentious UN resolution that sought to renew an exemption shielding US troops from international prosecution for war crimes.

Iran avoided sanctions in a sharply-worded resolution approved today by the UN nuclear watchdog agency today, but was censured for past cover-ups.

The US State Department has acknowledged it was wrong in reporting that terrorism declined worldwide last year, a finding used to boost one of President George Bush’s chief foreign policy claims.

Iraq’s governing council has reacted with fury after police backed by American soldiers raided the home and offices of Ahmad Chalabi, a prominent politician once groomed by the Pentagon as a possible replacement for Saddam Hussein.

Israeli troops surrounded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s compound early today, as a helicopter attack on Gaza gunmen killed two and wounded at least 17.

China has told Britain and the US to mind their own business over its refusal to allow full democracy for Hong Kong in the near future.

The Red Cross has said at least 54 people were killed and 1,249 injured in the devaststing explosion in North Korea after two fuel-laden trains collided.

In a major change of strategy, the US is planning to offer government jobs in Iraq to former senior officers of Saddam Hussein’s military and the ousted Baath Party.