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  • Taliban threatens Afghan offensive

    The Taliban in Afghanistan has threatened to launch a fresh offensive across the country this coming week, as Hamid Karzai, the president, prepares for a visit to the US. "The Taliban announced the launch of a new operation named operation Al Fatah - the Arabic word for victory," Hoda Abdel-Hamid, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Kabul, said.. More

  • Eritrea accused of prisoner abuse

    A former Eritrean prison guard says at least 15 former high-ranking government officials and journalists have died in jail due to inhumane conditions. Eyob Bhata Habtemariam, who managed a team of up to 10 guards in two jails for political prisoners for over nine years, is seeking refuge in neighboring Ethiopia. He told Al Jazeera that inmates at.. More

  • Nigeria's president Yar'Adua dies

    Nigeria's president has died after a long illness, an official at his office has said. Umaru Yar'Adua reportedly died around 2100 local time (2000 GMT) on Wednesday evening at the Aso Rock presidential villa in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. Ima Nioboro, a presidential spokesman, told reporters in Abuja that the 58-year-old president would be buried.. More

  • Greek demonstrations turn deadly

    Three people have been killed in a petrol bomb attack on a bank in central Athens, as protests in the capital over the government's spending cuts turned violent. Athens police were put on a "general state of alert" as firemen evacuated around 20 people from the wreckage of a Marfin Bank branch, where two men and a pregnant woman died of asphyxiatio.. More

  • Deaths in worst floods in Yemen capital in decade

    At least seven people were killed in a Sanaa shanty town in the worst flooding to hit the Yemeni capital in over a decade, officials said on Thursday. Witnesses said water streamed down from nearby mountains on Wednesday evening after torrential rain into a low-lying residential area of eastern Sanaa with no drainage system, flooding hundreds of homes. &quo.. More

  • Taliban hits government compound

    At least five attempted bombers have been killed during an ongoing gun battle with police in southwestern Afghanistan, the interior ministry said. Officials said the men entered a government compound in Nimroz province on Wednesday armed with guns and bombing vests. Zemeri Bashary, a spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry, said police opened fire.. More

  • Oil slick reportedly hits US isles

    Oil giant BP is investigating reports that the massive oil slick from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico has reached an island off the US state of Louisiana. Streaks of the slick and large areas of sheen could be seen around the remote Chandeleur islands, media reports said. Doug Suttles, the chief operating officer of BP, said the authorities.. More

  • Obama renews Syria sanctions

    Barack Obama, the US president, has renewed economic sanctions against Syria for another year. He cited what the White House called Syria's "extraordinary threat" to US security and foreign policy in taking the decision on Monday. Obama offered a little praise for Syria: he wrote in a message to congress that the Syrian government has made.. More

  • Fire damages West Bank mosque

    Police are investigating a fire which seriously damaged a mosque in the West Bank village of Luban Al Sharqiya and which local residents say was an act of arson carried out by Jewish settlers. Witnesses told Al Jazeera they found the mosque burned at dawn on Tuesday, when they arrived for morning prayers. They reportedly heard a group of cars approach.. More

  • European Jews 'decry' Israel policies

    A group of over 3,000 European Jews, known as JCall, have signed a petition, speaking out against Israel, that was presented to the European Parliament in Brussels. "We are speaking as friends of Israel and we are saying: You are going to make a mistake. You have to decide how to behave, not us," David Chemla, head of the group, told the.. More

  • US, Iran clash at UN nuclear meet

    Calling nuclear weapons "disgusting and shameful," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged the United Nations on Monday to punish countries like the United States that threaten to use them. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dismissed Ahmadinejad's comments as the "same tired, false and sometimes wild accusations" and urged.. More

  • Blast kills Afghan bus passengers

    Eight Afghan civilians have been killed after a roadside bomb hit their minibus in an eastern province. The explosion occurred in the area of Paktia late on Sunday, killing women and children who were travelling on the bus, witnesses said. Police sources told Al Jazeera that eight people were killed in the blast and 14 others wounded. Survivors were.. More

  • Egyptians protest over minimum wage

    Hundreds of Egyptian workers have gathered outside Egypt's cabinet building demanding a rise in the minimum wage, which has been set at $6.30 a month since 1984. The protesters were calling for the government to implement a court order that would boost the minimum wage and help millions of poor cope with rising prices. About 500 protesters in central.. More

  • Deadly storms hit Bangladesh, thousands homeless

    At least 15 people were killed and 50 others were injured by lightning during hailstorms in Bangladesh on Sunday, police and disaster management officials said. Several thousand people were also made homeless as hundreds of houses were hit by the storms sweeping through four districts in the northern Mymensingh region. Vast swathes of crops were also.. More

  • Dozens dead in Somali mosque blasts

    At least 32 people have been killed and more than 70 others injured after two bombs exploded at a mosque in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The attack at the Bakara market mosque took place on Saturday as a leader of the al-Shabab movement, which is fighting to topple the UN-backed government, was delivering a sermon. The explosion took place in.. More