A strong explosion shook Beirut Monday in a commercial area where popular hotels are located, killing at least six people, witnesses said.

In the months before North Korea announced that it possessed nuclear weapons, the Bush administration began developing new strategies to choke off its few remaining sources of income, based on techniques in use against Al Qaeda, intelligence officials and policy makers involved in the planning say.

A hotbed of spying activity is Silicon Valley, where the number of Chinese espionage cases handled by the FBI increases0% to 30% annually.

India is fighting China in the battle for Russian oil by angling for a supply deal and a stake in Yuganskneftegaz, the oil unit that was seized from Yukos and is now owned by Rosneft, the state oil company.

Assad trained operatives for "al-Qaida" to attack America, then turned them in, says Joseph Farah.

U.S. sources have given conflicting signals about the veracity of a Washington Post report that said America has been using unmanned flights for the past year to gather intelligence on Iran's nuclear capability.

The U.S. military is planning a final demonstration Friday night of a ground-based laser system designed to warn pilots who have flown into restricted airspace over the nation's capital.

The return to conscription that was dismissed as an "internet hoax" and downplayed in the months before the presidential election is here. It just hasn't been called a "draft".Bills sit at the ready in both the House(HR163) and the Senate (S 89).But this is not your father's draft my friends, this new and improved version makes a specific mention that WOMEN are to be included. The House bill states: "Amends the military Selective Service Act to authorize the military recruitment of females" -Mary Starrett/NewsWithViews

That was the deal former US deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott offered the audience at the Mumbai University auditorium on February 10. He was responding to a question on why the US continued to support Pakistan despite its record on nuclear proliferation and terrorism -Rediff IN

Tensions between the US and Europe over the conduct of the "war on terror" - in particular, how to stop Iran building nuclear weapons - spilled over yesterday at a high-level security conference.Sharp differences were exposed and even the usefulness of Nato, the US-dominated institution at the heart of the transatlantic relationship, was questioned -Guardian UK

America's spy network in Iran was exposed more than 10 years ago and about 50 of its local agents were executed or jailed in a devastating setback for United States intelligence operations in the Islamic state, former CIA officials have disclosed -Telegraph UK

Tony Blair has appealed to voters to give him a third chance as prime minister in a strikingly personal speech that sought to heal wounds over Iraq and tackle discontent before an expected May election.Polls put Blair on track to win.But the Labour Party fears apathy, protest votes over the war and lack of trust in the 51-year-old prime minister could slash its huge majority or let the Conservatives win by default

An Australian freed from Guantanamo Bay last month has claimed he was tortured and abused during his detention at the US prison camp in Cuba.The former Sydney taxi driver was freed when US officials said they did not have enough evidence to charge him -BBC

The federal government's campaign to put a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is in trouble, having encountered political and legal setbacks during the last year that have raised questions about when and even if the project will go forward

It is estimated that in the United States between 4-8 million children are on Ritalin, the drug being used to change the behavior of children afflicted with a disease or condition called Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). We already know that the long-term use of Ritalin can be fatal.

But then he complained about the separation fence, explaining that application of the absentee property law in East Jerusalem is disruptive to a Norwegian-owned hotel, whose Palestinian owner lives on the other side of the fence. Sharon responded by saying that Israel would continue construction of the fence.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has cracked down on militants, reached a truce with Israel and impressed the US with his grit. Is this the man who can bring peace to the Middle East? TIME asks.

At least two gunmen opened fire Sunday inside a mall in upstate New York, authorities said. The gunmen began shooting inside the Hudson Valley Mall in Kingston, about 52 miles south of Albany.

U.S. officials in postwar Iraq paid a contractor by stuffing $2 million worth of crisp bills into his gunnysack and routinely made cash payments around Baghdad from a pickup truck, a former official with the U.S. occupation government says.