Sales of French arms around the world are declining because of stepped-up competition by the United States, Russia and Israel, the French defence ministry said Thursday. Although France remains the third biggest weapons merchant after

Read More

Iraq's Shia alliance won a slim majority of seats in the country's new National Assembly, the Iraqi Electoral Commission said on Thursday, based on final results from last month's historic election. The United Iraqi Alliance,

Read More

US President George W. Bush on Thursday nominated John Negroponte, the US ambassador to Iraq, to fill the new position of director of national intelligence. "The director's responsibility is straightforward and demanding. John will make

Read More

Israel's attorney general decided not to file charges against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and former aides in a campaign funding scandal but indicted his son on Thursday, the Justice Ministry said. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz

Read More

Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz on Thursday ordered a halt to the army's controversial policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinians who carried out anti-Israeli attacks. "The minister of defence decided to accept the recommendation

Read More

China denounced on Thursday a CIA assessment saying that its arms build-up is tilting the balance of power in the Taiwan Straits, and said the comments sent the wrong signal to Taiwan, the self-governing island

Read More

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday intelligence indicates that extremists linked to al Qaeda are planning attacks on the United States and other countries. "We have to keep the pressure on," Rumsfeld said. "We

Read More

A car bomb exploded Thursday outside a hotel in southern Thailand, killing five people and injuring up to 40 just two hours after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra cut short a trip to the restive region,

Read More

Seven people have been arrested in the Republic of Ireland over possible involvement in a massive bank robbery in Northern Ireland, blamed on the IRA paramilitary group, Irish police said on Thursday. As well as

Read More

Knocking out Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda group will not win the war on terror, which requires broader efforts to reshape the Middle East, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday. With other

Read More