Iraq's foreign minister said Wednesday that the wide gap between Iraq and the United States over the future of U.S. forces in Iraq had narrowed after the American side had shown ''excellent flexibility'' on some key issues that had threatened to derail or postpone the accord.
ISRAEL
A Palestinian construction worker commandeered a construction vehicle and rampaged through central Jerusalem on Wednesday afternoon, killing three people in what police later described as the spontaneous act of a lone attacker.
NEWS ANALYSIS
Colombia's FARC guerrillas suffered a devastating but likely nonfatal blowm, and President Alvaro Uribe may have strengthened his bid to win a third term in office when security forces rescued 15 hostages from a rebel jungle camp, analysts said Wednesday.
CHINA
Chinese and Tibetan envoys on Tuesday began their first formal talks since bloody protests swept Tibetan areas of western China three months ago, a dialogue that may affect the Olympic Games next month.
UNITED NATIONS
Iran's senior diplomat said Tuesday that Tehran was seriously considering a new offer from six world powers to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program, and he praised the package as ``constructive.''
PAKISTAN
Pakistan's fitful military operation against Islamist extremists pushed into its third day Monday, but there was no sign of overt combat -- and growing criticism of the army's failure to crack down on the Taliban and al Qaeda, which operate out of the country's lawless tribal belt.
ZIMBABWE
President Robert Mugabe was declared the overwhelming winner Sunday of an election marred by the murders of scores of political opponents, death threats against voters and widespread international condemnation.
CONFLICT IN IRAQ
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki grew up in this village of lemon and date orchards about half an hour from the southern Shiite Muslim holy city of Karbala. He attended school in the area, according to his official biography, and members of his extended family keep elegant villas here.
ZIMBABWE
The bread lines were longer than the lines at polling stations on Election Day here, with apparently few people eager to vote in a race marked by violence and for which President Robert Mugabe was the lone candidate.
No matter what happens to America's offshore military prison, this much is clear: This Navy base will remain open for years to come, and so probably will the McDonald's, the Taco Bell and the golf course.
This was a sleepy Navy outpost before the U.S. began using it to hold prisoners in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks -- and it may soon become one again.
ZIMBABWE
Bowing to a government campaign of violence and intimidation, Zimbabweans voted Friday in a one-man election that's almost certain to hand another five-year term to President Robert Mugabe.
CONFLICT IN IRAQ
Outraged Iraqi officials demanded an investigation into an early morning U.S. military raid Friday near the birthplace of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, saying the operation violated the terms of the handover of Karbala province to Iraqi security forces.
PAKISTAN
Pakistan's government has dramatically stepped up security around the northwestern provincial capital of Peshawar amid fears the city could fall to heavily armed Islamic militants who have now massed around its outskirts.
NORTH KOREA
North Korea handed over a long-overdue disclosure of its nuclear activity Thursday, and President Bush responded by easing some trade sanctions and pledging to take Pyongyang off a terrorism blacklist.
CONFLICT IN IRAQ
An explosion ripped through a gathering of U.S military officials and allied Sunni Muslim tribesmen Thursday, killing three Marines, two interpreters and 20 Iraqis in the rural western town of Karmah, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said.
President Robert Mugabe may be the only candidate contesting Friday's internationally condemned election in Zimbabwe, but opposition party officials said Thursday that militias loyal to him have threatened people across the country: Show up to vote or else.
Despite a growing furor at home and abroad, President Robert Mugabe pressed ahead Wednesday with plans for a controversial election that would extend his 28-year grip on this devastated southern African nation.
DUBAI
An Italian architect said he is poised to start construction on a new skyscraper in Dubai that will be ''the world's first building in motion,'' an 80-story tower with revolving floors that give it an ever-shifting shape.
NORTH KOREA
North Korea on Thursday will provide a long-awaited declaration detailing its nuclear weapons programs, a potential breakthrough in a 17-year-long effort to rid the Stalinist state of nuclear arms, U.S. officials said.
