DJIBOUTI (AFP) Somalia's opposition coalition on Saturday endorsed a truce with the government as part of efforts to end the Horn of Africa nation's 17 years of bloodshed, a spokesman said. Suleiman Olad Roble, spokesman for the Eritrea-based Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), told AFP that a 106-strong majority of the 191 ARS central committee members "fully endorse the agreement." "It is a gr... Read more »
BAGHDAD (Agencies) The Iraqi parliament on Saturday voted for the return of six Sunni ministers to the cabinet of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, giving a fresh boost to the country's national reconciliation program."Today, parliament voted to accept our candidates ... This means the Accordance Front has officially returned to the government," the bloc's spokesman, Salim al-Jubouri, told Reuters after... Read more »
Arab League slammed the ICC's "unbalanced" prosecutor and called for Sudan's courts to judge the case CAIRO (Agencies) The Arab League criticized the International Criminal Court's prosecutor Saturday for seeking the arrest of Sudan's president on genocide charges, saying diplomacy should be given a prio... Read more »
US President, Iraqi PM settle on ‘common way forward’ to craft a long-term pact on ties, military presence. TUCSON, Arizona - US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have agreed to set a "time horizon" for US troop withdrawals as part of a long-term security pact.
But White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Friday any reduction in the US force presence "would be based on continued improving conditions on the ground and not an arbitrary date for withdrawal."
The two leaders, speaking by videoconference on Thursday, also settled on a "common way forward" in stumbling talks to c... Read more »
US Secretary of State says move shows that Washington is ‘very serious’ about diplomacy. WASHINGTON - The United States has shifted position on diplomacy with Iran by sending a senior envoy to Geneva to participate in nuclear talks with Iran's top negotiator, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed on Friday. But she insisted that Tehran must suspend its enrichment and reprocessing of nuclear materials for substantive talks with Washington. "The United States doesn't have any permanent enemies," Rice said in response to a reporter's question on the unexpected move to send a diplomat to meet directly with Iran's negotiator S... Read more »
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah appeared in person at public celebrations in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Wednesday to claim victory following the release of five Lebanese prisoners from Israel "The period of defeat is over and the time of victory has arrived," Nasrallah told a cheering crowd of tens of thousands of supporters.Next to him was Samir Kuntar, freed earlier Wednesday from an Israeli prison along with four Hezbollah fighters as part of a prisoner swap.
"This people and this nation and this country that gave a clear picture to the world... cannot be defeated," Nasrallah said.