Afghan President Hamid Karzai has offered security for Taliban leader Mullah Omar, if he agrees to peace talks.

The nation's top military officer said Monday it probably would take two to three years for the United States to safely move its forces and equipment out of Iraq.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is increasing its food distributions in the war-ravaged east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in a bid to reach almost 100,000 people uprooted by the conflict.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has promised Cuba at least $78 million in donations, credit and hurricane relief to 1 of the few communist allies China has left.

The US administration found itself in an awkward position on Monday after Afghanistan's offer of peace talks with Mullah Mohammad Omar, the fugitive Taliban leader long seen by Washington as an arch-enemy.

An Indian naval vessel sank a suspected pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats into the night, officials said today, yet more violence in the lawless seas where brigands are becoming bolder and more

A group of doctors in Zimbabwe says President Robert Mugabe's government is to blame for a cholera epidemic sweeping the country.

Two passengers died as 26 heavy car crashes were reported overnight across Bulgaria, according to the data of the country`s Interior Ministry. Other 29 passengers were injured in the hits as three of them are in critical condition. In the

All visitors to the "Made in Bulgaria" fair have been evacuated due to a bomb threat. Only representatives of the producers from the fair remained in the building to keep their goods. The threat has been sent early in the

Radio, Martin Kelner: Occasionally Jeremy Hardy seems so self-satisfied that you want to smack him

Even politicians and estate agents get a more respectful hearing from the press than social workers

Charlie Brooker: How bad is it? Put it this way: James Blunt is on the list, and he's the least objectionable person there

Hadley Freeman on mirrors and models

Marcel Berlins: Keeping a dying man in jail pending appeal is unnecessary on the part of the Scottish court of criminal appeal

Soldier was taking part in 'routine road move' when his Warrior armored vehicle was hit by explosive device

Exiles to gather in the foothills of the Himalayas to consider alternative to the Dalai Lama's 'middle-path' strategy

Report shows growing gulf between standards of welfare, education and elderly care

Laurent Nkunda says he will open a humanitarian corridor for people displaced by months of heavy fighting

Three-year withdrawal pact with Iraqi government follows u-turn by leading Shia cleric

Islamist insurgents control most of country, president admits while urging MPs to return to provisional capital