Seoul - North Korea warned Tuesday that talks on ending its nuclear weapons programme would break down if the United Nations imposes sanctions on it for a rocket launch it plans next month.
The Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang would see such sanctions as "hostile activity" and "a breach" of a 2005 six-nation agreement in which North Korea promised to dismantle its nuclear programme in return for aid.
Washington/Mexico City - As US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived Wednesday in Mexico for her first visit to the southern US neighbour, the US Congress raised alarm about growing drug violence south of the border.
Heightened concern about the inflow of illicit drugs into the United States and the backflow of money and arms into Mexico are sure to dominate Clinton's meeting with her Mexican counterpart Patricia Espinosa.
Belgrade - Serbia reached a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a three-billion-euro (4.06 billion dollars) loan over two years, Serbian Minister of economy Mladjan Dinkic said Wednesday.
"The agreement was reached and I expect it to be made public tomorrow by both Serbian government and the IMF," Dinkic told journalists and added that 2.2 billion euros of the loan will be used in 2009.
London - The British government is to hold an independent comprehensive inquiry into the planning and conduct of the Iraq war once the bulk of combat troops have come home by the end of July, Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced Wednesday.
A full inquiry would be set up "as soon as practical" after July 31 when British troop levels will have been reduced to 400 from the current 4,100 troops still stationed in southern Iraq.
Jerusalem - Israel repeatedly fired white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of Gaza during its offensive there in late December to mid January, a human rights group charged Wednesday.
The firing "was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its 71-page report.
Beirut - Thousands of Palestinians mourned on Wednesday Kamal Medhat, the Palestine Liberation Organisation official who was killed in a southern-Lebanon car bombing on Monday.
Followers of rival Palestinian factions from Fatah and Hamas participated in the mass funeral of Kamal Medhat, the PLO's number two in Lebanon, who was killed Monday in a roadside bombing outside the Mieh Mieh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon along with three of his bodyguards.
Seoul - North Korea warned Tuesday that talks on ending its nuclear weapons programme would break down if the United Nations imposes sanctions on it for a rocket launch it plans next month.
Washington/Mexico City - As US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived Wednesday in Mexico for her first visit to the southern US neighbour, the US Congress raised alarm about growing drug violence south of the border.
Belgrade - Serbia reached a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a three-billion-euro (4.06 billion dollars) loan over two years, Serbian Minister of economy Mladjan Dinkic said Wednesday.
London - The British government is to hold an independent comprehensive inquiry into the planning and conduct of the Iraq war once the bulk of combat troops have come home by the end of July, Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced Wednesday.
Jerusalem - Israel repeatedly fired white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of Gaza during its offensive there in late December to mid January, a human rights group charged Wednesday.
Beirut - Thousands of Palestinians mourned on Wednesday Kamal Medhat, the Palestine Liberation Organisation official who was killed in a southern-Lebanon car bombing on Monday.
