Beirut - The focus again today and until Thursday will be the ministerial statement that the cabinet will present to the parliament to secure the vote of confidence . The committee charged with drafting the ministerial statement met for the

Beirut- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki supports US presidential candidate Barack Obama's plan to withdraw US troops from Iraq within 16 months. When asked in an interview with SPIEGEL when he thinks US troops should leave Iraq

Sen. Barack Obama is in Afghanistan, the first stop on a campaign-season tour of war zones and Europe.

Barack Obama visited Saturday with U.S. troops and Afghan officials inthis war-weary nation, which is the focal point of his proposedstrategy for dealing with threats to the U.S. if elected president.

Mayor Richard M. Daley said Saturday he will not turn down any help fighting violence in Chicago, following a suggestion by Gov. Rod Blagojevich that Illinois State Police or the National Guard should be sent to fight crime.

In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Iraq's PrimeMinister Nouri al-Maliki said he supported a plan proposed byDemocratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troopsfrom Iraq within 16 months.

A U.S. decision to bend policy and sit down with Iran at nuclear talksfizzled Saturday, with Tehran stonewalling Washington and five otherworld powers on their call for Iran to freeze uranium enrichment.

A group soldiers serving overseas, including some from the Chicago area, were overjoyed Saturday when presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama visited in Kuwait. CBS 2's Susan Carlson reports.

The British government should no longer rely on US assurances it does not use torture, a parliamentary report says.

ALLIES of Labour MSP Andy Kerr have launched a last-minute bid to persuade him to join the race to be the next Scottish Labour leader.

SOMETHING is missing from the Glasgow East by-election. Everything at first appears to be in order. Politicians - tick; camera-men - tick; balloons, journalists, press officer

MPS are demanding a full investigation into allegations that British Muslims have been turned over to Pakistani security services so they can be tortured during interrogation.

GORDON Brown last night called on British troops in Basra to bring the UK's work in Iraq to a conclusion on an unannounced visit to the south.

CARDINAL Keith O'Brien has relaunched an attack on Labour's controversial Embryology Bill just days before thousands of Catholics vote in the crucial Glasgow East by-e

THE Government must raise its commitment to green power as gas prices look set to soar, according to the renewable energy industry's chief representative body.

CABINET ministers have been warned there will be no more money for public services, as taxpayers are reaching the limits of what they are willing to pay.

A PET HATE FOR SNP CAMPAIGN?

BEAUTY, it seems, is in the eye of the voter.

ALEX Salmond was facing fresh allegations of cronyism last night after it emerged that a company to which his Government handed £215,000 of public funds was created with help