Russia flatly denied yesterday that the cargo ship allegedly hijacked in European waters was carrying a secret consignment of missiles to Iran. Sergei Lavrov, the Foreign Minister, rejected reports that the Arctic Sea had been loaded with S-300 air-defence missiles, saying: “This is absolutely untrue.” Mr Lavrov insisted that Russia would conduct an open investigation of the vessel, which is expected to dock at the Black Sea port of Novorossisyk next week. Officials from Malta, where the ship was registered, would be invited to attend part of the inspection amid claims that a secret military cargo was smuggled on board when the Arctic Sea underwent repairs in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. "Everything will be done transparently. I hope everyone will be convinced that the rumours you are referring to are absolutely groundless," Mr Lavrov told reporters in Moscow. A spokesman for the Prosecutor-General’s Office said that nothing beyond its declared cargo had been found so far on the ship during searches conducted on its journey back to port... click here for more on this story from, The Times.

It was the end of Germany’s “Don’t Mention the War” election campaign. In an impassioned parliamentary session yesterday Angela Merkel, the Chancellor, was forced to fight off her critics and try to persuade a sceptical nation that German troops should stay in Afghanistan. The bombardment of two fuel trucks, hijacked by Taleban geuerrillas last Friday, led to the death of over 59 people. Many were likely to have been civilians from a nearby village wanting to siphon petrol from the containers. The US raid was ordered by a German commander who feared that the trucks could have been used as bombs-on-wheels against the nearby German base in Kunduz. But the killing of civilians has outraged the German public and, after months of trying to bury the war as an election issue, it now seems that it might tip the popular mood against Ms Merkel's Christian Democrats. The general election in Germany is due on September 27. Click here for more information on this story.

A suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into a Kurdish village in north Iraq before dawn on Thursday, killing at least 19 villagers and wounding 25, Iraqi police said. The blast in the village of Wardek, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, seemed calculated to fan ethnic tensions between Kurds and Arabs, whose politicians are embroiled in a bitter dispute over claims to territory and oil. Women and children were among the dead and many houses were destroyed, police said. Another truck bomber tried to set off a second blast in the village but local Kurdish Peshmerga forces opened fire and killed him before he reached its outskirts, Iraqi police said... click here for more on this story from, Reuters.

At least five girls have been killed in a stampede at a state-run school in a crowded area of the Indian capital, Delhi, police and doctors say. The stampede in Khajuri Khas area also injured 24 students. Doctors say five of them are critical. Officials said the stampede took place when a group of girl students, who tried to run down a narrow staircase, collided into a group of boys going up. The school is waterlogged following a night of heavy rains in Delhi. Earlier reports said the stampede was sparked by rumours that electric current had entered water due to a short-circuit. The wounded have been taken to Guru Teg Bahadur hospital. The state authorities have ordered an inquiry into the incident... click here for more on this story from, The BBC.

Declaring that "in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick", Barack Obama exhorted Congress last night to overcome its jitters and divisions about health care reform insisting that the status quo, with soaring costs and 50 million Americans without insurance, cannot be an option. "Our collective failure to meet this challenge – year after year, decade after decade – has led us to a breaking point," he said before a rare joint session of Congress, according to excerpts released by the White House shortly before he took to the podium. "Everyone understands the extraordinary hardships that are placed on the uninsured, who live every day just one accident or illness away from bankruptcy." It was Mr Obama's make-or-break opportunity to push back against claims that his plan is a socialist plot, modelled in some way on a caricatured version of Britain's NHS, intended to insert big government in wards and surgeries, ration care and even create 'death panels' to decide when elderly patients should die... click here for more on this story from, The Independent.

Ex-President Chen Shui-bian and his supporters were said to be extremely pessimistic about court verdicts in his corruption cases scheduled for Friday. Chen himself was expecting to be sentenced to life in prison, and preparing for an immediate appeal, reports said. At 4 p.m. Friday, the Taipei District Court will issue verdicts in cases of corruption, profiteering, influence-peddling and money laundering involving about NT$800 million and a total of 14 defendants, including Chen and a range of close relatives, family friends, former aides, government officials and business people. Chen has been in prison since December 30 as a suspect, and could be either released with or without bail, or ordered to stay in custody. His aides and legal advisers have implied the bail might be set so high they will be unable to find the money. The former president will not appear in court for the verdict, reports said. For Taiwan News full article, click here.

The Pakistani Army announced Friday that security forces have arrested a senior leader of the Taliban in the troubled area of Swat where the military has largely put down a militant insurgency. The arrest of Muslim Khan, the spokesman of the Taliban in Swat and a skilled public advocate for the militant cause, is the first capture of a senior leader to be officially announced by the Pakistani authorities. The announcement appeared to be timed for the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and to impress the Obama administration with the seriousness of the military endeavor here in Swat. Senior American commanders have complimented the Pakistani military in recent weeks on their operation in Swat, even as the Americans urge the Pakistani Army to extend its operations to Waziristan where Taliban militants cross into Afghanistan to fight NATO-led forces. Mr. Khan was arrested along with Mahmood Khan, a less senior commander, and three others, the statement by Interservices Public Relations, the press department of the Pakistani military said... click here for more on this story from, The New York Times.

The saga of the missing Arctic Sea cargo ship took a fresh twist on Thursday after a Russian newspaper reported that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, made a secret visit to Moscow last Monday to discuss Russian arms shipments to Iran and Syria. Russia's Kommersant daily cited a senior Kremlin source. The revelation appeared to support maritime and military experts who have claimed the ship was carrying S-300 anti-aircraft missiles for Iran, that Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, found out, and that the Kremlin was given time and space to stop the delivery and cover it up in order to save face. Russia's foreign minister has publicly and fiercely denied those allegations, pledging a full investigation into the affair, while Russian investigators say they have found nothing on board the ship except the official cargo of timber worth just over one million pounds. The vessel went missing for almost three weeks in July and August and, according to the official Kremlin version of events, was the victim of what would be the first case of piracy in European waters in the modern era. But the Kremlin's storyline has failed to convince a European piracy official, an outspoken Russian journalist, and a growing number of so far anonymous political, military and intelligence sources in both Russia and Israel. Meanwhile, Mr Netanyahu's whereabouts on Monday have become front page news in Israel, sparking an angry backlash against the premier. The Israeli press frantically tried to find out where he had spent the day after he disappeared from public view for up to 14 hours... click here for more on this story from, The Telegraph.

The German army colonel who ordered the disastrous Afghan tanker strike that killed dozens of civilians overstepped his authority and was in clear breach of military procedures, a leaked Nato report on the bombing revealed yesterday. Details of Nato's initial investigation into last Fridays' attack on two fuel tankers captured by the Taliban were published in Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung, adding to a growing pre-election row over the country's military presence in Afghanistan.Citing the leaked document, the paper said the report had found that Colonel Georg Klein, the officer who ordered the attack, had "overstepped" his authority and "poorly evaluated" the situation. An unnamed but high-ranking German Nato officer was quoted as saying that it was "completely clear" that Col Klein had been in breach of military procedures. About 100 people, many of them civilians, were killed in the air strike, which Col Klein ordered because he allegedly feared that they would be used as truck bombs against Nato forces. However the report was said to have established that at the time of the strike the captured fuel tankers were bogged down in sand, posed no imminent threat to Nato forces and were being closely monitored. The unnamed German officer said Col Klein should have consulted the headquarters of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force before ordering the attack, which has provoked criticism from Britain, France and the Afghan government... click here for more on this story from, The Independent.

Gender tests on South Africa's 800m world champion Caster Semenya have revealed that she has an inter gender condition, BBC Sport understands. The 18-year-old was asked to take the tests following her rapid rise to prominence in 2009 and just hours before she won the title in Berlin. The IAAF has the results but wants them examined before speaking to Semenya. BBC Sport's Gordon Farquhar said: "It's likely that she has some hermaphroditic or inter-gender condition." An Australian newspaper has claimed that Semenya is a hermaphrodite - someone who has some or all of the primary sex characteristics of both genders. The reports have sparked an angry reaction in South Africa, with one senior MP calling for the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) to be sued over the way Semenya has been treated... click here for more on this story from, The BBC.

The Daily Telegraph: The Taliban has announced its surrender in Swat Valley, one of its major strongholds until a Pakistan Army offensive regained control earlier this summer.Its announcement, made on one of its pirate radio stations, came as its charismatic leader Maulana Fazlullah was reported to be surrounded by Pakistani troops, and there were claims that he had in fact already been arrested. Their collapse in Swat, if confirmed, will deal a serious blow to the Taliban's Pakistan leadership which has been in disarray since its leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed in an American drone attack in north Waziristan, close to the Afghan border, last month. Since then, rivals to succeed Mehsud have been locked in a bloody power struggle while a number of senior militant commanders have been killed and captured, including five senior commanders in Swat last week. Among them was Muslim Khan, Fazlullah's deputy and spokesman, who was seized during "peace talks" with the Pakistan Army. Fazlullah's militants seized control of the Swat Valley, once one of the country's most popular tourist destinations, in December last year and held it until May this year when a government land and aerial offensive ousted them from the main towns. The fighting forced an estimated 200,000 civilians from their homes, and left hundreds of militants dead. In recent weeks the bodies several Taliban figures have been found swinging from lampposts amid allegations that they were being targeted for extrajudicial killings by government death squads. Rumours of Fazlullah's arrest began to circulate early on Saturday after Pakistan's security forces released his wife, four children and other relatives, who had been in their custody for the last four weeks. Later in the day, a radio broadcast from one of Fazlullah's pirate stations in the Charbagh area, announced an imminent surrender. Pakistani security sources later said Fazlullah, known as "Maulana Radio" for his charismatic broadcasts which helped the militants' rise to power in Swat, was already in custody, but his arrest would not be officially announced until early next week. They said he had been captured in the Gat Piochar area, but it remains an unconfirmed report. Earlier, Owais Ghani, governor of the North West Frontier Province, confirmed that Fazlullah was now under siege and that his arrest was "imminent." News of Fazlullah's "capture" and the surrender of his men caused juibiliation in Swat where Taliban forces had closed 400 schools, bombed 170 schools, and terrorized music shop owners and barbers who shaved beards. Earlier this year they executed one of the valley's most popular dancers as part of a moral crusade to drive out public entertainment.

Associated Press: President Barack Obama assailed critics of his health care initiative Saturday, seeking to grab the megaphone from his opponents and boost momentum in his drive for congressional passage of his chief domestic priority. "I will not accept the status quo. Not this time. Not now," the president told an estimated 15,000 people during a rally that had every feel of a campaign event, right down to chants of "Fired up, ready to go!" and "Yes, we can!" Days after urging Democrats and Republicans in Congress to come together, an invigorated Obama said his plan incorporates ideas from those on both sides and he promised to continue to seek common ground. "If you come to me with a serious set of proposals, I will be there to listen. My door is always open," the president said. But he warned that he wouldn't waste time with people who have decided "that it's better politics to kill this plan than improve it." He also said he wouldn't stand by while special interests "use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are." And he warned, "If you misrepresent what's in the plan, we will call you out." The pitch came in friendly territory. Democratic-leaning Minnesota is one of the nation's healthiest states, with relatively few uninsured residents, cost-effective medical care and top health care providers such as the Mayo Clinic. His speech at the Target Center was part of a weekend campaign by the White House to give the president as much exposure as possible after his prime-time address Wednesday to Congress. At the rally, on network television and in his weekend radio and Internet address, Obama again sought to take the reins of the debate, a task that has proved elusive over the past three months. The challenge is both to energize his supporters and make people with insurance care about his proposal. In Minnesota, he cited a new Treasury Department analysis that found that nearly half of all people under age 65 go without health coverage at some point in a 10-year period. The data came from a study that tracked the insurance status of a sample of people from 1997-2006. The report also found that 57 percent of those under 21 will find themselves without insurance at some point during a span of 10 years and that more than one-third of Americans will be without coverage for short periods that add up to a year or more over 10 years. "In other words, it can happen to anyone," Obama told the raucous Minneapolis crowd. "There but for the grace of God go I." The speech largely tracked the one days earlier on Capitol Hill, and he tore into opponents who he claimed were spreading rumors designed to scare people as they try to "bring Obama down." The president said he wants to see a government-run option in the plan and remains open on "how to set this up." He stressed it would be one of many choices for people seeking affordable care and no one would be forced to opt for it.

Al Jazeera: European officials have held talks on Zimbabwe's power-sharing deal with Robert Mugabe, the country's president, the first high-level meeting in seven years with the man viewed largely as a pariah in the West. European officials were wrapping up a two-day visit to the country on Sunday. In comments made earlier, European officials said they had discussed reform efforts and acknowledged that the power-sharing deal had spurred progress. The EU, the largest overall aid donor to Zimbabwe, has maintained sanctions against Zimbabwe since a disputed 2002 presidential poll. It is now looking to normalise relations, but wants proof that Mugabe is committed to tackling issues such as media freedoms and political reform. "We want this government of national unity to be a success," Karel de Gucht, the EU aid commissioner, said. "I think we should acknowledge that there is progress made here, but there are still several problems outstanding and we discussed those with the president in a very open atmosphere."

Reuters: Roadside bombs, gunbattles and a suicide strike killed five Americans and dozens of Afghan civilians, troops and police, officials said on Saturday, a bloody day that showed how unrest has spread across the country. Afghanistan is mired in a drawn-out dispute over election fraud that could test the patience of U.S. President Barack Obama and other Western leaders contemplating whether more troops are needed to defend its government. Attacks took place in all corners of the country, not only in southern and eastern areas that have long been violent but also in the north and west, which had been comparatively quiet until recent weeks. Bloodshed has reached its worst level of the eight-year-old war despite record numbers of U.S. and NATO troops. Election authorities released new, near-complete preliminary results showing incumbent Hamid Karzai headed for a single round victory. That could yet be challenged by a U.N.-backed watchdog that says it has found proof of fraud and has begun voiding ballots from areas where Karzai won overwhelming support. The latest results gave Karzai 54.3 percent to 28.1 percent for his main opponent, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, with 92.8 percent of polling stations tallied and another 2.15 percent of them set aside due to suspected irregularities. Karzai needs 50 percent of the vote to avoid a second round run-off. In the worst incident reported on Saturday, the Interior Ministry said a roadside bomb in Uruzgan province in the south had struck two passenger cars, killing 14 civilians. In Kunduz province in the north, fighters attacked a police post, killing seven policemen including the commander at the checkpoint in a battle that ran from the middle of the night into morning. Two other police were missing, feared captured. A roadside bomb killed three American service members in the west of the country, and another killed two in the east, a press officer for U.S. and NATO-led troops said. A roadside bomb in Kandahar province killed six civilians, the Interior Ministry and provincial governor said. Two suicide bombers struck a detention center for the National Directorate of Security in the provincial capital, killing a guard and child. Fighters killed four policemen in an attack on a patrol in Nangarhar province in the east of the country. Six guards from a local security firm were killed when fighters attacked their office in nearby Kunar province. In Farah province in the West, seven Afghan soldiers died in a lengthy gunbattle with Taliban fighters, and three civilians died when a rocket struck their home, provincial officials said.

Reuters: The health of the terminally ill Libyan convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing has deteriorated markedly in the past day, his brother and doctors said on Saturday. Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was released from prison in Scotland and allowed to return home last month on the grounds that he has prostate cancer and does not have long to live. The United States, and opposition parties in Britain, criticized the decision to release the man who was sentenced to life in prison in 2001 for his part in blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988, killing 270 people. "He is at a special ward at Tripoli Medical Center. His condition has deteriorated rapidly since yesterday. He is unable to speak to anyone," his brother Abdenasser Megrahi told Reuters inside the center. "His situation is worrying. His temperature is at 39.5 degrees (103.1 Fahrenheit)," he added. Normal human body temperature is around 37C (98.6F). "He has chemotherapy treatment at his hospital ward," said his brother. Doctors attending to the patient confirmed Abdenasser's statement but they declined to give more details.

Russia has opened a $2.2 billion line of credit for Venezuela to purchase weapons including armored vehicles and surface-to-air missiles, President Hugo Chavez said Sunday. Venezuela is buying more arms because it feels threatened by Colombia's decision to give U.S. troops greater access to its military bases, Chavez said. Repeating a frequent theme of his presidency, the socialist leader said the United States would like to invade Venezuela and seize the country's oil fields. He said the bases in Colombia could help the U.S. stage such an attack. The arms deal was announced last week during Chavez's visit to Moscow, and he gave details Sunday. Chavez said the deal calls for Venezuela to buy 92 Russian-made T-72 tanks as well as Smerch anti-aircraft missile launching systems. He didn't say how many missile launchers Venezuela was buying... click here for more on this story from, The AP.

Kazakhstan said on Monday that one more person had been rescued from Sunday's fire at a drug addiction clinic, reducing the death toll to 37. The government is investigating the cause of the fire, which has highlighted the state of the Central Asian country's crumbling Soviet-era infrastructure. The clinic is one of many state-run institutions offering treatment to drug addicts in Kazakhstan, which lies on the main drug trafficking route from Afghanistan to Western Europe... click here for more on this story from, Reuters.

Police yesterday discovered what they believe is the body of a missing Yale University post-graduate student hidden inside the wall of a campus building where she disappeared five days earlier. On the day on which Annie Le, 24, was supposed to be getting married, investigators instead discovered a corpse stuffed into a wall cavity used to carry wiring and utilities in the university's molecular biology laboratory. Earlier, the FBI reportedly found items of bloody clothing hidden above a ceiling tile in the same building on the Ivy League university's medical school campus. Nothing had been seen of Miss Le, a petite California pharmacologist, since Tuesday morning when video cameras filmed her going into the building at the Yale Medical School complex in New Haven, Connecticut.
 Investigators could find no video footage of her ever coming out. Her purse, credit cards and phone were later found in her office in the building where she was studying for a doctorate. Her fiance, Jonathan Widawsky, a post-graduate at Columbia University in New York, is not a suspect, said police. They admit they currently have no suspects... click here for more on this story from. The Telegraph.

Afghanistan's electoral officials searched for a way Monday to salvage an election marred by reports of ballot stuffing and phantom voters, mulling how much of the vote to throw out because of fraud. Repeated delays in announcing full results from the Aug. 20 presidential vote, along with mounting evidence of fraud, have raised fears of new political instability in Afghanistan at a time of rising Taliban violence and an increased U.S. military presence. An election complaints commission supported by the U.N. has said it found "clear and convincing" evidence of fraud in several areas and ordered about 2 percent of the ballots quarantined. The big question now is if the cheating was large-scale enough to overturn President Hamid Karzai's lead in the count so far. The Afghan-run Independent Election Commission was meeting Monday morning and would to make an announcement later, spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said. The commission had been expected to say when it would announce long-delayed full preliminary results, but later it issued a brief statement saying only that there would be no further reporting of vote counts Monday.

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Norman Borlaug, the father of the "green revolution" who won the Nobel peace prize for his role in combating world hunger, has died at the age of 95, a spokesman for Texas A&M University said today. Borlaug won the Nobel in 1970 for his contributions to the science of high-yield crop varieties and bringing other agricultural innovations to the developing world. Many experts credit the green revolution with averting global famine. Thanks to the revolution, world food production more than doubled between 1960 and 1990. In Pakistan and India, two of the nations that benefited most from the new crop varieties, grain yields more than quadrupled over the period. "More than any other single person of his age, he has helped to provide bread for a hungry world," the Nobel committee chairman, Aase Lionaes, said in presenting the award to Borlaug. Click here for more information on this story.

A group linked to Al-Qaeda has claimed last week's rocket salvo from Lebanon into Israel, a US-based group that monitors jihadist websites said on Monday. The attack from south Lebanon into northern Israel was claimed by the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam, Battalions of Ziad Jarrah, in a statement Sunday by the al-Fajr Media Centre on jihadist forums, SITE Intelligence Group said. The rocket fire came in response to "flagrant hostility" displayed by Israel towards Palestinians and Muslims, SITE quoted the statement as saying. At least two rockets fired from the village of Al-Qlaileh in southern Lebanon slammed into Israel on Friday, triggering retaliatory artillery fire. No casualties were reported on either side in the attack, the third this year. A UN official in Lebanon said at the weekend that extremists tied to Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon may have been behind the attack. Click here for more information on this story.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, had identified seven flights from London to the US and Canada to be attacked.The plot's "quartermaster", Assad Sarwar, 29, was sentenced to at least 36 years. Tanvir Hussain, 28, awaits sentence at Woolwich Crown Court..click here for more on this story from, BBC. 

Talks next month between Iran and six world powers on Tehran's nuclear programme will probably be held in Turkey, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Tuesday. The talks from October 1 will "very likely" be held in Turkey, Solana told reporters in Brussels ahead of EU foreign ministers' talks. The five UN Security Council permanent members -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- plus Germany are due to take part in the talks with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. "At this point in time, we are going to try to enter into a negotiation," said Solana, stressing the "double-track approach," -- the carrot and stick of trade, aid and sanctions. It will be the first high-level meeting since the Obama administration took over in the United States and initiated its more open policy towards Tehran, a European diplomatic source said. The last encounter, with the United States taking part, was in July 2008 in Geneva. The meeting comes after Iran submitted a document to world powers laying out its position on resolving several global security problems. The text said the Islamic republic was ready to enter into negotiations on a number of issues.

A lawyer for the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at former President George W. Bush says a judge has signed the necessary papers for his release, which he expects to come at any moment. Muntadhar al-Zeidi was to have been freed Monday, but that was held up because of delays processing paperwork. Attorney Karim al-Shujairi said Tuesday that all the necessary papers have been signed, clearing the way for his release after nine months. About 20 members of his family gathered outside the prison in anticipation... click here for more on this story from, The AP.

The French government will hold a crisis meeting with the boss of France Télécom today as concern mounts over a spate of suicides among staff which unions have blamed on workplace stress. Didier Lombard, the chief executive of the telecommunications giant, was summoned by Xavier Darcos, the labour minister, after the number of employees to have taken their own lives in the past 18 months reached 23. Demands for the government, which is France Telecom's largest shareholder, to intervene in the affair became increasingly pressing yesterday after news emerged of another attempted suicide in which a customer services manager in the eastern city of Metz was found unconscious in her office. Union officials said she had taken barbiturates during her lunch break. Reacting to the incident, which came just three days after a 32-year-old woman threw herself out of her fourth-floor office window in northwestern Paris, a spokesman for France Telecom said the latest examples were possible indications of a copy-cat syndrome... click here for more on this story from, The Guardian.