Michael Moore is amazed his movie 'Sicko' has received an Academy Award nomination, because he thought he'd never be invited back after slamming US President George W. Bush onstage in 2003.

Jailed Pakistani opposition politician Imran Khan continued his hunger strike for a second day today.

Pacific Rim leaders today pledged political will and flexibility to rescue faltering global trade talks after forging an agreement to curb climate change they hope will influence a new global strategy on the problem.

Thousands of police were on duty today in central Rome ahead of US President George W. Bush’s meetings with the pope and Italian officials.

Irish rocker Bono has become the first guest editor of 'Variety' magazine, and has made his mark by giving the July issue of the US publication 20 different covers.

Scarlett Johansson has fuelled reports she will star in the New York City production of South Pacific, after declaring her love for the musical during an interview.

The sudden release of an Iranian diplomat missing for two months in Iraq raised new hope today that 15 British sailors and marines seized by Iran may soon be freed.

The execution this morning of former Iraqi leader Saadam Hussein has drawn criticism across the international community.

A news magazine reported today that Portugal’s foreign minister withheld information from European Parliament officials investigating alleged CIA flights in Europe while he was defence minister.

A car bomb exploded in northern Iraq today, killing at least 22 people and wounding 26, police said.

The United States has some concerns about a rising China, including a military expansion that may be excessive, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today.

Fears that more senior executives working for online gambling firms could be arrested were fuelled today following the resignation of a lawyer who served under former US President George W. Bush from the roles of chairman and chief executive of World Gaming.

The leaders of Jordan and Egypt held an emergency meeting in Cairo today as thousands demonstrated across the Arab world against Israel’s expanding assault on Lebanon – the worst Israeli attack on its neighbour in 24 years.

The US and Britain pressed Sudan’s government and Darfur rebels to meet today’s deadline for a peace deal, even as ground units stepped up fighting that has killed at least 180,000 people and left millions more homeless.

US President George W. Bush expressed support today for Pakistani President General Perez Musharraf’s war-on-terror alliance with the United States, a stance that is at odds with many in the Islamic nation.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva says the idea may be far-fetched, but he’d like to get US President George W. Bush and ardent US critic Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to sit down together and talk out their differences.

US President George W. Bush arrived in India today as talks on a landmark US-Indian nuclear pact were down to the wire and tens of thousands of Indians rallied across the country to protest his visit.

US President George W. Bush today decried the latest surge in sectarian violence in Iraq and declared that for Iraqis “the choice is chaos or unity”.

Bombs and gunfire killed about 60 people as another daytime curfew failed to halt violence that has claimed nearly 200 lives since the destruction of a Shiite shrine set off a wave of retribution against Sunnis and pushed Iraq toward civil war.

Delegates from around the world worked into the final hours of a UN climate conference to produce a plan for deeper cuts after 2012 in greenhouse-gas emissions, buoyed by a last-minute message of support from former US President Bill Clinton.

A roadside bomb killed 10 Marines and wounded 11 others on a foot patrol near Fallujah, the US military said. It was the deadliest attack against American troops in four months.

Brazil and Venezuela have agreed to build a $2.5bn (€2bn) oil refinery, the highlight of a South American summit to boost trade and co-operation.

Prosecutors in Georgia today charged a man, suspected of throwing a grenade during a rally by US President George W. Bush in Tbilisi in May, with premeditated murder.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking US support for his country’s civil nuclear programme, assured the US Congress today that India will not spread sensitive technologies.

A lawyer for a British journalist found guilty of libelling an alleged drugs baron said the court ruling represented a precedent-setting setback for press freedom in Peru.

Indonesia today rejected an offer by Acehnese rebels to put their independence claims on hold in return for an eventual referendum on the issue, but mediators were optimistic that coming peace talks could be fruitful.

US-LED forces could leave Iraq within 18 months, Iraqi interim Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said yesterday.

The known death toll from Asia’s earthquake and tsunami catastrophe passed 124,000 today as a deluge from the skies added to the misery in many of the affected nations.

PRIME Minister John Howard looks set to hold the most powerful mandate of any Australian leader in a generation after weekend elections handed him effective control of both houses of parliament and free rein to impose his conservative agenda.

Declaring that high oil prices are a threat to the global economy, the world’s industrialized countries urged producers to provide price relief by boosting supplies.

ONE man allegedly worked as an al-Qaida accountant.

More than 200 Americans studying in Britain have signed an open letter accusing US President George W. Bush of endangering the security of American nationals abroad through his unpopular foreign policies.

The United States and the European Union today put aside past differences and offered support for a greater Nato military role in Iraq.

A suspected terrorist and three others were injured today when a bomb went off prematurely in the hands of the bomber at a small hotel in southern Turkey, private CNN-Turk television reported.

MORE than 10,000 people took to the streets of Dublin yesterday evening to protest against the arrival of US President George W. Bush.

The al-Qaida cell that kidnapped and killed American Paul M. Johnson Jr. claimed today that sympathisers in the kingdom’s security forces supplied it with police uniforms and vehicles and set up fake checkpoints to facilitate last week’s abduction.

The Islamic militant group Hamas will continue attacks against Israelis, despite Israel’s plans to withdraw settlements and military bases from the Gaza Strip, a top Hamas leader said today.

Two out of three people living in the East Constituency say they do not support next month’s visit by US President George W. Bush to Ireland.

Japan, a staunch advocate of the Kyoto protocol on global warming, is struggling to meet its targets for cutting pollution, as it considers a range of environmental policy alternatives to cap carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas levels.

US President George W. Bush will visit Italy on June 4 on the 60th anniversary of the Allied liberation of Rome during World War II, the Italian foreign minister said today.

US troops are set to enter parts of Najaf soon to clamp down on a radical Shiite cleric’s rebel militia – but they will stay away from sensitive holy sites in the city to avoid rousing religious outrage, a US general said today.

Erroneous Israeli warnings about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction ahead of last year’s US-led invasion were based on speculation, not fact, parliamentary investigators said today.

Just hours after Iran was rebuked by the UN atomic energy agency for its failure to report all past nuclear activities at the end of a days long meeting, Tehran announced an indefinite freeze on the IAEA inspectors’ visits.

Joerg Haider powered his political party to a stunning win in his home province in Austria today, confounding pundits and strengthening the odds for a national comeback for the controversial rightist known for anti-Jewish slurs and a friendship with Saddam Hussein.