Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said today that Moscow was still weighing how to vote on a British compromise proposal on disarming Iraq.

Britain today closed a string of its diplomatic missions abroad as a precaution against possible terrorist attacks on the anniversary of September 11.

International efforts to pull India and Pakistan back from the edge of nuclear war appeared to stall again today as the Indian premier refused to hold talks with Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf.

Opposition forces today claimed the capture of a district outside the strategic northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif, while US warplanes resumed their bombing raids on Taliban frontline positions.

Thirty foreign journalists allegedly taken hostage by Afghan tribesman are reported to have been released.

The Tajik Minister of Culture was shot and killed early today as he left his apartment in the Tajikistan capital of Dushanbe.

All 15 hostages abducted by Tajik gunmen on Friday have now been released.