A 5.5 magnitude quake hit the Greek island of Crete early this morning. This follows a 6.5 magnitude quake which killed two and injured 200 others in the southwest region of the Greece over the weekend.

Seismologists say the two quakes are unrelated. So far, no injuries or damaged buildings have been reported.

The epicentre was in Zakrou, an area of eastern Crete, according to the Athens Geodynamic Institute.

Louis Economopoulos and Maria Kagkelidou in Athens are covering this story.

Ecuadorian police have arrested three Colombian citizens and one Ecuadorian who are suspected of a conspiracy to assassinate Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. The suspects had photographs of the presidential palace and maps of nearby streets in their possession.

Details are still scarce, but according to the Ecuadorian Attorney General, Washington Pezantes, the men were hired to plot against the president with others in Ecuador. Tension between Ecuador and Columbia has been mounting since March when Columbia raided an Ecuadorian rebel camp.

Left leaning President Correa, who is allied closely with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, was informed of the plot.

Mike Ceasar and Jerry McDermott in Bogota are following events in Ecuador.

Ethiopia is urgently appealing to international donors for emergency aid of more than $300m. Almost 5 million people are now believed to be in need for food aid, as a consequence of the drought which struck most of the country earlier this year.

Health centres and feeding clinics in some parts of the country are already overwhelmed with large numbers of severely malnourished children. Existing stocks of food aid are expected to suffice for June, but July will see a crunch, unless more supplies arrive.

Help is clearly needed urgently, both in general distribution of food to everyone in the most badly affected areas, and in extra rations for the most vulnerable areas in the country.

Barry Malone in Addis Ababa is covering Ethiopia's food crisis.

Election violence in Zimbabwe has spread to urban areas around the capital, Harare.

Some opposition supporters have complained of being attacked in a township near the city, which until recently had been largely quiet.

One opposition supporter said supporters of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF had abducted and beaten him.

Mr Mugabe is to face Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change in run-off presidential elections on 27 June. The President says he is prepared to "go to war" for his country.

Gretchen Wilson and Nicholas Champeaux in Johannesburg are following the elections.

Officials are still finding bodies after a powerful earthquake hit northern Japan on Saturday morning.

A fourth body was pulled from what remains of an inn in Miyangi, bringing the death toll to 10.

Twelve people are still missing, including 3 more at the inn. The 7.2 magnitude quake triggered massive mudslides in the remote mountainous area.

The quake has left 231 injured and thousands of households without electricity. More than 200 people are staying in shelters.

Liz Noh and LA Times correspondent Bruce Wallace in Tokyo are across this event.

European Union foreign ministers are gathering in Luxembourg today to discuss how to deal with the Irish rejection of the Lisbon reform treaty.

The treaty cannot be implemented unless approved by all 27 EU member states.

Ireland was the only state to hold a referendum on Lisbon, rejecting it by 53.4% to 46.6% last Thursday.

Foreign ministers in Luxembourg will want to hear from their counterpart Micheal Martin as to how they can overcome the crisis. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is now facing growing pressure to stop the final stage of ratification on Wednesday.

A two-day EU summit is to start on Thursday, which is expected to plot the way forward. The treaty is due to come into force on 1 January 2009.

Patricia Kelly, Stephen Castle and Francoise Tihon in Brussels and Deaglan de Breadun in Dublin are available for 2-ways.

For a second time this week, fierce fighting has broken out in the Eastern Bekaa valley between Lebanese government supporters and opposition supporters resulting in three deaths.

The clashes in the Saadnayel and Taalbaya villages are some of the most violent since the Doha accord was signed on May 21.

The fighting comes as US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice paid an unannounced visit to the country. Rice praised the May power-sharing deal, which quelled violence between rival factions and allowed for the election of Michel Suleiman as president.

LA Times correspondent Borzou Daragahi, Ben Gilbert, Hugh Macleod, Delphine Minoui and Nicholas Noe are reporting from Beirut.

Four die in Pakistan in suspected sectarian gun attack. Gunmen opened fire at four Shia Muslim men in the main market in the town of Hangu, in north-western Pakistan, killing all four instantly.

Police from the town have not identified the killers or the motives for the killings. A senior official in Hangu in North West Frontier Province confirmed that the men killed were from the same family and the attack "appeared" to be sectarian.

There have been reports of a number of sectarian attacks recently in Hangu and other towns in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. Thousands of militants from both the Shia community, who make up 20% of the Pakistan population, and the Sunni majority, have been killed in tit-for-tat attacks over the past decade.

Declan Walsh and Graham Usher in Islamabad and Shaheen Buneri in Peshawar (North-Western Province) are across this event.

India's government and its communist allies have postponed at the last minute, a crucial meeting that would attempt to break a deadlock over a controversial nuclear energy deal with the United States.

The deal would allow India access to the US's nuclear fuel and technology.

Television stations in India have reported that the meeting would take place June 25.

The deal is viewed as vital to the country's soaring energy needs. However, the Indian government has declined to sign the deal without the backing of its communist allies.

Randeep Ramesh in New Delhi is available for 2-ways.

Fidel Castro made his first appearance in five months on Cuban state television late Tuesday evening.

The video contained silent footage of an animated Castro meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

According to President Chavez, the men discussed the energy and food crises occurring throughout the world and the upcoming US presidential election.

Chavez also said that Fidel is alive and well, disputing previous reports of his failing health.

This marked the first time the 81-year-old Castro was seen on television since he relinquished power to younger brother, Raul, in February.

Juan Jacomino and Pedro A. Gonzalez are covering the story.

Four UK soldiers, one believed to be a woman, have been killed in an explosion east of Lashkar Gah in Helmand Province, Southern Afghanistan, says the Ministry of Defence.

Three of the soldiers died in the blast, which happened at 1540 local time on Tuesday, and another was pronounced dead at the Camp Bastion medical base. A fifth solder is being treated for injuries.

Meanwhile, NATO and Afghan forces have launched an offensive to drive Taliban insurgents from the outskirts of the southern city of Kandahar.

300 to 400 militant fighters have been reported operating in Arghandab district, with minor clashes and exchanges of gunfire between the two sides.

The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has expressed his sympathy over the deaths in Lashkar Gar, which now take the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan to 106.

Jon Boone, Jerome Starkey and Tom Coghlan in Kabul are covering this event.

Members of a Kurdish children's choir have gone on trial in south-eastern Turkey accused of spreading propaganda for the outlawed Kurdish separatist rebel group, the PKK. The choir - whose members are aged from 12 to 17 - face up to five years imprisonment.

The charges were brought after the group took part in a world music festival in San Francisco and sang the son "Ey Raqip", or "Hey, Enemy" - which is believed to be an anthem of the PKK. Turkey has been fighting the PKK since the 1980s, in a conflict which has so far claimed 40,000 lives.

David O'Bryne, Matt Mossman and LA Times correspondent Laura King in Istanbul are covering the trial.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has begun following a last minute spate of cross-border attacks. On Wednesday, before the truce came into effect, at least 40 rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel, and a Palestinian fighter was killed in an Israeli air strike. There are no reports of fire from either side this morning.

Should the Egypt-brokered ceasefire hold, Israel will relax its blockade on Gaza and talks on prisoner exchange may be held. On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the truce would be fragile and could be short-lived. However, Hamas said it was confident that its militants would stick to the truce, which is supposed to last six-months.

Since the last ceasefire collapsed in April 2007, 18 Israelis and about 600 Palestinians have been killed in fighting between the two sides.

Annette Young, Tim Butcher, Eric Silver and LA Times correspondent Richard Boudreaux in Jerusalem are across this event.

NATO and Afghan forces pushed Taliban fighters from the outskirts of the southern city of Kandahar, says a senior Afghan official. Kandahar governor Assadullah Khalid says the Taliban had suffered heavy casualties and fled the Arghandab district. NATO has not confirmed the report, but a spokesman told reporters that the military operation was progressing "methodically and successfully" and meeting very little resistance.

The Afghan defence ministry assessed that around 300 to 400 militants were operating in the Arghandab district and had gained control of eight villages. Kandahar is one of the key battlegrounds for the Taliban. It is the birthplace of both the Taliban and President Hamid Karzai.

Tom Coghlan, Jon Boone and Jerome Starkey in Kabul are covering this story.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says that further expansion of the European Union will be impossible further without full ratification of the Lisbon treaty.

The rejection of the reform treaty by Ireland last week overwhelmed the EU summit in Brussels. Ireland is expected to propose a solution to the situation by October. Mr Sarkozy's comments "Without the Treaty of Lisbon there won't be any enlargement," and "You can't say no to reforms and yes to enlargement.", were described by a diplomat as "a threat" to Ireland and a "wrong signal to Turkey and Croatia", the two states who are hoping to be the next to join the EU.

Mr Sarkozy declared, however, that he intends to travel to Ireland when France takes over the rotating EU presidency in July to help find a solution. To take effect, the treaty must be ratified by all members.

Stephen Castle, Patricia Kelly and Francoise Tihon in Brussels, Deaglan de Breadun in Dublin and Hugh Schofield in Paris are covering this story.

Parts of Thailand's capital city are under tight security due to a demonstration by a protest group which is demanding the government step down. The People's Alliance for Democracy started their march on Government House, watched by thousands of police.

The PAD, which involves mainly middle-class residents of Bangkok, accuses the government of being a proxy for Thaksin Shinawatra, who the military ousted in a 2006 coup. In the past the group led the huge anti-Thaksin street demonstrations that preceded the 2006 coup, but this time they have so far not been able to mobilize the masses. Nonetheless, the PAD say they are adamant to keep rallying until the government steps down. Earlier this week, major unions joined the protest.

Amy Kazmin, Andrew Chant and Andrew Drummond in Bangkok are following events.

Talks regarding the future of the Anglican Church have opened in Jerusalem with Conservative Anglican leaders criticising its leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Archbishops of Nigeria and Uganda attacked Dr Rowan Williams’s failure to discipline the US Episcopal Church for consecrating an openly gay bishop in 2003.

 The 300 bishops are meeting amid fears of split in the church, and concerns regarding the future of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

 Many of them accuse liberals of rewriting the Bible to fit modern trends.

 The Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon), brings together conservative Anglican leaders, many from developing countries.

 The talks are in effect a rival to next month's Lambeth Conference - a 10-yearly gathering of Anglican bishops from all over the world.

 Many of the Bishops attending the Jerusalem talks have threatened to boycott the July meeting.

 Tim butcher and Arnon Regular in Jerusalem are covering this story. Christopher Walker in London is available for coverage of UK responses to the crisis in the Anglican Church.

The Taliban made around $1 billion from the opium trade in 2007, says the United Nations. This includes $100 million raised by a 10% tax on farmers in Taliban-controlled areas, said the head of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio Maria Costa.

The yield from this year's opium harvest is expected to be down due to drought, infestation and a poppy ban enforced in the north and east of the country. However, this will have little impact on revenue. British officials, who work closely with the Afghan government in counter-narcotics, says that drugs money funds the Taliban's military operations.

Jerome Starkey, Jon Boone and Tom Coghlan in Kabul and UN correspondents Steve Schiffman and Julie Walker are across this story.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he will leave the Dutch embassy in Harare in the next 48 hours, following assurances from the Zimbabwe authorities about his safety.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition leader pulled out of the presidential run-off over the weekend amid pre-poll violence that saw 86 supporters of the MDC's party killed. Reports of widespread intimidation committed by President Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party militias are being denied by Zimbabwe's UN Ambassador Boniface Chidyaisiku.

Late yesterday, the UN Security Council made a unanimous statement that a free and fair vote in Zimbabwe would be 'impossible'. The MDC won the parliamentary vote in March, and claims to have won the first round of the presidential contest outright. According to official results, Mr Tsvangirai was ahead of Mr Mugabe but failed to gain enough votes to avoid a run-off.

Gretchen Wilson and Nicholas Champeaux in Johannesburg and Ana Uzelac in Amsterdam, reporting on the Dutch angle, are available for 2-ways.

The New Zealand government has signed over nine large tracts of forest land to the ownership of seven Maori tribes in what is the largest ever deal between the government and the tribes. The deal is worth $319 million dollars and encompasses nine forests covering 435,000 acres of land on the North Island.

This historic transaction seeks to address grievances dating back to 1840 and the Waitangi Treaty, when the Maori faced land seizures after being promised used of their land in return for ceding sovereignty to the British crown.

The Maori make up 15% of New Zealand's population but disproportionately face poor health, education, housing compared to the rest of the population. This deal will hopefully help them develop a sustainable economic future.

Nick Smith and Peter Foster in Auckland are available for 2-ways.

The bodies of 22 tribesmen abducted by the Taliban on Monday have been found, say Pakistani authorities. The men from Bhittani tribe were kidnapped from Jandola town in South Waziristan district by militants loyal to Pakistan's top Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

Those dead include fighters of Niamatkhel branch of Bhittani tribe that operates in Jandola tribal territory and the neighbouring Tank region of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) with the backing of government forces. Both tribes - the Bhittanis and the Mehsud's - have now formed a tribal council to prevent further escalation.

Declan Walsh and Graham Usher in Islamabad are covering this story.

A senior state department official says the US will not recognise the result of Friday's presidential election in Zimbabwe. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, said Robert Mugabe could not claim a legitimate victory after his campaign of violence against the opposition.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has withdrawn from the run-off and has been seeking refuge in the Dutch embassy in the capital since Sunday. Fearing for his life, Tsvangirai has asked for UN peacekeepers to enter Zimbabwe and protect opposition supporters until a new election can be held.

Of the US decision not to recognise the outcome, Frazer said "People were being beaten and losing their lives just to exercise their right to vote for their leadership so we cannot, under these circumstances, recognise the outcome."

Gretchen Wilson and Nicholas Champeaux are available in Johannesburg for 2-ways.

A Catholic priest has said mass over the site of the capsized ferry in the central Philippines today. Only the tip of the boat's bow can now be seen above the water and divers are preparing to bore a hole in the ship to speed up the retrieval of bodies. So far, only 48 people have been found alive and hundreds of corpses are believed to be trapped in the Princess of the Stars.

The giant ferry ran aground and flipped over with 865 passengers and crew on board during Typhoon Fengshen on Saturday. This is the sixth typhoon to hit the Philippines this storm season and has claimed up to 1,300 lives. The United States, the Philippines' former colonial master, is leading international aid efforts.

Dean Bernado in Manila is across this story.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has warned President Robert Mugabe that there would be no chance of negotiation if he goes ahead with the election on Friday. Mugabe says that his government is open to negotiations with anyone, but only after the run-off takes place tomorrow.

Last night Nelson Mandela made his first public remarks about the situation, declaring it a "tragic failure of leadership". Mandela held off on commenting on the election to avoid undermining South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, who is mediating the Zimbabwe situation. Mbeki's policy of "quiet diplomacy" has been widely criticised for not helping the crisis.

In England, the Queen has stripped Mugabe of his honorary Knighthood awarded to him in 1994. This was the first time since 1989 that a foreigner was stripped of the honour.

Gretchen Wilson and Nicholas Champeaux in Johannesburg are available for 2-ways.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has today expressed his horror after seventeen people were wounded during a military demonstration on Sunday in south-eastern France when real bullets were used instead of blanks.

Fifteen civilians were among the 17 injured, including five children. The soldier who fired the shots during a public demonstration of hostage-freeing techniques at a barracks in Aude has been detained - though an official said it was probably an accident.

It was "99.9%" likely to be "an unintentional fault," Colonel Benoit Royal, head of the French army's information service, told the AFP news agency on Monday. The president will visit the injured in hospitals in Carcassonne and Toulouse later.

Hugh Schofield and Rory Mulholland in Paris are across this event.