Iran denied Monday suggestions on some local Internet sites that it arrested Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, the Western world's most wanted man, on the border with Pakistan.--Drudge

He uses the word "alliance" 12 times in his European speech to underscore his aim to repair relations with Europe that were frayed over the war in Iraq. But not all his speech was conciliatory.

With 10 to 20 million people migrating from the country into towns each year, China is creating the equivalent of a city the size of Geneva every week. China is "one country, two economic systems", the rural and the urban, with one system slowly being displaced by the other.

Bill Clinton said he'd tried it but hadn't inhaled. George Bush decided that it was best just to duck the issue altogether.

Both India and Iran will discuss the security aspects of the proposed 2,700-km gas pipeline between the two countries, via Pakistan when Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi calls on his Indian counterpart K Natwar Singh in the Indian capital today.

"Gannongate," which is only now being mentioned by the mainstream news media, threatens to expose a potentially damaging GOP pedophile and male prostitution ring dating back to the 1980s and the administration of George H. W. Bush.

Israel will free 500 Palestinians on Monday in its largest prison release in nearly a decade as a goodwill gesture to bolster peace efforts with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Transcript of his speech

The Arab League chief said Monday that Syria will "soon" take steps to withdraw its army from Lebanese areas in accordance with a 1989 agreement.

Ritter claims Bush "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and that the US manipulated results of the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.

The complete story of the roles of Chertoff and Fitzgerald and other US Attorneys with Ali Mohammed, Emad Salem, Yasin, the Siddiqys, Chafti, Melvin Lattimore, and others is one that the DOJ, FBI and Chertoff, Ashcroft and now Gonzales do not want exposed in a federal trial of Rahman represented by Lynne Stewart. Chertoff intentionally squelched and covered up Saudi financing and money laundering, drug and arms trafficking, and terror ties to 9-11 as identified by Ms.Indira Singh and by FBI translator Sibel Edmonds -Patrick Briley /NewsWithViews

One of the best ways to understand the political dynamics at play in northern Iraq is to hop into a taxi and travel north towards the Turkish border.Once you reach the multi-ethnic oil-rich city Kirkuk, every checkpoint is manned by peshmerga (paramilitary) guerilla fighters loyal to one of the two Kurdish political parties.And they are on the lookout for one thing:Arabs -Aaron Glantz/Asia Times

Russian authorities have no obligation to abide by any decisions taken by the U.S. courts, an expert in Russian law on Thursday told a U.S. court that is mulling whether to allow embattled oil company Yukos to proceed with its U.S. case.Yukos has claimed it sought help in the United States because other forums -- Russian courts and the European Court of Human Rights -- were either unfriendly or offered less protection -Moscow Times

The evidence backing up Masri's account of being "snatched" by American operatives is only the latest blow to the CIA in the ongoing detention-abuse scandal. Together with previously disclosed flight plans of a smaller Gulfstream V jet, the Boeing 737's travels are further evidence that a global "ghost" prison system, where terror suspects are secretly interrogated, is being operated by the CIA -Newsweek

At least three drug-related slayings in North Texas are being blamed on a team of rogue Mexican commandos accused of orchestrating dozens of murders along the U.S.-Mexico border, raising fears that the drug war is moving north.Dallas and federal officials say eight to 10 Zetas -- former members of the Mexican army who defected to Mexico's Gulf drug cartel in the late 1990s -- have been operating in North Texas since 2003, The Dallas Morning News reported today

Dovish Turkish Cypriot prime minister Mehmet Ali Talat claimed victory in parliamentary elections in the breakaway north as final results gave his party 44.4 percent of the votes cast in a result that was swiftly welcomed by the European Commission -Turkish Press

The Socialist party returned to power after three years in opposition with a landslide election victory on Sunday, as voters appeared to punish the conservative government for failing to pull Portugal out of an economic slump.In its biggest win ever, the Socialist party collected 120 seats to secure an overall majority in the 230-seat legislature for the first time -National Post CA

A published report says an internal audit at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has found that funds to protect the nation's ports have been spent without sufficiently focusing on the most vulnerable facilities.A New York Times story published Sunday says the department's inspector general has concluded that the spending policy could compromise the nation's ability to defend against terrorist attacks -VOA

US diplomats and intelligence officers are conducting secret talks with Iraq's Sunni insurgents on ways to end fighting there, Time magazine reported on Sunday, citing Pentagon and other sources.

The Kremlin signaled a fundamental foreign policy shift Sunday, acknowledging that two former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia, are no longer part of the Russian orbit.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to suspend oil exports to the United States if someone tries to assassinate him, adding that US President George W. Bush would be to blame.

Excerpts of President Bush’s speech in Europe

North Korea on Sunday called recent Japanese moves to change its defense policy a plot to "reinvade" it and said Tokyo had joined with the United States in a hostile policy against it.

The United States and South Korea conducted a joint anti-submarine drill against North Korea right after Pyongyang declared itself a nuclear power, a report said Sunday.

California's tax agency is moving forward with a revolutionary — some say disturbing — concept: having the government do your taxes for you.

Russian support for Syria and Iran comes at a time when George W. Bush has made it clear that he has both countries in his sights as Washington adjusts its antennae for the next stage in the war on terror after the successful overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

Threat of nuclear strikes now greater than during Cold War

Spaniards overwhelmingly backed the new European constitution in a referendum, with more than 77 percent of those who cast ballots voting yes, according to an exit poll for Spanish TVE television. However turnout was only 40 to 42 percent -Turkish Press

The two allies declared Saturday that easing tensions in the Taiwan Strait was part of their "common strategic objectives". Their joint statement was released in Washington after a top ministerial meeting of the US-Japan Security Consultative Committee -Channel News Asia

After more than 40 years, serving under every President since Kennedy in such trouble spots as Vietnam, Honduras and Iraq, U.S. ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte, 65, is the consummate diplomat—discreet, deliberate and always careful choosing his words, whether in English, French, Greek, Spanish or Vietnamese -Time

The UN's top refugees official, Dutch ex-prime minister Ruud Lubbers, has resigned in the face of sexual harassment allegations, a UN spokesman confirmed.Lubbers had on Friday refused to resign after a meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, which came hours after Britain's Independent newspaper published lurid details from a confidential report into his behaviour -Turkish Press

Special report by Barry Chamish

Rumsfeld has estimated that extra base capacity is at nearly 25 percent. Topping the list of bases likely to be closed within a decade are aging facilities, small bases used by only one of the four services and large installations whose missions, training, ammunition or weapons are outdated. The Northeast is home to many bases configured to defend against the Soviet threat. They could absorb the biggest hit.

Research psychiatrists say they can now quantify evil, and they will be lobbying state legislatures to adopt their "depravity ratings" for use by courts determining whether to impose the death penalty on convicted murderers.

List of contractors and contract values for Iraq

The President has an enormous political gulf to bridge. The trouble is, he doesn't even know it's there.

While the ATC is an association in name and in charter, the reality is that it and other affiliated associations are the US government.Theirs is the voice that matters and is the one that is heard on television and radio networks through the mouths of news-readers, senators, congressmen, presidents and military leaders.It is in and through such associations that US political, economic and military policy is made and the American public subsequently "educated" to support policies that are not, and could not, be debated in public because of their illegality, audacity -John Stanton/Online Journal